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Upper Peninsula State Senator Ed McBroom gave an emotional speech on the floor of the Michigan Senate Thursday afternoon, imploring Governor Gretchen Whitmer to ease restrictions on life, snd business, in the U.P.
The Dickinson County Republican used his five minute allotment to describe his frustration, and that of many Upper Peninsula residents, to the continued restrictions that have been implemented across all of Michigan.
McBroom says he has been trying to support Whitmer as she tries to lead Michigan through the coronavirus outbreak. But he said Thursday that the Upper Peninsula is “moving into desperate territory”.
“The choices made here, unilaterally, are decimating future opportunities,” McBroom said. “The real truth is we are destroying our communities. We’re destroying the fabric that binds us together.”
McBroom says he gave Thursday’s speech, in part, because an “older veteran” called him last week to say that he was contemplating suicide, and that there’s others who are “in the same boat”.
McBroom, a dairy farmer from the Norway area, became emotional about his family’s situation.
“I have a 103-year-old farm, and five generations,” McBroom said, his voice breaking. “And I don’t know if I can keep it together. We have to move forward.”
McBroom said that he believes that the governor has acted with a “sincere desire to protect the people of Michigan”. But he added that now, he believes that the “leadership in the crisis is floundering”.
“This disease is here, and our hospitals are ready to manage it,” McBroom said. “The second wave will come tomorrow, or it will come in December. We’re not going to hide from this, people! We have to get moving. Open us up. Give freedom to the U.P.”
The Upper Peninsula has, as of Thursday, 97 confirmed cases of the cornavirus, with 15 deaths. There has been one case reported in the past six days. Statewide totals are approaching 50,000, with nearly 4,800 deaths.
Whitmer has said that COVID-19 is present throughout the state, and rural areas like ours are not immune. She added that a spike in infections could overwhelm the Upper Peninsula’s hospitals, which do not have the resources that big-city hospitals do.
McBroom, and other U.P. lawmakers, have said for weeks that the U.P. should be allowed to re-engage the economy at a different pace than southern lower Michigan, which has the vast majority of the infections and deaths.
The governor created a committee that broke the state into eight regions, with the U.P. being its own region, but so far, every order, including her Stay at Home order (recently renamed “Safer At Home”) has been applied to all of Michigan. That order, along with one that closed bars, restaurants, hair salons, fitness gyms, and other businesses, remain in effect until May 28.
A Court of Claims hearing will be held Friday morning in Lansing where the Republican legislature’s lawsuit against the governor will hear oral arguments.
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