Jack Lessenberry Essays and Interviews

Essay: Soda Pop Blues - 2/21/07

When I began elementary school in the 1950s, anybody who suggested putting coke machines in the schools would probably have been seen as part of a communist plot to undermine the stamina of America’s youth. I do remember one teacher put a tooth -- I think it was a baby tooth -- in a glass of cola.

Within a fairly short time the tooth dissolved. This made a powerful impression on me. But what I did not know then -- nobody did -- was how really bad sweet, sugary drinks are for kids.

There have been numerous studies since then conclusively linking kiddie soft drink consumption to obesity. And there is absolutely no doubt that there is an epidemic of child obesity.

And statistics show that Michigan is one of the fattest states of all. Yet a survey three years ago found that sodas were sold in 98 percent of all senior high schools in the nation and three-quarters of all middle schools. When State Senator Virg Bernero and a few allies tried to get pop out of our schools that year, the soft drink lobby worked overtime to make sure his bill didn’t even come up for a vote.

Since then, public awareness of the problem has significantly grown. Last year, the American Beverage Association signed a voluntary agreement with the American Heart Association’s Alliance for a Healthier Generation. Their goal is to get all sodas out of our schools within three years, and to limit other snacks and sugar drinks.

That would be very nice. But while many Americans have a sugar addiction, schools have a revenue addiction. Many of them need extra money to run athletic programs and marching bands in a time of shrinking state support.  Long-term contracts with beverage distribution companies in many cases provides it.

The Plymouth-Canton schools in an affluent part of suburban Wayne County recently went cold turkey on pop, except for sugar-free soda. That will cost the district about $200,000 a year.

And as a separate issue, should our cash-strapped state now move to extend the state sales tax to soda pop, perhaps with the idea of giving that money to the schools?

So far, the governor has not moved to do so. Her budget package includes a request for an increased taxes on cigarettes and hard liquor, but not on beer. In the past, the Michigan Soft Drink Association has argued  that soft drinks are a food, and so shouldn’t be taxed at all. Yes, and heroin is a mild sedative.

Fortunately, I have a common sense, pro-business solution. Give the soft-drink industry a choice. They can accept a sales tax on their products, or they can pay all the medical costs associated with child obesity in this state.

They also get to pay their fair share of adult dental and diabetes costs. Can‘t think of anything fairer than that.

Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’m going to not go get a coke.

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Interview: Virg Bernero - 2/21/07

The state of Michigan is in dire need of money. Doctors are increasingly concerned about the dire effects of soft drinks, especially on children. So what about a tax on soda pop? Lansing Mayor Virg Bernero tried to establish one when he was in the state senate.   Michigan Radio’s Jack Lessenberry spoke with him.

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Essay: Ask Alice - 2/20/07

Normally I have little patience with anyone who tries to tell other people how to live their lives. And I have no use whatsoever for politicians who try to force their own moral views on other adults.

That being said, I think it should be totally illegal for someone to walk into a crowded restaurant and put a bar of radioactive plutonium down on the table. Yes, the plutonium carrier would get the worst of it.

But he or she would also risk the lives of the other diners and the waitstaff as well.  That is exactly why I support Representative Tom George’s bill to ban smoking in Michigan restaurants, bars, and workplaces. Smokers kill themselves by the hundreds of thousands in this country, mostly in long, drawn-out, and painful and nasty ways.

You can, I suppose, make the libertarian argument that they have a perfect right to ruin their own lives, just as a heavy drinker does.

That argument is a little flawed, of course, since it is clear that smoking and drinking add billions to the cost of health care every year, a cost that is clearly shared by millions of non-smokers.

But there are some very real differences between drinking and smoking. Some alcohol in moderation, especially red wine, seems to be good for your health. Smoking is always bad for you.

More importantly, if you are sitting next to me in a restaurant, drinking your liver into oblivion, it doesn’t affect me one bit, long as someone keeps you from getting behind the wheel.

But second-hand smoke kills people. There are many statistics I could cite to prove this, but I would prefer you instead read “About Alice,” Calvin Trillin’s short, heartbreaking new book about his wife, who appears in cameo in much of his writing.

The lovely and legendary Alice Trillin never smoked in her life. But her parents did, and she got lung cancer. She beat the cancer, but the radiation did in her heart. She died suddenly in a New York hospital, ironically on the one day on which even the literary community failed to note her passing.  It was September 11, 2001.

Less than five years later it was the turn of the gallant actress Dana Reeve, widow of the gallant actor known as Superman. She didn’t smoke either, but lung cancer killed her all the same.

