Progressive Policy Summit draws hundreds to Lansing

LANSING-It was an “historic” event. People came from as far away as Escanaba and as near as downtown Lansing. There were the young, the elderly, African Americans, Arab Americans, LBGT Americans, union leaders and members, and well, just people.

They all descended upon the Michigan Progressive Policy Summit, a first of its kind gathering of progressive activists and community leaders. They gathered to discuss strategy and agendas. They compared notes. They connected.

“I thought it was a really good experience for some one my age to be around people with commitment, integrity and goals,” said 19-year-old MSU student Damian Nelson. Nelson is a member of the MSU Student Democrats and hails from Traverse City.

Continued -Diane McMillan, 57, from Detroit agreed with Nelson.

“It was a very good conference. I like that they are calling it a summit. This allows for a dialogue,” the professor of social work and social justice at Mary Grove College said.

The morning began with a speech by former Lansing Mayor David C. Hollister. Hollister resigned from the mayor’s post to become the director of the Michigan Department of Labor and Economic Growth under the first Granholm administration.

“It’s clear Michigan and the nation is in the midst of a transformation,” Hollister told the gathering. “Contrary to the public perception, there is a strategy-a very clear strategy.”

Hollister proceeded to share with activists how the country and the state are changing including highlighting the importance of college education for economic development, renewable energy sources to prevent pollution and addressing health care in a way that stops it from devouring our gross national product.

“We must attack and solve this problem. Look at the state budget. Healthcare is the single largest growing part of the budget. It can’t be controlled and the reservoirs in the budget are gone,” he said.

“You folks think about and strategize about it today,” he told the crowd.

“We have a plan. We have identified the problems,” Hollister told the group. “The question now is, do we have the political will to invest in these strategies and goals? Michigan is at a fork in the road, in the next few weeks we will have decided which way we went. Let’s hope when our grandkids look back, than can say we took the high road.”

Following Hollister’s speech, activists broke into three breakout sessions. The three sessions focused exclusively on one of three identified progressive policy issues, healthcare, renewable energy and education. The groups discussed the ideas of where they wanted to be with those issues. They developed complete dream lists of what each area would look like.

After the breakout sessions all the activists gathered again to hear Donna Brazile, the first African American woman to run a presidential campaign-that of Al Gore in 2000-in American history. Brazile’s keynote speech brought the crowd to its feet.  Brazile called the gathering “historic.”

“We gather at a time there is a crisis,” Brazile said. “We need to find a way to articulate our values so that people are prepared to act when we say it is time to act. This is not about being right, or in the right place