The TAA (Teaching Assistants' Association at the UW-Madison) has set up shop in a conference room that has been reserved for them by a legislator sympathetic to their cause. They use the room as a base for coordinating volunteer efforts including distributing food and drink donations, cleaning the building, circulating petitions, and entering data.
A sign posted outside the door allows protesters to request food items; the requests are passed on to people who call or stop in to ask what they can bring.
People sleep wherever they can find a space and whenever they get a chance.
A guy checks his phone amid the sleeping bags and pillows that line the dark hallways.
Rep. Brett Hulsey's office door, located a the base of a busy stairway, is covered with notes of encouragement.
Today there was a new "Family Space" where kids can do art projects, take naps, and play. This little girl was playing with a tree made out of gold-foil stars.
So it seems like a little utopia, but no one knows how long it will last. Large portions of the building were cordoned off yesterday afternoon / evening; police tape is now strung across the stairways to the Assembly and the Senate chambers. I hope the officers are doing a thorough investigation of what's going on back there ;-)
So far the stairways to the governor's office are still open, and we're still trying to get him to listen. He has yet to show his face in the public spaces of the Capitol.
My husband is a geography professor and he was telling me the other day there's a whole sub-field of geography that looks at public spaces and how they shape society. This movement would not have been possible if it were not for this gracious and accommodating building -- the people's house, and now their home.
