Anti-John Engler Earth Day Speech

[asagady@sojourn.com]

Below please find a copy of a recent stump speech I gave this
past weekend.....

...  Frequent plagiarism of it is permitted and encouraged...

--------------------------------------------

Remarks of Alexander J. Sagady, Volunteer for the 
Mackinac Chapter of the Sierra Club, to the Convocation of the
Celebration of Life/Earth Day event, April 19 at the
University of Michigan-Flint


JOHN ENGLER VS. MICHIGAN'S ENVIRONMENTAL
PROTECTION AND CONSERVATION HERITAGE


Thanks for the opportunity to be here.  It certainly is
an honor to speak at the same podium as Congressman 
Dale Kildee, Father of the Michigan Wilderness Law, 
and Senator John Cherry, the toughest, smartest 
environmental advocate that Michigan citizens have 
in the Michigan Senate.

You know...  Michigan is one hell-of-a state.....

Our citizens in the past haven't allowed the polluters 
and the detroyers of our environment to run rampant 
as they have in states like Ohio, Indiana, Louisiana 
and Texas.

Every child who swims for the first time at a Great 
Lakes shoreline understands how special our state is.

Every young boy and girl who goes to Michigan's 
northwoods with their fathers to hunt, fish and 
explore understands.

Every UAW worker who takes his boat for a weekend 
of fishing and relaxing out on Saginaw Bay to escape 
for a while from the assembly line understands.

Every high school and college student who hikes 
the Pictured Rocks or other wilderness in the UP, 
or spends a day climbing over the Sleeping Bear 
Dunes understands.

We've had past Michigan Governors who have understood 
just how special a place Michigan is....  Bill Milliken, 
Soapy Williams, George Romney, and even Jim Blanchard.  

They all understood and respected Michigan's strong 
environmental protection and conservation traditions.

And for those who understand that Michigan is a 
special place, they also understand that threats 
to our families, our communities, our natural resources 
and our health are clear and present and real.

Those citizens...people of color in poor communities 
on the northeast side of Flint who are fighting the 
demolition waste incinerator....they understand the threat...

Industrial workers, farmers exposed to PBB, victims 
of community air and water pollution....  They know the 
threats from poor control of toxic chemical discharges to 
air, water and land....they understand the clear and 
present danger to all and the need for vigilance, 
enforcement and tough regulation....

YET, EVEN NOW, WE KNOW IGNORANCE, GREED
AND EVEN LATELY, EXTREME RIGHT WING IDEOLOGY, 
THREATENS THE ENVIRONMENT OF OUR STATE 
AND ITS CITIZENS.

For we now know, THE BIGGEST THREAT TO...

....Michigan's Natural Heritage of Air, Water and Land..

....Our Great Lakes...

....To the Environmental Health of Children, Families and Communities...

....To Michigan's Environmental Protection and Conservation Heritage...

....To the Ability of Ordinary Citizens to Protect Their Families, 
     Communities and Our State's Resources from Pollution, 
     Impairment and Destruction...

THE BIGGEST THREAT TO ALL THAT WE HOLD DEAR AS 
CITIZEN GUARDIANS AND STEWARDS OF MICHIGAN'S 
ENVIRONMENT... IS A MAN...

....AND HIS NAME IS ......JOHN M. ENGLER,

....THE WORST, ANTI-ENVIRONMENT, ANTI-CONSERVATION, 
ANTI-HUNTING AND FISHING...GOVERNOR IN 60 YEARS....

John Engler is a man who does not represent the concerns of you 
and I, Michigan citizens who care about environment and conservation....

He is an interloper who inhabits the Office of Governor who does 
NOT hold the interests of Michigan's people and environment at heart.

He Is a Governor for the Cato Institute, the Heritage Foundation, 
the American Legislative Exchange Council, the Hudson Institute, 
the Heartland Institute, the Competitive Enterprise Institute.   

These right wing think tanks know that Michigan has been a 
national leader in environmental protection and conservation, 
and through their self-interest, they want to destroy the spirit 
and leadership of Michigan citizens in their guardianship 
and stewardship of Michigan's environment.

These so-called 'think tanks' of the extreme right fawn over 
Big John and his pandering to the notion that all Michigan has 
done in the last 40 years in environmental protection and 
conservation Is wrong.

John Engler and the Washington DC extremist think tanks 
spread lies and distortions about environmental protection 
and conservation....

.....That industry will clean up voluntarily...

.....That environmental laws and regulations should be relaxed, 
      rolled back, eliminated...

