Archive for February, 2021

I Blame Others

I Blame Others

As we come up to the one-year anniversary of the initial shut down here in Michigan, there have been plenty of stories around our education systems and the challenges the pandemic continues to bring. These three in particular served as food for thought: 

To summarize: Education has become even more complex and difficult this past year. And all of us standing on the sidelines offering nothing but our opinions? Yeah, that ain’t helping.

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Mike Shirkey Did It Again!

Mike Shirkey Did It Again!

The Michigan Senate Majority Leader, Mike Shirkey, has been on quite a roll lately. And not in a good way. This week on a radio show he managed to confirm that he is a responsible adult…and then immediately confirm that he is not in fact a responsible adult.

In this instance, he acknowledged that President Joe Biden won Michigan by more than 154,000 votes, but followed that up by saying the state didn’t do enough to ensure election integrity — specifically that too many dead people voted. (Please refer to the Free Press story if you don’t know why it is a baseless conspiracy theory.)

Just last week news broke of Shirkey’s disastrous meeting at a diner, where he shared his thoughts that the January 6th insurrection at the U.S. Capitol was a hoax and that former President Donald Trump was not responsible for it. He also added some oddly sexualized smack talk about outmaneuvering Governor Whitmer. In the radio interview, he attempted to clarify (with mixed results and without apology).

Shirkey is making it very difficult for us to remember his proudest moment — going to the White House in November and managing not to sell us all out by throwing the Michigan electoral college votes to the loser. (Kind of a low bar there.)

So, either Shirkey knows what he’s saying and he’s doing it purposefully to string along Trump supporters in the GOP. Or he actually believes it. Either way, this is not the Senate Majority Leader that Michiganders want or deserve.

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Why Are We Screaming at Each Other?

Why Are We Screaming at Each Other?

Amid the backdrop of, well, everything up to and after the November election, there were some encouraging signs this week in Michigan. A pair of bills were introduced by Republican state lawmakers and supported by Democratic Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson to clear up confusion and build confidence in the voting system ahead of the next election.

To be clear, I don’t think this is big news. Nor do I think this is exciting news. But it is noteworthy — something doable is being done, something seemingly worthwhile and positive.

I also don’t think this should be called bipartisan. Bipartisan has come to imply that there was some sort of compromise worked out between two political parties. Say you have a line, and on one end is the truth and on the other are outrageous, easily disproven conspiracy theories. And the one party says to the other, “Hey, let’s meet in the middle.” That’s reasonable, right? Um, no.

There is no compromise with these bills — just agreement on some actions to help better maintain voter rolls. We… we can do that! It’s okay. No posturing or screaming or insurrecting required. Nice, huh?

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The Pandemic Glass

The Pandemic Glass

There is a classic skit from the 1960s by the comedy team of Peter Cook and Dudley Moore in which a reporter (Moore) interviews an eccentric gentleman (Cook) who owns a restaurant. I’m going to write out a bit of transcript here, but to truly understand the humor (and their impeccable timing), I encourage you to listen for yourself.

So after introductions and a bit of banter, the reporter asks the restaurant owner when he started his restaurant:

Restaurant Owner: I believe it was shortly after World War II. You remember that, World War II?

Reporter: Well, certainly, yes.

Restaurant Owner: Absolutely ghastly business.

Reporter: Oh, yes.

Restaurant Owner: Absolutely ghastly business.

Reporter: Yes, indeed.

Restaurant Owner: I was completely against it.

Reporter (slight pause as the audience catches on to the absurd obviousness of what was just said): Well, I think, I think we all were.

Restaurant Owner (indigently): Well I wrote a letter!

I share this with you for a couple of reasons. One, as we close in on a year of the pandemic and enter the depths of a Michigan February, my mind naturally turns to escapism, and this sketch always makes me laugh. By the way, the title is, “The Frog and Peach,” which is the name (and menu) of the restaurant. It’s rare these days to find anything that can top the ridiculousness of real life.

The second (and more the inspiration of the cartoon) is that our one very thin slice of common ground may be that we are all against the virus itself. Given the opportunity this time last year, we all would have said, “COVID-19 virus? No thank you. Let’s not do that.” Just as we would decline a world war. But for that commonality to be true, we need to believe others (even those we don’t like) would make the same choice. And that’s the hard part.

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