Jack Lessenberry

The bottom line, Phil Power told me recently, is that our future is all about the schools. Power isn’t exactly a wild and crazy left-wing radical. He ran for the U.S. Senate once as a moderate Democrat nearly 40 years ago, but lost the primary to a fellow named Carl Levin.

Several weeks ago, I was rushing to a meeting at Wayne State University, distracted and speeding on the freeway. Suddenly, I saw the flashing lights and was soon pulled over by a black policeman, who took my license and registration and went back to his car. I expected a ticket and points on my record, and I indeed deserved them. But he eventually came back, gave me a warning, and said I had better slow down and be careful. I was astonished and grateful. But today I am scared. Not of what might

Remember the Onion, that crazy satirical newspaper people couldn’t get enough of in the 1990s? It’s still around, but these days, I think real life has gotten better than art at being utterly absurd. Certainly that was the case in Michigan yesterday. I mean, can you imagine a better Onion headline than “Governor whose aides poisoned children appoints oil industry lobbyist to head environmental agency?”

Remember the Onion, that crazy satirical newspaper people couldn't get enough of in the 1990s? It's still around, but these days, I think real life has gotten better than art at being utterly absurd. Certainly that was the case in Michigan yesterday. I mean, can you imagine a better Onion headline than "Governor whose aides poisoned children appoints oil industry lobbyist to head environmental agency?" The subhead would add "New MDEQ chief defended guilty company during world's worst oil spill." The only trouble with what I just wrote is that it is all true. Late Thursday, word came that Rick Snyder had appointed Heidi Grether to head the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality. She has been working in obscurity as deputy director for the often-overlooked Michigan Agency for Energy for some time. But she spent most of her career with BP, where she was a lobbyist for that company during the infamous Deep Water Horizon oil spill in 2010, when their offshore drilling rig blew up in the Gulf of Mexico. According to the governor, she "helped head up the company's response to the Deepwater Horizon spill," and was eventually promoted as a result. The lawsuits stemming from that are expected to go on for 20 years, and BP could end up paying $20 billion in penalties. Less than two years ago, a federal judge ruled BP was reckless and guilty of gross negligence and willful misconduct under the Clean Water Act. This was the incident and this was the company that Heidi Grether spent years defending. And now our governor wants her to head of the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality, the same agency which tried to cover up the governor's appointees' poisoning of the children of Flint. The headline on the Detroit Free Press editorial today says it all: "Like a Sick Joke." If you asked a political consultant about this, they'd say "the optics are terrible." Well, of course they are, but the worst is that it is very clear Snyder doesn't care what this looks like, or what the public thinks. His political career is over. Thanks to Flint, nobody will ever elect or appoint him to anything again. You could tell he knew that when he hired criminal and civil defense lawyers to defend him at taxpayer expense. What this administration cares about is what the big business community thinks. Late last year, after Snyder was finally forced to fire former MDEQ head Dan Wyant, his chief of staff incredibly thought that was a mistake. "Keep in mind that finding a replacement who has the trust of the business community will be very difficult," Dennis Muchmore told Snyder. Never mind regaining the trust of the parents of the thousands of poisoned children. It is very telling that neither Snyder nor his new appointee was willing to talk to the press. However, Snyder, who isn't exactly known for his sense of humor, did issue a statement that was unintentionally hilarious. "Her experience at delivering good customer service from a large organization will be of great value," he said. I'll just bet the people of Flint and the people in Southfield who are fighting attempts to build an oil well in the middle of their suburban city can hardly wait. Jack Lessenberry is Michigan Radio's political analyst. Views expressed in his essays are his own and do not necessarily reflect those of Michigan Radio, its management or the station licensee, The University of Michigan.

