Scott Walker Supports Recall Effort By Serving as His Own Attack Ad

21 October 2011

Dear Scott Walker,

I haven't written you for a few weeks. And I imagine you're thinking, "Oh, I haven't heard from that nice Heather in a while, which makes it difficult for me to know exactly where I'm going wrong. She must be over me now that she's a big tv star and everything." And it's true, I've been super busy ever since that whole Brian Williams / Ed Schultz business, but my moments of fame were conveniently limited to 15, freeing me up to get other things done and engage in the effort to recall you, which is surprisingly time-consuming. But since it's been a while, I'll just give a greatest hits recap of what I've been up to since I last wrote:

• Helping to organize and preparing to begin Operation Recall on Nov. 15
• Conquering corn mazes, throwing birthday parties, hosting slumber parties, watching Rapunzel movies, running errands, volunteering and other things associated with being a busy parent and contributing member of society.
• Putting on a teacher workshop (on Antigone, if you can believe it. I thought of you all day long. I'm sure you have no idea what Antigone is, but there's a character in it I think you could really relate to. You should put it on your "reading" list. I put "reading" in quotes to indicate that I know you don't read, and unfortunately there's not really a major movie of Antigone that I know of, but you could maybe google it for a synopsis. Synopsis means summary.)
• Pondering whether or not it's actually true, or even possible, that someone as seemingly morally bankrupt and duplicitous as you could have actually received the rank of Eagle Scout. Since you haven't done anything in your adult life to demonstrate your alleged "integrity," you repeatedly hearken back to your Eagle Scout days. All I'm asking is that you produce some proof of that claim. Where's the badge? Why have we never seen a photo of you in the uniform? What was your project? The badgers want to know.
• Planning and promoting a community Voter ID info session with the City Clerk so that the many seniors and others in our town who will be adversely affected by the absurdly wasteful voter id law will be able to exercise their legal right to vote.  Since many of these voters are unable to drive, we're still in need of volunteers to drive people to the DMV, by the way, so if you know anyone in the area who wants to help prevent the disenfranchisement of our most vulnerable voters, please pass on my contact info. I know you share a building with some decent people, so maybe you could mention it to them if you run into anyone at work who cares about preserving democracy and they could get in touch.
• Enjoying the vindication of having been part of the investigation that led to Politifact calling you out on your lie that you've never said anything negative about teachers.
• Trying to save our house from foreclosure. (Thanks, by the way, for the helpful cuts that reduced my appointment by 17% and totally destroyed our already frugal budget. Without those cuts, we might be contributing to the economy like we should be right now.)
• Various other writing and work.
• Starting a RECALL WALKER Pumpkin Carving Contest.

So don't worry. I'm not over you at all. I've just been busy. And considering you give us new reasons each day to resist your power-hungry agenda, I don't think you need to worry much that my reasons to write to you will subside before you're recalled. Especially since it has become increasingly clear that you have no intention at all of providing jobs - or tools - to the people who need them in Wisconsin.  On the plus side, this helps our recall effort since you continue to provide us with free publicity by serving as your own attack ad. Let's look at what YOU and your Republican cohort have been up to since I last wrote:

• Fundraising with (or is it for?) your buddies the Koch Brothers
• Wasting our money on the bogus voter id law and thwarting free and open elections (really? I thought you hated wasteful government spending? Talk about lack of fiscal responsibility!)
• Wasting our time by your joke of a special jobs session on things like making sure kids don't get proper sex education (really? I thought you were anti-abortion? Talk about working against your own agenda!)
• Wasting our money
• Being at the heart of a federal John Doe investigation as more and more people around you are granted immunity
• Fundraising (and lying)
• Undermining our teachers, stealing from our most vulnerable students and placing more limits every day on their resources (really? I thought you were against over-regulation and for education? Talk about hypocrisy!)
• Rolling back efforts to address the chronic wasting disease problem in deer populations
• Passing some dumb law about fertilizer that has nothing to do with jobs
• Fundraising
• Manipulating the law to force through your catastrophic plan to destroy the environment by implementing the proposed mine, a plan that you seem hell-bent to push through despite massive efforts to stop it by the community it will negatively impact forever
• Seeing the results of your asinine deregulation of water standards as Wisconsin communities find themselves having to boil water because their drinking water has been contaminated by fecal matter
• Keeping the unemployment rate nice and high and causing private sector employment to decline (for the third month in a row) (really? I thought you were going to create 250,000 jobs! You're averaging a loss of about 20,000 a month. At this rate, you'll LOSE us 250,000 jobs before your term is over. Good thing we're recalling you!)
• Fundraising (and lying again)

Ok, it's getting late. This partial list will have to do. I missed a lot, but we both know what you've done. And so do the rest of the people in Wisconsin.

Anyway, for all of these reasons, and so many more, I'm still not over your abuses of power and your brazen contention that Wisconsin is for sale while the rest of us are being foreclosed.

And I think it's also worth complaining about, before I sign off, that you still have not replied to one single letter I have written you, even after a distinguished third party read one of them out loud to you on a national stage.  Is there seriously nothing a dissenting constituent can do to get your attention? You don't reply to our letters. You pretend we aren't in the room when we try to address you. You tell people that we don't really exist. And I have to say, it's getting pretty annoying.

Because democracy means you work for us. You work for the people. And if we're your boss, you have to listen to what we have to say even if you hate what we're saying. It's not optional. Democracy means the people matter; they have a voice. And they shouldn't be forced to blow against the wind by writing monologues that everyone but the recipient reads because he's too much of a plutocratic egomaniac to bother with the plebes he pretends to serve.

So the fact that you still refuse to even acknowledge our dissent is, in the end, grounds for dismissal. And I'm afraid it's come to that.  It would be preferable to communication anyway at this point.

Bring on the recall.

Heather DuBois Bourenane
Wisconsin citizen

How to Throw a Birthday Party without Money Using Scott Walker's "Tools"

Bad economy got you down?

Feel like your kids are going to be disappointed with the lame party you're throwing this year?

Worried that Scott Walker's helpful cuts to your benefits and pay are going to ruin your kids' birthday?

Well, thanks to the handy "tools" provided by Governor Scott Walker, you can translate your poverty into the Best Party Ever following these simple tips:

How to Survive without Money 

Using Scott Walker's "Tools"

BIRTHDAY PARTY EDITION!

1. Find a free venue.  The most obviously free place to have a party is your own home, but we all know how lame that is for your kids, who are already sick of being stuck at your house all the time anyway because you can't afford to go out and do fun things anymore. Plus, having the party at home means you'd have to clean the whole place and fix the screen door and the toilet that doesn't flush right - and who has the time or money for all that? So find someplace free - it's more fun for the kids anyway.  Also, it's not technically "squatting" if you don't have a reservation. Bowling alleys, Chuck E. Cheese, park pavilion...all these places are just begging for you to come set up your party unannounced.  If the kids ask why they aren't getting the "deluxe" accoutrements (like the bowling, or tokens, or use of the restrooms), just say "they're out" and "next time we'll make sure to call ahead." Problem solved. If the manager asks you to leave, or if the cops come, feign innocence and/or blame your partner or spouse who assured you the reservation had been made. And you'd be surprised how hard it is to get yourself kicked out of places like church banquet rooms. Just say "the pastor said it was free today" - they'll never dare bring up never having seen you around before. Easy.

