BY RICHARD L. FRICKER

An open letter to the Republicans of the Wisconsin Legislature:

Honorable Ladies and Gentlemen,

As often quoted, “the time has come to speak of many things.” So it is we must speak of the descent within your honorable body.

We must talk about what is happening to your legislative powers and why. We must talk as to your duty to the people you have sworn to represent and that oath you have taken to provide laws and guidance to the people of your state.

Regardless of the margin by which you were elected, you are bound by oath to give equal representation to all the people, not just those with whom you feel a political allegiance.

You have a very simple question before you: Are you in fact representing all the people, or are you dedicated to an agenda that forsakes those with whom you do not have a political communion?

Your governor has laid down a gauntlet of no compromise. As oft said, politics is the art of compromise.

Your governor has set you and your honorable body on a course that not only offers no compromise, but gives promise to a division within your electorate that may not be easily healed.

It is necessary at this time to ask: Why?

Based on his public statements, your governor cares not about the welfare of the electorate. Based on his public statements he cares only for an agenda that deprives a large part of the electorate of the rights for which they, and perhaps in many cases, your parents fought and cherished.

You must ask yourself: Am I supporting this person because it is right, or am I supporting him because I fear retribution should I voice my own thoughts and disagree?

It is abundantly clear that your governor has sold his political soul, for whatever reason, to the wealth and political agenda of two psychologically malformed siblings from Kansas. These men have only contempt for the electorate.

Time and again they have proven that the common man is of no concern, that profit is their only motive. Your governor has seen this truth and found it warm to his own ambition.

You must make the decision – which granted may not be easy – do tell the governor that while he may have become their political prostitute and toady, ”I am not.”

If you elect to disregard your oath to represent all the people, that the agenda from Kansas is more important that the people of your state, then you must, as your governor has elected to do, be willing to shed your political clothing and dance naked in the Kansas moonlight.

This will be a dance in which your governor and enablers from Fox News such a Brit Hume and others exchange political fluids as the Kansas siblings watch, knowing you have forfeited your oath and moral souls for wealth, position, and favor.

It is time to tell your governor that you will not participate in his prostitution; you are elected officials with a duty to all the people. This will not be easy and not without political pain.

History is watching. History will place you on the timeline of events. Just where you establish yourselves is dependent on your actions in the coming hours.

Do you stand with the people, or stand with siblings willing to crush the American people for the sake of “filthy lucre?”

Will you dance naked in the Kansas moonlight or stand as legislators, representing all the people. Your governor has already made his choice, chosen his place in the rings of Dante.

Courage does not come easy – if so it would not be so honored in our collective minds.

It is time to tell your governor “enough.” Politics is the art of compromise – that time has arrived.

The governor can only propose, the Legislature must dispose. It is time to call your colleagues, whom you know and respect, home. It is time to welcome them as fellow legislators and seek solutions.

It is time to do the people’s business, not the business of the siblings from Kansas who care not for the people you are sworn to serve.

You must decide, do you serve the people? Or, do you serve the governor and his Kansas masters?

Let the people be heard, send the siblings back to Kansas with a simple message, “Wisconsin is not for sale.”

You were elected to represent all the people. It is time to rise up to your duty. It is time for the people.

– Richard L. Fricker lives in Tulsa, OK and is a regular contributor to The Oklahoma Observer, providing both essay and video commentary [see Observer home page]. His latest book, Martian Llama Racing Explained, is available at http://www.richardfricker.com.