Some thoughts about the anti-budget repair bill protests in Madison in February and March
"Are we preaching to the choir?" was an important question asked at a March 3 panel discussion held at the Orpheum Theater on media coverage of the Madison protests. But the panel failed to examine this issue carefully, and even one on it suggested that the majority has become the choir, making it a non-issue. 

I had too much to say about those events, so I ended up not posting anything on here for about two months. Another thing is that I had a bad cough from a cold at the end of February through spring break that disrupted my sleep.

I wish that I could have done more to help dampen down activities that were counter-productive. During the first main day of protests, Feb 15, I was busy as an election official. After we'd wrapped up our ward--around 9pm--I walked over to the capitol to take a look since I'd heard that it was still open for a hearing. But I didn't stick around for long because I'd been up since around 4:30am so that I could start setting up the polling place at 6am. The next afternoon, as I returned to the capitol, I saw someone carrying a sign comparing Governor Walker to Hitler, but I just wondered in my mind why she hadn't learned that such messages can be counter-productive and kept on walking towards the entrance.  Later that week, I realized I should've talked to her, so from then on, as I walked around the square, I'd stop to ask such protesters about the possibility of their messages hurting us.  [I posed some questions rather than criticized them directly.] Although few people carried these kinds of signs, the media still focused too much on them, such as when Walker appeared on Meet the Press, about two weeks into the protests.

When the authorities finally asked those sleeping overnight in the building to leave, on Feb. 27, email lists that I belong to included messages that if they were kicked out then we'd lose, a viewpoint that I worried might reflect some group-think and I emailed my disagreement. So many decided to defy the order and to get arrested that the police ended up letting them stay. However, over the course of the following week, the governor's people put the capitol into a lock-down severely  restricting access. The way that this was being carried out was clearly unconstitutional, and for a couple of afternoons I watched some of the resulting hearing at the county court house. It was obvious that the judge would rule against the state but also ask the protesters to stop sleeping there.

What I especially liked about that time was talking to various people as I walked around the square and seeing families with their kids taking part.