2. 

   "Those invitations were so cute, too! I'm sorry yours got lost in the mail!"

   Cut down on the guest count by "accidentally" forgetting to mail the invitations. A late-night call on Friday to invite people to the Saturday party because "someone" forgot to put the invitations in the mail (again, saying you thought your partner had it covered goes miles) means most people will already have plans and thus be unable to attend, but will probably feel bad about it and end up dropping off a present for your kid eventually. And then it's like having two parties!
3. Don't waste money on things you don't need, like food. There are actually two easy ways to avoid this: (1) Hold the party at a time when you won't have to serve food.  The 2-5 slot is ideal for this. Plus this frees up your morning for scoping out the venue, just to be on the safe side in case you have to move to a last-minute Plan B. Or (2) Make it a potluck, but discretely fail to bring anything yourself.  This is Wisconsin. We live to potluck. So ask people to let you know if they'd like to bring a main dish, side or beverage, and make sure you have everything covered before the party. In the event that there's not enough food, blame the (imaginary) people who didn't show up, who had been so excited for us to try their rack of lamb.
4. Make your own everything else. With a scissors, some markers and some old paper, you can decorate the heck out this party and have your guests thinking you're the greatest parent in the world. How? By "letting" the kids do it (aka forcing the kids to do it). Have them make banners, confetti, cut-out balloons - the works. Just tape it up, string it around, and party on.
5. Do-it-yourself games and entertainment. We all have someone in our lives who owns a giant banana costume, or a clown outfit, or a gorilla suit, or whatever. Or some uncle who juggles or does magic tricks. Call that person, and have them show up at the party and do their thing "as a gift" to your kid. Games are easy to make for free, and - I can't stress this enough - letting your kids do the work frees you entirely from the expectation that it looks good. Make your own pin-the-tail-on-whatever-that-thing-is-supposed-to-be. Make your own piñata out of papier-mâché , or if you're too lazy for that, out of an empty cereal box that the kids decorated and filled with all the old Halloween and Easter candy you still have hiding in the top cupboard. And if the party's at a park or outside, you don't even have to have games. Just make them go play. They like that anyway. 
6. Save big money by "dropping the cake" on the way out the door.  Bakery cakes are expensive. And between that broken oven you can't afford to fix and your terrible decorating skills, making your own is out of the question.  However, some strategic tears and a tragic tale of racing out the door, cake in hand, only to stumble and fall face-first into that beautiful cake....your guests will never be the wiser. And think of how you'll have a charming joke for years to come about the time you ruined the cake! What a story! And what a fun party that was anyway! [wink]
7. Get creative about "party favors."  Have a nice, long talk about how your child doesn't want this party to be "superficial" and "all about the goodies."  Then brainstorm about some (free) things you could have the kids do that they could take home as a "favor." Party's at a park? Bring glue and have them make pinecone people. Party's at the bowling alley? Have them make an art project out of scorecards, pencils and packets of cream and sugar. Party's at home? [last resort!] Have them make "the favor that lasts forever" - the ol' bean in a wet paper towel in a paper cup trick - and then decorate the "vase" however they'd like. Once again, the fact that these look like crap is not a reflection on you; little artists have a lot to learn. You're just helping them toward their goals.
8. Last, but not least, be sure to give credit where credit is due, and be a gracious host and responsible parent. Your child and guests will want to give you full credit for throwing such a wonderful party, but that would be unfair. The biggest present on the gift table should be a huge box, beautifully wrapped, with a card that reads "Happy Birthday! Thought you could use some new tools! With love from Governor Scott Walker."  When your child opens it, and finds nothing, the look on his or her face will be priceless. Take a picture of that look, and send it to the Governor.

And there you have it! Party's on, kids are happy, and you didn't spend a dime. Thank you, Scott Walker!

If you liked this helpful advice, you'll love Part 1: How to Survive Without Money Using Scott Walker's "Tools"

And if you've got money to burn, you might check out my non-pauper's edition of valuable party advice: Planning Your Child's Birthday Party.

Scott Walker: Bad for Education, Bad for Wisconsin (interview)

Monologues on air: interview with Ed Schultz.

Technically, it's only a monologue if you're talking to Scott Walker, a stone wall, or other things that don't give a crap. Regular people talk back, and then you call it dialogue.

I was really honored to be invited on the Ed Schultz Show on Sept.26, 2011 to talk about why I wrote an open letter to Brian Williams and Scott Walker's bad-for-education budget. Here's the interview, if you missed it.  Thanks to Ed Schultz for the continued dialogue on Wisconsin and the assaults on public education nationwide, and for giving me the opportunity to call Scott Walker out as the tooljob he is on national tv.

Click here to listen to the radio interview:
Scott Walker's Useless "Tools" - Interview with Ed Schultz 26 Sept 2011 by Monologues of Dissent

.

A Note of Thanks to Brian Williams

27 September 2011

Dear Mr. Williams,

I want to thank you personally for hearing the call of so many thousands of us in Wisconsin who were outraged by the hubris and audacity of the future former governor of Wisconsin, Scott Walker, in daring to speak in "support" of education on your "The State of Education: The Governors' Perspective" panel yesterday.

Thank you, especially, for opening up the forum by reading from the letter I wrote to you and calling out Walker on his divisive policies. The look on Walker's face was priceless as you shared what so many Wisconsinites know to be true: Walker's education "reforms" (TM) are nothing more than devastating and avoidable cuts that will have long-term affects on our students and our schools. The fact that he looked so surprised as you read the letter is further confirmation that he truly does not take seriously, or even acknowledge, the dissent of his constituents, no matter how carefully thought-out or reasonably supported by evidence.  As you'll recall, he was cc'd on the original message. Too bad he doesn't check his email.

By opening your program with this challenge to Walker, you sent the message loud and clear, and I think set exactly the right tone for your event: Walker's constituents do not support his education agenda, and whatever slick and slimy talking points he might have up his sleeve to sugar-coat the impact of his massive cuts, we are not falling for it.

In my original letter, I said I was shocked that Walker would be included on a panel on education because he's so shamefully unqualified to speak on the topic, which is true, but in retrospect I am glad he was on this panel. I think having him on made a perfect example of what will go wrong if you try to balance the budget on the backs of our children. Walker, as always, was a shameful disappointment, and I was not surprised to see he said exactly what I predicted he would about how his "tools" and "reforms are working" - his delusional lies about teachers coming up to thank him for gutting the education budget and taking away their rights were a bit beyond the pale, but we're used to that in Wisconsin by now. His inclusion on this panel was a painful reminder of the many valid reasons we have for seeing him recalled from office, and the enthusiasm around the campaign to make our voices heard on this issue only helps build momentum as we move into recall season here in Wisconsin.