Governor Rick Snyder did something sensible Wednesday – he asked the Michigan Supreme Court for an opinion as to whether it is legal under the Michigan Constitution for the state to use taxpayer dollars to provide aid to private schools. In a sense, this is actually putting the cart before the horse, in that Snyder signed am education budget last month that includes a two and a half million dollar appropriation for private schools. At the time, he was urged to use his line-item veto to prevent that from happening, but he declined, saying he believed this was legal. But it became clear almost immediately that the state was going to face a massive lawsuit over whether any aid to such schools is constitutional, and the governor clearly feels it's better to know early. The Supreme Court doesn't have to issue an opinion on this, by the way, just because the governor is asking for one. He's made similar requests in the past, and sometimes they've done so and other times, as in the case of Right to Work, they've declined. This situation, however, is especially interesting – and in a sense, is a case of déjà vu all over again. To me, it seems clear that any use of taxpayer dollars for any private school for any purpose violates the state constitution. And here's why. Back in 1970, private schools in Michigan were mainly religious schools, most of them Roman Catholic. Michigan was a considerably richer state back then, and many politicians were in favor of helping them – and the parents who paid their tuition. The legislature passed a law doing just that. The governor then happily signed it. Public Act 100 provided direct financial aid to these schools, with the stipulation that the money could only be used for instruction in non-religious subjects. However, all hell broke loose, no pun intended. Angry opponents soon organized, and got a constitutional amendment on the ballot to outlaw any state aid of any kind to any, quote "private, denominational or other private, pre-elementary or secondary school." Voters passed it by a landslide that fall. That seemed to settle that – until now. Governor Snyder contends the bill he signed doesn't violate that constitutional amendment because it doesn't provide any money for educational expenses. All it is supposed to be used for is costs associated with state-mandated requirements like employee background checks and fire and safety code compliance. Opponents, however, say this is a meaningless distinction, because the private schools can then use the money this frees up for whatever they want to, including religious instruction. To me, the language in the 1970 amendment is about as clear as it could be. It says, quote, "no payment, credit, tax benefit, exemption or deductions, tuition voucher, subsidy, grant or loan of public money or property shall be provided, directly or indirectly, to support the attendance of any student or the employment of any person at any such private school or any location or institution where instruction is offered." I wonder if anyone asked those who passed this bill, "what part of no don't you understand?" However, I don't get to say what the law means. Michigan's highest court does. Hopefully, in this case, they soon will give us an answer.. Jack Lessenberry is Michigan Radio's political analyst. Views expressed in his essays are his own and do not necessarily reflect those of Michigan Radio, its management or the station licensee, The University of Michigan.

Governor Rick Snyder did something sensible Wednesday – he asked the Michigan Supreme Court for an opinion as to whether it is legal under the Michigan Constitution for the state to use taxpayer dollars to provide aid to private schools. In a sense, this is actually putting the cart before the horse, in that Snyder signed an education budget last month that includes a two and a half million dollar appropriation for private schools. At the time, he was urged to use his line-item veto to prevent

I never met Julie Plawecki, the state representative from Dearborn Heights who died unexpectedly last month while hiking in Oregon. By all accounts, she was a hard-working legislator and someone who virtually everyone liked and respected. And she had the sort of background I'd like to see more lawmakers have. Too many are lawyers or real estate agents. Plawecki, who was 54, had worked in medical technology, but spent most of her life as an elementary and high school math and science teacher. When a tragedy like this happens late in an election year, it's up to district party officials to designate a legislative candidate to replace the one who died. In this case, the precinct delegates selected a panel of three people to do that in secret. Well, Representative Plawecki's funeral was scarcely over when her 22-year-old daughter Lauren announced she wanted her mother's job. I have to admit, I rolled my eyes. Lauren Plawecki seems to be an accomplished young woman. She just graduated from the University of Michigan with a degree in art history, and worked at a museum in Florence, Italy. That's all wonderful, but doesn't say a lot about her ability to understand and represent the concerns and needs of about 85,000 people. The legislature isn't supposed to be like European nobility, where when the duchess dies, her daughter automatically becomes duchess. But I needn't have worried. The panel of three didn't choose Lauren. They chose someone even younger, a young man named Jewell Jones, who is just 21 and still in college at the U of M Dearborn. Matter of fact, he wasn't even around for the selection – he is off in the army reserves. He's clearly ambitious, however; last year, right after he finished being a teenager, he became the youngest member of the Inkster city council in history. Being from Inkster is why, by the way, he was chosen over a group of other candidates. Inkster is just a tiny part of the district, but for some reason I can't fathom, almost all the 58 precinct delegates eligible to select a panel to choose somebody were from ... Inkster. And while there will be a November election, Jewell Jones is all but certain to be win regardless of what happens between now and then. That's because this has been gerrymandered to be an entirely safe Democratic seat. Thanks to term limits, assuming he serves his allowed three terms, Jones will have maxed out and be forced to retire at age 27 . What a country. But Jones won't be the next legislator from this district. That will be ... Lauren Plawecki. See, they will also have both a primary and a general election to fill the last couple months of her mama's seat, and they agreed to let Lauren run for that. Now, the odds are that neither of these young people will make any kind of major contribution, especially if Republicans continue to control the legislature. But they will make $71,685 a year, which ought to help them pay down their student loans. See, who said the legislature wasn't good for anything. On a serious note, this isn't how things are supposed to work. But we've so trivialized and marginalized politics and government I'm not the least bit surprised. Jack Lessenberry is Michigan Radio's political analyst. Views expressed in his essays are his own and do not necessarily reflect those of Michigan Radio, its management or the station licensee, The University of Michigan

