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Steinman for Governor:

Part 011, Involving Citizens:

By William E. Steinman:

October 30, 2006:

In my last essay, I discussed an experimental educational plan for our children. That leads quite naturally into my fifth and final issue in Michigan. That issue is also about our young people. We must get our young people involved in the functions of government and in volunteer operations similar to the American Peace Corps, but local in scope. We want the effort and the benefits of this corps of young Michigan people to benefit our state and our citizens. We could give the organization some fanciful name I suppose. However, I would prefer the simple designation of Public Service Corps of Michigan (PSCM).

I visualize this corps as a service organization for and about Michigan with a completely voluntary membership. For sure, we cannot force people to volunteer, but we can make it possible and we can make it rewarding. There are many ways to do that. One way is to provide the good leadership of real professionals. We can also provide these volunteers with unique uniforms.

We can make membership in the corps a matter of personal and organizational pride, similar to the esprit de corps we find in military organizations. In fact, I would structure this corps as a military type organization. There should be a top down command structure with the operational unit being a small group similar to an army squad. Military organization also means uniforms and a barracks lifestyle. The idea is, service is the name of the game and self-discipline is the enabling means. As to the span of service, we must make it clear that this is a full time commitment, not a part-time hobby. There must be a commitment of at least two years for people who wish to join.

With a long-term commitment, we must make sure the kids are cared for in a reasonable way. They must be paid, but I believe the pay should be in the nature of providing pocket money. All of the necessities of life should be provided as part of the organizational functions. The kids could have barracks for their homes, with women and men in separate quarters. There could also be an army style standard mess and laundry, etcetera.

Another incentive we could offer would be tuition credits for future attendance in Michigan’s university system. This would in no way mitigate the need to meet the admissions criteria of the chosen school. It would simply supplement the tuition for those who qualified. This gives us an additional benefit. We would get the direct service of the people in the corps and eventually produce additional educated citizens. Many of these, we could hope, would stay in Michigan.

I think it would be prudent to offer this opportunity for service to all high school graduates. Although we have no reason for excluding older citizens, I think the focus should be on young energetic people between the ages of 17 and 25. We can be sure some of the people will find this to be a rewarding lifestyle. They will want to remain in the service. We should encourage this so as to create a cadre of experience people to bring new volunteers up to speed.

Now, what will we do with all of these volunteers? I have already indicated that some of them could serve as helpers and gofers for our legislators and the governor’s office. There they might discover how badly our government is run. They might develop and incentive to get into politics and try to clean up some of the mess. They might try to displace some of the pitiful professional politicians. It’s something to hope for.

In addition, I see a great need for aids and guides in our K-12 educational system. What teacher would not welcome the help of an enthusiastic young person to tutor kids, and generally support the efforts of the teacher. There again, what they discover might lead them to chose education or educational administration as a career hoping to do a better job.

Another area of service that I previously defined in the Gaffer’s Philosophy is an Emergency Response Service (ERS). I’m not talking about police or fire departments here. I’m talking about a more limited role. This would be a division of the PSCM with special training. These kids would be trained to support our police and fire departments and our Department of Natural resources (DNR) in dealing with emergencies. There are often emergencies like floods and fires and there are never enough resources to go around. The corps could perform many services like providing food and caring for equipment. They could do pretty much anything needed that would not put them at risk. We want to go to great lengths to keep these kids out of the line of fire.

As to supporting our DNR our state parks need enormous attention. There is all kinds of work needed, from picking up trash left by scum-bums to clearing nature trails. The same kind of effort can be applied to our highways. They are a disgrace. We also have public monuments that need attention. The Statue of Liberty got a lot of attention as did the Washington Monument. That’s great, but I have not seen a statue anywhere that was not in need of cleaning, from bird dodo to dust and grime. Our cities also need some sprucing up.

Let me give a bit more attention to who can volunteer for this corps. I have already said we need not exclude older citizens. We also need not exclude handicapped people. In some case we may need to make unique arrangements to help some of the handicapped people serve. One way to do that is to create a buddy or team system. People with no handicaps can be teamed with people who need some help. Another way is to have people with different kinds of handicaps work together. One might be good at understanding and another at executing simple tasks. As a team, they get something done. Something is much superior to nothing and can have a very positive effect on one who has had to struggle for everything.

Now I will review the Michigan current proposals. Every election we have will cause proposals to come out of the woodwork. They will be of two different stripes. Some will be proposals by people trying to make the lot of the citizens better. Others will be by people who are trying to slip something over on us. This year we have some of each in Michigan.

Proposal 1 is long overdue. It would prevent our government from stealing money from the Department of Natural Resourced (DNR). That is money, which was collected through licensing from the people who use the resources. It is intended to be used to replenish, maintain, and protect Michigan’s natural resources. Our current and previous administrations have stolen from that fund to cover shortfalls in government expenditures caused by their own mismanagement. Vote YES on 1.

Proposal 2 is also overdue. It is intended to prevent preferential treatment based on race and gender. It is time for us to stop insulting good people by telling them they are not good enough and need help to make it. The ones who will complain about this are the ones who don’t want to make the effort to be good enough. Vote YES on 2.

Proposal 3 is for the kind of gun crazies who want to shoot everything in sight. These nuts want to have a hunting season for killing Doves. There is hardly any food value in a dead dove. It would take several dozen dead birds to supply one meal for a single person. Even the people who are for it do not make the argument that there is any reason for proposal 3 except killing as a sport. Vote NO on 3.

Proposal 4 is a precaution to protect private property from greedy insane politicians. Recently, we have had a spate of these cases where politicians use the provisions of Eminent Domain to steal private property and give it to their business friends for private development. Proposal 4 would prevent this thievery in Michigan. Vote YES on 4.

Proposal 5 would give more money to schools in Michigan. Although it sounds well intended on the surface, it is really stupid. If Stossel proved anything at all he proved the schools already have enough money. See “Steinman for Governor,” “Part 9, Education,” in our archives. What is needed is not more money, but more accountability. Those buffoons are already squandering too much of the money they receive. It would be foolish to give them more. Vote NO on 5.

As you read this essay, you may realize the midterm election is Tuesday of next week. For sure, you may not realize it or even care. If that is the case, I urge you to go out and write in my name, William E. Steinman, for Governor of Michigan just for the hell of it. Next Monday, I will finish up with this series of Steinman for Governor.

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