The letter I sent you resonated with so many people because I was just saying what needed to be said, and what so many people are thinking. I wouldn't have had the nerve to say it if I didn't know I was speaking on behalf of so many other regular people in Wisconsin and elsewhere who are just sick and tired of the arrogance, lies and deceit that have become the norm in political affairs.  I was really humbled by all the attention it received and did my best trying to represent all of us who are so fully engaged in this struggle to take back our democracy, our economy and our social programs from the same bullies who have bought our children out from under us. While those willing to vote against their own self-interests like to frame this as a struggle that's just about unions, or workers' rights, or pensions and benefits, this is in fact a struggle that should really unite all Americans. It's about the citizens of this country ensuring that we have a seat at the negotiating table of our own future, and the future of our children. It's about holding our elected officials accountable to the people rather than those who fund their campaigns. The people of Wisconsin made clear this year that we will not take these abuses of power sitting down, but when you follow the money, you'll see all of these issues are connected. We are all Wisconsin. We are all Wall Street. We are all in this together and the time to stand up say "enough!" is now. So we are standing. And we are saying it.

So I thank you, Mr. Williams, for listening and making our voices heard yesterday. I very much look forward to the day very soon when you'll slow-jam the news that Scott Walker has been recalled.

Yours sincerely,
Heather DuBois Bourenane
Wisconsin parent, educator, PTO member, state employee and public education advocate

Thanks, too, to The Ed Schultz Show and MSNBC for the 

continued coverage of Walker's abuses of power in Wisconsin.

And thanks most of all to everyone who stood up with me to send the message
that we do not support Scott Walker or his toxic education policies. Solidarity!

Scott Walker vs "The State of Education": An open letter to Brian Williams

To:
Brian Williams
NBC News
30 Rockefeller Plaza
New York, N.Y. 10112

cc: Scott Walker

22 Sept 2011

Dear Mr. Williams,

I was absolutely shocked to learn today that you are featuring Scott "Teachers are Thugs" Walker on your Sept. 26 "The State of Education" program.  While I'm something of an independent news junkie and not a regular viewer of NBC Nightly News, I am familiar with some of your work on the Late Show with Jimmy Fallon, and happen to know for a fact that you not only know that Scott Walker is an enemy of teachers, but have in fact slow-jammed that news yourself on at least one occasion:

 

Given your apparent familiarity with Walker's attacks on educators and other public servants, it seems unlikely that you aren't also aware of his equally devastating attacks on public education itself in Wisconsin. But the fact that he has been invited to participate in this summit, and the eagerness with which he has already begun to reveal the lies he plans to further espouse on your show compel me to provide you with a list of the many ways in which Scott Walker has waged war on public education in Wisconsin, in the hopes that you will use this information to expose Walker as the overtly anti-education policy-pusher that he is, and use this opportunity to reveal the truth about his sinister plans to privatize public education rather than provide him with a platform to spout his usual lies about "reform" (which is his codeword for defunding public education).

1. Scott Kevin Walker cut 1.6 BILLION dollars from the public education budget over the next two years, even as he passes out tax breaks like candy and increases public funding to private and charter schools. Most districts in the state were forced to deal with these cuts this year by forcing our top commodity, experienced teachers, into early retirement to get some short-term balance in hiring new, "less expensive" teachers. Programming cuts are rampant all over the state. Districts are forced to raise taxes up to the existing levies, if they haven't already.  Cuts, everywhere, across the board. Walker calls cuts "tools." Get ready to hear him say that word a lot on your show. He may also mention jobs, since he has a hard time not using "job" and "tool" in the same sentence, but don't fall for it. He's a total tooljob. And, as the people of Wisconsin have been telling him since February, myself included, he needs to keep his brown bag full of "tools" away from our schools.

2. Walker is heavily funded by, and answers to, anti-public education privatization policy-pushers like the Koch brothers, the Walton family and Betsy DeVos's ironically named American Federation for Children, at whose annual event Walker was a keynote speaker last spring. These groups have a proven and admitted goal of privatizing public education and are using Wisconsin as a staging ground for advancing their political aims for our schools, using the ready puppet, Scott Walker, who is more than willing to sell out our kids to such high-rolling bidders. They have trained him to use words like "choice" and "merit" as codes for long-term agendas toward privatization and segregation of schools. His efforts to "reform" education in Wisconsin are little more than a financial venture.

3. Scott Walker is a proven and habitual liar. His biggest, and most common lie, is that Wisconsin is "broke" and that we need his "reforms" to "balance the budget."   The financial "crisis," which Walker manufactured in order to attempt to illegally push through his draconian budget which revoked the rights of public employees in Wisconsin, was the direct result of the tax cuts he distributed (again, to his cronies) in the weeks before declaring this phony state of fiscal emergency.  Further, he pushes a myth that the Wisconsin education system is in need of major reform, often blaming our excellent teachers for problems that do not exist. Wisconsin public schools are a national model in many areas and we are #1 in the nation in graduation rates, even as we spend less per pupil than most other states. With many of our schools already running on bare-bones budgets, Walker's cuts are devastating and our kids are paying the price as Walker's funders cash in their checks.

4. The people of Wisconsin do not support Scott Walker. As soon as legally possible, recall efforts will begin full force and are in the planning stage as we speak.  Educators and educated people throughout the state are near-universally opposed to his policies and further disgusted by his arrogant contempt for the welfare of our children and our education system. He has an approval rating around 40% and sinking.  He is at the heart of an FBI "John Doe" investigation relating to illegal campaigning. He was asked to leave Marquette University for similar campaign ethics violations and he has made clear time and again throughout his many campaigns that he does not (and did not) value his own education; hardly the man we should trust to preserve and protect the education of our children. He does not speak for the people of Wisconsin, who see his power-grab for exactly what it was: a purely partisan bait-and-switch which led us down a whirlwind path of abuses of power and has produced painfully divisive policies that pit the erstwhile friendly and accommodating people of Wisconsin against each other.

When bragging about being part of your summit, Walker said "I believe we have a great story to tell about our reforms and our bipartisan collaborations to further improve our schools." This from the man who famously said "There's nothing to negotiate" when revoking teachers' rights and lying about how doing so would help "balance the budget." There has not been one single instance of bipartisan collaboration related to Scott Walker's education agenda since he took office. And I've been paying attention. I watched live as citizen after citizen, teacher after teacher, expert after expert, testified in opposition to his budget, his education-gutting, his plans to expand charter schools at the expense of traditional public schools across the state. Scott Walker shows open contempt for anyone who opposes him and refuses to even acknowledge citizens with whom he disagrees (I myself have been writing to him regularly since February and have never received more than an automated email response).  He continues to this day to suggest that the educators who gathered by the thousands to protest his cuts to education and his abuse of power in taking away their rights were "a handful of out-of-state protesters." He is perhaps the most deceitful and divisive governor in America, and a staggering example of how to destroy public education. I trust you will expose him as such.

Yours sincerely,

Heather DuBois Bourenane
Wisconsin parent, educator, PTO member, state employee and public education advocate

Update:  Citizen action works.  Mr. Williams actually opened his event by reading aloud from this letter to Scott Walker, asking him if it wasn't true that his divisive policies will ultimately cause irreparable harm. More here.

