Michigan Governor Snyder announces emergency manager will take over Detroit…good or bad news for the city?

Is an emergency manager the answer for Detroit? Read the linked story and share your thoughts.

http://tv.msnbc.com/2013/03/01/snyder-announces-emergency-manager-to-take-over-detroit/

Saw this on the Today Show-Detroit State of Mind

Inspiring story out of Detroit. Watch it for a little inspiration. this school is really trying to make a difference.

Kwame Kilpatrick Released from prison: a portrait of what could have been

Kwame Kilpatrick’s Statement: I want to humbly thank all of the people who prayed for me and my family throughout this tumultuous time, especially during the past 14 months. Your prayers inspired me to press on as the Creator guided, trained, protected, covered, and loved me in ways that I never thought possible. During my incarceration, I learned, sometimes through very painful processes, how important it is for me to put God, Faith, and Family first. The Michigan Department of Corrections has given me only 24 hours to leave the state of Michigan, so I will be returning home to my family in Dallas shortly after my release. After I have reconnected and spent some much needed quality time with my family, I will begin to take interviews and to speak openly and honestly about my time inside and the truths and transformation this experience has yielded. Detroit, I will return to speak frankly with you about this experience because it has affected all of us. I am beginning anew. I am looking forward. I have new dreams and aspirations. I have a new hope. My greatest desire is that my testimony will give anyone who will listen permission to dream of greatness and to push toward it even in the midst of failure. I am expecting a breakthrough for all of us. Again, thanks to all for your well wishes, cards, letters, pictures, and prayers. Your faith, hope, and most of all, love, have contributed mightily to the development of my surrendered spirit and to the revelations of my heart.” This is not how this story was supposed to end. Kwame Kilpatrick had so much promise and so much potential, but he also had a little too much arrogance. So many black young men are in prison and we say had they had ceratin advantages maybe their lives would have been different, but Kilpatrick had those advantages and we knew that he had the potential to have a great career in politics, but Kilpatrick fell victim to his own sword. He was his own worse enemy and he brought on his own demise. The story is not over for him but it will be different.
From The Detroit News: http://detnews.com/article/20110802/METRO01/108020381/Kwame-Kilpatrick-s-released-statement#ixzz1TsAMCkhh

Kwame Kilpatrick Goes to Prison…What a Waste of Potential

Kwame Kilpatrick was elected mayor of Detroit at the tender age of 31. He had so much potential, but tomorrow he we will wake up in a prison cell and be just another number. Today, he was sent to prison on a probation violation. It is sad to see anyone go to prison, but when you look at Kilpatrick you mourn for what could have been, and what will never be.

7 Year Old Detroit Girl killed in Police Raid

Detroit police killed a 7 year old girl while executing a search warrant. “Detroit Police Assistant Chief Ralph Godbee said an officer executing a search warrant with the department’s Special Response Team was engaged in a scuffle with a 46-year-old woman when the officer’s gun discharged and struck Aiyana Stanley Jones, 7, in the “head-neck area.” She was pronounced dead at St. John’s Hospital. The police were in search of a 34 year old man who they believed was involved in a murder. ” Godbee said officers approached the home search as “high risk,” prompting them to use a “flash bang,” which flashes a bright light and causes a large noise, to disorient those inside the home. Godbee said the team identified themselves as police officers before entering. According to preliminary information, the flash grenade did not stop a woman inside,  Aiyana’s grandmother, from struggling with an officer in the front room of the home.”  Well the police did get their suspect, but was it really worth the life of an innocent child? While I grieve over the death of the little girl I can not help but be angry at the adults in the home. Did they know that someone in the home had been involved in a murder? If they did why would they offer him sanctuary? If they didn’t are they still guilty of letting people into the home that they know very well? The police have apologized, the family has expressed anger. There are a lot of questions that will have to be answered over the next few days, but one thing is sure 7 year old Aiyana Stanley Jones is dead.

*AOL

NBC Dateline: R.I.P. Detroit

Sunday night NBC Datline profiled the city of Detroit. Chris Hansen a native of the Detroit area was the host. The special highlighted the glory days of the past, but the emphasis was on Detroit now, and the profile was heartbreaking. The city has died and everyone seems to be walking around and not acknowledging the corpse in the room.  The special did spend some time spotlighting people who endeavor to make a positive difference, but it just seemed like too little too late. Detroit has no money and the mayor offered a radical idea for discussion. Mayor Dave Bing suggested actually closing part of the city. Closing off a part of the city that no longer has enough citizens dwelling in it to justify the amount of money the city spends sustaining it. This would literally mean forcing people to relocate to other areas. This sounded so radical, but as I thought about it I knew that the Detroit officials are willing to discuss any ideas because they are simply trying to survive, but the irony in this is going on as we attempt to nation build in Iraq, and try to hold up the corrupt government of Afghanistan, and help the earthquake victims of Haiti, but here in our own country the solution to a dying city might be to officially decrease the size of that city. This is just sad and the only thing left to say is R.I.P. Detroit.

