The Buddha said “I am Awake”

Photos from the Lansing Trip

Thank you to ALL of you who helped to spread the word, gathered and signed petitions, awakened yourselves and your friends to the issues of the Michigan Promise… we took 2340 signatures with us up to the State Capitol.  We copied them in triplicate and handed them over to  Democrat and Republican Legislative leaders and Governor Granholm.  Way to go!!!

The job however, is not yet finished.  The Budget Deadline has been pushed to November 1.  Don’t stop calling.  Don’t stop writing.  Don’t stop awakening your community.  And stay tuned here at the blog for regular updates.

• News Coverage of our Lansing Lobbying Efforts
• “MiLive.com- “Oakridge students battle to keep Promise”
• “Oakridge students to Lansing” – GVSU IV with Shelby & Amanda
• Fox 17 News – Interview with Ariel

Tuesday September 29 our voices were definitely heard – loud and clear – at the state capitol.  Ariel, Kate Lynn, Becca, Nathaniel, Jake and the Shelbys and Amanda, Nyssa, Autumn, and Mr. Wood spent all day and night lobbying on behalf of the Oakridge community and the Michigan Promise scholarship.

We reached the capitol at 1:30 PM, after waiting for “the drop” at the Coopersville MacDonald’s of Corey’s package “full” of petitions, and arrived just in time for

Representative Mary Valentine’s Chief of Staff, Chris Kilgore, to take us to see the Governor.  We had to sprint across the capitol lawn to make the meeting.   Pretty cool way to start the day.  Governor Granholm graciously accepted our petitions.  She explained her position on the Promise and the budget.   She  answered all of our questions.  And for the most part we understood where she stood on our issues.   She was for the Promise – but how that would happen was  a bit confusing.  Aside from several bruised fingers – Governor Granholm has a vice script for a handshake – we were pleased and set out to cover the dome.

Stop #2 – Senate Majority Leader Republican Michael Bishop’s office. The Senator was not in – so Elizabeth, his aid dealing with issues of Education,  met with all of us in a nearby conference room.  The encounter was spirited.  Elizabeth’s boss does not support renewing the scholarship, a  tuff place for her to be in, when all ten young people you address have

qualified for that very scholarship.  Autumn read a Petition Statement written by Nyssa – and presented the 2340 signatures to the Senate Majority Leader’s aide.  We proceded to lay out arguments for retaining the Michigan Promise. By the end of the session about 35 minutes – it was clear that we would have our work cut out for us at the Republican stops – we could see that things were beginning to fall along party lines.   At least those who disagreed with us would be consistent throughout the day; Each who voted “No” to the Promise,assured us that  although they couldn’t unfortunately support renewal, they could in fact “feel our pain.”

House Minority Leader Republican Eisenheimer and House Majority Leader Democrat Andy Dillan. Both these guys we found in the halls of the Capitol.  They weren’t together…that doesn’t seem to happen much these days with politicians in Washington or Lansing – Democrats and Republicans being nice to one another.  Since the Capitol was crawling with lobbyists, the only squad not decked out in black suits and ties, was us…if we stopped and talked to a rep – they had to stop and listen. Well sort of. Representative Eisenheimer gave us four 1/2 minutes – and he did all the talking.  He told us that he totally understood our situation because he went to college himself (albeit decades ago.) Unfortunately he was voting “No” on the Michigan Promise.   I guess he just didn’t feel enough of our pain.  Majority Leader Dillan took a little longer and was a little less clear.  He assured us that he would support The Promise…but all the political mumbo jumbo about  how that would happen didn’t in the end sound quite so convincing.  At each of the stops Amanda and Jake and Kate Lynn and Shelby and a surrounding chorus were “awake and engaged”.  Rest assured nobody stood passively by.  Students were respectful, but persistent, knowledgeable and fair minded.  They listened intently to opposition opinions.  All ten carried the message of the value of the youth to this state to our elected representatives with class.

Senator Prusi’s office was next on the list. Senator Prusi is the minority leader in the Senate.  He has a nice office – with a friendly staff.  His Chief of Staff went to Mason County Central.  She remembered football games back in the day between MCC and OHS.  She remembered Oakridge from ALL the phone calls! When Chris introduced us at the door – we were met with “Oh so these are the Oakridge students who’ve been calling us Everyday for the past week.”   We had a nice visit in that office – and were convinced upon leaving that the Senator, a real live yupper,  would support our cause to the end.