Once upon a time there was a Republican politician who took office at a time when the nation was bitterly divided over social issues. He knew this was not the way things should be. "We are not enemies, but friends," he pleaded with his people. He told them he was optimistic that America would do better, and that our hearts would be touched by "the better angels of our nature." By now I suspect you've figured out the speaker was Abraham Lincoln. Or at least that it wasn't Michigan Attorney General Bill Schuette. The attorney general does not appear to be interested in uniting people but dividing them, by appealing to bigotry and their fears. Three years ago he wasted millions of the state's money in a futile attempt to deny two lesbian nurses the right to adopt several special needs children they had been caring for. His tactics were so ham-handed that the federal judge disqualified some of his witnesses, and delivered a verdict that was a humiliating rebuke to Schuette. Subsequently, the nation's highest court found that same-sex marriage was a constitutional right, and Michigan had to reimburse nearly two million dollars in attorney fees for the nurses. Now Schuette has turned to persecuting transgendered students. Late last week, he announced he was joining a lawsuit seeking to overturn President Obama's decision to direct schools to allow any student to use the restroom and locker room that matches that particular student's gender identity. The attorney general did not say, of course, that he was appealing to fears that boys would dress up and invade girls' lavatories to stare at and possibly molest them. Nor did he say that he thought transgender people were perverts. He didn't have to. Instead, in typical Orwellian language, he said exactly the opposite of what he really meant. Schuette said he was seeking to "protect the dignity and privacy of all Michigan students", and said the decision to allow transgender children to protect their own dignity and privacy was "federal overreach." That's the kind of language segregationists used years ago to protest federal decisions that black people should have equal rights. What Schuette believes personally is impossible to know. What is known is that he wants the Republican nomination for governor in two years, and likely thinks bashing transgender people will help increase his appeal to social conservatives. This may be safer political ground than opposing same-sex marriage. But morally, it is wrong. Democratic Congressman Dan Kildee had the guts to call Schuette out on this, saying that what the lawsuit means to do is "exclude one sector of our population – transgender individuals – from federal protection." Noting that they are among the most persecuted people in society, Kildee correctly noted that the government was seeking "simply to protect them in the schools." Incidentally, an institute at the law school at UCLA has been studying whether allowing transgender people to use the bathroom of their choice leads to more crimes by predators. Everything they've found so far indicates it does not – but that without this protection, it's those who are transgender who are at risk of assault. I don't know if the attorney general knows of this study. But based on everything I do know, I'd be surprised if he cared. Jack Lessenberry is Michigan Radio's political analyst. Views expressed in his essays are his own and do not necessarily reflect those of Michigan Radio, its management or the station licensee, The University of Michigan.

Once upon a time there was a Republican politician who took office at a time when the nation was bitterly divided over social issues. He knew this was not the way things should be. “We are not enemies, but friends,” he pleaded with his people. He told them he was optimistic that America would do better, and that our hearts would be touched by “the better angels of our nature.”

Two days after the killings of five police officers in Dallas, there was an editorial in the Detroit News that began "The last thing we need in this country is a race war." Well, just about everybody who is sane would agree with that. But there are a lot of black people who could tell you that a race war has been going on for centuries. There's absolutely nothing new about the unjustified slaughter of black people by the cops. Here's a bit of historical trivia: When Coleman Young was first elected mayor of Detroit in 1973, the number of white and black voters were just about equal. But there was a lot of controversy over a program called STRESS, short for "Stop the Robberies, Enjoy Safe Streets." This involved heavily armed police cruisers, and officers who some said were in the habit of blowing black men away with little or no provocation. John Nichols, the police chief who started STRESS, was Young's opponent in that election, and there were just enough white voters who were repelled by STRESS to give Detroit's first black mayor a narrow victory. What's new today is video cameras everywhere, including on police officers and their vehicles, and in the hands and smart phones of bystanders. So we have been seeing a number of cases in which white officers killed black men in what looked like cold-blooded murder, including two in just the past week, Alton Sterling in Louisiana and Philando Castile in Minnesota. Then came the shootings of police officers in Dallas, in what is being called a payback or revenge killing. Now, we are all holding our breaths to see how this plays out in our city streets, in the presidential election, and in the life of this racially-charged country. I have no easy answers. But I do have a few suggestions. One is that everyone, especially everyone who identifies as white, read a short book called Between the World and Me, by Ta-Nehisi Coates, a brilliant black journalist who grew up in a bad neighborhood in Baltimore at the height of the crack epidemic. It was published last summer, and no matter how much you think you know, you will learn more than you did about what it is like to be black in America today, and interact with authority figures, especially the police. By the way, I said "identifies as white." Perhaps I should have said, "everyone identified by society as white." After journalist Charlie LeDuff disclosed with some apparent pride that he may have African-American ancestry, a street-wise black colleague of mine snorted "Yeah. Now just let him try living as a black man." The other thing I'd suggest is that we not jump to conclusions about the motives of the shooter. Ironically, America was torn apart in Dallas in a very different way fifty-three years ago, when President Kennedy was assassinated just blocks from where the police officers died last week. Lee Harvey Oswald was about the same age as the Dallas shooter. Oswald claimed to be a Communist, but in reality was just a miserable misfit who wanted to be famous, and got his wish. There are those who would wish to use these killing as an excuse to tear America apart. Let's not give them theirs. Jack Lessenberry is Michigan Radio's political analyst. Views expressed in his essays are his own and do not necessarily reflect those of Michigan Radio, its management or the station licensee, The University of Michigan.