The ugly protest at Wisconsin’s Messmer Catholic School over Walker visit
By Ed Morrissey
Hot Air
Posted at 1:00 pm on August 27, 2011
http://hotair.com/archives/2011/08/27/video-the-ugly-protest-at-wisconsins-messmer-catholic-school-over-walker-visit/
Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker visited Messmer Preparatory Catholic School yesterday, while the school repaired the first vandalism that had occurred at the facility in eleven years of operation. While Walker read Dr. Seuss to the grade-school children inside, unions protested the visit and the school outside. Want to guess which group was more well-behaved? Actually, you don’t have to guess. The MacIver Institute shot video of the protest and the visit and then interviewed Messmer’s President, Brother Bob Smith. We see childishness, petulance, and bullying — and then we see Messmer’s students (via Wisconsin Reporter):
{Embedded Video}
It got ugly on the street outside the facility, which is no surprise, since Messmer is a “choice school” — an alternative to the union-gripped public school system. It’s an alternative that sends 85% of its high-school graduates to college. It’s also no surprise that “choice schools” threaten the union’s power in the state, which gave them extra added incentive to protest Walker’s visit … and to attempt to intimidate Messmer staff while doing so. The video provides a jarring disconnect between the well-behaved students on the inside and Brother Bob’s explanation of teaching positive discipline and self-control to the self-indulgent nastiness taking place on the sidewalk outside.
At the 1:05 mark, a man in a “JOBS NOW” union T-shirt bumps Brother Bob in a clear attempt to intimidate him, which amusingly has no effect. At 1:48, a protester harangues another member of the staff, telling her to get out of his neighborhood; the protester appears again at 2:40 in the apparent conclusion to the incident, saying “You must be really proud of what you’ve accomplished.” Well … yeah. They’re actually educating students rather than interfering with someone else’s attempt to do so.
The same protester appears a few seconds later demanding an explanation of why they invited Walker to tour the school and get “the attention of your students.” Does he not know that Walker really is the governor of the state, and that’s significant enough for the students? If that’s an example of what students get in his classroom, maybe parents of his students should call Messmer to see if there are any openings.
Finally, have unions bothered to change their protest marching cries in 40 years? We hear the ubiquitous “hey hey ho ho” rallying cry, and a chorus of “Na Na Hey Hey Kiss Him Goodbye,” last seen on the charts as recently as 41 years ago. For the unions, it’s the same old, tired song, the same old, tired rallying cries, and the same, old, dismal failure in both public schools and public relations. I’d call them childish, but that would insult the well-behaved and well-educated students at Messmer Prep. Let’s just call them ugly. This is what it looks like when those who feel entitled to power and control lose both.
The essential American soul is hard, isolate, stoic, and a killer. It has never yet melted. ~ D.H. Lawrence
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