That’s My Madison

Isthmus ran a controversial cover piece this week, called Not My Madison. The author, Terry McCoy, a returning member of the Peace Corps, thinks that “something has gone terribly awry” while he was away. Claiming ground in what appears to the naive observer to be the “center” of the political conflict that came to a head while he was in Cambodia, McCoy doesn’t seem to recognize the city he left behind.

I’m a relatively new Madisonian myself, so I certainly can’t stake any privileged claim to understanding the city. But one of the things that excited me about my new home was Madison’s left-of-center reputation and long tradition of active, engaged and even radical citizens. It’s something the rest of the state seems to roll its eyes at, but protest and dissent are a unique part of the city’s culture and history. While the magnitude and acrimony of the protests reached an epic scale, I don’t understand why McCoy thinks such an atmosphere is entirely out of character for a city like ours.

In a guest post at Blue Cheddar, Kimi Ishikawa takes issue with the piece and some poor editorial decisions on the part of Isthmus. She makes an important point that McCoy ought to understand as he figures out how to navigate the new politics of his hometown and the state:

McCoy paints this conflict as a one-issue problem: collective bargaining, and states that “I am more interested in the people of Madison than in the politics.” Any decent editor would point Terry toward resources for researching the legislation that has passed since January, and the legislation that has been proposed. This legislation is all about people — and not just union members. Planned parenthood, recycling, craft brewers, Badger care, voter’s rights, concealed carry, open-pit mining, public schools, freedom of speech, and many other issues affected directly impact the people of Wisconsin.

McCoy favorably quotes UW professor Charles Franklin, who told him that, while the state is polarized, the people “who don’t have a dog in this fight” might one day return us all to a mythical sense of centrist sanity. What they both fail to grasp, and Ishikawa makes abundantly clear, is that everyone has a dog in this fight. It’s much bigger than collective bargaining now. That’s why so many Madisonians are in the streets. And I’m glad. I wouldn’t expect anything less of us.

Above my desk, I keep a picture I took of the Capitol rotunda after thousands of us stormed it the night Walker signed his bill. I didn’t know what to call it until today: That’s My Madison.

Andrew Cole is a writer and member of UAW 1981, the National Writers Union. He lives in the Dudgeon-Monroe neighborhood of Madison, Wisconsin.