Who's Unintimidated? A Tale of Two Books

Many of you who've read previous posts in this blog know that I participate as often as I can in the Solidarity Sing Along, which has been singing songs of protest at the Wisconsin State Capitol every weekday from noon to 1 since March 11, 2011 (toward the end of that little uprising we had going on at the time). And many of you are no doubt aware that our ignominious governor, Scott Walker, has presidential aspirations, and like many such hopefuls he has written a book (with the help of a ghostwriter) titled "Unintimidated: A Governor's Story and a Nation's Challenge."

According to the Wisconsin Gazette:

Gov. Scott Walker’s new book isn't exactly a tell-all. In fact, it glosses over or leaves out many of the most important pieces in the story related to his successful drive to destroy public unions and his subsequent recall battle. ...

"I've never met anyone who wants to be president more," said U.S. Rep. Mark Pocan, a Democrat from Madison who served in the state Assembly during the union fight. “We knew the book was coming. We know he’s traveling all over the country. It would be nice if he put even a portion of that energy into creating jobs in Wisconsin."

In fact, Walker is seldom even in Wisconsin, and when he is, he keeps his appearances brief and well guarded, lest he should suffer the indignity of being confronted by his singing detractors. Walker and the state Department of Administration have gone to great lengths to silence the singing and stifle dissent, all to no avail. As we like to sing, "Until that day when justice holds sway, we're not going away!"

During July and August of this year, more than three hundred arrests were made by the Capitol Police: 350 citations were issued, and 16 criminal charges were filed. Those targeted were not only participants but even just observers and those photographing the sing alongs. Journalists, senior citizens, and teenagers were among the arrested. Handcuffs were used as well as "pain compliance" techniques, although the charges amounted to little more than traffic citations.

Arrest of CJ Terrell. Photo by Erin Proctor

The Progressive describes two of the arrests which were especially violent:

[The Capitol Police] used pain compliance on CJ Terrell to make him leave the rotunda after he was told he had been identified as a participant in an unlawful event. CJ was charged with obstruction and resisting arrest and released from jail a $701 bail later in the afternoon.

At the same time CJ was being arrested, Capitol Police tackled and drove to the ground his brother Damon, who was there to photograph arrests. Damon was charged with felony battery of a police officer and taken to jail.

Rather than discouraging participation, the violent crackdown induced more Wisconsinites to come to the capitol to show their support for the sing along. The day after the Terrell brothers were arrested, more than three hundred filled the capitol rotunda.

Last month, Walker "threw in the towel" in the words of Matthew Rothschild of The Progressive.

His administration settled a lawsuit with the ACLU of Wisconsin. As part of the agreement, protesters no longer need to have a permit to protest in the state capitol. All they have to do is notify the administration. Nor do they have to assume any liability, as they were required to do before.

In response to all the intimidation tactics and in anticipation of Walker's soon-to-be published work of fiction, some of the thoroughly uncowed singing patriots have put together a photographic account of the Solidarity Sing Along, entitled "Unintimidated: Wisconsin Sings Truth to Power," which is due to be published at the same time as the governor's. Whereas Walker's book oozes gubernatorial delusions and presidential pipe dreams, from the pages of this book emanate the people's aspirations: for truth, fairness, and transparency, for responsive government of, by, and for the people.

Photo by Michael Matheson

Several extremely talented inveterate citizen photojournalists have photographed every single one of the Solidarity Sing Alongs, so there were literally thousands of photos to choose from. Ryan Wherley, a frequent SSA participant who has from time to time contributed to this blog, has supplied the text that accompanies the photographic account of the longest-running singing protest in history. Proceeds from sales of the book will go to the First Amendment Protection Fund to help defray court costs for the many who have been arrested standing up for free speech in the Wisconsin State Capitol. Don't miss this opportunity to get this extraordinary account of the Solidarity Sing Along and to support free speech and freedom of assembly at the same time.

So, you tell me, who's unintimidated in Wisconsin, and who's been doing the intimidating?

Guest Post: Zoltán Grossman: An Even Better Circus

Guest post by Zoltán Grossman
Zoltán Grossman is a Professor of Geography and Native Studies at The Evergreen State College and a civilian supporter of Veterans for Peace who was attending the Vets for Peace Convention this week in Madison and is on the board of GI Voice/Coffee Strong. He was arrested at the Wisconsin State Capitol during the Solidarity Sing Along on Thursday, August 8, 2013.