Thanks to The Ed Schultz Show and MSNBC for the 

continued coverage of Walker's abuses of power in Wisconsin.

Letter from the Northwest: What would Walker do?

Despite the impressive effort to recall her, Sheila Harsdorf retained her seat in the Wisconsin Senate this August. Sore winner Elizabeth Frederick, of Frederic, took this as an opportunity to share a very tellingly uninformed perspective in a letter to the editor of The Leader titled "We the People."

Not everyone was in District 10, however, was fooled. This guest post is Kristine Emerson's response, an abbreviated version of which was published in The Leader.

There is a lot of talk in Wisconsin about how Madison and Milwaukee - and progressives in general - don't represent the rest of the state, about how "the silent majority" possesses "conservative values" that are somehow out of touch with our big-city ways.  Not only is this patently untrue, it's utter nonsense.  The threat Scott Kevin Walker poses to our state is bipartisan and knows no bounds: if you are not rich, you lose in his Wisconsin.  Positioning this crisis as a conflict of "values" is a distraction and an absurdity, and - from the sound of Ms. Frederick's letter - working.  Thank goodness for people like Kristine Emerson, who stand up for the voice of reason and exposing the hypocrisy of using the Bible to defend and promote political agendas which only hurt the majority of people, and most significantly the most vulnerable among us, wherever we live.  We're all in this together, and the sooner we realize that, the sooner we can get to work together. Thank you, Kristine, for sharing your letter and moving us one step forward.

****

It hasn’t been easy, but I’ve been very restrained after reading the Letters to the Editor of this paper since Scott Walker pulled his bait and switch back in February.   I had hoped to continue to restrain myself, but last week’s letter from Elizabeth Peterson was the last I can read and stay silent.

What set me over the edge was her assertation that that “it is impossible to be a true, Bible-believing Christian and support the Democratic Party” if we are pro-choice, combined with her opinion that Gov. Walker’s attack on the teacher’s union was necessary to make changes to “bring everything back in perspective.”

The facts are: none of the Democrats were recalled, and two Republican seats were lost.  If that look “triumphant” to you, I guess that’s okay.  It took me days to feel good about taking the two seats away from Republicans, but I’m good with it now.  Absolutely better than losing two of our own!

I know many teachers, both in Wisconsin and in other states.  I don’t know of even one who does not spend their own money providing supplies for their classrooms, and spending a fair amount of time at home, in the evenings, grading papers and working on lesson plans.  They are teachers because it is a calling, they love sharing knowledge with the next generation.  If we don’t take care of our teachers, we will have a much bigger mess than the huge failure called No Child Left Behind.  These children are the future of our country!

Scott Walker didn’t get much press up here.  We got a lot about Bachman and Dayton and the Minnesota leaders, but precious little about Scott Walker.   I will never let that happen again.  His history as Milwaukee County Executive was not unlike what we are seeing as him in the Governor’s Office.   That is pretty impressive for a college dropout.

During his run for the Milwaukee County Executive seat, he announced to a large crowd that he would not cut treatment funding to AODA (Alcohol & Other Drug Abuse).  Of course, that is exactly what he did.  Treatment advocates were enraged, and many in the faith community were shocked that he would say one thing and do the opposite!  He was reminded that they had video showing his promise, and the County board later restored part of the money.  Under such pressure, he didn’t veto the restored funding.

He also cut the General Assistance Medical Program.  The uninsured relied on that program for years to provide health care for the poor.  He instituted a $35 fee for people to use the program, which seems reasonable until you realize the poor and/or indigent do not have $35.  Hospitals experienced a spike in ER visits, which brought about higher insurance premiums to those who did have insurance.

He cut funding to shelters for Battered Women.  These women, often along with their children, are victims of domestic violence and have few safe havens.  What a great guy he is!  He’s definitely living by the Bible in terms of taking care of the less fortunate.

The true precursor, which I was not aware of and I never read in any media up here, was that in early 2010, he fired 26 security guards, public employees represented by a union, who worked at the Milwaukee County Courthouse.  He fired them anyway, and hired private security contractor Wackenhut G4S to provide security at the Courthouse and two other venues in the county, under a $1.1 million contract.  He made this choice because of a “budget emergency”.  Does that sound familiar?  In January of 2011, an arbitrator ruled that there was no budget crisis at the time the guards were fired, the County failed to give the union a chance to propose alternatives, and that the savings Walker claimed were overstated.   The County had to rehire the fired guards, with back pay.  They were promised at least 180 days of work to make up for the time that should have been given to the union to react.

Walker doesn’t like unions, period.  And he doesn’t care much whether he follows the rules or not.  That’s scary.

That’s just a few of his moves during his time as Milwaukee County Executive.  We’ve seen similar bait and switch from him since he took office.  Research is your best friend when choosing who to vote for – you can’t believe the mail you get from the candidates, nor can you believe any ad you see or hear in the media.  A very good example is Shelly Moore’s comment, “We breathe Union” that was used repeatedly to boost Sheila Harsdorf.

You know you want to know the context of that clip, because if you don’t you fell for propaganda in a mud-slinging party.   The clip was taken as Shelly was introducing herself as a first time political candidate.  She said, “We bleed Packer green, Brewer blue and Badger red.  We believe that the three major food groups are beer, cheese and bratwurst.  And we breathe unions, too.”

Once upon a time, that was true.  Gov. Walker’s hard line of anti-union rhetoric created the need for her to even consider running.  Many people in Wisconsin are union, even if they don’t live in this corner of the state.

So let me ask you which is worse?  That Shelly Moore added a pro-union line to her announcement that she would run against Harsdorf, or that the Republicans felt it was just and correct to run bogus candidates to force a primary?  They didn’t even try to hide it!   The Republican I share my life with voted for Shelly Moore, calling the primary election “dirty politics”.  And it was.  If you can find triumph in that well known, well publicized thumbing of the nose at our political system, you have more ethical issues than most.

Let’s get to Ms. Peterson’s point of abortion and what God says in the Bible about it.  But first, let me clarify my own Christianity.  My faith is Gnostic.  My path is to follow the words of Jesus only.

I spent my childhood in a church more fundamental than most up here.  No cushions on the pews, no musical accompaniment – just straight, hard line dogma.  The Bible was drilled into me there, and I studied it was joy and fervor in high school when we found a church that actually celebrated the gift that Jesus brought for us.  I am not unschooled in the Bible, by any means.

I have never seen abortion addressed in the Bible.   After reading Ms. Peterson’s letter, I thought maybe I had missed something about God having an opinion on abortion.   So I hit the codex, and researched the internet for Pro-Choice groups that use scripture as a means to support their stand.   I even went to the Pro-Life website, which was pretty tough to do since before moving here in 1995, I attended more than one Pro-Choice rally with my son in a Snuggie on my chest.

