Pennsylvania Gov. Ed Rendell praises Farrakhan

Pennsylvania Governor Rendell Praises Farrakhan and N.O.I.

Just one question: Does Sen. Hillary Clinton plan to reject and denounce Gov. Rendell?

Catholic priest defends Rev. Jeremiah Wright

Catholic Priest defends Rev. Jeremiah Wright

I don’t know who this priest is, but I now consider myself a fan. The way he rips this Fox TV so-called reporter, and his willingness to speak the unvarnished truth about race in American and what has been done to Wright, Obama, and any other black person who dares to criticize America is dead on point.

Rev. Jeremiah Wright comes to Detroit

If the rabidly desperate supporters of Sen. Hillary Clinton hadn’t gone so far out of their way to mischaracterize, misjudge, and misrepresent Rev. Dr. Jeremiah Wright for being so open and honestly black about issues that too much of America simply cannot stand for a black man to be honest about, my guess is he wouldn’t have been selected to be the keynote speaker at this year’s Detroit Branch NAACP Freedom Fund Dinner on April 27. I’m sure they would have chosen somebody interesting - they’ve had a long list of interesting speakers in recent years - but I don’t think anybody they considered inviting would have been able to hold a candle to what the Rev. Wright has in store for those fortunate enough to hold a ticket.

This is going to be a major event in Detroit. Believe me. This is going to be one of those “Were you there when…?” kind of events.

This annual NAACP occasion, billed as the largest sit-down dinner in the nation, frequently draws a considerable amount of media attention. I saw former VP Al Gore give one of his better speeches at a Freedom Fund dinner, and I was also there several years ago when Sen. Barack Obama spoke to a very excited audience. Large numbers of media were in attendance both times, but I don’t think either of those events will even moderately compare to this one in terms of media fascination.

Thanks to the twisted do-anything-to-anybody-at-any-time-to-win-this-damned-thing mentality of the Clinton campaign, the attempt to tear down the well-earned accomplishments of an already great and well-known man have now catapulted him into being one of the most well-known religious figures in America today. Now the curious, the critical, and the admiring from all around the world  are versing themselves in Rev. Wright’s teachings. Now everybody wants to know what makes this man tick, and white people are much more curious - and somewhat afraid - about what this African American worship experience is all about. Many of them were granted entrance to their first black church service during those few carefully selected and inflammatory soundbites,  and all these many weeks later their minds are still sizzling.

But Rev. Wright is nothing new to black people. Not at all. And the very idea that the media has seen fit to pillage the prophet for delivering the truth is something many of us, even those of us who rarely attend church, can sit still for. After all, if we can’t scream and shout our frustrations to the Lord in church, then where the hell are we supposed to go to lay our burdens down?

Where???

Mad at Kilpatrick? Hell yes. Now let’s move on

Like most of us for whom the term “pissed off” doesn’t even begin to encompass the extent and expanse of our rage, hurt, and anger related to Mayor Kilpatrick, I’ve vented and spouted plenty. Matter of fact it was my anger at the mayor that pushed me back to my blog after nearly six months of inactivity. I just couldn’t sit still and keep my mouth shut anymore. But having vented and stomped my feet, I think it’s time to move on. I don’t wanna hear about this crap every day, and I’m not interested in play-by-play coverage. I’ve said my piece, and at this point whatever happens happens.

 Meanwhile, Detroit churns on. And there is so much more that needs to be tended to in this city and that relates to this city in one way or another. To spend each and every waking moment digesting the so-called text messaging scandal gives a whole other elevated meaning to the term ”wasteful spending.”

 Take the issue of home foreclosures for example. This is something that I’ve written about before on this blog, but once is hardly enough to sufficiently address an issue that threatens to drag this city and this region to the bottom of the economic ocean. And yes, it really is that serious. The nation’s leading economists are finally allowing themselves to utter the ‘R’ word (recession) when speaking about this nation’s current economic condition. Now consider the fact that if America is in a recession, and if Michigan has the weakest economy in the nation (which it does), and if Wayne County has the weakest economy in the state (which I’m pretty sure it does), and if Detroit has the weakest economy in Wayne County (which it definitely does), then you get the picture about where Detroit is at right now.

And you should also get the picture why Mayor Kilpatrick and his ever-swirling storm cloud of mind-boggling bullshit is truly not the big story right now. Sure. He’s on the front page of the major dailies every day. And the latest tidbit often leads the evening local news. But since when has that been a qualification for what truly matters in this town? And to be fair, sure, the local news media has done some fairly in-depth pieces on the foreclosure crisis. But nothing like how they’re covering the Kilpatrick mess. And this is disturbing to say the least since Detroit will still be here with or without Kilpatrick. But if we keep losing population at three times the rate of other major metropolitan areas and if we keep leading the nation in home foreclosures then we definitely won’t be a “”major metropolitan area” for very long.

 I suppose what prompted this little blog entry was an article that recently appeared on the front page of the Mar. 25 Wall Street Journal entitled “Wave of Foreclosures Drives Prices Lower, Lures Buyers”.  Here’s the opening paragraph: “A glut of foreclosed homes of historic proportions is starting to drive down U.S. home prices faster as lenders put more properties on the market and buyers show signs of interest.”

