Wisconsin College Protest at Special Olympics

[IDrinkaRum]

College students, protesting a new law about Voter IDs, showed up at the Special Olympics where Governor Scott Walker was speaker.

The United Council of UW Students handed out shirts printed with the words: "Students are as good as dead" along with the zombie makeup those protesting wore.

At one point, the students stood directly between the stage the Governor was on and the Special Olympians.

Was this really necessary?

Do these students think this is going to make anyone take up their side? Do they think the Special Olympians are going to be backing them? Most of them probably didn't understand why the college students were there, blocking their view of the Governor. (And I'm not referring to the athletes' mental capacity, if they were children, and to participate in the Special Olympics, you can be as young as 7, the children wouldn't know what the protest was about).

Fox News coverage of protest

Video coverage of the protest at the Special Olympics along with a Q&A between a college student & an interviewer(?)

[BlaqueKatt]

Was this really necessary?

no it wasn't, there is a time and place to redress one's grievances with the government and it's politicians, this was not it, this was attention whoring plain and simple.

[IDrinkaRum]

What's interesting is that I heard about this on the radio this morning as I was running a few errands. When googling articles to put in the thread, I only found either messages from other message boards, or conservative (even a tea party) blogs. No news except for Fox that I could find wrote about it. What does that say about the media? About the liberals?

I just found it sad that people had to interrupt something that had nothing to do with the Voter ID law.

[FArchivist]

Was this really necessary?

In the practical scheme of things, NO protest is truly necessary so long as relief through the court system is available. So, no.

However, it is a valid expression of their freedom of speech and so I support their endeavor. To condemn them, I would have to condemn ALL such expressions of freedom of speech, as all protests are semantically equivalent.

No news except for Fox that I could find wrote about it. What does that say about the media? About the liberals?

What does it say? It makes me wonder why Fox is even concerned about it. [1] I mean, I just don't find it particularly newsworthy. There are protests in Atlanta about this n' that every other week and there are protests in front of the White House every day. These things rarely, if ever, make our local paper, much less the interweb news. Heck, that Cindy lady who was all anti-war during the Bush years is still protesting daily, though God knows why.

Anyway, I don't really find this to be news, exceptional, or even particularly outrageous. I'm much more concerned about the Blagojevich corruption case, the implosion of the Gringrich campaign, and how SCOTUS has ruled that fleeing the police is a violent felony.

If you can tell me what's particularly newsworthy about this protest, I'll be happy to hear it.

[1] Actually, I'm not terribly surprised Fox is "concerned" about it.

[Greenday]

Any protesters making fools of themselves when news is slow is excellent news.

Just because they have the right to protest doesn't mean this was a good time for it.

[IDrinkaRum]

I find it offensive they did this during an athletic outing. Would they have done it at their college's sports event?

If you're going to protest a political viewpoint, do it at a political gathering the Governor will be at. Not at a random sporting event. And definitely NOT at an event where the participants don't even understand what you're protesting. (And I doubt the parents of said athletes cared either).

[Rageaholic]

How stupid do you have to be to protest at the special olympics? Could they have picked a worse time to make their point?

Way to go guys, way get even less people to support you than before.

[McDreidel09]

As a student of the UW system, I am really appalled by this. I certainly hope that no-one from my branch was present. There is a time and a place for this sort of thing and this was definitely the wrong time and place. If I would have been there, you bet I would have "turned against my fellow students" and said something.

I'm not a big fan of Walker either, but I know where to do my complaining.

[blas87]

I'm not surprised. The opening weekend of fishing season, it was no secret that Governor Walker would be out fishing, and it made the news that people who dislike him actually went out in their damn boats and followed him around while he fished and protested him.

Can't we make a fine line between protesting and stalking, let alone just being plain disrespectful? Why punish the Special Olympic athletes just because you hate the Governor? What kind of assnine bullshit is that?!

[Greenday]

I'm not surprised. The opening weekend of fishing season, it was no secret that Governor Walker would be out fishing, and it made the news that people who dislike him actually went out in their damn boats and followed him around while he fished and protested him.

Can't we make a fine line between protesting and stalking, let alone just being plain disrespectful? Why punish the Special Olympic athletes just because you hate the Governor? What kind of assnine bullshit is that?!

It's pretty obvious these people don't give a shit about everyone else. They just want what's good for them. Who cares if kids won't have a summer? Who cares if government stops being able to function and people can't get anything done? As long as they get their near free benefits that no one else gets, it's worth it to these people.

[Boozy]

I find it offensive they did this during an athletic outing. Would they have done it at their college's sports event?

Really? What's so sacred about a sporting event?

[blas87]

I think it's offensive because this was a Special Olympic event. This was no high school or college game. Add to it that most likely, the athletes probably had no idea who those people were or why they showed up dressed that way.

People in Wisconsin are getting to a point where they will go anywhere Walker goes and look as ridiculous as possible to prove their point. They were protesting voter IDs because the more liberal of Wisconsin believe that requiring ID to vote would dissuade younger people (college kids) and minorities from voting. Uh huh.

Someone dressed up as a chicken to promote Walker as a "chicken shit" when he was doing a tour of a factory around here back in Feb/March.

[Greenday]

Someone dressed up as a chicken to promote Walker as a "chicken shit" when he was doing a tour of a factory around here back in Feb/March.

Chicken shit? I think he's one of the most ballsy politicians I've seen in a long time.

[AdminAssistant]

If by "ballsy" you mean "bought and paid for" then you're correct. Our new shitstain of a governor (also bought and paid for by the Koch Brothers) may be "ballsy" but what he's doing is hurting Kansas. Ditto Walker in Wisconsin. Luckily, in Wisconsin, enough people are pissed off enough that they may do something about it. The majority of Kansans loooove Brownback (but, honestly, these are the same people who want religion taught in science class, sooooo....).

I don't think either of these guys really give a crap about their respective states. They want to stir up a lot of shit to get attention, so that they're in a good place eventually to run for President.

[blas87]

It's not about Walker right now, it's about what these filthy assholes did to disrespect the athletes, just because they will find ANY excuse to go anywhere Walker is and protest him.

I may not always come across as the biggest advocate and supporter of the mentally handicapped, but you have to have either no heart at all or no common sense to think it's appropriate to protest a politician you hate at a Special Olympics event. That is LOW, degrading, and disgusting. Whoever did this obviously has no shame and no soul. To punish innocent people who probably have no idea what it's about and whose lifestyle revolves around these sporting events and how great these people are at them....it's WRONG.

Besides that, it's almost like Walker can't even go out to dinner with his wife without a whole bunch of teachers or pro-union thugs or college kids trying to make statements. All they are doing is showing how they aren't going to be taken very seriously by anyone who matters.