httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cKOvqXoWB7s

I’ve been watching the Wisconsin protests pretty obsessively. I about half grew up in Wisconsin, between staying at my aunt’s house in Cambridge, living in Madison in middle school, and going to college at Beloit and I’ve been deeply encouraged by the good people of Wisconsin, rising up when it became clear that the corporate overlords just want to take everything.

I’m working on a post on the other blog about this pernicious idea that people who work with their hands are not as intelligent as people who write or otherwise work in the knowledge industries (academia, writing, television, etc …). I sort of grew up with the opposite idea, that what really distinguished a person was being able to do something concrete in the physical universe (and hence, one of my biggest sources of writers block is losing faith that it means anything at all, these hashmarks on pieces of paper).

So go give a listen to Tony Schultz, and forward this video to anyone you know who thinks farmers are “dumb rednecks.” This guy is smart in the deepest, oldest agrarian tradition, and his passion is inspiring.