Wisconsin Assemblyman Steve Nass (R-La Grange) has sunk to a new low. It has long been known that he hates the University of Wisconsin system, especially the Madison campus. Yesterday news broke that he demanded that the oldest labor school in the United States, the University of Wisconsin - School for Workers cancel an arts festival called “Art in Protest.”
"It's an arts festival designed to celebrate the one-year anniversary of the Wisconsin uprising," says Nass spokesman Mike Mikalsen. "Well, maybe here in Madison that's a great thing. But there are lots of Republicans and conservatives around the state who are still very angry about that whole thing. We just suggested that now, with all the tensions that still exist, this may not be the appropriate time for this arts festival.”
Mr. Mikalsen, I am a liberal and I am beyond being angry. I am pissed off at you, Assemblyman Nass and every other Republican legislator sitting in office right now. You have NO RIGHT to make any demands! You forget you represent all of us, not just conservatives. Got it?
This action is little more than censorship. What are you afraid of, Assemblyman Nass? Are you afraid that someone might go to this art fair and learn something that does not agree with your viewpoint? Are you afraid that someone might learn the truth?
This is little more than censorship of an opposing viewpoint. This is supposed to happen in other countries, but not the United States! Assemblyman Nass, you and your Republican cohorts have made Wisconsin, once considered the laboratory of democracy, into a laughing stock and what appears to be a banana republic. You are little more than a tyrant and you do not deserve to sit in the Wisconsin Assembly!
Update
I was so ticked off when I wrote this I forgot to mention the part that ticked me off so much:
Two people with knowledge of the situation contacted the Cap Times indicating they had been told Mikalsen threatened to have funding pulled from the School for Workers unless the arts festival was called off.