Can we stop slithering snakes like Snyder?

I remember taking my oldest daughter and two of her friends to the campus of Michigan State University in East Lansing on a cold but sunny day in March of 2003. We joined thousands of others marching west on Michigan Avenue to the State Capitol Building in Lansing. What were we doing? Protesting the invasion of Iraq by our government the day before. Demonstrations and protests and rallies took place all over the world that day, with millions of people letting politicians know in no uncertain terms that we opposed this war.

It didn’t matter. The Worst President Ever who lied us into that war was re-elected the following year. (Some would prefer I use “elected,” since in 2000 the U.S. Supreme Court chose the president, not the voters.) Almost eight years later, the Iraq war is still killing innocent people and has cost $781 billion to date.

I blamed the lazy corporate media at the time. I blamed ignorant, self-centered voters who only cared about their singular issues. I blamed the lack of community. I blamed anyone I could think of for the disconnection between what the people want and what the politicians do. I couldn’t accept, at least consciously, that the government is going to do whatever it wants no matter what we, the people, think or say or do.

I’m hopeful that things are different today. The newspapers and television shows are telling us what’s happening. Facebook and Twitter and the Blogosphere are educating and organizing people. Michigan’s chief executive, Rick the Dick Snyder, has been forced to mount his evil, pro-rich, anti-everybody else campaign right out in the open. (I thought I would never dislike another state politician more than I despised former governor John Engler but I was wrong.) As recent headlines indicate, people are watching and opposing his diabolical schemes:

• Students rally against Snyder budget-cut proposals

• College students protest cuts at Capitol

• Protests Not Stopping Gov. Snyder

• Low-income residents feel pain of Michigan's cuts to job-related services

• Senate GOP offers alternative Michigan tax plan

• Sen. Debbie Stabenow urges Gov. Rick Snyder to veto unemployment package

• Snyder rejects GOP compromise, won't budge on retiree pension tax

• Michigan's next big blow: The film industry

• Gov. Rick Snyder presses his budget as GOP looks for alternatives

• Petition sought to recall Gov. Rick Snyder

• Is Rick Snyder outsourcing union busting in Michigan?

• Gov. Rick Snyder Betrays Seniors for Corporations

• U-M students protest Snyder as commencement speaker

• Emergency Manager law already forcing unions into new concessions  

Looks like I can't blame a lazy media this time.

Here and in Wisconsin and Indiana and Ohio and Maine and across the globe, citizens are taking to the streets and capitals and demanding to be heard.  I've got to believe that this will all matter.  I don't want to be convinced once and for all that my high school civics class was b*llsh*t and we really don't have a voice unless we kick in the campaign cash.  I guess we'll see.




Sources: Costofwar.com, CNNMoney.com, Lansing State Journal, Port Huron Times Herald, Detroit Free Press, Michiganmessenger.com, www.mlive.com, Royal Oak Daily Tribune, Dome magazine, AnnArbor.com, Crooksandliars.com, WKAR