Political & Public Advocacy— From Pamphlets to the Internet

         Abraham Lincoln, when speaking at Gettysburg, cited the nation’s founding as occurring with the Declaration of Independence, a document approved on July 4, 1776 by the Second Continental Congress which was meeting in Philadelphia. He noted that the country, at its inception, had been “dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.”

  In using July 4^th and the Declaration as the date and document that “brought forth” the country, he was putting it above the Constitution, the legal agreement ratified by the original 13 states in 1788, five years after the successful conclusion of the Revolutionary War; a contract that had created the current federal government and might arguably be considered the real start of the United States.

The Importance of Understanding Economics

   Like most of you, my life has been influenced and impacted by the economy, both adversely and beneficially. However, truth be told, I possess only a rudimentary understanding of how it functions.

     I’m aware that economic policies and strategies are used by the Federal Reserve Board, the President and Congress, and our Governor and Legislature with the intent of causing certain desired outcomes. These include monetary policy, job creation, trade agreements, taxation, tax credits, budgets, regulations, and much more.

Lack of Easy Access to Quality Food Adds to Flint’s Woes

     Flint’s water crisis has been a dominant news story during the past few months. Front and center were the reports of high lead levels found in water samples, which do not bode well for young children who ingested too much of this neurotoxin and could suffer long-term damage to their mental and physical development .

     Added to this public health calamity is the suspicion that the water caused Legionnaires’ disease, resulting in several deaths. In addition, there were the claims by residents that bathing or showering caused skin rashes. The question of accountability—what happened and why— while not nearly as crucial as the well being of the residents, has also been part of the news stories. And despite pleas to not point fingers of blame or allow partisan politics to enter into the fray (Let’s focus on solving the problem instead), heads have already rolled, lawsuits have been filed, political spinning is in full force, and the tug-of-war over blame (or perhaps more accurately over who’s more to blame) is churning up the landscape.