A Letter to Governor Walker sent Wednesday Afternoon:
Dear Governor Walker:
I was amused at places and disturbed at places listening to the prank telephone call between you and the pretend David Koch. The blogosphere on the right has it being completely unfair to you, and the blogosphere on the left has it as a significant blow to you and your policy goals.
The right defends you by saying that all you are currently doing and talking about in this prank conversation is what you promised to do in your campaign. While I missed the plan to eliminate collective bargaining in your 2010 campaign, I missed a lot in the campaign. I went to your campaign website yesterday and perhaps that portion of your plan has been removed. But it would seem to me that it would currently serve you and your supporters much better if it was still up, had it ever been there. Then your supporters would have something to point to when they claim none of this turmoil should be a surprise to anyone. I am sure the editors of the newspapers have a decent recall for what you said to their editorial boards, and you are certainly capable of recalling your campaign.
I listened to the prank call twice and read the transcript while I listened to it the second time, making an (admittedly somewhat biased) effort to find each part as benign as your spokesman described it this morning. I write to you about just one portion of the conversation that particularly troubled me:
Pretend Koch: We'll back you any way we can. What we were thinking about the crowd was, uh, was planting some troublemakers.
You: You know, well, the only problem with that -because we thought about that. The problem-the, my only gut reaction to that is right now the lawmakers I've talked to have just completely had it with them, the public is not really fond of this... My only fear would be if there's a ruckus caused is that maybe the governor has to settle to solve all these problems....
Governor, did you think about planting some troublemakers for more than a nanosecond? It would seem that at some point you thought that idea through enough to conclude that it might have caused you to have “to settle to solve all these problems.” Did you truly weigh carefully the political pros and cons of planting troublemakers to cause a ruckus? When you weighed the pros and cons, did you send your aides out to survey the crowd, to see the makeup of the crowd? Did you look at any of the pictures or videos clips of the crowd to see who was marching day by day?
I have two high school students from Memorial High here in Madison that marched from Wednesday to this past Monday. You have two high school students in a public high school near Milwaukee. Did you try, in weighing the pros and cons of a “ruckus” being “caused,” to visualize your children in the midst of a manufactured ruckus? Did you try to visualize the elderly protestors, the babies being strolled through the crowd, the people there in wheel chairs? Did you think of hundreds of parents of Madison School children, Democratic and Republican, who were just on the Square to support their teachers and what might happen to them in a “ruckus?” Did you think of who was going to teach kindergarten or third grade or organic chemistry or calculus in our schools if one of those folks were injured in a ruckus? Did you weigh the risk to the police officers and sheriff deputies that might result from a “ruckus?” I am just curious to know about the calculus in your thinking.
I know it is easy to spin words from a recorded conversation; maybe you were just speaking from the “gut,” and all of this is being taken completely out of context. If so, I am sure you can explain that exchange to the people of Wisconsin. If it is true that you gave considered thought to manufacturing a ruckus among the protestors, I feel you owe the people of Wisconsin a public apology.
Thank you for considering my letter.
Kim Grimmer
Madison, Wisconsin
608-334-5303
Dear Governor Walker:
I was amused at places and disturbed at places listening to the prank telephone call between you and the pretend David Koch. The blogosphere on the right has it being completely unfair to you, and the blogosphere on the left has it as a significant blow to you and your policy goals.
The right defends you by saying that all you are currently doing and talking about in this prank conversation is what you promised to do in your campaign. While I missed the plan to eliminate collective bargaining in your 2010 campaign, I missed a lot in the campaign. I went to your campaign website yesterday and perhaps that portion of your plan has been removed. But it would seem to me that it would currently serve you and your supporters much better if it was still up, had it ever been there. Then your supporters would have something to point to when they claim none of this turmoil should be a surprise to anyone. I am sure the editors of the newspapers have a decent recall for what you said to their editorial boards, and you are certainly capable of recalling your campaign.
I listened to the prank call twice and read the transcript while I listened to it the second time, making an (admittedly somewhat biased) effort to find each part as benign as your spokesman described it this morning. I write to you about just one portion of the conversation that particularly troubled me:
Pretend Koch: We'll back you any way we can. What we were thinking about the crowd was, uh, was planting some troublemakers.
You: You know, well, the only problem with that -because we thought about that. The problem-the, my only gut reaction to that is right now the lawmakers I've talked to have just completely had it with them, the public is not really fond of this... My only fear would be if there's a ruckus caused is that maybe the governor has to settle to solve all these problems....
Governor, did you think about planting some troublemakers for more than a nanosecond? It would seem that at some point you thought that idea through enough to conclude that it might have caused you to have “to settle to solve all these problems.” Did you truly weigh carefully the political pros and cons of planting troublemakers to cause a ruckus? When you weighed the pros and cons, did you send your aides out to survey the crowd, to see the makeup of the crowd? Did you look at any of the pictures or videos clips of the crowd to see who was marching day by day?
I have two high school students from Memorial High here in Madison that marched from Wednesday to this past Monday. You have two high school students in a public high school near Milwaukee. Did you try, in weighing the pros and cons of a “ruckus” being “caused,” to visualize your children in the midst of a manufactured ruckus? Did you try to visualize the elderly protestors, the babies being strolled through the crowd, the people there in wheel chairs? Did you think of hundreds of parents of Madison School children, Democratic and Republican, who were just on the Square to support their teachers and what might happen to them in a “ruckus?” Did you think of who was going to teach kindergarten or third grade or organic chemistry or calculus in our schools if one of those folks were injured in a ruckus? Did you weigh the risk to the police officers and sheriff deputies that might result from a “ruckus?” I am just curious to know about the calculus in your thinking.
I know it is easy to spin words from a recorded conversation; maybe you were just speaking from the “gut,” and all of this is being taken completely out of context. If so, I am sure you can explain that exchange to the people of Wisconsin. If it is true that you gave considered thought to manufacturing a ruckus among the protestors, I feel you owe the people of Wisconsin a public apology.
Thank you for considering my letter.
Kim Grimmer
Madison, Wisconsin
608-334-5303
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