Last year, Iraqi insurgents killed about 900 Americans, and smoking 438,000. What we should keep in mind is that a steadily smaller minority of Americans smoke – only about one in five.

Do we really want to let them endanger the lives of the rest of us?  Politically, this issue sometimes cuts across traditional alliances. Democrats have sometimes opposed a smoking ban because a higher percentage of their traditional blue collar voters smoke.

But this time, Dr. George’s bill is being co-sponsored by Democrats from the working class towns of Taylor and Flint.  Here’s hoping that not poisoning the air is an idea whose time has come.

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Interview: Tom George - 2/20/07

Smoking now kills hundreds of thousands of Americans every year. And more and more states are enacting tough smoking bans in bars and restaurants. State Senator Tom George wants Michigan to do the same.  He is a physician and a Republican from Kalamazoo.  He and democrat Ray Basham have introduced legislation that would ban smoking in bars, restaurants and workplaces.  Michigan Radio’s Jack Lessenberry spoke with Senator George.

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Essay: Rapid Transit - 2/19/07

Most so-called serious discussions about public transit in Michigan have gone like this. Nice idea, but it would cost an awful lot, and nobody would use it. How do we know that?

Well, nobody here is using it now. They are all spoiled and used to their cars, and wouldn’t make the switch. So forget about it.

What we‘ve proven in this state is that if we don‘t build it, they won‘t come. Every time I am in a city that has mass transit -- New York, Washington, Boston, San Francisco -- people do use it.

The trains are packed. Nobody sane would dream of trying to get around those cities on a daily basis by car. My guess is that transit has contributed to the flourishing of all those cities’ downtowns.

Now, after years of discussions about public transit essentially going nowhere, the Michigan House has established a subcommittee to look at public transit. I can just see the smirks on the faces of some of  the Republicans who control the state senate.

They probably expect some wacky bill to spend billions to extend Detroit’s People Mover. But that’s not what’s likely to happen. I have known Marie Donigan, the commission’s chair, for many years.

She is a sensible middle-aged former landscape architect who grew up in the suburbs. Her husband is president of the local school board. When she was asked to chair this subcommittee, she said she saw its mission as “to elevate the discussion about public transit in a way that reflects its importance as an economic development issue.”

Following that, she hopes to, quote, “spur action in a logical, purposeful and cohesive way.” That makes a lot of sense. Actions of any kind have consequences. Once, when I was in junior high school, someone asked how you could get around if you didn’t drive.

Someone else said that well, you could take the bus. The teacher then said that buses were for colored cleaning ladies. He would get in trouble for saying that today. But there still are a lot of people who still think like that.  And we have treated our central cities as if they were disposable trash, to be used up and abandoned.

You don‘t have to be Ralph Nader, or the head of OPEC, to figure out that we won‘t be able to sustain that lifestyle too many more years.  Public transit would make a statement that we care about  places, and might spur us into taking better care of our nests.

It would help the Detroit area on all levels, including employers who want full-time workers.

Someone once said that mass transit supporters were operating on blind faith of the “if we build it, they will come,” variety. But when I look around Michigan today, I see a brain and a population drain. And I think, “if we build it, maybe they won‘t go.”      

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Interview: Marie Donigan - 2/19/07

Michigan Democrats last week announced a new public transit subcommittee that is designed to help the state get serious about improving public transit in Michigan.  Marie Donigan, a Democrat from Royal Oak, is the subcommittee chair.  Michigan Radio’s Jack Lessenberry spoke with her.

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Essay: Life After Prison - 2/16/07

So we’ve got all these prisoners who we are going to release early to save the state money. Fantastic.

Good idea … in theory.

Now tell me -- what happens to them once they get out? Well, according to the Department of Corrections, 117 of them can be deported. That’s simple enough. Another 572 are elderly or infirm.

Well, those guys -- and the vast majority are guys -- may not be likely to go on a cross-country killing spree. But who is going to take care of them? Who is going to pay for their medical expenses?

My guess is that very few are tax fraud cases returning to mansions in Charlevoix. Nor do many of them have supportive family networks, or any way of getting health insurance.

They will continue to be some kind of drain on society. What about the other four thousand or so who we are going to release early? What are they going to do? They are coming out into a world where tens of thousands of auto workers have lost or are losing their jobs. Plants are closing. Whirlpool is gone. Wixom is going.

I have a good friend who has an engineering degree and an MBA and twenty years of experience. Her company downsized her last September and she can’t find a job.

Who is going to provide jobs for four thousand convicts?

