Hundreds of people gathered in Dupont Circle to support the Wisconsin Union workers and vowing to take back the American Dream in a rally organized by Moveon.org on Feb. 26.
Nurses, teachers, flight attendants, and transplants originally from Wisconsin were among the crowd which carried signs emblazoned with messages such as “We are All Madisonians Now," “Save the Middle Class" and “United We Bargain, Divided We Beg.”
For about an hour, speaker after speaker pledged solidarity to the workers of Wisconsin and connected it to their own struggles as members of the middle class.
Wisconsin Protests Spark New Movement
The climax of the rally was a speech by Van Jones, author of The Green-Collar Economy, who said that today was the beginning of a new movement to take back the American Dream. When the crowd booed at the mention of the Tea Party, he stopped them and said, "They are a part of the movement, too, they just don't know it yet."
“Today the dream will be reborn in America," Jones opened, “The dream that we can work in this country and get somewhere, that we can stand up for each other, be one country."
“We don’t have to be rolled over and pushed around, disappointed and spat on, anymore,” he said.
Jones criticized Wisconsin Governor Walker saying, “That governor has horrible ideas for this country, but he’s got an awful lot of power from the top and he is prepared to unleash it in a blitzkrieg lightning strike against the people, expecting people to crumple.”
He commended the Wisconsin people for standing up for what they believed in. “When it was darkest, the people of Wisconsin stood together. What they had was each other, what they had was the faith that we are a better country than what they are trying to do to us now. And what they had was a dream.”
Jones announced, “Today marks the birth of a great movement. Wisconsin set off the spark, but now the candles have to be lit across America, so those people know they are not alone.”
Jones: Tea Party Members Are Our Brothers and Sisters
Regarding the Tea Party Movement, Jones said, “The Tea Party Movement, they are our sisters and brothers, too, they just don’t know it yet. We’re fighting for them, too."
“We have a movement in America that hates the government, but loves and needs government services, just like our folks do," he continued. “They don’t want to live in neighborhoods where there are no fire stations and no police and children are going to schools with 40 kids in the classrooms, six books and no chalk. We’re fighting for them, too.”
Jones closed his speech saying, “There will be no crawling to any fictitious political center. There is too much at stake. We are not going to compromise. We are standing in the moral center, in the ethical center in the center of our values that we are a better country than this.”
At the end of the rally, a woman in a red shirt invited members of the crowd to march to the White House. A young man, wearing a red sweatshirt, led a cheer “2-4-6-8 Workers Rights in Every State!” Half of the crowd marched towards the White House.
Beth Borzone - Beth Borzone, a professional educator since 1995, is a budding freelance writer. She currently teaches U.S. and Global History on the high ...
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