Ecological Wisdom * Social Justice * Grassroots Democracy * Non-Violence
>> Green Party of Michigan <<
http://www.migreens.org
>>> ---------------- <<<
>>> News Release <<<
>>> ---------------- <<<
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
---------------------
February 9, 2005
For More Information Contact:
----------------------------
Sylvia Inwood, Chair/Green Party of Michigan
chair@migreens.org
John Anthony La Pietra, Media Committee/GPMI
jalp@internet1.com
Michigan Greens Skeptical of Granholm's Goals with "State of State"
===================================================================
Members of the Green Party of Michigan (GPMI) had decidedly
mixed reactions to yesterday's "State of the State" speech by
Governor Granholm. They recognize that some small steps promoted
and proposed by Granholm are aimed in the right directions, but
they have serious doubts about her ultimate destination on any of
the issues she mentioned . . . not to mention the issues she left
out.
Health Care
-----------
For example, in the speech, Granholm claimed her MiRx card
program had reduced prescription-drug costs for 20,000 families.
Shiawassee County's Carolyn Dulai, a member of the Capital Area
Greens, is pleased -- but not satisfied. "Health care is in the
Michigan Constitution as a government concern. How many people
is the state not taking care of?" she asks.
GPMI clearinghouse co-ordinator Randym Jones has an answer:
"1/6 of Michigan's residents still have *no health care*!"
Last spring, GPMI endorsed a lawsuit filed by Michigan Legal
Services (MLS) calling on Granholm and Department of Community
Health director Janet Olszewski to protect and promote public
health for all -- as required by the state Constitution.
Article 4, Section 51 of the Michigan Constitution declares
"the public health of the people" a matter " . . . of primary
public concern." The section goes on to require the state
Legislature to pass laws for the protection and promotion of
"the public health."
Also cited in the MLS brief is the 1978 "Michigan Health
Planning and Health Policy Development Act" (MCL 325.2001),
which requires the state to develop a plan to provide
". . . adequate access to health care for all segments of the
state's population."
New Jobs
--------
Fred Vitale of Detroit, one of GPMI's representatives with
the national Green Party of the United States, agrees with some
of Granholm's focus on jobs. "Our job losses in Michigan are
the worst in the country 25% of the jobs lost under Bush have
been lost in Michigan. But we need a program of public works.
We cannot rely completely on entrepeneurial job creation or the
automobile industry."
On the other hand, GPMI treasurer Ted Hentchel of Battle Creek
asks, "If the foundation of life is a good job, then why did the
Democrats and Republicans pass NAFTA and send hundreds of thousands
of jobs across our borders and overseas . . . where people are paid
1/10 the wages we once received -- and then spent -- here in the
United States?"
The jobs initiatives Granholm touted in her speech will create
a few jobs here in Michigan, he presumes. "But the large number
of manufacturing jobs that at one time supported an affluent middle
class and America's small-business owners will all go abroad,
continuing the drain on our standard of living. Prices will not
go down and the concentration of wealth in the hands of a few will
continue."
And, he adds wryly, "The Democrats and the Republicans both
know that when any project is financed with bonds, the rich just
get richer at the middle class's expense."
Jones agrees with Hentchel that Granholm's "bold new initiative"
to "create jobs" is just more corporate welfare. "Anytime a
governor proposes using tax dollars to 'create' more jobs by giving
money away to the corporations, we should raise holy hell!" The
same is true for Granholm's talk of investment in order to improve
"curb appeal", he notes; it even sounds like a purely cosmetic
change. And he notes that the money for Granholm's past job-
creation programs was stolen from the tobacco settlement's funding
for anti-smoking programs.
GPMI's position is that there are better places to focus job-
creation efforts. A focus on renewable energy would save money
and create jobs, notes Van Buren County Green Chuck Jordan. And
there is work almost literally piling up to be done in the envi-
ronmental clean-up industry: "If we don't get started on it real
soon, we may not be able to keep up with the mess." Besides, he
argues, it's better than becoming dependent on environmentally
risky jobs in uncontrolled biotechnology, or the security-
industrial complex.
Nurses
------
One point in the speech where Granholm tried to link the issues
of health care and jobs was her stated aim of training more people
to go into nursing. Says Harley Mikkelson of Caro, Green candidate
for Congress in the 5th District, "I hope she can find the money
to hire the medical personnel she wants to train to provide basic
medical care for everyone in Michigan."
But Greens also point out that, if Granholm really wants people
to work as nurses, and go on working in the field, she will need to
make sure their working conditions don't put them out on strike
for over two years -- as has happened to the nurses of Northern
Michigan Hospital in Petoskey.