I was arrested for singing Thursday at the Wisconsin State Capitol. I joined the daily Solidarity Singalong in the Rotunda at noon, on a break from attending the Veterans for Peace Convention. The police declared the Singalong an “unlawful assembly” because it had more than 20 people, then marched in to arbitrarily arrest people. I had not intended to get arrested.

Zoltán Grossman being arrested by the WI State Capitol Police.
Photo by Jenna Pope

I was singing a bit, but then just observed and took video and photos of the Capitol Police arresting citizens for expressing their views. Then the Police came to me, saying that they had seen me singing, and handcuffed me behind my back. They took me to the basement for processing, along with many others. I saw old friends Sue Pastor (who continued singing) and Jo Vukelich (who loudly objected to being searched by a male cop).

The Capitol cops said they’d send me to Dane County Jail for processing, because I was from out of state, along with a Vietnam veteran from Iowa, John Jadryev. The cops asserted that we had "No Ties" to Wisconsin, so I explained I’d lived here 25 years and edited an atlas of Wisconsin history. The hearts of most Capitol cops didn’t seem to be in their assigned tasks; one of them loosened our handcuffs a bit and allowed us to sit together.

When he asked my religion for the booking form, I identified myself as "both Jewish and Catholic, but being in handcuffs today I feel more Jewish." I told another cop that I’d just been to Circus World, but that this mass arrest for singing was an even better circus. He replied, "You got the full Wisconsin experience. Have you been to the State Fair for cream puffs?"

John and I were transported to Dane County Jail, after the squad car was momentarily swamped by protesters, making the officers really nervous. We were booked again, and began talking with the other inmates being booked. It was a scene right out of Alice’s Restaurant. One guy who worked as a stagehand said that he had missed his court date for an OWI offense, and asked what we were in for. "Singing," we said. "Really? Power to the people, dude," he replied. Another inmate said, "Yeah, Walker’s a douche."

One of the Capitol cops talked about the new snitzy uniforms they’d been issued, with a stripe down the leg, which one of the DeForest cops called "militaristic." We were held in Holding Cell 2 for two hours as we awaited processing, mostly talking with each other about Iowa, Wisconsin, and European history. We listened to the hard-luck stories of other inmates, which made our situation seem extremely minor.

When we got out, we were pleased that legal observers had spent two hours waiting for us, and letting us know our rights. The experience was no big deal personally, but it showed how low democracy in Wisconsin has fallen in two short years.

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If you'd like to help, you can contritube to the First Amendment Protection Fund, which helps arrestees cover court costs. Many thanks!

Guest Post: The Solidarity Sing Along and the Right of Unregulated Association

Guest post by Edward Kuharski
In response to the suggestion that Solidarity Sing Along participants' refusal to compromise or negotiate likens them to their adversaries:

The participants in the Solidarity Sing Along are a diverse and ever-changing group of individuals exercising our right of unregulated association as well as free speech—as individuals. Ideologies vary amongst the participants and are individual matters as well. There is no organization that is able to act on behalf of anyone, neither to compromise or to negotiate.

As we are irreducibly unique and radically free individuals, I fail to see any correspondence to our adversaries. They are highly ideological, funded and directed by outside entities that have no skin in Wisconsin's game, only a desire to leverage access through our public officials to pillage our resources. What possible compromise or negotiation could be had with such intransigent operatives? I personally don't believe in negotiating with terrorists, domestic or foreign. And compromising in matters of fundamental rights is an oxymoron. Either they are respected by government or they aren't. They aren't suitable for bargaining or rationing or kettling.

These intruders must be stopped. And we have no right to trade away future generations' birthright to a free and open society, an economy that works for everyone, and the dignity and security that those foundational structures make possible.

This crappy regime has actually compromised and negotiated itself into a legal and public relations corner, and it is striking out because it has had serial failure in its efforts to enclose the public's right to address their government and their right to use their public forum without regulation or interference, as has been the practice for 96 years.

All in all, the people are prevailing and I expect that to continue. I love that this model is spreading to other states such as Texas, Florida, North Carolina, and Michigan.

Makes me want to sing my heart out.

Guest Post: Heroes of the Day

Guest post by Ryan Wherley

Photo by Pam Robson

Closing down the building singing truth to power for an hour, after consecutive weekday noon-hour Solidarity Sing Along #624, Tuesday, July 30, 2013, day #4 of the illegal mass arrests of peaceably assembled singers and sign holders. Thirty more brave heroes were arrested today, and after being taken to the Capitol basement in cuffs, were threatened that they wouldn't be processed until they stopped singing, which has become the norm.

