Founders of MI Democracy Initiative

Cathy Albro

There are often times in our lives when we must reckon with our values and ethical beliefs. After spending the last six years closely involved with the Michigan Democratic Party, as a candidate twice and chair of the MDP Rural Caucus, I have come to such a reckoning. I want to spend my valuable time and energy working for the common good. This means exposing injustice, corruption and greed, educating and uniting the public and taking action toward a more equitable and rewarding life for ALL people. Helping to start this organization, the Michigan Democracy Initiative, is my first step to do this important work. Please join us!!

Liano Sharon

I’ve been a progressive activist involved in human rights, environmental, anti-war, prosocial, and pro-democracy movements since the early 1980s. As our political systems are failing, we need to make significant changes more directly. Organizing protests, demonstrations, and community support services isn’t enough. Lobbying politicians isn’t enough. Running for office yourself isn’t enough. These are all necessary, but not sufficient, because our system is designed (occasionally intentionally, mostly by cultural evolution) to preserve the power of the 1%. To remove the 1% and their cronies from power, we have to grow democracy and put the power in the hands of the people. Growing democracy is the only path to expanding liberty, freedom, and prosperity for all – not just the 1%. Growing democracy is the only path to addressing the climate crisis, wars, and other injustices at the scale of the problem, because the 1% profit from fossil fuels, wars, and other injustices, and are desperate to avoid accountability for the damage they’ve done and are doing to people, communities, and the planet. Without democracy to take the power from the 1%, they will broil the planet, poison us with pollution, and work us all into early graves; the wealthy already have lifespans 10-20 longer than people with lower income.

To grow democracy, we need working examples of organizations that function democratically, take action democratically, and make progress on issues people can feel in their daily lives, directly and sytemically. I believe the Michigan Democracy Initiative can become a key part of the movement necessary to reform the structure of our political, social, and economic systems – and mitigate, to the greatest extent possible, the environmental, social, and economic damage our current systems are producing at record rates.