Catholic task force will

help address topic of racism

Tuesday’s announcement of an 18-member task force on race and Catholic schools is a welcome step toward fighting racism in our own community.

The Catholic Diocese of Lansing formed the group to make recommendations to Bishop Earl Boyea to “better listen to and meet the needs of racial and ethnic minorities.”

Better late than never.

Diversity is a pressing issue both locally and nationally.

A protest at Lansing Catholic High School last October – where four football players were docked playing time as punishment for kneeling during the national anthem – brought the conversation to a heightened level here in Greater Lansing.

And this issue only becomes more relevant as demographics of the Catholic church continue to change.

Nationwide, diversity among Catholics is increasing: A 2014 study using census data estimated 2.9 million Catholics in the U.S. self-identify as black or African American, according to the Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate at Georgetown University.

In 1987, 85 percent of Catholics in the U.S. self-identified as white. That number was down to 58 percent in recent census data.

This is a clear demonstration the time for diversity discussion, and the time to address racism, is right now – and especially in our schools.

Yet even as the task force was being announced, it drew criticism for not having immediate positions on issues facing students now.

Read more: Diocese of Lansing diversity task force draws immediate scrutiny

LSJ Viewpoint: Catholic task force will combat the sin of racism in schools

Read more: Lansing Catholic players kneel during anthem, start game on bench

“I think you need to give us a chance,” said task force chair Joan Jackson Johnson, a St. Thomas Aquinas parishioner and director of Lansing’s human relations and community services department.

She’s right. Progress is slow sometimes, but steps like the task force are crucial.

Kabbash Richards, one of the Lansing Catholic football players involved in the protest, was also named a member of the task force.

He has pledged to do everything he can to make sure students across the diocese get a clear explanation of policies moving forward.

That’s a worthy initial goal for the entire task force.

With only two student representatives — from 29 Catholic elementary schools and four high schools in the 10-county diocese — each advisory member must also be committed to seeking out and listening to all voices.

And the community must not decry the work of the task force as too late. They must be given the opportunity to help build new foundations of acceptance and equality.

— The Lansing State Journal

Towns can’t, shouldn’t ignore

marijuana’s inevitability

Capac Village President John Grzyb is in an awkward spot. So are most other local elected officials in St. Clair and Sanilac counties.

They could have a bit of explaining to do in about seven and a half months.

Under the latest iteration of the state’s troubled medical marijuana rules, local governments must choose whether to participate in the medical marijuana industry. In St. Clair County, Capac appears most likely to opt in when the village council votes on proposed local medical marijuana ordinances April 2.

No other community in the two counties has yet to set up a local mechanism for providing patients with medical marijuana.

That’s not unusual. The list of communities participating in the new medical marijuana regime is remarkably small. Only 37 of Michigan’s 83 counties have local governments willing to hand out local licenses. Some, such as Lansing, have provisions but don’t appear likely to use them.

Near here, Macomb, Oakland, Lapeer and Tuscola communities have signed on. Medical marijuana users will be facing long drives.

Grzyb isn’t exactly saying, but he is probably opposed to marijuana businesses opening in Capac. Part of his concern is that whatever the village does in April, voters could turn the entire issue on its head in November.

A group seeking the legalize the recreational use of marijuana by adults has turned in about 350,000 petition signatures to get the issue on the November ballot — about 100,000 more than it needed.

Although the state Board of Canvassers could still find a reason to keep the proposal off the ballot, that doesn’t appear likely.

What does appear likely is that voters will approve the measure. In recent polls, about 60 percent of Michigan residents said they would vote in favor of legalizing recreational marijuana use. In 2008, that was just about the same percentage that voted to legalize medical use of marijuana.

That, we suppose, puts us in the minority. Gun battles in the far corners of Sanilac County; kidnap and torture in St. Clair County; drug raids that turn up marijuana, guns and heroin have not persuaded us that marijuana is harmless.

Legalizing it for recreational use will benefit only those who make a profit from it.

Unlike Grzyb, though, we recognize we are on the wrong side of the debate.

When local officials say that nobody wants the marijuana industry in their communities, they are speaking only for themselves. They probably are not speaking for the 60 percent of their constituent voters who are looking forward to having their say in November.

But Grzyb is correct in worrying that it will be another disaster on a par with the medical marijuana fiasco that Lansing has spent most of a decade fixing but still doesn’t work.

— The Times Herald (Port Huron)