Monday, February 14, 2011

Veterans to Wisco gov: National Guard is not for quashing political dissent

Today VoteVets, the national group that works to help military veterans, strongly denounced Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker's threat to call out the National Guard.

Walker made the threat after releasing an insane budget that would cut wages for nearly all state workers by 9 percent and eliminate nearly all their collective bargaining rights.

VoteVets put out a press release that quotes Robin Eckstein, a former Wisconsin National Guard member, Iraq War Veteran from Appleton, Wisc., and member of VoteVets.org:
Maybe the new governor doesn't understand yet - but the National Guard is not his own personal intimidation force to be mobilized to quash political dissent. The Guard is to be used in case of true emergencies and disasters, to help the people of Wisconsin, not to bully political opponents. Considering many veterans and Guard members are union members, it's even more inappropriate to use the Guard in this way. This is a very dangerous line the Governor is about to cross.

The last time the National Guard was called out to intimidate workers was during the Memphis sanitation strike of 1968. Martin Luther King was murdered during that strike.