The debut action of the Wisconsin Transparency Force (WTF) was a smashing success at the State Capitol today. [Ummm, Giles...this action involved the windows of a historic building. Don't use the word "smashing", if you please.]
Oh, right. Scratch that. [Ahem...Giles? Scratch? Remember that the Walker administration once claimed that peaceful protesters did $7.5 million in damage to the Capitol when it was actually only $200,000 in accelerated wear and tear. Please don't give people the wrong impression.]
OK, let's start over. The debut action of the Wisconsin Transparency Force (WTF) was a shining success at the State Capitol today. How's that?
[Go on, but please wipe that orange smudge off the glass first and meet me on the other side.]
On Friday November 1 at 1:30 PM, a gathering of Wisconsin citizens dubbed the Wisconsin Transparency Force gathered on the State Capitol lawn to "wash" the windows of the Wisconsin State Capitol and highlight the need for greater transparency from the legislature and the governor. They called for a return to the lost Wisconsin tradition of clean and open government.
Their press release stated, in part:
"The right to information is basic to democracy. Gotta clean off the grime and let in the light! Exactly 100 years ago, in an article discussing growing concentrations of wealth and power driven by exploitative banking practices, U.S. Supreme Court Justice Louis D. Brandeis made his famous statement "sunlight is said to be the best of disinfectants." We’ll be scrubbing windows at the Wisconsin Capitol to let that sunlight in.
Citizens donned Wisconsin Transparency Force coveralls and deployed squeegees, sponges, and buckets - squeegees mounted on tall poles to wash the windows of the governor’s office and cleanse the Capitol of the governor’s tall tales.
Wisconsin Transparency Force also washed the windows of less-than-transparent state representatives and senators (e.g. State Senator Mary Lazich, R-New Berlin, who is refusing to hold public hearings on bills that would make the redistricting process apolitical and transparent).
As the window washers arrived at the entrance underneath the windows of the Governor’s office, 4 or 5 Capitol Police officers came out of the building and asked what the plan was for the action. The window washers explained that participants would be pretending to wash the windows. One participant stated that he was planning to wash one window with plain water. Officers replied that they were concerned about damage and would prevent anyone from actually washing windows.
A short session of symbolic window washing then ensued with Capitol Police looking on but not interfering. The highlight was the use of a very long squeegee held up to the Governor’s office windows. The cleaning lasted 5 to 10 minutes. Others held up signs. Police and demonstrators then parted ways as equipment was gathered up. The police went inside assuming the action was over, while the “washers” walked over to the windows of Sen. Glenn Grothman and “washed” his window while Sen. Grothman observed from his desk inside.
Sen. Grothman later came out of the building and walked past the cleaning crew on the way to his car. The demonstrators suggested to Sen. Grothman that more transparency was needed from the government, and they offered to wash his car for him, but he declined.
The rumor is someone actually washed the window of one of the State Senators. The bucket of water allegedly used to wash that window was filthy after only a few rinses of the squeegee.
No windows were damaged, nobody was arrested, and the Capitol Police almost cracked a smile when one of the window washers asked if someone would help him hold his long pole.
A few more words from WTF:
The Wisconsin tradition of open, clean government (along with municipal home rule, and many other reforms) is a legacy of Robert M. "Fighting Bob" La Follette Sr., whose bust resides in the Wisconsin Capitol rotunda. Wisconsin Transparency Force honors that legacy and proclaims, in the words of Dylan Thomas, "rage, rage against the dying of the light". This loss of transparency, this loss of light, shall not be allowed to stand! By the time we’re done, we expect that the bust of "Fighting Bob" will again be sparkling in the sunlight, with a certain twinkle in the eye.