Nobody, that’s who. If I were a convict and I was released today, into one of our cities’ mean streets and these howling cold temperatures, I would be sorely tempted to start breaking storefront windows, so that they would arrest me and put me back inside.

There it is warm at least, and they would give me three hots and a cot. So now what I am going to do is say the dirtiest words the talking heads on Fox TV could ever imagine.

Socialism.  Mixed economy. Public sector.

We need some of all three. Look: Back during the Great Depression, Franklin D. Roosevelt, may his name be praised, put people to work.

Most people know about the Civilian Conservation Corps. But there was also the WPA, the Works Progress Administration, which did everything from putting up public buildings to publishing books.

Yesterday I drove through Highland Park, an enclave city raped and left for dead by both Ford and Chrysler. The WPA post office with its magnificent eagle is one of the few decent buildings left.

Why can’t the state put a lot of these people to work, doing things that need to be done? Forget make-work jobs. Our infrastructure is falling apart. Our cities need cleaning up.

So do our beaches and our forests.  You can worship at the shrine of private enterprise all you want to. But the private sector has nothing to offer these people. If they are turned loose on the streets without prospects, they are apt to make the private sector suffer.

So I suggest a little socialism, and a lot of common sense.

Together, they can be a beautiful thing. 

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Interview: Russ Marlan - 2/16/07

Michigan’s prison population has quadrupled in the last quarter-century. The state is now spending more on corrections than on higher education.  But the total number of prisoners -- and the cost of keeping them locked up -- is projected to keep increasing. Russ Marlan is a spokesman for the Michigan Department of Corrections.  Michigan Radio’s Jack Lessenberry spoke with him.

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Essay: Immunity Syndrome - 2/15/07

What do you think of this idea to help the domestic auto industry? Michigan should immediately enact legislation granting the automakers total immunity from product liability lawsuits.

That means if the gas tank on your Bulgemobile explodes, incinerating junior in the back seat, well, too bad. What if the motor mounts drop off your 2004 Cheetah convertible, leaving you stranded on I-96 somewhere east of Muskegon when it is five above zero?

Not their fault. You might think that sounds nuts. You know that would mean that every automaker would promptly route any lemon to Michigan, as well as any model about which they have safety concerns.

Yet that’s the deal the drug companies have now.

They have been virtually immune from product liability lawsuits since 1996.  They were granted that deal by a Republican legislature and John Engler, the most business-friendly Michigan governor since the 1920s. Yet it is hard to see how the state has gained from what hasn’t even been a Faustian bargain. Last month, without warning, Pfizer, which bought the homegrown Upjohn company four years ago, announced it was completely closing its research facility in Ann Arbor.

Nor have other pharmaceutical companies flocked to the state. But even if they had, the idea of giving any person or anything total immunity from any kind of wrongdoing sounds completely wrong.

Worse than that, it sounds un-American.  Yes, frivolous lawsuits are a pain for anybody, but there is a simple way of dealing with them.

And that is, to make the party that brings a lawsuit that is judged to be without merit pay heavy-duty court costs. Make them pay for taking up the time of all the officers of the court involved, as well as the legal expenses of the offended party. Overworked judges with crowded dockets are less and less sympathetic to foolish shenanigans.

Yet every citizen should have the right to seek redress of their grievances in court. Mike Simpson’s bill has some competition in the House; Gary McDowell, a fellow Democrat from the Upper Peninsula, has introduced a bill that would allow citizens to seek retroactive relief. He would end drug companies’ immunity, and then allow people to sue them for products they produced and things that happened while they still had immunity. That doesn’t seem fair.

Matter of fact, it sounds like an unconstitutional, ex post facto law.  Frankly, though Simpson is a Democrat, it seems to me that his bill is one honest Republicans should welcome and support.

President Bush often says he intends to usher in a new era of personal responsibility.  That responsibility should certainly extend to companies being responsible for what they make.

The president’s party is also the party of personal freedom. That means every man has the right to seek justice in the courts.

That kind of scrutiny should present no threat to businesses of integrity that are proud of their products.

Isn’t it nice to find an issue on which we can all agree?

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Interview: Mike Simpson - 2/15/07

Michigan is the only state in the nation where citizens are not allowed to sue drug companies if they think there is something wrong with their products.  For years, Democrats have wanted to overturn that prohibition, but Republicans have controlled the legislature. But Democrats now have control of the house and may have enough votes in the senate.  State Representative Mike Simpson is introducing a bill that would repeal the drug companies’ immunity. Michigan Radio’s Jack Lessenberry spoke with him.

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