Former State Sen. Pollack of
Ann Arbor continues her passionate
fight for the environment.
.
SHARON LUCKERMAN
StaffWriter
A
career in politics never crossed young Lana
Schoenberger Pollack's mind. As a child of the
1940s and 1950s, she studied dance and music and
nurtured an interest in history and political science.
"I had the conventional goals of the era," says Pollack, 60. "I
wanted to be a housewife and considered becoming a volunteer
community leader.
"But society changed me. Not the other way around."
This remark is hard to believe — especially from someone
who created landmark environmental legislation as the
Michigan state senator from Ann Arbor from 1982-94 and
who now represents more than 65 environmental groups as
leader of the Michigan-Environmental Council (MEC).
As the only female Democratic legislator for eight of her 12
years in Lansing, she set the stage for Michigan women
Democrats to come, including U.S. Sen. Debbie Stabenow and
Gov. Jennifer Granholm.
Newly elected?Gov. Granholm acknowledges her role: "I
often speak of the women who blazed the trail before me to the
door of the Governor's office, and Lana Pollack is definitely
among them. Lana's deep commitment to public service and
her seemingly limitless passion for' environmental issues makes
her a true Michigan leader."
Stabenow recalls when she was first elected to the Michigan
Senate in 1990, and her seat was next to Pollack's:
"Lana was a passionate advocate and a very strong voice on issues
of civil liberties, the environment, equal rights and issues of particu-
lar concern to women — a terrific, very effective state legislator."
Jews And Environmentalism
Growing up in the only Jewish family with children in her
western-Michigan hometown of Ludington, Pollack learned
early to stand up for what she believed in.
She remembers arguing with her mother to get a Christmas
tree. Her mother refused, explaining the family is Jewish. The
next year, Pollack says, she thought how silly she had been to be
afraid of being seen as different.
"My mother made clear who I was, and that you don't run and
hide if you're different," Pollack says. "I grew up with a sense that it's
important to be committed to one's own values ... I didn't suffer the
need to fit in, which also marked my politics. I think many politi-
cians would have done well to have been raised by my mother."
Pollack's story of going from housewife to legislator to environ-
mental champion reads like a Hollywood script. Not only does
her life document the changes women went through in the 1960s
and 1970s, but also the unusual strength of character and purpose
Pollack tapped from within — even in the face of tragedy — to
leave the world a better place.
Her political passion is driven by her values — Jewish values,
she says — that she learned from her parents, Abbie and
Genvieve Schoenberger, Eastern European Jews from Latvia.
These Jewish values and environmental issues are naturally
linked, she says.
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