EDITOR:

This November we have an opportunity to change our state and our nation for the better. But election campaigns are so negative, that we seem to only hear dire predictions about the bad things that change may bring.

To lend balance to this negative view, I would like to point out some good things that will happen across the U.P. and all around Michigan when you vote for Democrats this fall.

Above all else, people — not corporations or special interests, will come first. This means that our public schools will be fully and properly funded again. Your tax money will not be diverted to pay for partisan, parochial or for-profit schools. Teachers’ pensions will be reinstated, so we can compete for the best new teachers. Successful preschool programs like Head Start and Great Start will be strengthened, not cut-back, or eliminated.

Affordable higher education — including real-world vocational and technical training will be made available to everyone in Michigan. Abuses in our schools and Universities will be openly addressed and resolved, so they won’t happen again.

The Republican tax on your hard-earned pension income will be rescinded. And Democrats will strengthen your Medicare and Social Security benefits, not cut or privatize them. You paid for your benefits while you worked — you earned them.

Programs for seniors and the disabled such as Meal on Wheels will be supported, not cut-back.

Michigan’s unfair, union-busting “Right to Work” law will be junked, and intimidation tactics such as “at will” employment clauses will be banned. Skilled workers will be paid the prevailing wage for the hard work they do.

Our worn out roads and bridges will be repaired, and a new and necessary Soo lock will finally be built. Michigan’s rural areas such as the U.P. will get high speed internet; a key to education, training and future economic growth.

Democrats will protect our environment and keep our lakes, rivers, drinking water and air safe and clean. Investment in renewable, clean energy sources, such as Escanaba’s planned solar farm will be fostered.

Our U.P. correctional facilities will be kept open, protecting our citizens and providing good jobs in places where people need them, such as Baraga and Luce counties.

The national disgrace of poor and homeless veterans with untreated conditions will be eradicated, and affordable health care will be made available for all: children, women and men.

When disaster strikes, all Americans will get swift, adequate relief, no matter where they live — city, state or territory. And you can trust that no child will ever-again be separated from his/ her parents and held in a cage, like an animal.

These are just a few of the good things that will happen when you embrace the change and vote Democratic, from top to bottom on the November ballot. For a change, people will come first.

Dan Young

Escanaba