As treasurer Hentchel puts it, "If the Democrats are so
interested in nurses, why is there no support for the nurses up
north whose union is fighting for its very existence? Why would
anyone want to go into a profession where they are treated like
dirt?"
Education: College and K-12
----------------------------
Michigan Greens agree with Granholm's stated goal of sending
everyone to college. It was Green Presidential candidates Ralph
Nader in 2000 and David Cobb in 2004 who campaigned for investing
the money thrown at the rich by the Bush tax cuts into free college
for all students.
But they are less sanguine about the specifics of Granholm's
plan. "Both parties have consistently cut money to schools," says
community-college teacher Jordan. "Now Granholm has a plan to
increase the number of college graduates in Michigan. But how are
they going to do this when they keep cutting funds for K-12 schools
and class sizes keep rising?"
Vitale seconds that protest, citing the crisis in funding for
the public schools of his hometown, Detroit. Jones also sees
Detroit as a cautionary example of the kind of assault on local
control and democracy embodied in Granholm's demand for the power
to consolidate school districts that don't follow her prescription
for "reform".
Hentchel points out that Granholm's "new" idea is not new at
all. "In the past 30 years, I know of no parent who has believed
a high school diploma was all that was needed for a real job. It
has been just the opposite; get a college education and improve
your life."
Jones focuses on another old idea. "When I went to college,
the concept was that college trained you to be a perceptive,
involved *citizen*, not just a trained drone. I guess that concept
has gone by the wayside. And it's frustrating that Granholm doesn't
see college as anything more than glorified job training."
For that matter, he notes, "Those who start their own businesses
earn more than someone who merely has a college degree and works for
someone else. Yet you literally cannot find an entrepreneurship
program until you get to the junior level of a university. Encour-
aging people to be workers rather than owners merely fosters their
dependency upon an unhealthy and dysfunctional system."
And there are other ways to get more money into classrooms,
Jones suggests: "How about a law to limit the compensation of
university -- and community college -- presidents?"
As for the MERIT 4000 plan, Hentchel adds, "Every educated
person knows the drop-out rate for first-year college students
hovers around 40%. The solution is to get them into college and
keep them there, not reward the ones who would make it anyway."
The MERIT 4000 plan would "reward the already-educated who know,
and have been programmed by their already-affluent parents, to
get a higher education. Class warfare will only be further
propagated."
And Dulai cautions, "We should not dilute a college degree
for numbers."
Jones describes Granholm's new MERIT plan as "gutting a useful,
dynamic program that made it possible for the poor to at least
attend community college, and replacing it with yet another giveaway
to the middle class. Considering the high dropout rate of lower-
class students who do attend college, this merely ensures the
skewing of the awarding of state money to upper- and middle-class
students."
Minimum Wage
------------
Mikkelson supports Granholm's efforts to start to "move the
state in the right direction with limited state resources. Raising
the minimum wage and emphasizing meaningful education are the way
to go."
John La Pietra of Marshall, GPMI elections co-ordinator,
supports the upward direction -- but adds, "A number is just a
number. Isn't the idea to make sure every working family makes
a living? What the people of this state need in a governor is
someone to lead us in a drive for a living wage."
Treasurer Hentchel asks, "When these new 36,000 jobs are
created to improve our infrastructure, will they be real jobs
with real wages and benefits? Or just outsourced to private
companies where the workers get paid the bare minimum and the
owners get the wealth? How many of the 93% employed are pushing
around goods made outside the US at a minimum wage with no
benefits and no real chance to advance and raise their standard
of living?"
Environment
-----------
Granholm mentioned the environment briefly at both ends of
her speech. And Greens are pleased that she seems to recognize
protecting the environment is good for Michigan's economy. But
both the protection and the link need to be much stronger --
especially when the issue is water or air.
One environmental issue Granholm talked about a lot last year,
but did not mention in yesterday's speech, was her Water Legacy Act.
Greens believe the act is too weak, and needs to be reinforced with
a definition of "water diversion" that would actually protect the
Great Lakes watershed from abuse. The common-law principles for
doing this can be seen in outline in Judge Lawrence Root's ruling
for Michigan Citizens for Water Conservation against Nestlé Waters
North America and the corporation's Perrier/Ice Mountain water-
extraction and bottling factory in Mecosta County.
As Jones sees it, Granholm has stiffed the Green movement on
the Perrier plant. "Meanwhile," he adds, "the EPA finds Detroit's
air even fouler than before, due to the excessive use of cars."
Dulai suggests focusing on repairing existing roads ahead of
building new ones.
As for Granholm's energy plan, Jones points out: "The cost of
deriving hydrogen from methane or coal far outweighs any theoretical
savings at the gas pump; in addition, it is being used as a back
door to cause more nuclear power plants to be built."
