Last night, the Overpass Light Brigade made a stop in Madison. We generally hang out on overpasses in the Milwaukee area, so being a Madisonian, it's nice when we plan an action in my city... It saves me about three hours of driving. But, the main reason I enjoy when we hold lights in Madison is because there's always a great crowd. There's so many people that are itching to be involved with the OLB, and the folks in my city don't get a chance as often as those in Milwaukee. The last two times we've been in Madison, over 60 people have come out each time to have their chance at being a holder of the light.
Lately, we've been heading out onto the bridges at 8pm because that's when it starts to get dark. We started setting up in a parking lot near the footbridge over East Washington Ave about 5 or 10 minutes before 8pm, but we didn't head up to the bridge until about 8:20pm because everybody was so immersed in their own conversations about who was going to hold which letter, where they went to canvass today, and how they think the recall effort is going, etc. There was an obvious feeling of excitement in the air.
When we finally made it up to the bridge, the holders of the lights were overjoyed by the instant honking from the cars down below. Every time a car honked, there was a thunderous cheer from everybody. At one point, two cars that were stopped at the red light right below the bridge were honking "this is what democracy looks like" back and forth to each other. And even when cars weren't honking at us, there was chanting going on, including "Recall Walker", which was usually followed by chants of "Governor Barrett."
After being involved in countless OLB actions over the past five months (It was literally 5 months ago today that I first held a sign out on a bridge - the same bridge we were on last night), I think I can say, from experience, that the holders of the lights have been getting more and more excited as the recall election nears. And the excitement I felt from the 60 plus people on the bridge last night was exactly what I needed to push me through until next Tuesday.
The picture above shows the stoplights underneath the bridge glowing green. Last night, one of the holders mentioned to me how she preferred the pictures with the green lights instead of the red, because the red lights mean stop, but the green lights mean go. Well, the light is greener than it ever has been. NOW is the time to GO forward in full force. We have one week left, so let's start the sprint at the end of the marathon. Make phone calls, knock on doors, talk to your friends, family, and neighbors, or get involved in the OLB. Do something - anything. Walker needs to go, and we're the ones who need to make it happen. Solidarity, unity, forward... RECALL WALKER!
