Spartan Strong! Michigan State University and Students Demand Action

On February 13, 2023, - since the Michigan State University (MSU) shooting. Classes eventually resumed at Michigan State University.

Opinion echo published in the Detroit Free Press: 

Students Demand Action

"We’ve grown up in the midst of America’s gun violence crisis. In fact, we’ve been called the “school shooting generation.” Now we’re rising up and organizing in our high schools, colleges, and communities across the country to demand action to end gun violence."

The shooting news quieted down. But for students who lived through it, it feels like it was just yesterday. 

I remember sheltering in place, sending frantic texts to my family, praying everything would be okay. Even with the immediate threat over, the shooting still impacts us everyday. 

We’re still on edge, ready to run for cover. Every loud noise sounds like a gunshot, taking us back to that night — when gun violence tore through our campus, killing three Spartans, wounding five others, and leaving our entire community traumatized. In just a matter of moments, our illusion of safety was shattered, and East Lansing joined a long list of cities that will forever bear the scars of our gun violence crisis.

The month since February 13, passed in the blink of an eye, but it’s also felt like a lifetime. Even as we’ve sprung into action and urged lawmakers to take legislative action to address this crisis, we’re still hurting. For those of us who survived that night, we’ve spent a month reliving it, playing it back again and again. The pits in our stomachs, the fear in our chests. A part of us stays frozen in those unending moments of terror, grief and shock.

"'Our Spartan Hearts Are Broken': Remembering the 3 Michigan State Students Killed in Monday's Mass Shooting," People Magazine.

I hear it might get easier — that with time, we’ll find a path to healing. Those of us who survived will go on to graduate and build new lives. For the loved ones of the victims, it won’t be so simple. Their children, siblings, and friends will stay forever 19 and 20. They won’t get to grow up or chase their dreams. They won’t get to walk across the stage for commencement. Tragically, their families will carry the weight of this tragedy for the rest of their lives. And while we can never take away that hurt, we can and will honor them with action every single day.

Spartan Strong

I didn’t think a horrible shooting like this could ever happen at MSU, but when the shots rang out and I watched my fellow students spring into action, I realized that we’ve been preparing for a nightmare like this one our entire lives. Our generation has been forced to grow up living in fear of the next shooting. We’ve practiced how to stay quiet and out of sight, rehearsed how to run, hide and fight.

This wasn’t isolated. This tragedy took place one day before the five-year mark of the shooting in Parkland (Florida) — on a campus where survivors of the shooting at Oxford High School live and study. But it’s not just the horror of the school shootings. Gun violence in all its forms — including homicides, unintentional shootings and firearm suicides — impacts young people around the country every single day. Guns are the leading cause of death for children, teens, and college-aged Americans who should have a right to a life free from the constant fear of being shot.

As a country, we’ve accepted that this is the reality of being young in America — shootings on campus, traumatized students, vigils instead of classes. But I refuse to accept that this is the way things have to be. I refuse to let future generations of students grow up like we have, living in constant worry that any day could be their last.

It’s not the responsibility of young people to keep ourselves safe, but once again, it’s our generation that is bearing the weight of this crisis, and it’s our generation that is showing up to demand change. Over the last month, students, survivors, and advocates have flooded our campuses and our capitol, painting the state green and white, and calling on lawmakers to meet this tragic moment with urgency.

And they have listened.

Right now, Michigan has a real opportunity to make meaningful change. Thanks to the tireless work of gun safety advocates and voters, the political landscape has shifted. We’ve elected lawmakers who prioritize gun safety, including Moms Demand Action volunteers, and we’ve secured a gun sense trifecta in the House, Senate and the governor’s mansion. Voters have done our jobs. Now, lawmakers must do theirs.

As the weeks since the shooting have shown us, so much can be accomplished in a month. In the wake of the shooting, state lawmakers moved quickly to introduce a package of foundational gun safety bills — including background checks on all gun sales; secure firearm storage; and extreme risk laws, also known as red flag laws — that will help close the gap in Michigan’s gun laws. 

Polling shows that Michigan voters on both sides of the aisle overwhelmingly support these policies. 

These bills are moving quickly through both chambers, and now, we must get them across the finish line and onto Governor Gretchen Whitmer’s desk.

We proudly stand with lawmakers who have championed these gun safety policies, and we will continue to work hand in hand with them to get this done.

But there is no more time to waste. We know the cost of inaction, and we can’t afford to pay it. This time must be different. We deserve better — we demand better.

Saylor Reinders, is the President of the Michigan State University chapter of Students Demand Action.

Flint Michigan water crises still unresolved

Water has the power to unlock education, create economic potential, and improve health. Access to safe water empowers women in Peru with time to work, kids in Ethiopia with time for school and families in India and around the world with bright days.

Friday March 22, was International Water Day.

Water is a simple creation consisting of two parts hydrogen molecules and one part oxygen = H2O.  Miraculously, those two elements create the essential life sustaining compound. 

