For the People, By the People

I am a mom. I like to show my children rather than tell them about life. 

When we heard a protest over legislative changes was being organized in Michigan's State Capitol on Wednesday, March 16th, we decided to attend.  Our goal was to show the kids about government and the legislative process.  What I wanted to show them and what we learned are sadly drastically different. 

We knew Governor Walker in Wisconsin has received so much press coverage lately on the sweeping changes he has made there.  We learned our newly-elected Michigan Governor Snyder appears to have successfully made those sweeping changes to our state.

 

This is the background information on the legislation that was quickly signed into law on March 16th.  As simply as I can describe it, the legislative changes do the follow among other things:

1. "Balance the state's budget" by taxing pensions and increasing income taxes on the poor and senior citizens.  The changes also provide for corporate tax cuts of $1.7 billion.  The combination of the tax increases and cuts result in a zero percent change in the overall budget.
2. Provide for the take over of local governments when the state determines the locality is no longer fiscally sound. Local elected officials' leadership is negated for an unlimited amount of time while the state puts a emergency manager in charge of the local government.  Once the state determines the local is back to being financially stable, the elected officials would complete the remainder of their terms.
3. With a state take-over, all contracts made with the locality can be canceled and the work re-bid.
4. Collective bargaining is nullified.
5. When the state determines school districts are not financially sound, they can take over the district and decide to consolidate it with others.  Teachers and others are being forced to re-bid for their own jobs.

We took a charter bus to Lansing, courtesy of Michael Moore*. The kids were taken out of school.  We toured the Capitol Building, saw a protest in action, viewed lots of signs, mingled with lots of people, met with our State Representative, taught the kids about the legislative process and so on.

Looking back on the day, the kids learned so much more out of our field trip than they would have learned in school.

They saw the rooms where legislation is debated, they saw the governor’s office, they heard that our representative would not meet with us because he was too busy but was in his office when we stopped by, they listened to our representative as he evaded or could not answer questions, they noticed he was more interested in giving them maple syrup than listening to our concerns, they heard lots of opinions, they saw non-violent protesting, they heard people voice their opinions loudly and clearly from the Rotunda, they felt the floor shake as protesters stomped their feet and yell, "This is what Democracy sounds like", they heard the security guards tell us that the representatives were not in session when they clearly were, they saw strangers come together and discuss how to voice their opinions in the hopes of influencing those who represent them. 

What I describe is simply our experience. I expected it to be different. 

My opinions are mine.  Yours are yours.  But the government is for and by the people.  It is for us.  We should not be afraid of it.  Find out what is happening. Educate your children.  Voice your opinion.  Remind the legislators that they work for us.  

 * A big thank you goes to Michael Moore.  He personally chartered buses so people from around the state could attend the rally. Over the years, I have come full circle on my opinion of Mr. Moore.  I may not always agree with his perspective but the man is brilliant. He lives what he believes. He is not afraid to voice his opinion. He does good work for humanity. He is an inspiration.