One Teacher's Brief Exchange with Gov. Walker

Posted by Joel Raney at 10:48 PM Tuesday, May 17, 2011

Dan Ingersoll is a friend and colleague who teaches high school art. He recently met Gov. Walker on the morning of Wisconsin’s fishing opener. I asked Dan if I could share his story on my blog. Here’s what he wrote:

Around 6:45 a.m. Saturday, May 7, a small group of four made its way from Eau Claire to the Rod and Gun Club boat landing on Lake Wissota. It was the Wisconsin Fishing Opener, the “Governor’s Opener” as well.

As we turned into the road leading to the landing we were greeted with a large vinyl sign, “Welcome to the Governor’s Opener.” The Sign was flanked by two Chippewa County Sheriff cars with uniformed officers standing next to them. Not sure why, never have had trouble with the law, but I avoided eye contact and continued to drive into the entrance to the parking lot.

At the entrance we were greeted by two bearded guys dressed in full camo who glared and asked, “May we help you?” Their words said “may we help you,” but it felt like, “who the hell are you and what are you doing here?” I told them, “We just came up for the fishing opener,” to which one gruffly replied, “Are you fishing?” I said “no, just came down to hear the Governor speak.” After a disgusted scowl, he said, “Well it’s going to cost you $4.00 to park, and you’re going to have to park over there on the grass.” Not sure why we had to park on the grass as the lot had plenty of room, but hey, we were happy they let us in after their initial greeting. We got out of the car, headed to the lake, passed the sign in the parking lot that said the club was privately owned but open for public use with the payment of a $4.00 daily user fee. I guess the boys in camo demanding $4.00 were legit after all!

As it turns out we were a bit mistaken about the whole event. We were under the impression that a good size group of folks were planning to be at the landing to silently protest, to let the Governor know we had not gone away, and were not aware that a ticket and an invitation was required to be on the site.

The only protest taking place was with boats on the water. We did pay our daily user fee, so even though there seemed to be no other like minded folk in sight, we decided to hang out and see what transpired. There were five boats on the lake floating around the landing, so we walked to the shore to check out their signs and give them the thumbs up. We recognized Jeff Smith, former Democratic State Assembly person, and some teachers from Chippewa Falls. We exchanged greetings, and they offered us a boat ride, but could not get back to the landing dock, and we thought better of grounding their boat on the rocks.

Minutes later a car pulled up about 20 feet from where we were standing and Governor Walker and some of his folks got out. Walker was dressed in a “Harley” jacket, pants, and boots. The morning sun had him all aglow as it reflected off the product in his hair, boots, and black leather. My son, who was in our group, noticed him first and pointed him out. Without thought, I found myself saying to my group, “Hey, I’m going to talk to him,” and headed in his direction. My group joined me.

I approached with outstretched hand and politely introduced myself, saying, “Governor Walker, I am Dan Ingersoll. I am a public school teacher, and I just want to let you know that the policies and laws that you’re attempting to enact have effectively devalued my profession and demoralized myself and many of my dedicated, hardworking colleagues. I have been a teacher for more than twenty five years and it feels like you have arbitrarily determined to change the rules at the end of the game.”

Now, I know I could have said something more intelligent. However, the whole thing was unplanned and a bit surreal. It was the best I could muster on the spot.

Is Harley-Davidson in competition with public
workers? Or, do they serve different purposes?
Walker appeared a bit taken aback by our presence as he thought he was on guarded property, and while his eyes appeared empty, he did respond: “Well, there is a lot of that” (I guess “that” is in reference to everything I had said) “going on in the private sector too. And those same laws and policies that you refer to, well, they are responsible for job growth, just like the 200 new jobs we created at the Harley Davidson.”

I guess I should not have been surprised that he didn’t thank me for my years of dedicated service to the children of Wisconsin. Before I could ask him if they were the same kind of jobs he created at Kurth Manufacturing, my twenty-five-year-old son had heard all he could stand. He slapped me on the shoulder and said, with just a bit of sarcasm, “Hey Dad, that’s just great! Now you can quit your teaching job and get one of them good ones at Harley.”

The encounter then came to a quick end as Walker smirked, looked down, turned, and walked away. At this point one young member of our group, whose passion was tweaked by the Governor’s dismissive, smirky, behavior, expressed a thought that began with “F” and ended with the name of Bono’s band.

Some would argue that by using such expressive language that we lost the good fight. The reality is that we were of no consequence to the man, and he was not interested in anything we had to say, be it reasoned, seasoned, or colorful. We were just a bit of an annoyance to be scoffed at. As he walked away, we turned and headed toward the cameras setting up by the landing dock to listen to the news conference.

Before reaching our destination, a nice enough woman approached us and asked us to leave. She said we were not welcome and were trespassing on private property. We shared with her that we had paid our $4.00 daily use fee and continued on to the press conference site. Moments later 10 county officers converged on our little group and the tension in the air thickened. They stopped about 15 feet away from us and one of them approached me saying, “Sir, we have been asked to escort you off this private property; however, I am not going to do that if you will agree not to disrupt the news conference and refrain from using any vulgarities or shouting out.” I said I thought we could do that, and he let us stay. He stood next to us the whole time and after about five minutes realized a member of our group was holding a small sign that read, “not a fan.” He quietly told him to put it down or he would have to leave. The sign was lowered just a bit, which seemed to do the trick.

During the conference, a news man asked a hard-hitting question about what kind of fish the Governor was going after. Walker responded with, I don’t know, but we must have over 20 poles in the boat, so we ought to catch something. At this point I leaned over and said to the sheriff, “Hey, is it legal to have 20 poles in your boat?” With an instant change in demeanor, the sheriff broke into a wide grin and said, “Good question for the DNR guys.”

As Walker and his armada of DNR boats left the landing in search of the “big one,” we walked back to the car and headed to the Altoona Family Restaurant for some breakfast. As we reflected on the experience over Greek omelets and hash browns, a few questions came up:

First and foremost, would a real Wisconsinite go fishing in a leather Harley outfit? It appears from photos that he changed into jeans and a camo jacket before hitting the water.

Since tax payers (yes, teachers do pay taxes) are footing the bill for this fishing outing, why was the kickoff held on private property and insulated from everyone except the media, invited guests, and four unwelcome taxpayers who inadvertently crashed the party.

Since he seems to be all about the destruction of the middle class, government professions, and relishes tapping into the “politics of envy” as a rationale for his actions, why did he not show us all how to live within our means and dig some worms, grab a pole, and head down to the Yahara River bank or the shores of Lake Monona to fish with the common folk who can’t afford $30,000 fishing rigs?

As I shared my story with some colleagues at my school, what I have come to realize is that the significant part of the story is that I may be one of a very few teachers who has actually spoken to Walker. With all that has transpired, he has managed to insulate himself from anyone who disagrees with him.

In the past couple of months, he jetted up to Eau Claire and other cities around the state to hold news conferences and in each case he has locked himself in an airplane hanger or in an industry-friendly, controlled environment with the press and a few invited guests. It is these actions that he has taken to insulate himself from the public that he supposedly represents that has effectively communicated to half of the people of this state that they are insignificant and that their thoughts, feelings, ideas, values, and careers are of no value to him or his handlers. This is evident in his refusal to engage in any conversation, let alone negotiation, with anyone who strays from the corporate-driven agenda and administrators to whom he answers. It is for this reason that I believe the man is not fit to govern the people of Wisconsin.

I looked the man square in the eyes and in that moment he looked away, unable to have an honest exchange with a real person. I hoped for better from the “leader” of this state.

view comments

http://starttherealconversation.blogspot.com/