Opinions expressed in letters to the editor and staff commentaries do not reflect the views of the Royal Purple.

A hard learned lesson

Many of the voters who elected handsome young Scott Walker are not old enough to remember Republicans Richard “I am not a crook” Nixon and the dirty tricks Watergate break-in, and the Reagan Iran-Contra Ollie North Nicaraguan “Freedom Fighters.”

Well, as Ronald Reagan might have said, “there you go again.”

We are being duped once again by Republican politicians.

Has Gov. Walker learned a very bad trick from Republican President George Bush?

When Osama Bin Laden was hiding in Afghanistan, President Bush, Dick Cheney and Donald Rumsfeld misled America into declaring war on Iraq, claiming that Iraq was preparing to attack us with nuclear weapons.

Now, Walker is using the pretext of the bad economy to try to take away worker bargaining rights.

Bush used scare tactics to justify invading Iraq.  Walker is threatening huge layoffs if time honored worker bargaining rights are not taken away.

All workers should realize that Walker is misleading the people.  The “repair” bill is not simply for fair sharing of the state debt, but tucked inside the bill is the first step in taking away all workers’ bargaining rights so hardly fought for and won by our grandparents in the thirties.

Child labor, sweatshops, and sixty-hour, six-day work weeks were common then.  Labor knew “united we stand” and management knew “divide and conquer.”  The game goes on.

Young workers should remember that the wealthy barons who opposed Social Security and Medicare are still playing “divide and conquer” against the people’s “united we stand.”

The gap between the very rich and the rest of us is in fact larger than ever.

Also tucked inside the “repair” bill is a clause enabling Walker to sell off choice state property to his millionaire backers without open competitive bidding.  Shame!

Don’t be misled by Walker’s simple claim of “modest” sharing of state debt.  Let’s finally learn a lesson.  The Republicans are still trying to fool the people.

– Dennis Kehoe
East Troy Resident

University police affected by bill

Please take time to understand Governor Walker’s new bill disbanding unions and collective bargaining for state employees.  It is an extreme reaction that targets individuals who are working taxpayers.

All the information that I read has mentioned that police and firefighters are exempt from this bill.  Information explicitly omitted is that these exemptions do not include university police officers.

I know that I am even more biased being married to a university police officer, however I do have somewhat of an inside perspective.

While in college I was a Resident Assistant and an Assistant Hall Director.  It was crucial to know that if needed, the university police were just a phone call away and would always respond more quickly than the city officers.
Not because they were better than the city officers, but because they were more equipped to handle the situations as they arose, more familiar with the campus, and had established relationships with many staff and students on campus.

University police departments, like municipal police departments, are staffed 24 hours a day 7 days a week.  They do not get weekends, holidays, or summers off.

Losing collective bargaining rights would leave officers vulnerable to being forced for irrationally long shifts, working 14, 18, or more hours.

Sleep research indicates that being awake for more than 19 hours is like having a blood alcohol concentration (BAC) of .05 and being awake for more than 24 hours is like having a BAC of .10, over the legal limit.

Governor Walker briefed the Wisconsin National Guard to be available should there be fallout from this bill.  This is not wartime or a national disaster.

This is an issue that can be worked on mutually rather than viewing each other as enemies. There must be somewhere to meet in the middle.

We do not live in an autocracy or an oligarchy.  Feedback from one’s constituents should be welcomed and considered, not neglected and disregarded.

I implore you to go beyond passive compliance and apathy.  Find the information and decide for yourself.  If you do decide to contact your legislator, you can at: legis.wisconsin.gov/w3asp/waml/waml.aspx.

-Alisa Thompson
2008 Graduate

Problem with “In My Opinion…”

I have a problem with a question that was asked in the “In my opinion …” section of the paper for this week’s paper. The question is as follows: How educated on the bill do you think protesters in Madison are?

What ever happened to unbiased or opened ended questions? The opinion question is biased in my opinion because it implies that the protesters are either educated or aren’t.

I have been to protest at the capitol three days, and will be there this weekend as well.

I have downloaded the bill and have read 74 of the 144 pages.

There are law students, teachers, and people who have access to the interned/public records, that have done their research.

-Alainna Harris
Senior