UP Representatives Hold Meet & Greet

The Upper Peninsula’s representatives in Lansing and Washington are spending part of their summer break visiting with the people who sent them there.

U.S. Congressman Jack Bergman, State Senator Ed McBroom, and State Representative Greg Markkanen held a meet and greet at Michigan Tech’s Student Development Complex on Sunday.

Bergman talked with constituents to hear what concerns they have on their mind–important issues such as health care.  “We all agreed that quality health care and available health care needs to be affordable, but we have to have the quality first because you can pay a lot of money and get nothing,” said Bergman.

The Congressman also discussed his views on climate change and how he feels there needs to be a change in the conversation.  “We talked about the rate of climate change and I’m pushing people to talk honestly about what it means to be an individual.  I use the Woodsy Owl, some of the older folks may remember Woodsy the Owl from the early 70’s ‘Give a Hoot, Don’t Pollute.’ We’ve all got skin in this game. We have to get involved,” Bergman said.

When asked about the situation at the southern border of the U.S., Bergman says the country needs to surge forces necessary to help with immigration.  Bergman said, “Forces in this case being administrators, health care, all those folks—get them down to the border, put them up in a situation where we can deal with the border situation, make sure that people down there are taken care of and, also at the same time whether some people want to hear it or not, we have to secure the border because the free flow of people into our country is not who we’re about. We’ve never been about that. In fact, just ask some folks who had their ancestor’s signatures in the book in Ellis Island.”

While some of the 15 people or so who attended the meet and greet were there to show support for the congressman, many of those Bergman talked to were concerned about what they are seeing on the national level.

Whether they agree with him or not, Bergman said it’s important to remain calm, just like his days at the helm of an airplane.  “Nobody likes it when their pilot gets excited, everybody gets a little nervous, so my calm demeanor has been honed over time because I have to make sure I maintain my presence to build confidence in others that everything is going to be fine,” said Bergman.

Though he is happy to share his thoughts on any given subject, Bergman says the goal of these events are to listen to what people have to say.  “I’ll be the first one to tell you I don’t know everything but every conversation I have will usually end up where I will get a little nugget, a little pearl that I can take with me about well, maybe I can consider this, hadn’t thought about it in this light before,” he said.  “I love the dialogue back and forth with people. Part of the beauty of education, I think, between students and professors has always been the dialogue back and forth, not just being talked at by the professor, so I use that technique when I’m meeting with constituents, whether it’s here in the district or back in D.C., is that I share the stage with them. I want them to talk. I want to ask them questions. That’s how we get better results.”

Senator McBroom talked with attendees about state and local issues.  “We had some great conversations, some about the Quincy Mine and the opportunity for more tourism there and how to get a state designation that would help lead to more visitors,” said McBroom.  “I talked with several folks about ongoing legislative issues that are going on and then had some very extensive conversations about climate change, global warming, abortion—issues like that.”

Not everyone agreed with what the senator had to say but McBroom said that’s what makes these events important because you get to hear different points of view.  McBroom said, “This is often how these meetings go and I’ll have folks who come in and have strong agreement and are here to say thank you for doing this. I have folks who come in and say I really hate what you’re doing and I wish you’d stop. It was a good evening and many good discussions.”

Representative Markkanen said most of his discussions centered around the finances of the state.  “People are concerned about the 45 cent gas tax. They’re concerned about education funding. They’re concerned about the budget as a whole,” Markkanen said.

After the summer break, local lawmakers will return to Lansing to try and wrap up the 2020 state budget.