ALI SAFAWI | COLUMN
N
ame five major pieces
of
legislation
passed
by
the
U.S
Congress
under the current administration.
Having trouble? That’s because
this Congress, even though the
Republican Party controls both
houses and the presidency, is the least
effective since the Civil War.
While Washington, D.C. is para-
lyzed, Lansing is very much in
motion. Yet despite the power that
state government has to change our
everyday lives, most of us ignore
it. That needs to change because
destructive policy gets passed when
the public eye is averted.
I understand why the federal
government gets more attention;
it’s flashier. There are no shows like
“West Wing” or “House of Cards” set
in state capitols and no one dreams to
be governor when they can aim for
president. However, it may surprise
people that the states, not the federal
government, hold most of the govern-
ing power in this country.
The 10th Amendment states the
federal government only has the
powers explicitly granted to it in the
U.S. Constitution, leaving the rest
to the states. This is not meant to be
a crash course on the Constitution,
but our foundational document gives
surprisingly few powers to the fed-
eral government. That means state
governments hold the lion’s share
of constitutionally derived power.
Furthermore, because of federalism,
states can challenge the federal gov-
ernment instead of being forced to
stay in line.
Health? There is no mention of it
in the Constitution. Education? That
is a state issue as well. Now, of course,
there are the federal Departments of
Education and Health and Human
Services but those are just creative
applications of the federal govern-
ment’s
constitutionally
derived
powers. Moreover, in both health
and education, it is the states that do
more anyway.
So what has Michigan’s govern-
ment done recently? Besides the Flint
water crisis, I doubt most people
could answer this with any certain-
ty. This is not to say that people are
dumb, only that it is easy to forget the
importance of state government and
therefore not pay attention.
One recent example of states flex-
ing their muscles came when the
attorneys general of seven states
— Hawaii, Washington, Minne-
sota, Oregon, New York and Mas-
sachusetts — sued President Donald
Trump’s administration over the ban
imposed on Muslim-majority nations.
Instead of joining his colleagues in
opposing an unconstitutional and
xenophobic policy, Michigan Attor-
ney General Bill Schuette was busy
preparing to run for governor. Once
he did declare his candidacy, Trump
promptly endorsed him on Twitter.
Speaking of Flint, Gov. Rick Snyder
announced in early April that a free
bottled water and water filter distri-
bution program funded by state and
federal dollars would come to an end
once current supplies run out. This
decision comes as Flint residents still
do not trust the safety of the water.
“This is wrong,” tweeted Mona Han-
na-Attisha, the pediatrician whose
study of blood lead levels in Flint’s
children helped blow the lid off the
water crisis and state cover-up. She is
right; if the state government believes
the water is safe then they need to
convince the people of Flint instead
of spontaneously cutting off the free
bottled water.
The state Congress, also Republi-
can-controlled, has its own share of
troubling policy. In November 2017,
the state Senate passed Senate Bills
584-586 that would allow people
with enhanced licenses to carry
concealed pistols into churches,
schools, bars and other “no gun”
zones. I believe guns should be
allowed in fewer places, not more.
The thought of someone, with an
enhanced license or not, carrying
a pistol into my younger brother’s
high school is disturbing. Luckily,
the bills are currently stalled in the
state House of Representatives’
Judiciary Committee.
Last year, House Bill 4221 and Sen-
ate Bill 162 were introduced in the
state Legislature. Both bills would
have completely defunded Planned
Parenthood and other women’s
health providers that perform abor-
tions by prohibiting the state to
contract the providers. Currently,
Planned Parenthood and others
have funding contracts for a variety
of health services excluding abor-
tion. Another bill would have forced
abortion clinics to get licenses with
burdensome requirements, mirror-
ing a piece of Texas legislation that
was struck down by the U.S. Supreme
Court. All of these anti-choice bills
have not advanced to a vote.
If you have made it to this point in
the column, you might think all bills
in the state Legislature are poorly
conceived.
However,
Michigan’s
state government has done some
good. For instance, Snyder and the
state Legislature worked together to
expand Medicaid under the Afford-
able Care Act in 2013.
Good bills are also sitting in the
House and Senate right now, waiting
to be passed. Democratic state Reps.
Adam Zemke of Ann Arbor and Dar-
rin Camilleri of Brownstown Town-
ship have introduced House Bills
5550 in the House’s Health Policy
Committee to ban licensed mental
health professionals from offering
gay conversion therapy to minors.
Fourteen of the most reputable
health advocacy organizations in
the country, including the American
Psychological Association, American
Psychiatric Association and Ameri-
can Academy of Pediatrics, oppose
conversion therapy as both baseless
and damaging to mental health.
Additionally, 37 bills have been
introduced in the state Legislature to
combat sexual assault in the wake of
the Larry Nassar scandal at Michi-
gan State University. Many of these
bills have support from both Demo-
crats and Republicans as well as sur-
vivors of Nassar. One of the bills, S.B.
871, which was introduced by Repub-
lican state Sen. Margaret O’Brien of
Portage, would erase the statute of
limitations for second-degree crimi-
nal sexual conduct against a minor
and would extend the statute for
third-degree criminal conduct until
the survivor’s 48th birthday or with-
in 30 years after DNA evidence iden-
tifies the perpetrator. Another bill,
S.B. 872, introduced by Democratic
state Sen. David Knezek of Dearborn
Heights, would extend the statute
of limitations for civil lawsuits as far
back as 1997 for those who were sexu-
ally assaulted as minors.
