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.