Yet, humans pollute water, even though, without it, we would all die.  Water has the power to change lives by providing all living beings with access to hydration. Humans have the power to clean up the water we pollute. Unfortunately, in Flint Michigan, the water pollution caused by a municipal decision to save money, is still unresolved.

Pope Francis is a former chemistry teacher.  This is what he posted on Twitter @Pontifex  "Let us thank God for 'sister water', such a simple and precious element, and let us strive to make it accessible to all. #WorldWaterDay
Dr. Mona Hanna-Attisha published this opinion in the Flint newspaper MichiganLive

Mona Hanna-Attisha is a pediatrician, scientist and professor in Flint, Michigan. She is the founder and director of the Pediatric Public Health Initiative. She is the author of “What the Eyes Don’t See: A Story of Crisis, Resistance and Hope in an American City."

From Oscoda to Benton Harbor, residents of Michigan deserve clean water when they turn on their taps. They also deserve to know the leaders they elect will make sure their drinking water is clean and safe. A generation ago, Michigan’s leadership in environmental protection was a bipartisan tradition -- and exemplified by Republican Governor Bill Milliken’s stewardship. But the ideology of extreme austerity prevailed. Government became too small and pitifully inadequate, starved of resources and talent, factors that led directly to the Flint water crisis. In 2019, Michigan is now returning to its rightful place as a leader in environmental protection. And that doesn’t mean big government or small government. It means smart government --- moored in science and intent on public health.

Governor Gretchen Whitmer has proven that she has learned some valuable lessons from Flint. Her first executive directive was to require state civil servants to immediately report imminent threats to public health and safety, like contaminated drinking water, to their department directors.

It has been almost five years since the Flint water crisis began. In a gross corrosion of democracy, the State of Michigan switched the source of the city’s water from pretreated Great Lakes water to untreated water from the Flint River. This led to the most emblematic environmental disaster of our times, one that continues. And one that could easily happen again -- in Flint or elsewhere in Michigan, be it lead levels in the water or PFAS contamination.

On Feb. 4, Governor Whitmer signed another executive order that will address some key factors that led to the Flint Water Crisis -- and prevent another such tragedy from occurring. The order will reorganize the Department of Environmental Quality and dissolve industry-led environmental rule review panels.

The executive order Whitmer signed also calls for the creation of the Office of the Clean Water Public Advocate and the Office of the Environmental Justice Public Advocate. These offices fill a gap in state oversight. While Flint was under emergency management, residents were disenfranchised and democracy usurped. When the citizens of the majority African-American city rose up against the filthy drinking water, their concerns were ignored by an apathetic state government. Each investigation into the crisis, including former Governor Rick Snyder’s own task force and the one done by the Michigan Department of Civil Rights, pointed to race as a leading factor in the perfect storm of neglect that caused failure on all fronts -- to act, to protect, to fix, to be responsible and accountable -- even after officials clearly saw the scope of the problem.

The new offices proposed by Whitmer will help build a more responsive state government. They should ensure Michiganders have a place to go when there are problems with their drinking water. Safe drinking water is not optional. It is a human right -- a public health and medical necessity that we cannot survive without. Lead exposure has no safe level and can potentially impact the entire life trajectory of an exposed child. That is the tragedy of the Flint Water Crisis, and the reason why so many of us are working day in and day out to mitigate the impact of the population-wide exposure.

So I’m grateful to Gov. Whitmer for beginning to address these issues in her first steps in office. Yes there is much more work to do. The public health culture of these agencies will take many years to revive. But these are necessary first steps that will address problems that have been neglected for too long. The newly fashioned Department of Environment, Great Lakes, and Energy must be responsive to Michigan’s water problems. Dumping the bureaucratic industry review panels that second guess decisions made by regulators and scientists is an important move that gets us a lot closer to a smart government all Michiganders strive for.

Public trust in leadership is pitifully low. Right now, residents of Flint and citizens across the state have given up on the idea that state government will fix their drinking water. We can’t expect that to change with a few executive orders. And why should we? Some members of the state legislature -- either unable to absorb the lessons of Flint, or overeager to please their industry friends and donors -- have already launched a push to roll-back Whitmer’s new executive orders. 

Sadly, the State House voted to override the executive order two days after it was announced. The profiteering polluters of Michigan are especially excited about making sure their industry review panels are kept in place, public health be damned. (Irresponsible!)

The Synder administration often recycled the line that government should be “run like a business.” This failed ideology must be trashed. The only recycling left is the millions of plastic water bottles the residents of Flint, and now in cities all over our state, have been forced to drink from.

We must be smarter. This is the moment for an impassioned call for common-sense bipartisanship. Who doesn’t want their kids to drink clean water? Who doesn’t believe that it is government’s job to protect public safety? It is incumbent on citizens - from all political sides to voice support for the critical steps Whitmer has taken to protect Michigan’s environment, and in turn, to protect our most precious Michigan resource, our children.