So they did the only logical thing: they started singing and didn't stop for an hour and fifteen minutes, even though they were all still handcuffed and their songbooks had been confiscated as "evidence" of their participation in the unlawfully declared "Unlawful" Assembly.


Video courtesy of Leslie Amsterdam
Around 5, I ascended the wide marble steps up to the first floor and recited Article 1, Section 4, of the Wisconsin State Constitution:

The right of the people, peaceably to assemble, to consult for the common good and to petition the government, or any department thereof, shall never be abridged.

I had made the decision today to read off the names of the courageous freedom fighters who have had their rights violated and been arrested singing out for our rights over the past four days of the Crackdown, reading many names more than once. I wanted the Capitol Police and all passersby to know these are real people, with families and jobs and friends and an extraordinary amount of courage and determination.

As I progressed through the list, an amazing thing happened. As I paused after finishing up with the names of those arrested through Friday, a man who had entered the Rotunda minutes earlier and taken a seat on a bench in the outer ring along with his two children, stood up and yelled, "Heroes!!" I was taken aback, made eye contact and began to read off the list of those arrested for civil disobedience today. Bill Dunn ... "Hero!" Jerry McDonough ... "Hero!" Dennis Andersen ... "Hero!" Paul Sopko Jr. ... "Hero!" Craig Spaulding ... "Hero!" Jackson Foote ... "Hero!"

On and on it went, with him delivering the same response to each and every one of the 25 names I read off. I finished, and he slowly walked off with his kids. I will probably never know who this man was, but he left a powerful impact on me that I can never thank him enough for. I'm in tears just thinking about such an incredible moment of empowering beauty. I can only hope he realized and felt how much that meant to me ... and to the heroes by proxy.

I didn't think I'd even make it through "We Shall Overcome" after I started choking up almost as soon as I began. Fortunately, I was joined almost immediately by Mary Watrud shortly after I began singing, and a young gentleman walked underneath on the ground floor, giving us a solidarity fist on his way by, which Mary and I were more than happy to return. Minutes later, he came up to us smiling from behind Fighting Bob's bust and stood beside us along the first floor balustrade.

After we finished our song, he asked if he'd be arrested if he joined in. I answered, "Not today, you're all good." How sad and telling that such a question should even have to be legitimately asked in the People's House. He asked me what part I sang and he confirmed that he was a baritone like me. We passed him a songbook and he joyously harmonized for the next 40 minutes with Mary, Gloria Marquardt, and myself, finally thanking us and going along his way during "How Can I Keep From Singing?"

Frieda Schowalter, who was arrested and forced to humiliatingly and painfully limp to the elevator after having her crutch confiscated by the Palace Guard last Thursday, joined us for "Solidarity Forever," and we left the building ringing with our voices.

The Solidarity Sing Along will return to peaceably assemble and sing their hearts out tomorrow, brave individuals staying to risk arrest yet again in the face of fascism. Yet again, millions around the country will be singing in Solidarity with them from afar. Like clockwork, the singing will start up, the police will respond, and the proud and peaceful citizens will lift their voices to heights once deemed unfathomable just three years ago. Heroes of the day.

Forever Forward, Wisconsin Winter Soldiers.

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You can help arrestees by contributing to and taking every opportunity to share the link for the First Amendment Protection Fund. We will be needing major funds to cover the court costs for all of these arrests! Our citizens being arrested are paying a great enough price without adding a financial burden on top. Many thanks!

Guest Post: The Story of My Arrest Wednesday by the Capitol Police

Guest post by Linda Roberson
In July of 2013, I officially became a senior citizen, celebrating birthday number 66 and receiving my first Social Security check after nearly 50 years in the work force and still counting. I also was arrested for the first time, for singing a song titled “We Are A Gentle Angry People” in the Wisconsin State Capitol building over the noon hour.

The convention has developed in Madison over the past two-plus years that people who oppose the present administration’s union busting tactics, or rape of our natural resources with the country’s largest open-pit iron ore mine, or gutting of Wisconsin’s historically excellent public school system, or trampling of women’s reproductive rights, or any of a host of other atrocities perpetrated on this great state by Governor Scott Walker and his legislative cronies, gather at the noon hour (when the Capitol building is not open for business) and peacefully sing songs of opposition to the repressive Walker regime.