JoAnne Bier Beemon, defeated by entrenched land-developer
interests in her bid for re-election as Charlevoix County Drain
Commissioner, continues to work on water-protection issues. Now
serving as the director of the Great Lakes Center for Public Policy,
Bier Beemon is gathering support across the region for a broad-based
Water Bill of Rights. This includes the joint common rights of the
public to the water of the Great Lakes Basin, which cannot be
privately owned: "Water diversion or sale of water of the Great
Lakes Basin for private profit constitutes a taking or theft from
the people."
Dulai says, "All drains must percolate rainwater into Michigan
aquifers, not let it go out to the Atlantic like it does now."
Michigan Greens have also joined the Sweetwater Alliance and
the Michigan Welfare Rights Organization in opposing privatization
of public water systems like the one in Highland Park.
Greens also support focusing job investment in jobs that start
off by protecting the environment, rather than making the problems
worse. Dulai suggests, "Let's give tax rebates to businesses that
clean up the environment or sell products to keep it clean."
Working Together
----------------
Greens welcome Granholm's call to work together -- to "throw
off the ease and the habit of partisan division and have the
courage to stand on common ground." But they point out that most
people in Michigan are neither Democrats nor Republicans . . .
even though that independent majority is often legally excluded
from major public bodies. Just last month, Republicans missed a
deadline to nominate someone for the State Board of Canvassers --
but state law called for Granholm to pick her own Republican,
rather than seek an independent voice.
"It's not only these appointments -- or only appointments --
where the emphasis in the word 'bi-partisan' is still clearly on
'partisan'," La Pietra notes. "Even when Democrats and Republicans
stand close together, close enough on some issues that you can
hardly see the difference between them, they are standing far apart
from the people of Michigan."
Elections
---------
Dulai notes the many reports of problems across the state with
November's elections -- not enough voting machines, and other
hassles that make a mockery of the title of the "Help America Vote
Act". She urges, "Let's make sure Michigan is not another Ohio or
Florida when it comes to voting in four more years."
Elections co-ordinator La Pietra recalls a report last month
in the Detroit _Free Press_ that State Representative George
Cushingberry Jr. took the oath of office despite owing $4,000 in
fines for not filing required campaign-finance reports . . . and
after he had filed an affidavit claiming to be up to date on his
reporting.
The same "Poli-Bytes" column reported that four other
legislators -- incumbents Bill McConico and Marsha Cheeks and
the newly elected father-son duo, Lamar Lemmons Jr. and Lamar
Lemmons III -- had just settled similar violations, more than
two months after the election.
"I'm not sure which is worse," La Pietra says, "the arrogance
of Cushingberry in flouting our state's campaign-finance law and
regulations, and the delayed reaction of the other four . . . or
the apparent lack of interest on the part of our Secretary of
State in either enforcing that campaign-finance law or working to
get stronger, more enforceable laws."
Conclusions
-----------
The conclusion of Granholm's speech rankles a little with some
Greens. Jones points out that the prepared text on the Governor's
Web site has a copyright symbol at the end. "This address is a
public document, and cannot be copyrighted," he says, adding that
it is ironic for a speech in which Granholm calls repeatedly for
the people of Michigan to "stand with me" to end with such a marked
emphasis on property.
La Pietra notes that Granholm has taken a small step toward
sacrificing part of the pay increases state elected officials have
received since the exorbitant raises they got in 2001 -- and locked
in the next year with Proposal 02-1. But until that so-called
"reform" of the State Officers' Compensation Commission is repealed,
he adds, there is no way to take back the double-digit jumps in
elected officials' pay -- given while the people who do the
essential work of state government day to day were making the
sacrifices Granholm extolled in her speech.
And the best way to honor the sacrifices made by Michigan men
and women in the military, he concludes, is to bring them home . . .
to be brave enough to admit our nation's mistakes and learn from
them, so that we never again send our men and women out to kill and
die without a genuine need to defend our country.
# # #
created/distributed using donated labor
Green Party of Michigan * 548 South Main Street
Ann Arbor, MI 48104 * 734-663-3555
---------------------------------------------------------
GPMI was formed in 1987 to address environmental issues in Michigan
politics. Greens are organized in all 50 states and the District
of Columbia. Each state Green Party sets its own goals and creates
its own structure, but US Greens agree on Ten Key Values:
Ecological Wisdom
Grassroots Democracy
Social Justice
Non-Violence
Community Economics
Decentralization
Feminism
Respect for Diversity
Personal/Global Responsibility
Future Focus/Sustainability
[=============================================]
Other Contacts:
Green Party of Michigan
548 S Main St
Ann Arbor, MI 48104
734-663-3555
info@migreens.org
posted to web 11 Feb 2005