What Now?
At the State Capitol in Madison, the statues have been torn down and the windows are boarded up. Many of us have been in a mild state of shock, mourning the loss of a familiar world. It was a world in which protests are (mostly) peaceful, organized by coalitions of groups we recognize, with lead banners and legal observers, where speakers have prepared remarks, and the media are welcome. This is a world where the issues are well-defined and there is no moral ambiguity. If there is civil disobedience, people are trained in advance, and arrests usually go off without a hitch. But now all of a sudden (or so it seems to us), all bets are off. In the midst of a pandemic, with most of us sheltering at home, all hell has broken loose. The State Capitol, scene of so many organized protests over the years, now looks like a war zone. We’ve seen tear gas and police repression in our time. We came of age during the Vietnam War and the civil rights movement. We decided way back then which side we w...