I have lived in Wisconsin since 1969—essentially all of my adult life—and I am horrified at Walker’s systematic destruction of the Wisconsin infrastructure that persuaded me to choose to build my career and bring up my family here. Thus, when I can—though I travel frequently and am a business owner, wife, mother, and grandmother so have many demands on my time—I have enjoyed the opportunity to sing peacefully for an hour with people of like mind, to remind the Governor that while he may have the power now to do what he will, he does not have the people of Wisconsin on his side.

I do not belong to any group, nor (to my knowledge) is there any group to which I could belong, associated with the singing. Rather, the singing is a practice that grew spontaneously out of the 2011 uprising and has continued every week day at noon since that time without organization or leadership.

On July 24, I finished with my last morning commitment at work at a little after noon and decided to stroll up to the Capitol building and sing for half an hour or so, intending to return to my office in time for a 1:00 telephone conference. I arrived at the rotunda at about 12:20. Apparently the Capitol Police had made an announcement that the group there constituted an unlawful assembly but I did not arrive in time to hear that announcement. The Police had also posted a sandwich board in the center of the rotunda (in violation of the DOA administrative rule on the size of signs) stating that the assembly was unlawful.

I looked at the situation carefully. As far as I could tell, none of the requirements for “unlawful assembly” under DOA Adm. Ch. 2.14 were met. The group was relatively small, and got smaller as people departed, intimidated by the police presence. Entrances and exits to the building and to the rotunda were fully accessible. There was no disruption of business because the Capitol offices are closed during the noon hour. About 30 people were standing in a circle and singing protest songs. I found myself a place in front of a pillar so I was not blocking any egress to the rotunda and joined in.

The Capitol Police Converge on Linda. Photo by Leslie Amsterdam.

After approximately five minutes, I was surrounded by four Capitol Police officers. They separated me from the people I was standing with. One stood on either side of me and two attempted to block cameras from recording what was to ensue. It is intimidating when a lone middle-aged woman is surrounded by uniformed, armed cops. One of them asked me – respectfully – to leave. I asked why he thought the group constituted an “unlawful” assembly since as far as I could tell it did not. They all declined to answer. They asked me again to leave. I asked what I was doing that would cause them to evict me from the building. They declined to answer. They asked if I was going to leave and I said I was not.

They then handcuffed me (fortunately, loosely – I did not have marks on my wrists as so many others did). I asked what I was being charged with. They declined to answer. An officer took each of my arms and they escorted me out of the rotunda. I asked if I could use the railing on the stairway going down to the booking area; they refused to let me, and fortunately I did not fall. I asked for my water bottle (I have very limited saliva production as a result of radiation therapy for cancer some years ago) and they declined to give it to me despite repeated requests, though Officer Miller did try to offer me a drink from the bottle at one point. He was also courteous in that he explained to me what he was going to do and what would happen next.

My mug shot was taken, I was thoroughly patted down by two officers, and I was required to give not only my name and address but also identifying information such as eye and hair color, height and weight. I was asked these questions by multiple officials multiple times. Eventually I was given a pink ticket that said “no permit.” I asked the officer what I had done specifically to violate any law or administrative rule and he said, “This is not the time to discuss that.” My handcuffs were removed and I was permitted to retrieve my water bottle and leave the booking area.

I was never informed, despite repeated requests, about what exactly I was doing that they thought I should not have been doing, or what provision of the administrative code I had ostensibly violated. I had the clear impression that the arresting and booking officers had no knowledge or understanding of the law and were simply—in some cases reluctantly—following orders.

I wanted to file a complaint but could not find an officer who would give me a complaint form and the office where such forms are routinely available and are to be turned in was closed and locked. (The following day I filled out a complaint form and left it at my State Representative’s office since the police office was still [or again] closed.)

I went up to the rotunda and started to sing again.

Which Side Are You On? An Open Letter to the Democratic Lawmakers of Wisconsin

Dear Democratic Lawmakers of Wisconsin,
I'm writing to urge you to do whatever you can to strongly support the exercise of free speech in the State Capitol. The arrests of citizens this past week was a shameful display altogether contrary to the Wisconsin way and a terrible deterrent to citizens petitioning their government, which is their right. I was happy to see Senators Cullen and Jauch and Representatives Taylor, Sargent, Hesselbein, Pope, and Kolste present in the rotunda at noon on Thursday. Support from our elected officials is essential.

I see that Senator Risser and Representative Taylor have requested a meeting with DOA Secretary Huebsch. Please request to be involved in that meeting, if it ever takes place, and advocate for a peaceful and reasonable solution to the escalating conflict.

