‘to wear out, not rust out’

If a British study is true – that political activists live longer – then UAW retiree Dorothy Stevens is going to outlast Methuselah.

At 75, the UAW Local 602 member from Lansing, Mich., has been president of her retiree chapter for 18 years, working on political campaigns, organizing union picnics, bringing in speakers – and showing no signs of slowing down.

Photo:SCOTT A. SMITH / UAW LOCAL 602

Dorothy Stevens, left, is a longtime activist.

There are many reasons Dorothy Stevens is politically active:
‘This (Bush) administration is letting the middle class fade away. We need to stop that crazy war. Let the rich pay their fair share of taxes.’

“My husband encourages me to stay involved. He says it’s what keeps me going,” says Stevens, who also chairs the Lansing Retiree Area Council, among other duties.

The former cushion room worker built seats at General Motors’ Fisher Body plant, but has little time to take a seat these days. Election years are her Christmas season.

Stevens barely had time to stop and answer a reporter’s questions because she was in the middle of working on an August union picnic where she hopes Michigan’s Gov. Jennifer Granholm, Sen. Debbie Stabenow and congressional candidate Jim Marcinkowski will speak.

Some people think retirement is all about playing bingo, eating lunch and taking trips. Stevens enjoys a good round of bingo as much as anybody, but she is too concerned about what’s going on in the nation today to sit back.

“This (Bush) administration is letting the middle class fade away. We need to stop that crazy war. Let the rich pay their fair share of taxes. My grandchildren are going to have to pay off a national debt they didn’t create,” Stevens says, ticking off issues that concern her.

As retiree president, Stevens encourages activism among her fellow seniors. But if you can’t do one job she has for you, she’ll find another.

“Some of our retirees can’t do phone banking because they are hard of hearing. So I get them doing something else, like looking up telephone numbers or stapling yard signs,” says Stevens.

Ten years ago it looked like her own activist days would be over. “I had back surgery. I had a double bypass in my heart and a bypass in both legs. But I was determined to wear out, not rust out,” Stevens said. “My doctor was amazed I didn’t end up in a wheelchair. He told me to keep doing whatever I was doing.”

While Stevens was a union activist in the plant, becoming the first woman in UAW Region 1C elected to a shop committee, her political activism in the community didn’t start until the last of her four children grew up.

Now it looks like she will keep going and going and going – long after the Energizer Bunny’s batteries run out.

Sam Stark