m - Canton Public Library

Opinion
Marybeth Dillon Ward editor/459-2700
Pros outflank
recall rookies
TWO STATE senators who voted for an
income tax increase have been recalled by
voters in the last two weeks, and here are
the results:
Our taxes haven't been reduced. Check
your pay stub The state personal income
tax deduction is the same this week as it
lyas last week
* Tens of thousands of tax dollars have
been spent on two special elections. Secretary
of State office work and the courts
The money had td come from somewhere
Certainly it didn't come out of the welfare
budget Certainly it didn't come out of
legislators' salaries. It probably came out
erf the higher education budget
. The same senators who passed the 38
fjfcrcent income tax increase (with only
iffo exceptions) have passed a redisricting
bill. The effects of redistricting will be
ta^gerrvmander out of office two senators
wbo voted against the tax increase and to
strengthen, at least on paper, the positions
d most incumbent senators of both partes
In a nutshell. Democrats are likely to
gjck up one or two seats in the Senate and
four to six in the House^of Representatives
MEANWHILE, Senate Majority Leader
William Faust. D-Westland. has thought
up a nice method for turning the tables on
recall supporters
Faust suggests a legislator facing recall
resign. force_a special election to fill his
vacancy, then run for the vacancy It's a
variation on what the British and Canadian
parliaments do when there's a major,
divisive issue The prime minister dissolves
parliament and everyone faces reelection
early
_ Faust's ploy means that a senator would
fre able to run against an opponent rather
(nan run against his single unpopular vote
On taxes.
It's a fact of life that the recall people
— except for perennial loser John Lauve
— are mostly political neophytes, raw
rookies at politics. If they had read the
newspapers in 1982 instead of staring at
TV commerciais. they would have known
that Gov. James J. Blanchard and ex-Sen.
Philip O. Mastin favored a tax increase
and got elected anyway. They didn't betray
anyone.
It's also a fact of life that legislative
leaders are bright fellows with 1(1 to 20
years of experience. They know the details
of laws, governmental machinery
and political rules A professional gambler
would bet on them rather than the
recall people, and the gambler would
probably collect.
THERE IS ONLY one way to beat taxes
in Michigan. We have said it repeatedly,
and we will keep it up until folks learn the
lesson.
That way is to join the political party of
your choice, become active, learn the
ropes, support candidates who think the
way you do. and perhaps become a candidate
yourself — after you gain some experience.
of course
The forces which required a tax increase
— the recession, the welfare lobby,
the education system — won't go away
just because Phil Mastin and David Serotkin
have been recalled The process of
raising revenue and managing budgets is
a continuing one It will take continuing
work from dedicated people, and the only
question is: Which people 0 The 1984 and
1986 elections will answer that.
There are three fundamental lessons we
all can learn from the two recent special
elections:
1. Recalls haven't lowered taxes.
2. Recalls haven't lowered taxes
"l 3. Recalls haven't lowered taxes
•t
Christmas fun
when you're poor
STRANGE AS it may seem, there are
times when there is an advantage in being
poor.
You learn to appreciate things, you
learn to do things with your hands, and
you get more fun out of it than the folks
who can afford many niceties of the season
These thoughts came back to The
Stroller the other day when he looked
back to the fun we used to have as Christmas
drew near
First, we learned to make paper chains
to decorate the tree at school We d take
colored paper, cut it in narrow strips and
then paste the strips into rings Once the
rings were made, we'd string them around
the room
They'd dip from the molding around the
room By the time we were finished, even
the teacher would have words of praise
for our ingenuity But making rings wasn't
everything
J- WE YOUNGSTERS made chains out of
Jppcorn We'd thread it and then use them
place of tinsel to decorate the school
tree By the time we had the paper chains
*»id popcorn strings made, we had our
room done up real well for the yuletide
!• That wasn't the end of the decorations
£Our teacher, a single lady with real
feeling for the youngsters, brought a settee
of cardboards to school. When we
Med her what could be done with them.
y smiled and said. "Now we are really
Iftng to do some fancy things "
• Along with the cardboard, she brought a
Mw pairs of shears. Then she put us to
*»rk cutting figures out of the board to
iftt our imagination at the Christmas
> Before the first morning class was end
#d- she had us making stars and trimming
|Mm with tinsel Then she'd give us a
re&gh idea of Santa and his sleigh
POU SHOULD have seen some of the
uples when we finished the class*
i classmates even had reindeer and
waving What a lot of fun it was by
1 time we had our room finished for the
if Christmas program _ . .
was during this period that The
got his first experience as a
He was given tbe task of reciting
Christmas poem. And from that experience
be went on in later life to become
the stroller
l_w.w.
Edgar
an after-dinner speaker.
The sessions in school paved the way for
our family to have a decorated front room
for Christmas — and one year we even
had a tree It wasn't much when we got it
as a gift from the Christmas tree salesman
down the street. It had a crooked
trunk, but we took it.
You should have seen it on Christmas
morning It was decorated with popcorn
chains, paper rings and even colored paper
around the edges of the stars to hang
on the tree.
Some of us went so far as to cut out
bells and cover them with red paper to
hang on the tree And because each of us
had cut out a Santa at school, we had more
Santas hanging from our tree than anyother
family around
IT WAS A lot of fun as we were growing
up The fact that we made the trimmings
ourselves and didn't buy someone else's
work made it all the more satisfying on
Christmas morning when we raced to the
front room of our little home in an alley to
see what Santa had left for us
It sure was a lot more fun than we
would have had if all the trimmings had
been bought, and the work we did with our
hands in those days stood us in good stead
when we grew older
We had the advantage of being poor
and it paid off later in life
discover
Michigan
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