This is courage:
In Zawiya, 30 miles (50 kilometers) west of Tripoli, an army unit attacked the city’ Souq Mosque, where regime opponents had been camped for days in a protest calling for Gadhafi’s ouster, a witness said. The soldiers opened fire with automatic weapons and hit the mosque’s minaret with fire from an anti-aircraft gun, he said. Some of the young men among the protesters, who were inside the mosque and in a nearby lot, had hunting rifles for protection.
The witness said there were casualties, but couldn’t provide exact figures. He said a day earlier an envoy from Gadhafi had come to the city and warned the mosque protesters, “Either leave or you will see a massacre.” Zawiya is a key city near an oil port and refineries.
“What is happening is horrible. Those who attacked us are not the mercenaries, they are sons of our country,” he said, sobbing. After the assault, thousands massed in the city’s main Martyrs Square, shouting “leave, leave,” in reference to Gadhafi, he said.
“People came to send a clear message: We are not afraid of death or your bullets,” he said. “This regime will regret it. History will not forgive them.”
This is petulance:
The bill sparked massive protests. Last week local teachers called in sick and jammed the capitol building in Madison; by the weekend, the crowd had swelled to 70,000. As unions across the country bused in protesters, AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka showed up to rally the masses, and the Rev. Jesse Jackson arrived to lead them in “We Shall Overcome.”
But — overcome what? Democracy in action? Overcome who? The voters and taxpayers of Wisconsin?
The (baby boomer) presidents of the teachers and public employees unions told Wisconsin State Journal reporters that workers would do “their fair share” to narrow the budget gap. If that were true, though, they’d actually have to contribute far more than the governor has requested:
In the past 10 years, says the Wisconsin Department of Employee Trust Funds, taxpayers paid more than $8 billion for state workers’ health care coverage, while the workers put in only $398 million. And from 2000 to 2009, according to the Legislative Fiscal Bureau, taxpayers spent about $12.6 billion on public employee pensions while the employees contributed only $8 million.
Just wanted to point out the difference.