Value of Work-Labor-Sweat—Wisconsin Recall Elections



Madison, Wisconsin State Capitol; February 26, 2011
President Lincoln on Labor

Common ground.

There is honor and dignity in labor. We have that in common.

There is honor choosing our public servants in this republic; its our right in a democracy and we have that in common.

There is innovation in organizing to sell our work, a sacred product protected by the right to freely associate and organize. We all share this right.

Republicans today disagree with these propositions; revering the emissions of Ayn Rand over the vision of civil rights activists Fannie Lou Hamer, Aaron Henry of the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party (1964), President Lincoln and FDR.

Wisconsin citizens find common ground in protecting the rights of our neighbors, our fellow citizens: To vote, to work, to exercise our liberty.

And that is what the Wisconsin recall elections are about.



Human being

"Many were lost in the struggle for the right to vote: Jimmy Lee Jackson, a young student, gave his life; Viola Liuzzo, a White mother from Detroit, called 'nigger lover,' and brains blown out at point blank range; [Michael] Schwerner, [Andrew] Goodman and [James] Chaney -- two Jews and a Black -- found in a common grave, bodies riddled with bullets in Mississippi; the four darling little girls in a church in Birmingham, Alabama. They died that we might have a right to live."

When we divide, we cannot win. We must find common ground as the basis for survival and development and change and growth. ... We stand at the end of a long dark night of reaction. We stand tonight united in the commitment to a new direction. For almost eight years we've been led by those who view social good coming from private interest, who view public life as a means to increase private wealth. They have been prepared to sacrifice the common good of the many to satisfy the private interests and the wealth of a few. ... We are a better nation than that."
- Rev. Jesse Jackson, 1988 Democratic National Convention Address;
July 19, 1988. Omni Coliseum; Atlanta, Georgia