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.

