Tried to go to bed but my heart's too full, tears welling up that aren't…happiness tears, but sure as hell heck aren't from sorrow.
I'm at a loss for the word to describe these tears and you should hear the snuffles because it's a full on cry with a bit of sobbing, but it isn't from sadness. Whatever the word for these tears, they drove me out of bed because I HAVE TO TELL YOU THIS.
Just met a few downhearted Badgers tonight. I don't think those Badgers know, yet, just how proud the other 49 States are of you, for the war you just won. I tried to tell them, but didn't want to drag it out while they obviously needed to let the thought go for the moment.
Yah, battle lost. True. Smaugtt will return to the mountain cave and fly around burninating all the people. True. For now, at least. But the people have lost a certain crushing fear and the emperor's new clothes are in tatters, even he knows his tuckus is hanging out, now.
Know this: YOU, dearest Wisconsin, YOU ALONE, have won the hearts and minds of SO MANY other "little people". And that war is one They cannot hope to win.
I just had to post this, way past bed time, because I'm crying from the impact of what you mean to me, and what I know you mean to countless other Americans.
You've reminded me and the rest of us what it feels like to be proud to be an American, to call you kindred spirits, or at least aspire to be worth your kinship.
The Occupy movement stirred those memories, but you set them on fire. Seeing thousands and thousands of regular Joes and Janes trudging through daunting weather, pulling together to show the rest of us how it's done, how to be so gosh darned civil in disagreement, how to have hope even on long odds against bottomless pockets of cash. Just wow, folks.
You gave us the unshakable visual of what it means to be indivisible, working for Liberty and Justice for ALL.
Take your rest, you have more than earned it. I promise to be gentle in my encouragement to the next Badgers I meet, while you catch your breath.
But rest easy, please? You have awoken a slumbering people, and we are profoundly grateful for that hard won gift.