Last Friday, there was a protest rally in Whitewater, along Main Street, and over one-hundred fifty people attended. See, Scenes from a Whitewater Rally, 3.18.11.
That’s a large number for Whitewater — especially on a Friday evening as work was ending — and larger in ways worthy of mention.
First, the pro-union gathering was one of two in Whitewater recently, with an earlier one having about ninety attendees. It’s significant that this outdoor rally drew more than the first, indoor meeting — these residents are part of a growing movement.
Second, the March 18th meeting came after Gov. Walker signed his budget repair bill. The signing ceremony didn’t slow protests down; they were larger in Madison and Whitewater after the signing ceremony.
Third, there’s no bureaucratic event that Whitewater’s town squires have backed that’s of this size. When they organize something like a meet-and-greet for someone, the attendance tops out at about fifty. That’s their limit — about 50.
By contrast, a true community event, like a civic or religious holiday, will draw hundreds. Not just a few of the same self-important people, struggling to reach a total of fifty, but hundreds or more. Independence Day, Christmas, Easter, graduation, a science fair, football games — they draw large numbers.
The March 18th rally did, too — far larger than a staged event with only a few silly, so-called dignitaries.
No one told these attendees to gather — they read the news, followed legislation in Madison, talked with others, and decided to turn out. That’s an effort of the people, more than capable of deciding and acting for themselves.
There were a few employers in town who tried to scare their own workers into staying home from the March 18th rally. These employers are predictably small, insecure, and provincial. They think the world begins and ends with Whitewater’s town line.
It doesn’t.
The way of employers like this has no future. The closed, self-promoting, rationalizing habits of these bloated abercrombies will claim fewer victims in the next generation.
It must be disconcerting to them to witness local events they cannot control, or even understand.
There is, however, a good description for events like the March 18th rally:
It’s what democracy looks like.