....That our public servants who Michigan laws designate as the 
     prime protectors and stewards of Michigan's resources and 
     protectors of public health must be restrained and kept on 
     a short leash...

....That Michigan environmental and public health protection 
     and conservation of our resources is a matter that should 
     be under political control of politicians rather than under 
     volunteer commission governance.

You and I....citizens who understand and love our state... know 
that these Washington DC right wing think tanks weren't the 
ones who rescued Lake Erie, who cleaned our air, who protected 
the wilderness, who made the Detroit River fishable and swimmable.

It was the demands of ordinary citizens like you and I...

Not some industry funded right-wing think tank....

SO WHAT HAS JOHN ENGLER WROUGHT IN OUR STATE???????

He destroyed Michigan's system of natural resources and 
environmental protection governance by citizen boards and 
commissions.

He has pushed through the legislature a Pollution Secrecy and 
Enforcement Laxity Law allowing companies and local government 
to hide environmental violations and escape criminal and 
civil enforcement and penalties.

He has emasculated the toughest law in the country designed to 
ensure that polluters be responsible and clean up their spills and 
groundwater contamination.

And what hypocracy!!!!   We have a governor who is totally opposed 
to abortion, yet Big John's Fetus Policy is that it is OK to poison 
unborn children with toxic fish from the Great Lakes.....

And when you call him on it, you get a lecture about so-called 
"junk science"....

Yet,  you can read in the most prestigious medical journal in the 
world, the New England Journal of Medicine, that Michigan 
women who consume moderate amounts Great Lakes fish 
have children with reduced memory capability and intelligence 
quotients.

So the hand of John Engler's shocking indifference falls upon 
unborn generations...

Under Engler, we have a Director of the Michigan Department 
of Environmental Quality....Russell Harding ...who is openly 
hostile to environmental protection, comparing citizens who 
care about our state to "vampires" in public letters to the 
Detroit Free Press.

Under Harding, public employees of the Department have 
been demoralized with Harding's interference in enforcement 
and constant push to weaken state environmental regulations.

In fell swoop, John Engler set a precedent trashing Michigan's 
Environmental Protection Act and lining the pockets of oil 
speculators -- his campaign contributors--- with nearly 
$90 million public dollars....

....90 million public dollars......

.....in a deal to buy out these speculators who had purchased 
mineral rights in the Nordhouse Dunes, yet were not entitled 
to develop these resources under Michigan law.  

And this so-called Republican, who would make 
Teddy Roosevelt spin in his grave, is getting ready with another
massive buyout of an oil speculator in the Jordon River Valley.  

So much for fiscal conservatism and holding the line on spending.

Just remember that $90 million of public money going down the 
tubes next time you run over another monster pothole on 
Michigan's deteriorating roads.   

....and remember also that John Engler wants to spend 
millions on a US 23 Freeway to nowhere, destroying farmland and 
wildlife habitat on an unneeded superhighway project.

....And remember John Engler, as he opposes national air quality 
standards needed to protection children and people with 
respiratory diseases from harmful ozone and particulate 
matter pollution..

....And when you go up on Lake Superior, remember that 
John Engler is advocating a dangerous solution mining project 
that could ultimately cause a permanent mine drainage problem...

....a literally unsolvable, untreatable drainage of pollution into 
Lake Superior.

....And remember it is John Engler who is trying to undermine 
the regional Great Lakes Initiative to get pollution inputs to 
our fantastic water resources under control.....

I could go on and on.....

Those of us who watch the Engler Administration closely know 
that every week there is another outrageous edict from 
John Engler, Russell Harding, K. L. Cool, John Truscott and 
the rest of the Engler cabal.

And we know the worst nightmare is that John Engler will 
lose 40 pounds, think up a good excuse for draft dodging 
and that this extremist, ambitious politician will make a run 
for the presidency.

My Michigan friends....  We must not let that happen...

We must cut off Engler at the knees politically so that the 
whole nation will know his record and so that he cannot 
continue Michigan on a path of environmental destruction 
and waste of resources.

Thank you very much.

-30-


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Alex J. Sagady & Associates        Email:  asagady@sojourn.com
Environmental Consulting and Database Systems
PO Box 39  East Lansing, MI  48826-0039  
(517) 332-6971 (voice); (517) 332-8987 (fax)


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-----------------------------
Alex J. Sagady & Associates        Email:  asagady@sojourn.com
Environmental Consulting and Database Systems
PO Box 39  East Lansing, MI  48826-0039  
(517) 332-6971 (voice); (517) 332-8987 (fax)