Tonight I was made keenly aware of the state of affairs in Wisconsin in regards to the debate on whether or not to allow government workers to utilize collective bargaining.  For those not in the know

Collective bargaining is a process of negotiations between employers and the representatives of a unit of employees aimed at reaching agreements which regulate working conditions. Collective agreementsusually set out wage scales, working hours, training, health and safety, overtime, grievance mechanisms and rights to participate in workplace or company affairs. (Wikipedia)

Essentially the argument was over whether or not to allow government employees to participate in unions like every other hard working American in the state.  You may know that because of the Governor's drive to vote against collective bargaining and the Republican majority in that state it looked like the government would vote "no."  So in order to delay the process a bit and expand the possibility of negotiation the Democratic senators fled to Illinois. This was not to be a permanent excursion and in fact there was negotiation going on to be fair about it.  The idea was that the Dems wanted the possibility of compromise while the Reps wanted to just vote out the union all together. The Wisconsin Governor proceeded to run shameless ads that made him look like a hero and a fighter for the people while at the same time making Democratic Senators appear as if they had turned tail and ran like cowards.  He struck a final blow tonight by calling for a vote without any representation from the 14 Dem Senators.  Of course it was a nearly unanimous vote against collective bargaining with only one Rep voting "no." 18 Rep Senators voted without the other side of the table knowingly and willingly and apparently shamelessly.  For those of us watching on the sidelines, this has been a travesty of monstrous proportions that I am sure is not over yet. The shocking part of it was that our government is designed to work based on a representative body of politicians making these decisions.  By deliberately voting on this bill without the 14 Senators present the Governor and his followers have excluded the ideas, intentions and passions of 46 % of the people of Wisconsin.  It's as if that half of the state does not exist. How did things get this bad?  Well I would argue that things have always been bad. Because of the fact that our political system is based on an adversarial system we will always have one party pitted against another, one Governor pitted against the people, one body fighting another for the other's piece of the pie. The Kingdom of this world is like that.  All political systems are corrupt at their core and should be held at an arms distance from our deepest convictions.  Our government system is all about dividing and conquering in the name of Democracy.  It is all about "winning" to quote Charlie Sheen.  The Republicans won tonight, but the war is not over yet. Jesus calls us to a different way of life.  One that seems upside down when compared to the world we live in and what we have been taught.  Jesus claims "Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends" (John 15:13) This is quite the opposite of "divide and conquer, and take their gold." Jesus says “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted. Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth."  (Matthew 5:3-5) This is different than "save the state money by marginalizing the working class." The ways of the world are about power structures, ammassing wealth, health and beauty, and division and exclusion. The Kingdom of God is about inclusion, serving and loving others, ourselves and God, and being satisfied with what God has given us. Unfortunately as Kingdom people we cannot just bail on the Kingdom of this World, we have to live in it.  We have to be part of it.  All we can hope to do is to influence others to see the way of the Kingdom of God, and stand up for those that are marginalized by the big, power-mongering government entities that act without conscious to gain more power and money at the expense of the American worker. Okay... off the soap box for now...