Dear Scott Walker: CHECK YOUR EMAIL!

10 August 2011

Dear Scott Walker,

Sorry I haven't written for a while - I was so focused on the recall elections (hooray! historic victory! can you believe it?!)  and trying to expose your collusion with special interests against the interests of the people you claim to represent that I didn't really have time to write. But when I saw what you said this morning to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, I knew I had to write today to remind you of something very important: CHECK YOUR EMAIL!  

It seems you haven't been getting my messages or something.  At first I got all excited - thinking you were talking about ME when I read that you said "I've heard repeatedly from people who are just disgusted" but then I read on. You weren't talking about me. You were talking about some other "people" you've allegedly heard from:

I’ve heard repeatedly from people who are just disgusted at all the (campaign) ads, disgusted at all the money. They’re tired of seemingly year round campaigning and whether it’s a gubernatorial recall, any other recall, I don’t think there’s a whole lot of enthusiasm for having a whole another [sic? or did you really just say "a whole another?"  How embarrassing! You're so inarticulate!  Don't you wish you'd stuck in college long enough to take that speech course?!] wave of ads and money come into the state of Wisconsin.

Which is an odd thing to say, considering how many times I've written you to say otherwise, and how many times you've written right back, promising to "keep my specific comments in mind."  But just in case you overlooked my many, many previous messages, or forgot some of my specific comments, let me just make this crystal clear for you:

• I am disgusted at your abuse of power and your refusal to listen to, acknowledge, or engage in conversation with,your constituents.
• I am tired of special-interests funding campaign ads and outside influences buying elections in Wisconsin. And I am absolutely disgusted by the shameful display of hubris you have the nerve to put forth today in suggesting that you actually care about how much money is spent in these elections - after keeping silent when your own party wasted $400,000 of taxpayer money trying to run fake Democrats in the primaries. Equally disgusting is the pinnacle of hypocrisy which was the American Foundation for Children's press release today.  This Michigan-based special interest group poured an obscene amount of funds (at least half a million dollars just on tv ads) into these campaigns in an effort to secure their place at the legislative table - a space they've clearly already bought through Alberta Darling - and then had the nerve to claim that these results were "a rebuke of divisive, special interest-sponsored recall efforts." Given that workers' rights and public schools are the "special interests" that your party opposes, it is absolutely baffling to me that you garner a single vote.  These divisive statements only cement my resolve to both expose the dangers of these collusions with special interest groups like the AFC, hell-bent on privatizing our public education system and destroying the middle and working class for good.
• I do have a "whole lot of enthusiasm" for another recall. In fact, I have so much enthusiasm about seeing you recalled that I am almost giddy with excitement about it. 

Picking up two seats in the Senate yesterday was great. But getting a partisan majority was never my own personal aim. Sure, it would've been nice. But these recalls weren't about getting the majority. They were about getting justice. They were about calling out the corrupt politicians who sided with you and your big-money policy pushers over the interests of this state and were willing to sacrifice the rights of public workers and the future of public education in a power-hungry frenzy of partisan greed. They were about standing up and saying NO! to your selling of our state to the highest bidder, and showing the rest of the country that there is hope for democracy yet. And we did all that. So good for us. 

"Ask not for whom the red balloon tolls. It tolls for thee."  Photo source

But that was not my goal. My goal is to recall you. That has been my goal from day one and if anything, yesterday's result only strengthens my resolve to see you out of office as quickly as possible. I'm just one person, I know. Alone I can't do much. But I'm doing my part to make it happen, and at the very least, I have made my views known - to you and to anyone else who cares to listen.  I just wish you would care to listen. Because you keep saying you can't hear us.  But here I am. Here we are. Check your email. You'll find all the details in there. And read carefully. Listen very closely, because here is what we're saying: We want to recall you. We have "a whole lot of enthusiasm" about recalling you. It's going to happen.

Unless of course, you resign. Which I highly recommend.

In dissent,

Heather DuBois Bourenane

Taxpayer, voter and person whose voice you have heard, but ignored, for many, many months

P.S. I almost forgot to mention how absolutely unconscionable I found your signing into law the most divisive, partisan redistricting maps imaginable yesterday - on the day of the elections, an hour before the deadline, and behind closed doors. What a sneaky, slimy, cowardly move. How do you sleep at night? Seriously. How do you sleep? Representative Brett Hulsey got it exactly right today. He said "Governor Walker and the GOP leaders complaining about recall elections today is like arsonists complaining about the fire, smoke and damage they created with their highly partisan attacks on Wisconsin’s families and freedom."

This one is for you: How do you sleep at night, anyway?

This one is for us: We didn't start this. But we'll end it. 

When you're recalled and we can put things right.