Local political rally and march held to promote voting rights and honor John Lewis
MIDLAND, Mich. — A number of local groups gathered at the Nicholson-Guenther Band Shell in Central Park on Saturday to rally and march to celebrate the legacy of John Lewis and support the For The People Act. Speakers at the rally included U.S. Rep. Dan Kildee as well as leaders from Voters Not Politicians, the League of Women Voters of the Midland Area, the Women of Michigan Action Network and the Michigan Center for Progressive Public Policy.
The rally took place in conjunction with a nationwide event, the National John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Action Day, which included hundreds of cities across the country. Locally, the event was a response in support of H.R. 1 / S 1, H.R. 4 and other voting rights legislation.
After the speakers addressed a small crowd, a march was held which took participants down the sidewalks of Rodd to Saginaw Road, to Ashman, to Collins and back to the Band Shell.
“In a complex society such as ours… it is not only natural that we have big disagreements, it’s also not wrong that we have those disagreements,” said Mr. Kildee. “In fact, that is democracy. Places that don’t manifest their disagreements in argument are places that never experience self-governance or self-rule. So we should celebrate the arguments that we have, but sadly, in the times that we’re in, those disagreements have become sources of division.”
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Dr. Jill Crissman spoke after Mr. Kildee and read a prepared statement representing Voters Not Politicians.
“Today, Voters Not Politicians is working hard to advance state ethics and openness laws in the legislature. And they are opposing a package of bills that would suppress the vote within our state,” she said. “We do not need new laws that pretend to be about voter security, which we all know are really about voter suppression.”
Nationally, Major League Baseball recently took a stand by relocating the 2021 All-Star Game from the City of Atlanta in response to a new Georgia law that sent Civil Rights groups into an outrage, claiming it restricted the access of voting to people of color.
“Just this week, our Executive Director testified before the Senate Elections Committee to tell the members there that we are opposed to these bills and that we are going to make sure that their constituents know how they were voting on these anti-voting bills,” said Ms. Crissman. “These bills come on the heels of a historically successful election where more than 5.5 million Michiganders exercised their constitutional right to vote in the 2020 Presidential Election. That’s the most ever and highest percentage of voting-age residents to cast a ballot in 60 years.”
“I have spent my whole life, in one way or another, committed to participating in the democratic process,” Mr. Kildee said, before offering criticism of the Republican Party.
“We now have a group of people who are members of, but don’t bear any relationship to, what was once a great Party — one that I have a lot of disagreement with — but a Party that had its own legitimate voice, becoming a cult. A cult essentially professing its fealty to a single person. Now, a cult professing its fealty to a single person is bad enough … but this person?”
Mr. Kildee continued.
“A person who represents all that’s wrong with the concentration of wealth and the lack of intellectual curiosity that’s so present. It’s really sad. To the extent that that cult is now willing to sacrifice something that we’ve held on to and tried to perfect for 240 years, and continue to work to perfect, and that’s democratic self-rule. It is now a ‘big lie’ that an election that goes against you was really an election. It was now a coup.”
Mr. Kildee criticized the nation-wide trend of Republican-controlled state legislatures passing laws which limit voting or change voting procedures after the controversial 2020 presidential election.
“Those who hold power, certainly in our state, and in many other states, decided that the way to win is to cheat. The way to win is to make sure that they other side, according to them, can’t fully participate. They’re not willing to submit the questions that our society is trying to answer to a fair representation of the people. They want the question to be answered by themselves for all of us, so they’re doing everything they can across the country, including here, to limit our right to vote — to try to reduce the number of people who don’t share their views from expressing themselves in a democratic society.”
Mr. Kildee said that he said yes to the invitation to come to Midland because the event was presented in honor of former U.S. Rep John Lewis, who was a friend of Mr. Kildee.
“I’ve known about John Lewis my whole life. Ever since the Selma to Montgomery march when I was just a kid, and I began to learn about that of course when I got older. And so when I got elected to Congress, I thought to myself, well this is really gonna be cool, because I get to go to work every day in the same place where John Lewis works. This is a man who’s dedicated his whole life, and nearly gave his life, multiple times, for the right to vote which is being attacked who when John passed, or when John was being honored, could say the nice words about John, but now would take away everything he spent his whole life trying to create in the name of their own narrow, selfish, interests. Shame on them.
Mr. Kildee said that toward the end of Mr. Lewis’ life and tenure in Congress, he asked Mr. Kildee to vote for him on the U.S. House floor, calling that the “greatest honor any individual has ever given me.”
Midland County G.O.P. chairperson Cathy Leikhim sent out a statement shortly before Mr. Kildee took the stage on Saturday.
“It is disappointing to see out of touch Flint Congressman Dan Kildee coming to our area to promote a federal government takeover of our election laws. He supported the supposed ‘For the People Act,’ H.R. 1 which would eliminate state election laws across the country. It would ban common-sense election security practices like Voter ID Laws and signature matching. It would also allow taxpayer dollars to be used to pay for political campaigns.”
Ms. Leikhim also attacked Mr. Kildee for traveling out of his district to deliver his remarks.
“I think we can all agree that these policies are not representative of our community. Flint Congressman Kildee doesn’t represent this area. He represents increased taxes, big government and massive spending. While residents of his district may be okay with this, here in Midland we are not,” Ms. Leikhim said.
Mr. Kildee responded to Ms. Leikhim’s statement.
“That’s just typical partisan hackery. I’m here to honor my friend John Lewis, who would never issue a statement like that. John believed that our differences are OK, and so do I, and I don’t mind that somebody might disagree with me when it comes to laws to protect the right to vote. I think people should read H.R. 1 before they decide what’s in it, because the way it’s described is not exactly the way it was written. But I think the problem with a statement like that, is that it just doubles down on all this division.”
A.J. Hoffman covers education and the arts for the City Paper. Michael Westendorf is executive editor & CEO of Chemical City Paper.