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.