The New York Times Gets It Completely Wrong in Madison!

Today the NYT, of which many of you know, I'm a BIG fan, totally let us down in an article regarding our state's incredible showing of civic energy and participation.  The headline reads:

Dueling Protests in a City Where Nothing Is Getting Done

What!  What!  Can I be reading this correctly?  Nothing getting done?  This is the worst reportage I have ever seen from the NYT.  What's getting done is democracy.   Clearly we've forgotten what that looks like.  Are we this far gone that unless there's a neat and comfortable solution with immediate gratification we aren't getting anything done?  I can't remember, and neither can anyone else my age, when democracy has been working so hard.   There are times when there isn't a quick fix, when we can't just all just shake hands and go grab a latte.  It's not that easy.  What's getting done is having the overdue experience of having to sit in the stink of our differences.  To have to look each other in the eyeballs and defend a position in uncomfortable, funky real time.  Face to face without gloss, dramatic scores, animated effects, or artifice.  Behold the flesh and blood of it.  It's a spectacular event-no matter what your position on the issues!  I would contend more is getting done in Madison, Wisconsin then society has seen in eons.  The question now becomes will society reap the benefits of this critical work?  Will we never again have to endure the small minded thinking that seeks to ram a bill through with no debate, no discussion, no voices other than the powerful.  This is what's getting done-getting back to real discourse (remember that?)-one way or another.  People have a basic human right to be heard.  I don't care whether it's hard or hurts-this is the journey and we're taking it.  Demanding true discourse and the art of compromise is messy, squirmy, lengthy work-we are watching it get done.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/02/20/us/politics/20wisconsin.html