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Ann Arbor - Town Hall
Ann Arbor Town Hall
By Sister Linda Werthman, RSM
September 28, 2014
The town hall meeting in Ann Arbor at the University of
Michigan School of Social Work was for me the finish of a day of contrast and
yet similarity of desire for our democracy.
Sister Mary Ellen Gondeck CSJ has captured our time in
Flint, Michigan, with people who are using their creativity and energy to earn
a living, feed their families, and contribute to the common good of their
community. The concerns I heard from them were employment, security and drugs.
At the end of day, gathered in the town hall in Ann Arbor I
heard employment as the same concern, but from a different aspect of the same
lens. Young people who in their senior year are faced with the burden of
student loans are constrained as to where to find employment. I wonder what it
does to the human spirit of the geology student who wants to do environmental
work for a nonprofit – but to pay off student loans will probably be working
for the oil industry? Will her comfortable lifestyle after paying off the
student loans prevent her from turning her efforts to alternative environmental
work?
As to ways to move forward to preserve our democracy, the
strongest call was for campaign reform and removing barriers to voting. Why not
open to all early voting? Why should students on campus have to wait 3 hours to
vote because of the lack of voting options? Why cannot a person register to
vote when they come to cast their ballot? Cannot states such as Michigan learn
from the experiences of Oregon and California?
One conversation that sparked interest was about the
“information bubble” that each of us needs to consider. All news sources are
incomplete in themselves, yet most of us settle comfortably into one or two
sources of news. We all listen and read what we like. The internet is full of incomplete
news and information, which can now be delivered to each of us through
“personalized news feed.”
I really need to reflect on how my choices of what I read or
listen to contribute to the uncompromising partisanship and polarization that
is unhealthy for the democracy I cherish.