Snyder and the Protestors

Governor Rick Snyder appeared yesterday at a Detroit Church to discuss the issues: voter registration laws, how to help Detroit, and the proposed new bridge between the city and Windsor, Ontario, for example. He was greeted by protestors who demanded 'their' money, namely, $224 million dollars they say the State owes the City. Lansing has supposedly withheld the cash due to the city failing in its obligations.

Did any of those people protest the Detroit City Council or the Mayor's Office in the recent past? It is, after all, city leadership, presumably elected by the very same protestors chanting at Snyder, which has gotten Detroit so close to falling under a state appointed emergency manager. But that would be taking responsibility unto themselves, wouldn't it? We can't have that, can we? It's easier to berate a Republican than to admit we screwed up.

Other things on the agenda at the meeting involved the more stringent voter identification proposals before the Governor. One such idea is to demand picture identification for an absentee ballot. What's wrong with that? We require picture ID for so many other things, why not in order to vote?

This is another issue which ties into personal responsibility yet is rarely interpreted as such. If you want to vote, if you really care about your community and want to fully participate in it, how hard is it to get a photo ID? If you aren't competent to do that, how competent will your vote be?

The real issue here is that we have people who want to get people to vote simply in order to support their cause. These folks want it easy for transients to cast a ballot because transients vote more or less as expected: for the causes of those who claim to support the best interests of the transients. Yet the question never asked is, who is truly being taking advantage of, who is really being played, with this game?

Speaking of games, another Detroit Lion has been arrested on a suspected DUI. This makes about six arrests of Lions players in recent memory. It all reflects poorly on the current football mentality of sheer arrogance: we're football players. We can do what we want. Well, politicians have thought that for years, and you see how they're viewed. Why not remember that you're playing a game, nothing more, and are fortunate that a sports crazed allows you to make so much money at it?

Sadly, money corrupts like power. Perhaps politicians and football players may belong in the same cage at that.