Representative Mary Valentine and  Senator Gerald Van Woerkom.  These are the two representatives who we vote for.  Our districts.   We planned to spend a lot of time with each.  Mary’s office rolled out the red carpet.  Chris was with us all day long.  He introduced us to various representatives from both parties – and then stepped aside to let us do the talking.  When we took off for TV media vans that surrounded the capitol – he laid back and waited.  While he is passionate about the causes that he and Mary fight for, he encouraged all opinions on every subject.  In fact there was a moment up in Mary’s 11th floor office, that overlooked the capitol building, where we thought Kate Lynn might just punch him.  We really felt as though we were the 91st Districts “guests of honor”.   And Mary popped up all afternoon.  She introduced us to the Governor.  She joined us in Senator Bishop’s office and got to listen in on Representative Eisenheimer’s four 1/2  minute speech. She took us upstairs to the House gallery that looks down on the floor.  She announced us on the floor of the House.  It was just like ”Iron Jawed Angels”.  All we needed was a banner shouting “Save the Promise” to unfurl over the edge.   Mary introduced us to everybody who she knew under the Capitol dome.  She was proud of us for coming to  Lansing.  We are grateful that she represents us.  Mary is voting for the Promise.

Catching up with Senator Van Woerkom wasn’t quite so easy.  We had to stalk him. First we went to the Senate office building across the street from the Capitol.  The Senator was out.  He would be back on the Senate floor at 7:00 PM.  So we got a signed pass at his office and pocketed it for

later in the evening.  At 7:00 we headed over to the floor of the Senate.  Kate Lynn handed the Sargeant at Arms our official pass. He disappeared into the Senate chambers and delivered it to our Senator.   We sat on the steps and waited.  And waited.  And waited.  Meanwhile people stayed busy.  Nyssa and Autumn, figured thirty five minutes was long enough.  They wrote a letter to the Senator – told him we had school in the morning, attached it to the 2340 signatures and once again found the Sargeant at Arms.   Newspaper people discovered us and we did some interviewing.  Nathaniel and Shelby headed downstairs for a session with “The Michigan Messenger”.  They grabbed Senator Bishop as he walked by, and got to hear it this time from the Senator himself,  yes it was a Promise, yes it is unfortunate, yes I know the cost of college is ridiculously high, No I’m not voting for it.   On the steps next to the Sargeant,  Fox 17 did a bright white light interview with everybody – Ariel and Kate Lynn did most of the talking.  Surprise.

and finally – the Senator appeared…Autumn and Nyssa and Mr. Wood got to hear all the reasons why the Promise was a luxury, and how the Senator went to college on school loans, and that Nyssa unfortunately, “will just have to work a little harder on those scholarships.”  He reminded us that there are a lot of them out there.  We knew it, even if he didn’t say so, that he really truly could  feel our pain.

And so that was it.  It was dark and cold and 9:00.  We completed our mission and began the long drive home.  One day and three hours later at midnite on September 30, with no budget in sight, the governor would shut down the state for two hours. This would force Republicans and Democrats to finally agree on one thing – to go another thirty days with no decision.

We fully expect that on Halloween at midnight (October 31)  the state will once again turn into a pumpkin, as the budget deadlinewith or without the Michigan Promise, will probably still not be decided.  We will continue to press our issue, to try to get those who would rather not raise a single tax on anything ever again in the history of the world, to reconsider for the sake of the education of our youth.  In the end, if that’s not the case, we hope that those who vote “NO” for education,  for Michigan’s future, will have the compassion to remember what it was like way back in the day when they went to college. Maybe just maybe, in a moment of weakness they really will feel our pain. And if they do, maybe, just maybe they will have a moment of clarity, and they’ll remember all those times at a campaign stop, when they stepped up to microphone and proclaimed,  ”The youth of this state, is the future of our great nation”…maybe they’ll slip and vote “YES” for the Promise.  ”YES” for the Youth.  ”YES” for Michigan.

Filed under: Michigan Promise NEWS