Opinion
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Dry Bones VAT
Editorial
The Senate's Conscience
C
arl Levin's age (74) belies his
youthful vigor amid the hustle of
Washington.
And though he has been elected five
times to the U.S. Senate by the people of
Michigan and on Nov. 4 is seeking his
sixth 6-year term, he still thinks the way
he did 30 years ago when he was first
elected to what is often called the most
exclusive club in the world.
It's amazing when you contemplate it.
The people of this state keep electing a
liberal Democrat by massive majorities in
spite of a rightward movement among the
electorate.
The same Michigan voters who helped
elect Republican President Ronald Reagan
and the even more conservative three-
time Republican Gov. John Engler have
had no qualms in overwhelmingly vot-
ing for a liberal Jewish Democrat from
Detroit.
It's not that Levin has kept his agenda
hidden or has been inconsistent in his vot-
ing record. He just retains a quality that
has been glaringly absent on the American
political scene during his Senate tenure.
It's a trait that has been missing at every
level of government; something that is a
throwback, something we want to see in
more politicians: integrity.
Everyone knows where Carl Levin
stands. And if that stance changes, he'll tell
us why. There are no secrets, no backroom
deals that won't see the light of day.
His bedrock base has been the United
Automobile Workers union and the citi-
zens of Detroit. But think about it: During
Levin's 30-year tenure, both the UAW and
the city have dropped mightily in popula-
tion. When first elected in 1978, the union
had 1.5 million members across America
and Detroit's population was close to the
same figure. Today, the UAW membership
is under 500,000 and Detroit has dropped
below 900,000 in population. In spite of
those massive declines in his base, Carl
Levin just keeps rolling on.
The man who has become known as
the conscience of the Senate has seen a
few close races while running for re-elec-
tion. But, more often than not, including
this year, unknown trial horses from
Michigan's Bible Belt — i.e., southwest
side along Lake Michigan — are hoping
for a boost from the top of the ticket will
help them unseat the longtime, popular
incumbent.
THE AMERICAN
ECONOMY IS IN A
CATASTROPHIC
MELTDOWN!
State Rep. Jack
Hoogendyk of
Portage is the lat-
est in the series,
which most
famously includ-
ed astronaut Jack
Lousma, to throw
his hat in the ring
on behalf of the
Grand Old Party.
Hoogendyk is
running so hard
for Levin's seat
that he politely
declined to fill
out the Jewish
News candidate
questionnaire for
our Oct. 2 (page
A30) story on the
Senate candidates' views.
If he's hoping that he can ride John
McCain's coattails into Washington,
Hoogendyk's hopes took a severe blow
when McCain all but conceded Michigan
several weeks ago by pulling his paid cam-
paign staff out of the state.
Let's not gloat. Instead, we need to cel-
4EN AMERICANS
START SNEAKING
INTO MEXICO FOR
www.drybonesblog.com
ebrate a storied Senate career by making
sure our community's man of the people
is returned to Capitol Hill on Nov. 4. Over
many, many years of devoted service to
the people of Michigan and the people of
the United States, the U.S. Senate is a place
where Carl Levin has proven that he truly
belongs.
❑
Reality Check
Happy Lunches
M
y wife has her own version of
the fairy tales she tells our 3-
year-old granddaughter.
When the three bears come home, for
example, instead of Goldilocks running off
in the woods in fright, Sherry says that all
four of them go out to lunch.
When Jack scrambles down from the
beanstalk, instead of chopping it down
and sending the giant to his doom, she
prefers having Jack, his mother and the
big guy sitting down to lunch.
"There seems to be an awful lot of
lunching going on here I complained.
"Aren't those stories supposed to give les-
sons in life to little children?"
"The other endings are too scary for a
child," she said. "Caryn is much happier
when the stories end this way"
She may have a point. I'm sure, for
example, we wish that this economic
debacle would end with all of us waking
up, finding it was just a computer error
and going off for a nice meal.
Everyone gets to keep their
home, the bull market roars
again and the lions lie down with
the lambs. I'd vote for that.
The older I get, the more I
prefer happy endings. I want
the grandmother to elude the
wolf and Jay Gatsby to end up
with Daisy. I want musicals
where everyone dances like
mad at the end, preferably the
varsity drag.
I want elections where the
right person wins and, for a change, gov-
erns the way he promised he would. Or, at
the very least, where the right ideas win
out.
For the life of me, I cannot put myself
in the mind set of those who oppose
Proposal 2 on embryonic stem cell
research. I
t is one thing to take a principled stand
against abortion or creating human
embryos for the sole purpose of medical
research.
This proposal does neither.
Worse than that are the out-
right lies being put out by its
opponents.
If their campaign is being
funded by religious orga-
nizations whose leadership
countenances falsehood in
pursuit of their goal, then
I think they may need a
refresher course in basic
morality.
Balanced against research that holds
out such hope is the sort of mentality that
would place Michigan on a par with the
Tennessee of the Scopes Monkey Trial
in the 1920s; railing against science by
thumping a Bible.
Ah, but we were talking about happy
endings, weren't we?
Just as I was writing this my daughter
called. She was at a mall, got into her car
and noticed an unsupervised child of
about a year and half crawling around the
adjacent parked car, going from the front
seat to the back seat.
Jaime waited a few minutes for an adult
to appear, but none did.
Finally, she did the right thing. She
called 911.
But at that very moment, the child's
mother lifted her head up from the back
seat of the car where she had been on
her hands and knees looking for her
keys.
"Never mind:' said my daughter to
911.
That's a happy ending.
A little embarrassing, yes, but happy,
nonetheless.
And if my wife had been around, I'm
sure everyone would then have gone out
and had a nice lunch. ❑
George Cantor's e-mail address is
gcantor614@aol.com.
IN
October 23
►
2008
A49