Amy Barlow Liberatore… stories of lost years, wild times, mental variety, faith, and lots of jazz

Tag Archives: Holes

Outhouses and Holes We Dig

Back in the day,
Mom and Uncle Tom
went out back in the outhouse

Puncture the earth
Dig a big hole
Set the wood frame over it

When it’s full, throw on dirt
Cover the crap
Dig a new hole

Scott Walker’s Wisconsin
operates using much the same
“Business” model

Puncture the prairie
Extract tar sands
Sell to frackers

Puncture the unions
Extract core values
Sell out labor

Puncture public schools
Extract their funding
Sell out low-income students

Puncture The Wisconsin Idea*
Extract the principles
Cripple our prized universities

Puncture our values
Extract choice and hope
Call it free enterprise
Call it Right to Work (for less)

Dig a big pit
Call it a rabbit hole
Scott the Bunny says,
Follow me down
to a world of fantasy follies
Follow me to Washington
I’ll share my vision
with the whole country
and the world

Yo, Scott, that’s not a rabbit hole
It’s where the outhouse stood

© 2015 Amy Barlow Liberatore/Sharp Little Pencil

Wrote this a day before Walker’s incredibly awkward press debacle, now making headlines across the US. Roger Green sent me a link; click HERE to see the funniest response by Wisconsinites regarding the “I handled protesters, I can handle ISIS” yuckfest.  Clicking HERE for dverse Open Mic!

*From Wikipedia, a reason we moved to Wisconsin was this:
The Wisconsin Idea is the policy developed in the American state of Wisconsin that fosters public universities’ contributions to the state: “to the government in the forms of serving in office, offering advice about public policy, providing information and exercising technical skill, and to the citizens in the forms of doing research directed at solving problems that are important to the state and conducting outreach activities.” A second facet of the philosophy is the effort “to ensure well-constructed legislation aimed at benefiting the greatest number of people.” During the Progressive Era, proponents of the Wisconsin Idea saw the state as “the laboratory for democracy,” resulting in legislation that served as a model for other states and the federal government. Walker proposed changing the wording (I kid you not). According to the Wisconsin Journal Sentinel:

… the governor made the UW System’s mission to “meet the state’s workforce needs.” He also proposed striking language about public service and improving the human condition, and deleting the phrase: “Basic to every purpose of the system is the search for truth.”

Since he never even graduated college (take that, GWB and your “gentleman’s C” MBA!), he seems to care nothing about the University of Wisconsin, a gem of a college system.

MEANER THAN REAGAN.
DUMBER THEN BUSH.

Now you all understand Wisconsin’s pain. Amy