Note: This is a summary of a great story from Education Votes about two Wisconsin protesters who were married and headed right back to the protests after exchanging vows. Talk about dedication! You can get the full story on the Education Votes site.
By Cynthia McCabe
Don’t even bother trying to bust this union, Governor Walker.
Wisconsin sweethearts Heather Allen and David Sensenbrenner spent last week at the statehouse protesting Gov. Scott Walker’s attempts to take away state workers’ rights and voices. On Saturday, they took a break to get married, but even that didn’t keep them from coming down to lift the spirits of their fellow ralliers.
Under a shower of fluffy snowflakes, the longtime union supporters brought their entire wedding party and their homemade signs inscribed “God Bless This Union” and “Labor of Love” to the statehouse steps.
Ralliers exhausted from two weeks of protesting cheered wildly. Onlookers snapped cell phone pics as the smitten couple smooched. The Teamsters tweeted their congrats.
“It just felt like everything fit together that day,” Allen said. “A wedding is about coming together and supporting each other — husband and wife, family and friends. And for us that also meant the community around us.”
The 30-year-old Wisconsin natives met in high school, reconnected two years ago in Washington, D.C., and then moved back to their hometown recently. There was never a question that their wedding weekend would incorporate activism against Walker’s budget “repair” bill.
“We are just so extremely saddened by the budget repair bill and the threat to teachers and all public workers in Wisconsin,” said Allen, adding that there were two teachers and a childhood speech pathologist in the wedding party.
She and several members of the wedding party even slept overnight inside the capitol Tuesday and Wednesday night in protest.