Detroit City Bus Driver Assaulted on the Job

When you watch this video you see two out of control women assaulting a bus driver. Why? He mistakenly closed the door before both could board, but why such an over the top reaction? Who knows. There seems to be a smoldering rage just waiting to be ignited and the least little thing can light the flame. People use public transportation everyday and unfortunately bad behavior is nothing new and it is a rare occasion that the actions are captured on tape. These two women will have to deal with the consequences of their actions and that is a good thing.

Did Michael Winans Jr. Con Church Folks?

 The Winans name is golden in most black churches. We had hits from the Winans Brothers, Bebe and CeCe and even the sister-in-law Vickie, they are hit makers and they have influence. So when Michael Winans Jr. came to the church folks with an opportunity to make money many jumped on it. They believed they could get rich and they believed in the Winans name. Pastors often refer to themselves as the Sheppard and the members as sheep. Well, sheep are not very smart and they will easily follow anyone leading and in this case many have been led into financial ruin. “Hundreds of Detroit-area and Michigan investors lost as much as $11 million to a Ponzi scheme involving a Saudi Arabian crude oil bond scam connected to Michael Winans Jr., according to state regulators. “Michael Winans Jr. used the family name and connections in the Detroit religious community to prey on church members,” said Jason Moon, a spokesman for the Michigan Office of Financial and Insurance Regulation.” Detroit detective Maurice McClure said “Many people were scammed through the churches — including a report of it involving a church as far away as Alaska. He said people thought it was legitimate — and a way to make money as oil prices went up. Investors later claimed that they did not make any money but instead lost it. “One lady lost her home and she was living in a car,” McClure said. Ameer El, 41, formerly of Detroit, said Thursday that he invested about $7,500 of his buyout money from Chrysler and lost it. He heard about the investment from a friend of a friend and attended a seminar at the New Genesis Beginnings Church in Detroit. He had faith in the Winans name — and the fact that the seminar was in a church.”* There are three  problems with this situation: the first one is the fact that Winans knew or should have know he was running a Ponzi scheme and the second one is that churches would open their doors to him without truly knowing the facts, and lastly that he would prey on the people of Detroit. Detroit is economically devestated so to hear that people invested their life savings in this con game is heartbreaking. Some church members truly believe in their leader and if he says something is as if it has been sanctioned by God. Winans is accused of fleecing the vulnerable and the sad fact is in some cases their pastor placed them on his altar.

*Detroit Free Press

How can Detroit Have a Casino and Not Have a Grocery Store?

Tonight while watching the CBS and NBC network news I saw the same story. The story was designed to be heart-warming, but in reality it was pitiful. Detroit a city of 800, 000 people does not have a major grocery store. If a person wants to go to the suburbs to a store on the bus it is a 2 hour trip one way. Many of the residents get their groceries from the many liquor stores that seemingly populate every corner. Since groceries for these stores are really an afterthought they don’t stock fresh produce. So a company called Peaches and Greens is now selling fresh produce from a truck. They showed the happy appreciative residents buying the produce. They are simply thrilled to have this fresh food delivered to their doors, but it makes one ask where are the priorities? This is a city that has a casino, but no grocery store. The mobile truck should simply be a stop gap remedy not an ultimate solution. Detroit is a major city to see its citizens rejoicing at the site of a mobile produce stand is simply sad.

Aretha Franklin’s Hat is No Big Deal in the Black Community

The Queen of Soul Aretha Franklin sang at President Obama’ inauguration. She had on a gray hat and gray coat.  No big deal. I would describe her ensemble as the typical church lady look. If you visit any black church you will see a variation of that hat on any given Sunday, but yesterday I saw the hat discussed, mocked and criticized on television and  in blog land. Having grown up in the black church I know women who literally have hundreds of hats in virtually every color of the rainbow and every dimension known to man. When I was growing up there was a member of my church who would literally make dozens of hats for Easter Sunday. So Aretha’s hat really was no big deal, but the bigger issue is that it demonstrates that the majority really have no idea what goes on in the black community. It is possible for members of the majority to live a life that is devoid of any relationship with members of the minority. They don’t know us and they have never really had to know us. With the election of the new president America will get to see a lot more of what goes on in the community. So I take my hat off to the Queen because her hat has opened up another conversation that is long overdue.