By By JOHN EBY / Dowagiac Daily News
Southwestern Michigan College nursing student Steven Brown, 26, was disheartened to return home to Dowagiac after serving in Iraq two years ago and not be able to find a decent-paying job.
The 2000 Union High School graduate addressed U.S. Sen. Carl Levin, D-Michigan, in the SMC commons Wednesday.
Not only is it difficult to make more than $7 an hour, Brown related, but "the GI Bill doesn't pay very much. We have other people on welfare who get everything for free."
"What are you going to do about taking care of (Iraq veterans)?" Brown wanted to know, particularly in light of the number of vets who contribute to the homeless population.
"After 9/11, I went down and signed up for the Army National Guard," Brown said. "You don't see flags flying in this area anymore. It's sad to see" how the patriotic outpouring after the terrorist attacks five years ago has dried up.
"I love Iraq, and I think we were there for a good reason," Brown said, "but when we come back I want our own government to support us."
"Let me agree with you and disagree with you," Levin responded. "I believe the support for our troops is total. If you don't feel it, I'm sorry. I want to thank you, first of all, for your service. I think the lesson Americans learned from Vietnam to not take out our differences over policy with the administration on the men and women who serve us in uniform – and I deeply believe that is true. Even though there is a debate going on in a democracy, men and women in uniform sense that the American public supports them in training, equipment, their families. I'm sorry you haven't found that, but you deserve to be thanked by everybody.
"More than that," Levin continued, "you deserve to get to college and to get a good job. Jobs are a bigger issue. It's a huge issue in our state. There's a direct connection between the health of our manufacturing sector and all of our job sectors in Michigan. The diversification effort (away from relying on the automotive industry) is going on very strongly in Lansing, but until it happens we are paying a huge price because 3 million manufacturing jobs have been lost in this country during this administration.
"This administration has no policy on manufacturing. Zip. It's proposing cutting education when we know educating our populace is the absolute key to their future well-being. We can't compete with 50-cent-an-hour labor. We've got to compete with our brains, and we know that. That means involving and investing in future technology, whether it's health care or biological advances. We're not going to be doing as much assembly so we've got to invest in education."
The United States at the same time needs to overhaul its trade policy, Levin asserted.
"We cannot allow other countries to have total access to our markets when they shut us out of theirs. This is a big issue," Levin said. "We can compete with China and Mexico – if they let us in. NAFTA (North American Free Trade Agreement) with Canada and Mexico has allowed Mexico to discriminate against American-made auto parts for 10 years. Why do we tolerate that?"
It has become a heated point of debate in the Michigan gubernatorial race between incumbent Jennifer Granholm and Republican rival Dick DeVos, as Levin pointed out.
"When Mr. DeVos was president of Amway, he agreed China could deny his company the right to bring in Michigan-made products. That was the deal DeVos agreed to. His network could only distribute goods made in China. He had to open up a plant in China. What is going on? Why aren't we all rising up in anger?
"We've got Chinese goods in every one of our stores. Why do we tolerate any country putting barriers on our products while we permit their products access? That costs us jobs. Our trade deficit now is bigger than our budget deficit. Mr. DeVos describes what happened in China as a success story! What happened in China with Amway may be a success for his company, but it sure as heck is not for Michigan or this nation. It's a defeat! We fight like heck in Washington to knock down Chinese barriers."