MSA Update

Wow, quite a meeting yesterday. We approved the Budget Priorities Committee's funding requests unanimously, had about 10 constituents speak during constituent's time, and passed about 5 resolutions. The controversial "Resolution opposed to the MCRI" was up for vote, so 6 people spoke in favor, including 2 very inspiring speeches from Cass Tech seniors, and one person spoke against. The 2 high schoolers were definitely the highlight of the night for me; they really spoke from the heart and made a strong case. I was also amazed by the radical nature of the speeches from MSA members, including such phrases as "if we left it up to the people to decide, we'd be back to segregation." Such ridiculous hyperbole was coming out fast and furious, and it really showed that for someone who considers himself an open-minded liberal, I'm really a moderate/borderline conservative on this Assembly. Also in constituent's time, I made a brief speech on my problems with the adversarial tone some MSA members took last week when Donica Varner came in (a much better solution than just bitching in this blog).
Now, to the resolutions. One gave 5,000 dollars to help bring the Roots to campus, which I supported (although if they didn't pick the Roots they would bring the Shins, which would rock so much harder), 2 made a stand for LGBT rights, and then the MCRI one. Now, I must say, this is the first time I did not vote with the activists on the Assembly, as I voted no on this resolution. My reasoning is this: I didn't vote it down b/c I'm against affirmative action (I'm for it), I didn't vote it down b/c I don't think MSA should take on controversial issues (I think we should), I voted it down because what we are saying is that we do not want the people to be able to even have a choice on the issue. We are saying that we want to deny the most democratic process out there (the ballot initiative) merely for our own personal opinions on the issue. Now, some are saying that the MCRI is deceitful and confusing, but if this is the case then the courts will throw out their petitions (as they've done in the past). It is not the job of the Assembly to judge the legality of a ballot proposal. I hope that after this we will not focus so much on affirmative action and move on to more substantive changes that everyone will benefit from.