An Eerie Symmetry in Wisconsin
On Super bowl Sunday, 2011, the Green Bay Packers claimed the title of NFL champions after an audacious string of improbable victories on the road all through the playoffs. Countless memories were made and bonds of friendship forged in that run, not just among the players but among the many thousands of fans who whooped and drank and delighted with each and every win. Super bowl Sunday was February 6, 2011, and with the victory, all was more than well in Wisconsin.
For a very short while.
It was on Friday, February 11, that Governor (for now) Walker “dropped the bomb”, announcing plans to ram through a bill that virtually eliminates collective bargaining rights for public unions, abrogated wage and compensation agreements with members of those same public unions—our teachers, most notably—who had in prior years forsaken wage increases in return for pension and health insurance benefits in order to help the state government balance its books. Needless to say, this betrayal did not go unnoticed, unleashing weeks of protests within and around the capitol.
I needn’t recall all of the details, they are generally well-known. I post only to note that in this, the 2012 season of our discontent, there is an odd bit of symmetry: Just as Gov. (for now) Walker’s bombshell harshed our Super Bowl buzz In 2011, the deposit of many HUNDREDS OF THOUSANDS of signatures in excess of the number necessary to force recall elections of Walker and his cronies this spring will help to ease the sting of the Packers’ untimely demise in the 2012 NFL playoffs at the hands of the despicable (but quite capable) NY Giants.
Winter snows, at least in the Madison area, have been few and far between—a bit more as of late, but not nearly enough to satisfy the winter yearnings that roil in the hearts of Wisconsin natives. I claim a special perspective on this ‘roiling’ thing. I’ve lived in the Madison area more than 16 years, raised a family, both my wife and I have launched careers and made this our Home State. But I will proudly confess that I am, in fact, a native of Iowa. Central Iowa, to be imprecise. The winter climate is about the same in both places—extended periods of severe cold, sometimes massive snowfall; a difference is that WI winters begin a week or two earlier and last about that much longer on the back end. But a larger difference is in the way Wisconsinites engage the season. In Iowa, at least in this Iowan’s estimation, folks hunker-down through the winter, enduring the cold and the snows. Wisconsinites, on the other hand (and again, speaking only from my personal perspective) LOVE winter.
Skiing, snowboarding, snow-shoeing, snowmobiles, snow forts and snow days: this is a season Wisconsonites live here for, but it has gone missing this year and, to put it frankly, our peoples are a bit cranky. Didi I mention that the Packers lost in the first round? To the Giants?
This will not end well for Scott Walker, Scott Fitzgerald, and others of their ilk. I’m stilled pissed that Walker pissed on our parade last year, and since there is no possibility of a parade this year… and no snow…. All I’m saying is, “Don’t look at us cross-eyed, buddy, we’re likely to go off”.