Yes, I am pro-choice, but I do have an issue with late term abortion.  I have two children that were premature; one was born at 32 weeks, one at 31 weeks.   Both of them are healthy.   If people do not want an abortion, they should not have one.  But to call it “pro-abortion” is ludicrous.  No one is “pro-abortion”.  It is a painful, difficult decision for 99% of the women who make the choice.  The Pro-Life groups are adamant that abortion should be made illegal because it offends their sense of righteousness.  Here’s what Jesus said about a situation not unlike this one:

“Two men went to the Temple to pray.  One was a proud, self-righteous Pharisee, and the other a cheating tax collector.  The proud Pharisee ‘prayed’ this prayer: ‘Thank God, I am not a sinner like everyone else, especially like that tax collector over there!  For I never cheat, I don’t commit adultery, I got without food twice a week, and I give to God a tenth of everything I earn.’  But the corrupt tax collector stood at a distance and dared not even lift his eyes to heaven as he prayed, but beat upon his chest in sorrow, exclaiming, ‘ God, be merciful to me, a sinner.’  I tell you, this sinner, not the Pharisee, returned home forgiven!  For the proud shall be humbled, but the humble shall be honored.”  Luke 18:9-14

The Pro-Life groups have a great deal of Biblical quotes, but not much that really indicates what God thinks in terms of ending a pregnancy before the child is viable outside the womb; they have taken the verses out of context to make their point.  I could easily do that as well to show that there were thoughts of not being born reflected in the Bible.  Solomon and Job are two examples I found right away, I’m sure there are more.
I can understand feeling anti-abortion.  It is an abhorrent situation, and a difficult decision.  Making it illegal will not cause it to stop.  The past shows that.

My biggest problem with the pro-life movement is that once a child is born, they really don’t seem to care much anymore.   Look at the cuts to Badger Care, WIC, the Food Assistance programs, all cheered by the Religious Right. 

Ah, say the conservatives.  Those people are just using the system, and those of us who work hard are paying for them it leach off of us!  Guess what?  With the economy the way it is, especially since the trillions and trillions of dollars that bailed out corporate thieves like Bank of America and AIG, working isn’t enough to feed our kids anymore.  If Insurance is available, it’s too expensive to afford.  And with all the small businesses up here, not many of them offer insurance for employees.  It’s not leaching.  It’s helping the less fortunate.

What did Jesus think of that kind of thinking?

“Then the King will turn to those on the left and say, ‘Away with you, you cursed ones…For I was hungry, and you didn’t feed me.  I was thirsty, and you didn’t give me a drink.  I was a stranger, and you didn’t invite me into your home.  I was naked, and you didn’t give me clothing.  I was sick and in prison, and you didn’t visit me.’  Then they will reply, ‘Lord, when did we ever see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or sick or in prison, and not help you?’  And He will answer, ‘I tell you the truth, when you refused to help the least of my brothers and sisters, you were refusing to help me.’”

Do you worship God and His Son, or do you worship the Republican Party?


Kristine Emerson
Luck, WI

Back to School, and other reasons to recall Scott Walker

2 September 2011

Dear Scott Walker,

My son started the new school year yesterday, and it turns out I didn't need the few dozen photos I took that morning to remember the day, because I'll never forget the look of pure joy on his face when he RAN into the house when he got off the bus with a huge smile on his face: "Second grade is AWESOME! We had so much fun, and [my teacher] is hilarious! We even had an assembly - and they played 'I can tell that we are gonna be friends! I can't wait for tomorrow!"

Seeing him so excited, so engaged and ready to learn, so committed to his own education, makes me feel so proud.  Proud of him, yes, for being such an amazing child. And proud of myself a little, I admit, for raising someone who loves learning. But mostly, proud of the educators who managed to transform - in just over three hours - all the fears and anxieties associated with giving up the freedoms of summer and being put in a new and unfamiliar environment into passion and excitement for what's to come.  My son is 6 years old. He was equally excited and apprehensive about starting school because he doesn't know his new teacher well and most the kids in his class are new to him. He went to bed early, but stayed awake for hours - worrying and fretting and fantasizing about what the day had in store. By morning, he was a conflicted mess of high hopes and preparations for the worst possible scenario.  But something happened in those 3 hours that convinced him he was going to have a great year.  I didn't do that. His teachers did.

The teachers at my son's school, like teachers all over the state, returned from summer break with the weight of so many worries on their shoulders. Many experienced teachers in our district were forced into early retirement so that we could balance our budget using your "tools" (ie: cuts), so other teachers are forced to pick up the slack and work without the guidance and support those teachers provide. And the school year starts the very same week that teachers, like all other state employees, are seeing massive cuts to their take home pay and increases to their insurance contributions - something especially painful to teachers on shoe-string budgets already who spend an average of over $350 on out-of-pocket expenses for their classrooms - a figure which undoubtedly went up this year with the application of your helpful "tools."  Teachers are still reeling from the tumult of last spring, when they were put - unfairly and unjustifiably - on the defensive by you as you attempted to scapegoat them, and other public workers, as the root of all fiscal evils, even as you granted tax cuts to your friends who don't need them. Thus began your marvelous assault on the intelligence of the people of Wisconsin (which continues, I might add, to this day), in which you continue to imply that state workers don't pay taxes and do not deserve to earn a wage commensurate with their education and experience or receive the benefits that they have historically and lawfully negotiated into their compensation packages.

"Walker supporters" celebrate their right to publicly denounce educators.

Worse, they're starting the school year with the echoes of hateful jeers in their ears, as just this week their colleagues in the New Berlin school district were mocked, insulted and shouted down at a public hearing on Monday. These teachers were providing public testimony, trying to share the facts about how the vindictive restrictions of the new Employee Handbook (no microwaves, no coffeepot, no jeans or sweatshirts - not to mention the outrageously uninformed restrictions to their daily schedules and demands that they work more hours for less pay) - will hurt students in the district, as well as teachers. "Walker supporters" from New Berlin and other parts of the state, who were strongly encouraged by right-wing talk show hosts to attend the hearing, took every opportunity to interrupt and disrespect the educators, and reportedly handed these teachers pacifiers as they entered the school. Implementation of the handbook was unanimously approved by the board. But the credit for this one is yours, partly for granting the school board authority to write such a ridiculously counterproductive and untenable set of rules, but moreso for granting them - and those who came to cheer them on - the confidence to publicly demean educators with a visible contempt for both their profession and their work.

Teacher morale seems to be at an all-time low. With the cost of living and unemployment up, paychecks down, and Wisconsin's majority legislators proud as peacocks over their unprecedented cuts to the education budget, it's no wonder.  And as someone who is not only well aware of this, but has been trying since February, sometimes seemingly in vain, to counter it with support for educators and public schools, I worried about how that would translate into depression, apathy, anger and dejection, all of which are hard to hide in the classroom. And, quite frankly, as a public employee feeling all those emotions myself, I wouldn't have blamed them.  But at least in our district the school board stepped up to speak in defense of teachers' rights by issuing a resolution opposing your budget bill, instead of capitalizing on all the ways to disrespect them once they were kicked down like other boards have done in other parts of the state.

