It came in the mail - this time of year, it tends to. You know the type. Very slick. 100-lb gloss cover stock. Four-color process. Eight and a half by eleven. Full bleed on all sides: "Vote for Dunderhead."
If our state Senators would set aside half as much money for the poor as they do for their own re-election campaigns we wouldn't have homeless people camping in Kalamazoo's Bronson Park.
Or did we lock them all up last night? I didn't watch the news.
My state Senator is Margaret O'Brien. But I'd really rather have somebody else. Why? Because she didn't help the most vulnerable (if not the most valuable) of her constituents - not the campers. The Hellers.
After my 12-year old nephew Charlie died in a tragic accident while playing in the maple tree in his front yard in July, 2015, County Medical Examiner Joyce deJong chose (this was entirely of her own choosing) to conduct a full post mortem autopsy, including brain sectioning, including removing the fluid from his eyeballs, including dissecting his neck all the way "to the mandible". Gross, in every sense of the word.
We didn't want, authorize or appreciate any such thing, which we view as unnecessary mutilation done for the purpose of collecting money from the County, which has no problem giving it to her.
That was more than bad enough, the loss of a child, but was deliberately made worse as deJong (no stranger to controversy or courtrooms) still refuses to change the Cause of Death on Charlie's death certificate from Suicide, despite the fact there is no evidence he intended to do such a thing.
He was a little kid.
He was playing.
In his front yard.
In broad daylight.
In the tree where the tree fort and the play rope had been since he was knee-high to a grasshopper.
The medical examiner's story is pure bullshit. That's what this blog is about.
We contacted Margaret O'Brien's office to find out who has the authority to enact the sort of change we were asking for, since the M.E. didn't exactly follow Miss Manners's advice about what to do when folks say "please".
Margaret O'Brien's office told us that the County Commission had the power to do that. So we asked our County Commissioner, John Taylor. He did not respond at all. Just... silence. He knew better than to run for that seat again, and instead challenged Tim Snow for County Clerk, and lost. He was just about the only Democrat in 2016 who failed to win in this deep blue county, this shit hole, this Kalamazoo.
We contacted the next Commissioner for our district, Tracy Hall, and that person engaged in a kabuki dance with the County Corporations Counsel and my sister's estimable attorney. Time passed, nothing happened, and I encourage you to vote against her, too. Another Commissioner was also contacted, but did not advocate on our behalf to the other 10 Commissioners (total combined annual salary: $132,000).
Of course not; why, the County Commission, despite knowing all of this, just appointed the incompetent deJong to a new four-year term as M.E. We already know which side of their butter has the bread on it.
With the Commission being a pointless endeavor, we went ahead and filed an administrative appeal of the Medical Examiner's decision. We filed it in the 9th Circuit Court in Kalamazoo County, which is the jurisdiction we were directed to by our state Senator, Margaret O'Brien. The pro-tem judge in our case, Alexander C. Lipsey, sided with his employer (Kalamazoo County). Surprise, surprise. He has a tendency - at least from the cases I've sat through - to side with the monied interest, which is odd for a purported Democrat.
Do you see the sort of superconductor of stupidity we are faced with in our own government, a Stuporconductor, if you will? They tax us, they use our tax money to defend themselves against us in court, use more of our tax money to hear the case, and they rule against us anyway... I might as well get a County job, put a nice little bow on the whole stupid thing.
One might be more disappointed in such behavior from our elected ingrates if it didn't come across as being routine. And rehearsed.
So when I get this slick, glossy, colorful, full-size mailer coming from the person who has taken our money but not provided a service, that being representation, it makes me want to throw up.
The way the scent of formaldehyde does.
Margaret's mailer is both disgusting and cynical, as she tries to piggyback her own fortunes onto those of the brave survivors of yet another sickening Michigan monster that everyone pretended not to see, Larry Nassar. (Ah, Michigan... So many.)
Senator O'Brien is now apparently taking credit for having "listened and is leading the fight for justice"... Not for us, though.
Senator O'Brien is saying she wants to "ensure the accused are brought to justice". There's that word again. It was Shakespeare who wrote, "Words are easy, like the wind."
Senator O'Brien closes her argument by telling you (not asking you) to "Thank Margaret O'Brien for fighting for justice by visiting [REDACTED].com".
Well, no thanks, because when we asked her for help, she didn't really do anything for us. Possibly because we didn't donate any money to her campaign. You know. Keep those presses rolling.
If you want representation, as a citizen, you'll need to vote for whoever is running against Margaret O'Brien. I don't know or care who that is.
pH 9.19.18
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UPDATE: She lost to Sean McCann, who, incidentally, received a $750 campaign contribution from Kalamazoo County Circuit Court Judge Alexander C. Lipsey, who has ruled against my sister in two separate court cases having to do with her son's tragic passing. O'Brien landed on her feet, as the GOP hired her to be the "Secretary of the Senate"... Tough life.
