An Update from the Epicenter (Madison, WI)

Last week (two weeks ago? Three years?), I had an agenda item to ask about how our resident’s from Egypt were doing with all the riots. We talked about one woman who had been glued to her tv – she couldn’t stop watching what was happening in her homeland.

As I drove home from work tonight (wondering if I could get some quick grocery-shopping done in time to catch the governor’s address), I thought that perhaps many of us are going through this same need for information. There is a ton flowing via word of mouth, facebook, email, online articles . . . you name it, people are sharing updates in any way they can. I feel like it’s becoming a bit of an assault on my brain – and yet things change so quickly, that it’s hard to know when to say ‘enough is enough.’

And there’s kind-of a lot going on right now:

§ The Budget Repair Bill [This is what the governor calls his plan to fix the $3.6 billion dollar budget, which includes removing state worker’s rights to collectively-bargain.]

§ The Budget Repair Bill Protest

§ UW-Madison might split off from the UW-system.

§ Yep, you read that right. If this other “stuff” wasn’t drawing so much other attention, this might have more air-time.

§ SO MUCH GOING ON I don’t even know where to begin. So, I won’t.

And so . . . with emails from the provost and friends and colleagues and news articles and conversations in the restroom, it’s hard to pull away from the craziness. But I know that I need to, and so tonight I’ll be finding some other kind of drama to watch from the DVR besides the stuff that’s happening in my backyard.

As an aside .  . .

For those of you that are wondering – because you’ve been kind enough to ask, and I haven’t had time to answer, life for me is good. I’m just a little tired. J But who isn’t right now? There’s a lot going on everywhere. My staff is great. I’m worried about them – many are burning the candle at both ends – they are working full shifts, and then heading to the capital at night to protest. I’m really glad they feel supported. Just before I left work tonight someone said “I’m so thankful we can talk about this stuff at work – I would hate it if I had to come in and keep my mouth shut.” That makes me feel pretty good. They know that we need to stay open and running to serve our residents, but they are able to use their voice both inside and outside the workplace, so they don’t mind doing both. Now if only we could get that darn governor to listen . . .