MI residents will vote in November on whether to have a constitutional convention in 2011. The cost of the convention will be approx $28 million. Citizens will run for delegate slots and if elected will have the right to amend or totally redo our state constitution. Last time we did this was 1962.
My thoughts:
I am willing to invest in our state to get us going in a positive, SUSTAINABLE direction.
An Analogy: My mom has had a lot of health problems. For years, she was going from specialist to specialist, trying to figure out why she was feeling awful all the time. She was doing this while continuing to go about her life in her normal trajectory. But she wasn't getting any lasting solutions: a medicine to help one symptom was making another worse, new symptoms would pop up as a result, etc. She needed a different approach to her health because these were only temporary solutions. Finally, she went to Mayo Clinic where all of her health problems were taken into consideration by a team of medical experts who looked at the bigger picture. They diagnosed her with chronic fatigue and fibromyalgia, diagnoses that would not have been possible if she wouldn't have gotten this holistic, systemic look at her health. From this she was able to reassess her life choices and come up with creative, sustainable solutions to her health problems.
Just as the health of my mother cannot be viewed in a symptom-by-symptom approach, the failing of Michigan's economy cannot be sustainably addressed through an agency-by-agency approach. Our world, our nation and our state have undergone EXTENSIVE changes since 1962. Our current problems are systemic. We chug ahead on an outdated and decidedly short-sighted economic model of governance. It is no longer a viable economic strategy to rely on the Big Three in Detroit to carry our state; to run our prisons as we do; to allow an outside company bring in outside jobs to exploit our state's resources in the short-term; and on and on.
We are situated in the future of resource protection and management: the fresh water of the Great Lakes. Either we can morn the death of a dinosaur industry reliant upon a resource that will invariable run out and try to resuscitate it for a few more decades, OR we can start looking at ways to tap into the incredible potential of our state's resources - human and natural.
To be damn sure, I am not advocating opening the floodgates to allow the rampant, unregulated exploitation of our resources by state and private business. On the contrary: we have to revamp, restructure and revitalize those agencies responsible for making smart, long-term and sustainable resource management decisions. Our DRNE/DEQ are incredibly underfunded, understaffed, overworked and essentially impotent. But these are without question the defining agencies of a future "green economy." We don't need jobs that will be gone in 15 years and leave us with the gutted skeleton of a resource that could've been preserved in a way to ensure (re)use.
As a future educator (hopefully in Michigan), I am very nervous about the current trends in public education. The problems are cancerous and rampantly spreading to more school districts with greater severity. A holistic, long-term look needs to happen in this sector and many others in order to get our state heading in a positive direction. This is an issue that MUST be addressed if a constitutional convention takes place - pas de question.
We can't let desperation cloud our judgment. We have seen time and again the inability of our governing bodies to get past entrenched partisan politics and special interest influences. We need a new mission statement - one that transcends these frivolous roadblocks that eat away at our confidence in the capacity of our government to function based upon what is best for our state.
I don't want to leave Michigan: I've grown up exploring our natural beauties, loving our unfailingly friendly Midwestern residents, investing in local materials, crafts and services and sustaining myself on the bounties of Michigan-made food. Because of this, I am willing without hesitation to support this opportunity to come together as a state to begin the process of cultivating a healthier future.
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