The Struggle in Wisconsin - "We will not lose our love for each other..."

Thanks to one of my Facebook friends for posting this video (below). It is sad, angering, disturbing, eloquent, fervent, and resounding with hope by its end.

Friends, we are in danger of losing something very special about this state. What this video does is list some of these potential losses, threats to our people and our state from Governor Walker's proposed budget cuts and radical changes to our tax structures. But what it also affirms is what can help us overcome this moment of real danger to the quality of our lives and our communities - a commitment to join together in a greater solidarity bound by the values expressed in this film, not least of which is love for one another.

I don't minimize the real chasms among us.  There remains racism and ethnic discrimination, there remains divides among classes and cultures, there remains a strain of individualism that resists seeing that we are all connected by the ecological, economic, and social relationships within which we live, there are tensions between rural and urban communities, and more. But there is also something that binds us, especially in moments of crisis and danger, our love for Wisconsin, our love for our families, our communities, and the state's magnificent natural beauty.

What many of us have experienced in the streets of Madison and among so many friends, family members, and neighbors impacted or threatened by the policies that Walker and rightist Republicans are trying to impose on this state, is a sense that we are all in this together - and that the only way to engage in this struggle is, therefore, together.

So maybe this difficult time will become a very special time in the State of Wisconsin. If what is communicated in this video remains the spirit of a new solidarity movement, if we keep this a work of the heart, then something special can be reborn here - out of crisis, a new beginning.

For those who receive this by email, if you don't see the video, click here for the video.