State government matters, and
who holds power can do great or ter-
rible things for the people of Michi-
gan. Luckily, Michiganders are going
to elect a new governor and attorney
general in November. All 148 seats in
the state Legislature are also up for
election. It is incumbent on everyone,
regardless of partisan affiliation, to
vote in the Aug. 7 primary and again
in the Nov. 7 general election.
If you are going to be out of
Michigan during the elections,
you can still vote by absentee bal-
lot. The League of Women Voters
Michigan is an excellent resource
for those looking to learn how to
vote. Whatever state you decide to
vote in, please vote in these mid-
term elections.
5
OPINION
Thursday, May 3, 2018
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
I
t’s 2018 and this year we celebrated
the 48th anniversary of Earth Day, a
global day of recognition for environ-
mental protection. It also marks day zero
of the Environmental Protection Agency
“strengthening” the quality of science it
uses to write new environmental rules,
a decision made by EPA Administrator
Scott Pruitt. “Strengthening” in this case
means narrowing the scope of science
available to the EPA to only findings that
are reproducible and authentic, which
may potentially violate the EPA’s pledge to
use the best available science.
Recently, I was reminded by a CNN
push notification that the health of my
environment, as well as the integrity of
my right to take action, is deteriorating.
I immediately felt there was no legiti-
mate way for me to express my disdain
for political decisions like this one. After
reading, I interrupted my friend’s final-
paper-writing trance so she could com-
miserate with me in anger about the
article. “Wow,” she sighed, “you should
share that article on Facebook.”
This is “slacktivism,” or the watered-
down support for an issue that requires
only the most minimal effort, such as
expressing opinions on social media. This
is how our generation takes action. Is it
true that millennial Wolverines are lazily
riding a ski lift up the activism mountain,
while generations before us trekked and
trudged to reach the top of it? It is possible
we come off as the pre-cooked meals in
the freezer section of Kroger that require
minimal effort to enjoy – just two minutes
of “labor.” We are to past generations of
activists as EasyBib is to handwriting an
APA-style reference.
Activists across the world gather
annually on Earth Day in an attempt to
harness the power necessary to keep the
passion alive and stand up against envi-
ronmental injustice. But what classifies
as standing up for the Earth? Is it when
we stroll through the Diag and write
down our uniqnames, signing up for the
Planet Blue e-newsletter? Is it when we
take a complimentary apple from a tent
display and pledge to turn our lights off
when we leave home? Yes, standing up for
the Earth in 2018 is quite different than it
was in 1970, especially on the University
of Michigan campus – but how different?
“Slacktivism” on our campus, unfor-
tunately, casts a shadow on our school’s
unparalleled legacy of student-driven
action. In March 1970, U-M students
organized a four-day-long series of
events that revolved around taking action
toward bettering their dirty surround-
ings. This “teach-in” served as a precursor
to the first Earth Day just one month later.
Students saw the potential for change,
harnessed the success of the recent anti-
war student protests and shifted it to
encompass the increasing momentum of
passion for the environment.
The 1970 teach-in let students take
action in a way that had never been done
before. They enrolled in the brand new
environmental law major and walked
along the Huron River to protest its dete-
rioration. They took sledgehammers
to a vehicle in the Diag that was facing
a “trial and execution” for its pollution
crime. They visited a former Ann Arbor
Coca-Cola bottling plant and dropped off
thousands of cans that were, at the time,
non-returnable. They then picked up that
mess of cans with their own hands.
Our generation has a slightly differ-
ent way of expressing disgust for the
state of the environment and its policies,
as shown by my friend’s suggestion to
Facebook “share” the Pruitt article. We
use our own two hands to type outraged,
opinionated streams of consciousness
onto Facebook, letting the world know
our true opinions about who is respon-
sible for polluting what. We retweet digs
at Pruitt that criticize his tactics, question
his motives, and press for answers about
the future of the EPA. However, we need
to start doing the action ourselves — the
criticizing, the questioning and the press-
ing for answers.
We’ve picked a bad time for action to
shift to inaction, for correspondence with
state senators to turn into retweets and
Facebook shares. I say “bad time” because
as a country, we exist in quite a tumultu-
ous environment, both environmen-
tally and politically. Just this past year,
humans’ actions resulted in the inability
to coexist with certain species and a cli-
mate disaster in Puerto Rico. The U.S.
was one of the only countries to withdraw
from the Paris agreement and remove
itself from the pact to reduce greenhouse
gas emissions. Not to worry — if all feels
hopeless and degradation seems inevi-
table, check out the University’s sustain-
ability website, and explore the huge
progress the University has made to bet-
ter the Earth and work toward our 2025
campus goals. We’ve already succeeded
in applying 40 percent less chemicals to
the green of our campus, but we need to
focus on recycling to reduce waste sent to
landfills and walking or busing to class to
reduce our carbon footprint.
April 22, 2018 has come and gone,
sweeping like a whirlwind over our coun-
try and hitting Ann Arbor especially
hard. The 48th anniversary of Earth Day
should serve as our push-notification
reminder to wake up and smell the roses,
both figuratively and literally. We are
now in the same position as the 1970 U-M
undergraduates that spoke up for what
they believed in and inspired a national
movement. It is up to us: Do we want to
be a generation of environmental activ-
ism or slacktivism?
Slacktivism in 2018
JULIA MONTAG | COLUMN
Pay attention to state government
Ali Safawi can be reached at
asafawi@umich.edu.
Julia Montag can be reached at
jtmon@umich.edu.