July 18 • 2019 5
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M
axine Berman was an open
book. And she wrote more
than one, apparently.
Twenty-five years ago this month,
Momentum Books published The
Only Boobs in the House Are Men:
A Veteran Woman
Legislator Lifts the
Lid on Politics Macho
Style by the sitting
State Representative
from the 36th District
(Southfield).
Last year, two
months after Berman’
s
death, her niece and
nephew published her novel If You
Seek A Pleasant Peninsula after find-
ing the 500-page manuscript among
their aunt’
s belongings.
I didn’
t really know Maxine
Berman. Even if I did, I couldn’
t top
the eulogies by her niece — who
followed strict instructions to play
the Michigan fight song through the
loudspeaker — or by Rabbi Steven
Rubenstein of Congregation Beth
Ahm who facilitated her bat mitzvah
when she was age 60, though not her
dog Garp’
s bark mitzvah. (You can
watch the video of her funeral on Ira
Kaufman Chapel’
s website.)
But I’
ve read (most of) both of
her books and that time we’
ve spent
together has helped me understand
what it’
s like to make your voice
heard in a struggle that’
s bigger than
yourself; to be ferocious and vul-
nerable; to persist critically without
becoming cynical; and to master the
minutiae of your present reality in
order to make major change possible.
Maxine’
s words are nearly as pow-
erful as the deeds she describes. She
waded through political muck, facing
down wanton misogyny in pursuit of
progress over 14 years in office.
Whether from her directly or via
Bree Linden — a protagonist alter
ego she may never have intended us
to meet — Maxine’
s voice reflects,
refracts and resonates:
“I was a naive first-term legislator
with what I thought was a simple,
straightforward bill, which only
required doctors to hand patients a
brochure explaining all the options.
”
Maxine opposed term limits
because she knew the learning curve
of legislating — and
because she anticipated
that term limits would cut
against the hard-fought
gains women had made
growing their presence
and power in Lansing.
(She was not term limit-
ed, mind you.)
“Rumor has it that
Tom Ridley’
s trying to
screw me out of chair-
ing reapportionment.
I’
m just trying to get in
shape for the big fight,
if there is one.
”
Bree Linden’
s fic-
tional fight over redistricting is
more dramatic than Berman’
s, but
not much. Both Bree and Maxine
fought tooth and nail to lead a vital
process, the product of which was
ultimately usurped.
“Few other organizations can strike
fear in the hearts of elected officials
like Right to Life does. Their methods
aren’
t pretty; persuasion is not their
long suit. They simply threaten politi-
cal death.
”
Many of Berman’
s “wins” came
in the form of fending off direct
assaults on women’
s reproductive
rights. As appalled (if sometimes
amused) as she was at the flagrant
contradictions of the religious right,
she knew that reason was no substi-
tute for resources.
“He liked Bree Linden. He was
also mildly afraid of her. Bo Hasker
was never quite sure how to deal
with the women of his caucus whose
numbers, though small, were grow-
ing. Bree Linden was very much in
the leadership of that group, but he
could joke with Bree, drink with her,
relate to her.”
How do you pry your way into an
institution built, from the framed pic-
tures on the wall to the length of the
bathroom breaks, to keep you out?
Instinctively and incrementally, with
enough torque to make sure it doesn’
t
slam shut in the faces of those who
would follow.
“Most important, the vast majority
of women bring a different perspec-
tive on government … the perspec-
tive of the unempowered. Since
the public generally views itself as
unempowered in its relationship to
government … we are far better able
to identify with their standing, to listen
to and understand their needs, to just
remember that they’
re there.
”
Maxine was in the scrum, year
after year, as women made progress
inches at a time. Still, she managed
to tease out the nuances of being
a marginalized group that makes
up 51 percent of the population, of
being lumped together in spite of
political diversity, of pursuing power
without letting power become the
point.
“First, he came after the poor, and you
did nothing — because you are not poor.
“Then he came for the arts, and you
did nothing — because you are not an
arts organization.
“And now he has come after you.
Who, pray tell, do you think there is
left to protest?”
In her letter to the County Road
Commissioners titled “Governor
Engler’
s Theft of Local Road Funds,”
Maxine spoke to a vicious cycle she
fought in office and as a private cit-
izen — making groups fight over
crumbs while shrinking the resources
necessary to create public goods.
Finally, a quintessential and essen-
tial line of Maxine’
s invoked by Rep.
Jeremy Moss, a successor to “the ol’
Berman seat,” that would only be
diluted by posthumous mansplaining:
“Throw me to the wolves, and I will
return leading the pack.
” ■
Jewfro
The Life and Times of
Maxine Berman
Ben Falik
Contributing Writer
ABOVE: A pre-election page from the Nov. 4,
1988, Jewish News