Humpty Dumpty and I are peeps.
Well, kinda.
I, too, had a great fall. But while all the King's horses and all the King's men were busy working on the egg, I had an entire team of public sector employees putting me back together with emotional duct tape, state-subsidized medications, disability payments, occupational rehabilitation programs, and a lot of hard work by therapists, case workers, psychiatrists, nurses, and a couple of random financial services clerks to boot.
Guess who had a better record?
King's horses: 0
King's men: 0
Public sector social services employees: 1
I am what you could call -- at least tentatively -- a success story. Its still a little shaky, but the real glue holding it all together at this point is employment. Yes, unlike the national GOP, the governor of Wisconsin and any body connected with the Tea Party, this collection of public sector employees managed through their efforts to put someone back to work.
I had been unemployed for 8 years. In fact, on this very site I think I once admitted to someone during a late night thread that I was unemployable. After 6 years of unemployment and 6 times that struggling with chronic and crippling depression not only the working world, but even the money economy seemed beyond my ken at that point.
Today I'm happy to report that I not only have a job, I have real work. Next week marks the one year anniversary of my return to the ranks of the full-time employed. I didn't collapse under the pressure and I've managed to become reacquainted with myself as an employed person. My case files have now been officially closed across the various public sector offices that were handling me. That includes my SSI Disability file.
That would not have happened without an entire array of public sector employees.
I owe my life, my job and my future to the public sector. And I thank them. More than that, I hope that I can honor them. Because for me, that's the sentiment that strikes me as I read about events in Madison. Many folks have commented about the courage demonstrated by those public sector workers protesting in Wisconsin. I would not deny that, only suggest an alternative descriptor. The thing that I see on the streets of Madison is honor: a struggle for honor and a struggle engaged with honor. If hope is the thing with wings, then honor, today, is the thing with a picket sign.
I think maybe this is a piece that Gov. Walker has missed.