I am Lou Palus, running as the candidate of the Working Class Party for the State House, District 75, which covers much of Grand Rapids and some of the surrounding area.
I’m not originally from Grand Rapids. I grew up in a small town called Elsie. People ask me, where in the hell is Elsie? Like a true Michigander, I hold out my palm and point and say, "Here, Elsie is smack Dab in the middle of the state." I grew up on a farm there.
I want to talk to you about factory farms. I grew up around factory farms. The Maple River runs through Elsie. The river is so polluted from all the runoff by factory farms, and the milk factory in Ovid, that you can't swim in it, you can't fish in it. They dump everything into the Maple River, fertilizers, manure and pesticides. I dare say if you took a canoe down the Maple river, the river would eat the canoe.
Factory farming is not good, it's not good for the river, people or animals
There is a disconnect between urban and rural communities. Urban and rural communities have the same problems: isolation, poverty, and pollution.
It is the present system that keeps urban and rural areas separated. I truly believe that it is the working class party that can bring these two communities together.
There is a better way, The Working Class Party way! I think we need to take over our country from those who have been running it. We have to fight for our own democracy.