Why we were protesting:
- *Arnie's petty power grab by way of special elections that will cost Cali $70 million that could obviously be better used to help our schools or infrastructure...Or even (gasp!) to help pay back all those millions he borrowed from teachers' pensions.
- *The governator consistently screws over the public sector to line his fatcat friends' pockets. He says he supports Main Street, but robs Main Street to subsidize Wall Street.
- *The real biggie: DO NOT THINK YOU CAN PROMISE NOT TO CUT EDUCATION FUNDS AND THEN CUT THEM, WITHOUT EVERYONE TELLING YOU HASTA LA VISTA, BONEHEAD.
- *Oh, and knock off the neverending fundraising and get back to the job we elected you to do. Unless you're going to turn over those millions you've raised to improve our healthcare, our roads, and our schools.
Some of My Favorite Signs: Mine was a simple little "California's future is not for sale!"; I marched with the CSEA blue-shirts (go classifieds!). Some were straightforward: "3rd Graders are My Special Interest" (she was an old lady, so no snickering, no Jacko jokes, please), "Educators are Real Action Heroes." Others were more clever: "Terminate the Terminator," "Quit Groping Our Schools!," "Arnold for President...of Austria!"
There was lots of creativity, lots of positive energy, and lots of really hot firefighters. And quite a few of the capitol staffers came to the windows to show their support! It was a wonderful experience, and we've been getting quite a lot of evening news coverage (very smart to do it on a Wednesday, come to think of it...)
Sorry to keep rambling. Just wanted to thank any and all Kossacks who were there, and the groups I spotted personally who I can remember off the top of my head:
Solidarity rocks!
See the yellow circle? That's me!
