Mackenzie Heinrichs is less than two months into her freshman year at UW-Madison but already is playing an active role in political protests around town.
She recently helped organize a gathering outside U.S. Rep. Tammy Baldwin’s office to protest the government’s $700 billion bill to bail out the nation’s financial services industry. Baldwin voted for the bailout. Heinrichs then made T-shirts that stated “No Money for Wall St. and War, Bailout Workers and the Poor!” and participated in another small protest Oct. 8 that disrupted Baldwin’s appearance at the Memorial Union for a panel discussion on voter issues.
Yet as active and enthusiastic as Heinrichs is herself, she’s frustrated by what she sees as a general apathy among her classmates toward important political issues — especially the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Quoted: Political science professor Kathy Cramer Walsh and Paul Soglin, an adjunct associate professor at the LaFollette School of Public Affairs