But I forgot the most important thing about teachers: as much as "Walker supporters" might want them to shut up and pretend they're just easily replaced cogs in the education factory, being a teacher isn't a McJob that anyone can do (you know, like the ones you're trying to bring to our state to choke out local businesses and the possibility of earning a living wage - there's a good example of those "jobs" in our town). Educators, who earn significantly less and work more hours than people in professions requiring similar training and education, are equally professional and equally (if not moreso) dedicated to their craft, and my children. They are doing the best they can to fight this fight outside of the classroom while still providing our kids with the best education they can given the disgustingly punitive circumstances into which you've forced them. But they're human. And you can't sustain an environment of hate forever, as much as "Walker supporters" might like to.  Your "tools" are tearing our education system apart. And, as a parent, I'm standing up with teachers to hold the roof up in spite of you.

The key word is "removable." Photo: SSWIDTMS

This week, in your typical weasel style, you met with educators and others to discussion education - at an event coordinated by American Institutes for Research, an organization that apparently profits from testing and privatization (and I have it from good sources that we can expect more on this soon).  For most of this meeting, you stared blankly, open-mouthed and unlistening as others spoke and your head bobbed up and down at words you recognized, undoubtedly flashing back to the reasons you dropped out of college in the first place (it's so boring! who cares? when do I get to talk?!). But at one point you said, "What we should begin with is what is right about education in Wisconsin and how do we replicate that." Seriously. You said that. And it's funny, because we already knew exactly what's right with Wisconsin education, and we already know exactly how your "tools" will hurt the schools that need help most as you work to repay your privatization funders and destroy public education as we know it in Wisconsin.

You can defund the schools, it's true. You can stand by idly as teachers are insulted and harassed. You can sit around pretending to listen to people who actually finished college all day long. You can ignore me, and parents like me, until you're not governor anymore. But you can't stop teachers from loving to teach. And you can't stop kids from loving to learn.  You cannot stop every district from supporting its teachers, like they did in Oshkosh and Fall Creek this week. And, perhaps above all, you cannot manipulate the smart people of Wisconsin into thinking you support public education.  You cannot take any credit for the good in our schools, try as you might. Our schools and our teachers will succeed in spite of you and your shameful efforts to disrespect them, and your glaring silence of approval when your "supporters" do the same. You can try all you want to "reform" the public education system out of existence.
But you cannot stop my son from coming home from school with a smile on his face.

You can try, Scott Walker, but you cannot ruin my kids' school. We will not let you ruin our kids' teachers. We will not let you sell our future.

Here's what we will let you do: resign.  And go back to school. Get your degree. Learn something about how the world works by listening, laughing, and - most of all - making friends. Because you clearly never learned that lesson, and your impulse to rule by pushing people out and ignoring voices of dissent isn't really working out for any of us, is it?  My son's wonderful teachers taught him that lesson in a couple of hours. How sad it truly is that you never learned how to listen, in or outside of the classroom, yourself.

Here's to an excellent school year, in spite of you and your "tools," and to an even better one next fall, under our new governor. Or sooner, if you resign.  Although then I'd have to start writing to Kleefisch (remember her? She's Rick Perry-crazy!), and I don't think any of us want that to happen. Maybe we'll just hold out for the recall. I trust the dedicated teachers of Wisconsin to make do with the shameful scraps you've left them for that long. But I promise them I'll keep fighting to make it better. And I call on all other parents to do the same. What happened in New Berlin is a sobering lesson on the absurd authority school boards have to dictate policy without regard for the well-being of our children. I think we all have some work to do in terms of looking at our own school boards and thinking about who in our communities might better serve public education in the future. We might not get any help from you, Walker, but we can still help save our schools. We'll just have to work a little harder, until you're gone.

Your shamefully ignored constituent,

Heather DuBois Bourenane
Wisconsin parent, taxpayer and proud supporter of educators and public education

This video captures the heart of the tragedy in Wisconsin: math teacher Dale Destache shares his carefully prepared testimony before the New Berlin School Board, outlining all the ways teachers and students will be impacted by the new policies. While he's explaining how the new guidelines of their abusive Handbook will prevent him from tutoring students before school, someone shouts out "Get a new job!" while others boo and shout him down.The members of the school board made no effort to silence the interruptions.

A Back to School Plea: Be Kind to Teachers

Pasted below is a message from Kati Walsh, a Wisconsin educator who asks us to take a minute at the beginning of this school year to give a little extra love to the teachers in our lives. As our kids go back to school, let's keep in mind that their educators are dealing with drastic cuts to their take home pay, administrators and parents who may be ambivalent (or worse), and a political climate in which teacher-bashing is commonplace, even among elected officials, as teachers get blamed for policy matters totally beyond their control.

Please take a minute to read Kati's plea and then let the teachers in your life know that you appreciate all the work they do - often on their own time and at their own expense - to make our communities better places to live and work.

-----------------------------------------------------------------

August 25, 2011

I know you all know that teacher morale is super low right now. It's really not going to be an easy year. I'm very blessed to have an amazing principal and staff. Also a wonderful group of supportive parents. Most teachers don't have any of that.

This was posted on MTI today:

"If you improve a teacher's self-esteem, confidence, communication skills or stress levels, you improve that teacher's overall effectiveness across the curriculum.

- Elaine MacDonald

This was a teacher response: "Mine is low . . . lots of troubling changes at my school already this year. Feeling like my hard work doesn't matter."

I'm seeing this across the board. If you have a few extra minutes (not money, just time) please send a teacher a note of encouragement as school starts this year. Did someone really make an impact on you that is still teaching? How about your child's teacher? Or just someone you know that is a teacher?
--------------------------

Let's take Kati's challenge to heart. Care about our educators like they care about our children! Let teachers know that you're on their side. Just taking the time to send a note or let them know will mean so much.

And remember - educators are not so deeply involved in the struggle in Wisconsin just to protect their own wages and benefits - they are in this fight to protect the future of public education for our children. And I, for one, want to make sure they know how much I appreciate that.  

Thanks for sharing this note, Kati! And a big THANK YOU to all the teachers out there who are returning to their classrooms ready for new set of challenges! We support  you! And we will not give up the fight to regain your rights and the right of our children to quality public education!

Walker's Ready to Compromise (His Integrity)

18 August 2011

Dear Scott Walker,

It is with the usual disgust that I read your latest interviews, and after listening to the full audio clip of your conversation with WisPolitics on Monday (8/15), I feel compelled to write you once again, to remind you to stop lying about "what you've heard people say."

What has Walker given up so far, besides his integrity? Photo

Ever since the Republicans lost two seats in the Senate, and even moreso now that the Democrats have retained their own, you've been trying to build a case for yourself as the Moderate Middleman, the Great, Misunderstood Conciliator. Using vocabulary a child perhaps scripted for you, you repeat the same lame lines about bipartisanship and how you're suddenly so ready and willing to work together and compromise and move past the recalls and jobs jobs jobs jobs...

As charming an attempt this may be to quick trick people into forgetting about what a bullying brute you are, I'm afraid it comes too late. And we're not fooled in the least.

Because we aren't about to forget how many times you told us "there's nothing to negotiate." We aren't going to forget how you and your lackeys shut down debate, ignored public and professional testimony, and continue to pretend that you simply don't hear the voices of dissent exploding all around you.

