This is a dark spring, so far. Complacency is out the window. Newly elected hard line, Tea Party Governors, in midwestern states are vandalizing the institutions we crafted to protect our resources: our people, our land, our water. Just two months in office, and our new Governor, Scott Walker,has threatened most of the citizens of Wisconsin with teacher lay-offs, loss of the right to collective bargaining, loss of health care, and using our National Guard against us, in case we're unruly and protest.
But, the banks and Wallstreet have already bled this particular turnip dry. And, they got away with the pot of gold, too. The working class has turned its pockets inside out already. The poor, elderly and disabled are just not that lucrative a source of money, unless you take away their medicaid, their home health nurses working for $9 / hr. Our Governor has already handed out $117 million in tax cuts to corporations and wealthy backers. His great political miscalculation is to think that the teachers, nurses, lunch ladies, etc, will be the ones to pay for it. Over 100,000 outraged people turned out daily over 3 weeks in Madison, and across the state, to protest. They were non-violent protests, that felt more like a 4th of July parade, but they were deadly serious.
Dark, maybe, but also Spring, because we are standing up to fight back, and more than that, we are winning. After all, we are people of the Heartland, and this new legislation is nothing if not heartless. When I woke up one morning this week to go visit our State Senator, Dan Kapanke, a supporter of the Governor's bill, at our courthouse, it was hard to think what to write on my sign. Riot! was the only word that came to mind. No wonder I accidentally cut through 8 (!) warp threads when I got back to the loom.
Above images: a soft blizzard at midnight, pink-nosed and pink-toed, possum in the birdfeeder, and weaving linen on the barn loom