Given that participants in the Solidarity Sing Along routinely go outside, regardless of the weather, when there is a permitted event in the rotunda, and that the sing along takes place during nonworking hours, some understanding should be possible. It does not make sense for participants to get a permit, in part because the Sing Along is an activity—after more than two years, it is a tradition! It is not an organized group. The participants are peaceful citizens who believe that our right to free speech should never be abridged, and we honor and respect the rights of others to use the space as well, regardless of how the DOA and the media spin it.

I myself received a citation for my participation in the Solidarity Sing Along on October 31, 2012, and my trial has been postponed several times now (it's currently scheduled for next month). Being ticketed for singing over the noon hour in the rotunda, which was built precisely for the purpose of peaceable assembly, the right to which is enshrined in both our state and federal constitutions, is beyond ridiculous, not to mention being a complete waste of taxpayer money and the courts' time and resources.

The increased aggression from the Capitol Police is very alarming. We need our elected officials to step up and speak out. Please do all you can on our behalf.

Respectfully submitted,
Mary Ray Worley

How Can We Keep from Singing?!?!

Guest post by Ryan Wherley
Scott Walker and Mike Huebsch made a HUGE mistake. They should have just let us be, shouting at the top of our lungs, a few dozen strong and begging people to wake up and take action. Things are not only as bad as they were when hundreds of thousands of people took to the streets in Solidarity in 2011; they are significantly worse, as the GOP quietly ramped up their attacks while their "reforms" from the past two years are now on the books and wreaking havoc on our state's citizens.

I have between waiting for 14 months for them to make the egregious overreach against the rights of the people of this state that finally drove people to stand up and say, “NO FUCKING MORE." Well, it happened.

Photo from Overpass Light Brigade

You started arresting peacefully assembled citizens for singing and being and holding a sign; working journalists; veterans quietly holding the American flag; women coming off major surgery while denying them their necessary crutches to get around without pain; senior citizens, including a brave married couple of octogenarians. You cowardly targeted select individuals for "enforcement" from your perch high above the ground floor because you don't like how often and how truthfully and forcefully they speak and sing truth to power. Well... one could understatedly say you may have crossed the line one too many times. You may have just reawakened the sleeping giant in Wisconsin, and I say bring it on.


Video: Rebecca Kemble
After rushing up to the Capitol for ten minutes on my lunch break, I walked into that glorious building today at 11:58. It was sheer electricity mixed with nervous tension, as everyone knew what was about to go down after 22 people were arrested on Wednesday by a rabid horde of fifty officers summoned from the Capitol Police, State Patrol and DNR. Hundreds upon hundreds of citizens sang out in defiance as the LRAD was brought out and yet another illegal Unlawful Assembly was called. Virtually nobody left, everyone risking arrest... and the beautiful singing only intensified.

It felt like the Uprising of February 2011 all over again, with one major difference. Two years ago, we were a disparate group of individuals marching for a similar cause, but unknown to each other. But now, we're friends and family. Everywhere I looked were people who've stood alongside each other on the front lines in the fight against a tyrannical leadership for the past 29 months. If people were afraid, they didn't show it, because they knew their brothers and sisters surrounding them had their backs.

They should have just left us to our own devices. They should have let 15 of us exercise our First Amendment Rights by singing for an hour. Instead, I think they may have just sparked the new Uprising, this one with endless rhythmic chants replaced by endless harmonic songs. Hell yea. Feel the thunder.

Athough my new job and life circumstances prevent me from getting to the noon hour Solidarity Sing Along these days, I still have an hour or so after work every night before the building closes. As long as this soulless, unconstitutional and outrageously fascist crackdown on peaceful expression of dissent continues, I will continue to show up and sing as loudly, proudly and powerfully as I'm physically capable of mustering every single day. Every night they lock that building down, I want them to hear my voice echoing off the soaring marble dome as a reminder that we will not be silenced, we're still singing, we shall not be moved and we're sure as hell not going away. You're welcome to join me. I hope the Capitol Police like my voice by now, because they're going to keep hearing a lot of it until Walker calls off the dogs.


Video: Leslie Amsterdam
To the nearly fifty individuals who have been arrested as peaceful dissidents, some multiple times, for standing up for the rights of all of us in the past two days in Madison, you are all my heroes. Someday we will be victorious. After all, how can we keep from singing?!?



Solidarity, Winter Soldiers. Forever Forward!