Your arrogance in thinking you can earn back the trust and the support of the people of Wisconsin (much less the legislators of this state who now know you'll throw anyone under the bus!) is staggering. And it's rivaled only by your disrespect for the intelligence of your consituents in thinking (wrongly, of course) that we're just going to "move on" and forget the fireworks that were your detonating the bomb that split this state apart.  

Your sudden willingness to "work together" and "compromise" only proves what we already knew: that the only thing you'll ever compromise are the principles that you campaigned on, your allegiance to the people, and your respect for this state. All of those have been compromised quite enough already. Your integrity, assuming it ever existed, was apparently compromised long before I heard your name. Please spare us the humiliation of seeing you "compromise" anything else.

Representative Peter Barca has already called you out on this nonsense, reminding us that 

When he went to Washington, D.C. to testify before Congress under oath, Gov. Walker said, "bipartisanship is not so good."

And the very day that voters were going to the polls last week to remove two Republican senators in a historic rebuke of the governor’s extreme, divisive agenda, Gov. Walker hid his signing of the most partisan redistricting laws in Wisconsin history.
On the floor of the legislature, Gov. Walker's Republican rubber-stamps have rejected 375 Democratic amendments out of hand, even though many were common sense measures that emphasized accountability or saved money.  And exactly zero Assembly Democratic bills have passed this session.

It is  Gov. Walker's unwillingness to give up his extreme agenda and double-talk that have Wisconsinites feeling so betrayed that half of the state feels that he needs to be removed from office immediately.

If Gov. Walker sincerely wants to work with Democrats he needs to first stop using bipartisanship as a cover for his own partisan actions. If he doesn't, then he ignores the will of the middle-class and the recall election results at his own peril.

Your schoolyard psychology doesn't work on us, Scott Walker. To put it in the terms that bullies like you understand most clearly, you can't take away all the marbles and then say "I'm ready to play nice." There are consequences for bad behaviors and in this case, you're going to get a time out. A nice, long, permanent political time out.  We call it a RECALL. You can think of it as a recess.

Or, you could just drop out again, like you did in college. Maybe you can even get one of your sponsors to buy you a VP bid and you can run away to bigger and better things like your idol Palin did, too. Whatever you choose, I wish you the worst, in all of your endeavors.

In the meantime, stop lying. Stop ignoring us. Like we always say: We won't forget. We will recall.

And I would really appreciate it if you would just resign, since you apparently suddenly care so much about how much elections cost. This will save us a lot of trouble.  

Yours in dissent, and also fury,

Heather DuBois Bourenane
Wisconsin voter, taxpayer, parent and person whose specific comments you refuse to keep in mind



P.S. What are your supporters going to do with all those "He's got nads" shirts now that you're a moderate centrist?  Your base must be so disappointed in you! Little girls whose parents let them wear profane shirts to school and companies that are being capitalistic must feel very threatened by this terrible news.

Onward Christian Soldiers: Kim Simac's Northwoods Crusade (review)

(revised 8/14/2011 to correct the misattribution identified in the comments below. Apologies for the original error. hdb)

Kimberly Jo Simac is on a crusade.  

The Tea Party candidate for the Wisconsin recall election in District 12, where incumbent Jim Holperin risks losing his State Senate seat on August 16, Simac raises horses and writes books. To date, she has written four books for children (with a fifth due out in early 2012), as part of her "I Can Be a Star" series that began, interestingly, with two books about hockey: When I Grow Up, I'm Going to Be a Hockey Star! ("For all who dream of playing hockey!") and its sequel, Girls Play Hockey Too! ("For girls who dream of playing hockey!"). The next three books in the series, though, take "being a star" to the next level, readying children for the (apparently likely) event that they will have to defend their country against threats to God's plan for America.

Simac's books are sold here.

American Soldier Proud and Free (2007), self-published by Simac's own company, Great Northern Adventure Co. (a riding club and equestrian facility) in Eagle River, WI and printed in China, reads like an entry in a 5th grade poetry contest: full of cliché, false and clumsy rhymes and a meter so embarrassingly disjointed that the book is almost impossible to read aloud. The awkwardness of the text is rivaled (perhaps even surpassed) by the amateurish crayon illustrations by "self taught artist" Donna Goeddaeus. These drawings seem to have been purposefully rendered as childish as the poetry to lend the book some continuity, an argument which finds further evidence in the unfortunate choice of the world's most painful-to-read font, the dreaded Kristen ITC, typeset so huge that the book could easily be placed in Large Print section of library shelves. And if you disregard the content (as I hope to demonstrate below that you should), the highest compliment I can pay to this book is that all of these things together do contribute to the reader's impression that the narrator, an elementary school-aged boy, actually wrote and illustrated this book.

But, alas, a child did not write this book, and as tempting as it is to expand this critique, Kim Simac's book doesn't really warrant a literary analysis, because it's not literature. It's propaganda.

The book, on the surface, seems an innocent enough celebration of patriotism. It's dedicated "To all who love America..." It opens and closes with reverent respect to the boy's grandpa, who "served for you and me. So that all of us here could have freedom guaranteed" (see what I mean about the rhyme?).  The boy goes to school, admires the flag, recites the Pledge:

We say the "Pledge of Allegiance."
I hold my hand
over my heart.
The words
"liberty and justice for all"
are one of the best parts.

He plays army with his friends ("I have to stand guard and be ready, should my enemies pay me a call") and says his prayers at night, asking God "to keep the world a happy place where all children can be safe to play."

But, completely devoid of plot, the book amounts to nothing more than catalog of reasons to fear for the safety of national security, and thinly veiled innuendo that all of the things of value in being American are threatened by some unnamed and mysterious forces. Call it jingoism lite.

In his favorite class, history, for example, our narrator learns

How soldiers gave their lives
to set others free.
How brave men changed
the world so God's
plan could be.

At the 4th of July parade, he stands on the curb, holding a balloon that says "God Bless America."  His father informs him that "there may come a time when we may have to say... "This land belongs to you and me, and it might take a war to keep it that way!" The illustration for this page shows a family of at the breakfast table, watching television, the twin towers engulfed in smoke.

God's plan? Mysterious people trying to take our land? The need for war? All of the Tea Party rhetoric of American exceptionalism, isolationism, and anti-intellectualism is neatly woven into the fabric of this book and its illustrations, dangerously normalizing a perspective that ensures a new generation of blindly jingoistic thinking, fear and suspicion. 

There's a famous expression that's usually attributed to the 1935 novel, It Can't Happen Here by Sinclair Lewis: "When fascism comes to America it wil be wrapped in the flag and carrying a cross." While this quote isn't actually in that text, it sums up the argument Lewis makes in his novel. For all their talk of limited government, Tea Party politics confirms precisely the sort of threat Lewis predicted: a religious agenda of irrational, reactionary politics with a decidedly anti-intellectual bent that severely limits individual freedoms in its attempt to forcibly impose and enforce the illusory "freedoms" it resolutely self-defines. A less-quoted line from Lewis' book exposes this threat even further:

I am convinced that everything that is worth while in the world has been accomplished by the free, inquiring, critical spirit, and that the preservation of this spirit is more important than any social system whatsoever. But the men of ritual and the men of barbarism are capable of shutting up the men of science and of silencing them forever.

