There was a time when we raised up bright leaders on our shoulders, when politicians smiled and school kids with batons led the parade, glancing at each other to keep in step, and the sun shone brightly and men’s pant legs flapped like flags and women’s steps first lifted off the ground, and the streets, the conjoining tributaries of our villages and cities, channeled a river of belief that flowed to the communal ocean of America.
That wasn’t a reality for the disenfranchised, of course, but that was the shared vision. There’s a photo on my wall — George Romney, Bill Milliken, Bob Griffin, Helen Milliken, Diana Forster, Betty Parsons, a sea of faces marching on a sunny street, flags flying, a vision of bright government.
Instead, today, Michigan corporations are on the march like armies of the night, stealing by tax credits what masked men used to take with guns. They call it “tax incentives,” but it’s money taken from services for us and given to businesses as tax subsidies — or outright cash.
Forget politics; I’ll set aside your bias if you’ll set aside mine. Yes, I represent opponents of the Pine Street development in Traverse City.
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