This is the danger of not taking "innocent" books like Simac's seriously. Her crusade is based on purely ideological aims - she recently admitted she can't name a single piece of legislation in the works in Wisconsin that she either opposes or supports. She doesn't trust ("believe in") science. She fears public schools. She thinks God loves America more than any other country. She is on record comparing public schools to Nazis, and in October of 2010, she posted the following on her blog: 

The scary comparisons of the indoctrination tactics of our youth today and those of the Hitler Regime of past.

I am done raising my kids but if I was a young parent today I would take my kids out of the public school system today. At what point will we stop talking about the comparisons to what is occurring today and what actually happened by the regime of the Nazi's in the past?... Take the commercial that Glenn Beck showed from British Progressives that explains to little children that if they do not listen to their teachers recommendations on subjects such as carbon emissions, they could have their heads blown off. Add to that Kindergarten Sex Ed classes and I really wonder how it is American parents smile and kiss their children good bye every morning and in good conscience hand their most precious resource over to the hands of such questionable people. 

"Such questionable people?" Nazi regime? These can't be the same people teaching the boy in the book that "God's plan" demands the military defense of America at any cost? 

To be fair, let's listen to Simac's defense of this quote (and, ironically, its removal from her website):

"That posting was talking about how we need to be careful about how the world is changing. About how we need to be careful about what it is we are putting into our schools. And we are being careful. We do need to have parent involvement and to make sure that we all work together to make sure that our American values are protected, and defended. And I don't think there's anything wrong with that."

Our American values. There you have it. For Simac, and the Tea Party that supports her, it all boils down to "our American values."  But what is implied here is that "our" values are not shared by all Americans, and  - worse - that "others" (foreigners, teachers, minorities, Democrats, Hollywood types, Unitarian Universalists, etc) possess "values" which are a direct threat to their very way of life. 

On the website advertising her book, American Soldiers is described as a book which "relays the importance of protecting America's freedoms and our fragile way of life."  Our fragile way of life. Simac, and her Tea Party supporters, believe they are more patriotic than the rest of us. They believe they are more religious than the rest of us. They believe that God is on their side, and against the rest of us. They say things like "love it or leave it" to people who disagree with them on policy points. This is not a patriotic view. It is an insular, reactionary, divisive, and, ultimately, fallacious view that is dangerous to all of us, but particularly catastrophic to our children.

The fourth book in Simac's series, With a Rifle by My Side: A Second Amendment Lesson (2010), won the  Christian Small Publishers Association's  2011 Book of the Year award for books ages 4-8. The fact that it won this award speaks volumes, considering the eligibility standards for the CSPA award:

Books must be Christian in nature, promote the Christian faith, and intended for the Christian marketplace. The Christian marketplace is defined as the marketplace that is served by CBA member retail stores (mainly individuals who maintain Catholic or Protestant beliefs and doctrines).

While it's somewhat of a relief to know that this book is not on the shelves of local libraries (and worth noting that the autographed Madison Public Libraries copy I received of American Soldier was donated by the Eagle River Rotary Club "In appreciation to those who have served to protect our great country"), I am still waiting for it to arrive via interlibrary loan and haven't had opportunity to review it yet. I look forward to receiving it, so that I can get some answers as to the mysterious connection Simac must make within its pages to connect gun ownership and use to "promoting the Christian faith," and learn how exactly she positions the second amendment within the parameters of "Catholic or Protestant beliefs and doctrines." My guess is that she does so by continuing the Manifest Destiny myth she promotes in American Soldier: God wants me to live in America. God wants me to have a gun. America is a Christian nation which must be protected from outsiders at all costs. But that's just speculation.  I'll reserve judgment until I read the book. Maybe it's good. My hopes are not particularly high, though. Simac publishes her books through her own company because, in her words, "I couldn't find a publisher." There's good reason for that.

The fifth book in her series, When Life Began for Me, will be published in 2012.  Simac describes the books as follows on The Great Northern Adventure Company website:

"When Life Began for Me" is a book about life and when it actually begins. This book will support the pro-life movement and work to teach young children that though we have a special day we were born on, each life actually begins at a much earlier time. Simac hopes to provide youngsters true knowledge about conception so that it may be drawn upon later in life.

Still think Simac's not pushing an agenda in her "literature"?  If Simac thinks propaganda like this is the best way to reach children, it's no wonder she sees public schools as "Nazi" indoctrination camps. Indoctrination is the only "education" she understands.

Kim Simac sells Tea Party propaganda to children, pure and simple. She wraps it up in an American flag and calls it patriotism. Despite their friendly and childish veneer, her books breed fear, isolationism, xenophobia and encourage a profound misreading of the Founding Fathers' vision of a secular state where all have equal rights, freedoms and opportunities. Kim Simac does not believe in the separation of church and state. She does not believe in equal opportunity. She does not believe that all Americans are entitled to equal rights. She does not support the Wisconsin Idea of education as the pinnacle of our intellectual freedoms. She, like her Tea Party cohort, has hijacked the very idea of patriotism and corrupted it into a jingoistic mess of anti-American talking points, which she force-feeds on children through her propagandist books. Ironically, in an attempt to counter what she sees as a threat in public education and the loss of "values," Simac's books represent the very thing she fears.

American Soldier Proud and Free closes with the words "I believe America is something worth fighting for." It is my recommendation that parents who agree with this statement do not let their kids anywhere near Kim Simac's books unless they want to use them to teach kids a lesson about intolerance, distrust and fear-mongering. Kim Simac may be a Tea Party star at the moment, but her "You Can Be a Star" series is little more than a crusade to impose a very narrow, very restrictive, very un-American agenda on our children. And yet she ironically dedicates her book to "all who love America." If you're one of these people, and you live in Wisconsin's District 12, I highly recommend you vote for Jim Holperin on August 16. 

Don't believe what you've read here? Or just can't get enough of Kimberly Jo Simac? Watch this video to hear Simac discuss her lack of understanding of the U.S. Constitution, her disbelief in the separation of church and state, her thoughts on the 2nd Amendment, and her theory that homeschooling is the best way to avoid the dangers of free-thinking that come with attendance in public schools. (This video is Part C of a 3-part series. Check out the rest on YouTube)

Editor's note: Readers may be interested to know that Kim Simac's children's book about gun ownership may have impressed the CSPA, but the National Rifle Assocation has endorsed Jim Holperin for Senate, giving him an A rating and citing his "strong and vocal support of our right to keep and bear arms”
Jim Holperin has also received the endorsement of the Wisconsin Professional Police Association: "The Wisconsin Professional Police Association (WPPA) announced its endorsement of Jim Holperin in his reelection campaign to represent the 12th State Senate District. The WPPA’s board of directors, which is comprised of active law enforcement officers from all across the state, overwhelmingly chose to support Holperin after closely evaluating his record against that of his challenger, Kim Simac."