Sounds pretty grim, but also a faint glimmer of possibility, right? Now read this graf from further down: “In some beaten-down markets, the price cuts have been stark. The Detroit Board of Realtors recently found that home sales in the city (excluding suburbs) in the first two months of this year jumped 48% from a year earlier, to 1,540. The average home price there sank 54 % to about $22,000.”

So yeah, it’s nice that home sales are picking up. But if home prices are being cut in half? If that is reflected in a cut-in-half appraisal rate, which means property taxes will be significantly lower, then how is that going to affect the bottom line in this city? Believe me I know property taxes are already too high - I’m paying them - but it’s one thing to adjust those rates as need be. It’s a whole other effect to see the bottom get yanked out from beneath an already broke city by such a huge drop in property tax collections. If my math is wrong or if I’m reading this wrong, then I apologize.

But it does look to me like this whole scenario represents yet another dark corner of the catastrophe we’re all living through out here. A catastrophe that deserves considerably more attention and that needs to be solved. A catastrophe that is considerably more important than whether or not Kilpatrick winds up in an orange jump suit.

 

Detroit’s Own Smokey Robinson smokin’ some poetry

Black American

Just in case you didn’t know, Smokey is from Detroit. And something you might wanna also know is singing ain’t hardly the only thing Smokey smokes on. Although I don’t necessarily agree with all the points in this message, this poem is still delivered in such a powerful fashion I’m saying it’s a ‘Must Hear’.

More powerful culture brought to the world courtesy of Detroit.

Newspapers are dying, and illiteracy is now cool

I can’t remember where I was when I was reading this particular post (too much animated, restless graffitti scampering around inside the cranium) but I do remember the feeling of shock and mild disgust. Mixed, of course, with no small amount of pity, shame and embarrassment. That this is what we’re coming to.

It was a You Tube site, actually a pretty good one, where a particular individual was offering the first seven guitar lessons free to those who would subscribe to his site. I figured this was a pretty cool thing for a human being to do so I took a look at his introductory video where the guy played Dueling Banjos on a guitar and a banjo strapped around his neck. At the same damned time. OK, so the boy got skills. I’ve been playing guitar professionally for more than 15 years and I can’t come close to matching that feat.

So then I decide to read some of the testimonials written by those who felt compelled to weigh in. The first one I saw was from some guy who was gushing about the site and said that he was taking lessons from the actual guy himself in person and that he was some kind of genius and a miraculous teacher.

Cool. I’m listening.

He goes on to say that what he liked best about this genius teacher of his was that the teacher didn’t waste the student’s time trying to teach him such things as learning how to read music. Because, of course, reading anything was boring. That’s what the guy said. No time or patience to study or perfect the craft because, well, this would exert a strain on the brain that just might be far too much for him to endure.

Now I’m not listening. Now I’m frustrated and a little pissed. I’m thinking back to other conversations I’ve had and articles I’ve read, etc., about what has become so remarkably obvious to those of us who still take our brains out for exercise now and then. To those of us who don’t feel compelled to hide the fact that we like to read. And what is becoming obvious is that stupidity and ignorance are becoming the new cool.

Not that this is news. It is so much easier to be misinformed and ignorant in today’s world because to be either or both requires so little effort. And because so many of us are either lazy or overworked, we’d prefer not to make the effort to learn the things we really need to know because that requires work. If you’re lazy you don’t feel like working because, well, you’re lazy. And if you’re overworked then you treasure what little “free” time you have and prefer not to do the “work” of reading or researching. Much easier to squat in front of the TV or the computer and just let the unfiltered stream of nonsense flow through unchecked, unedited and unquestioned.

Newspapers have been dying a long, drawn-out death for years. A great article about that can be read here courtesy of The New Yorker magazine. Newspapers have been gutted so bad that now to read one almost is a sign of questionable intellectual fortitude. Unless, of course, being well-versed in the twisted white trash tribulations of Britney Spears or the moronic manufactured drama of American Idol now qualifies as actual knowledge. Because this is the sort of “news” that is now passed off as information. This would explain why Sen. Obama’s sorry-assed bowling score occupied the news cycle for several days. It’s a pre-programmed mindset that now misidentifies the irrelevant and the frivolous as the truly significant.

It’s noteworthy that this lowly acceptable standard is being promoted not by the least qualified nor the most poorly educated among us but by those who actually have a say-so over what the rest of us are permitted/encouraged to consume and digest as information. And it is not by a long shot only the least educated nor the poor who are wasting countless hours absorbing reformulated garbage and trying to convince themselves that this shit has actual value. This is a cultural mass buy-in to cultural ignorance. We are willingly and happily buying the bullets that will be used to blow out a sunroof in the top of our heads.

So that should tell you that if even the more well-educated are happily trading away their intellects for a buy-in to blissful ignorance and free novocaine, then you can imagine the effect on the more vulnerable among us who can least afford to be ignorant because being aware is their best hope of beating a system that is programmed to crush them beneath iron wheels.

So when you read that Detroit Public Schools has the lowest high school graduation rate of all major cities in the nation, that is proof enough that those who can least afford not to be prepared are being released into the world more unprepared than anyone else. Whereas about 70 percent of kids nationwide graduate on time from high school with diploma, only 24.9 percent of kids in Detroit are doing so. To release that many undereducated youngsters into the world in a city that has the worst economy in the county which has the worst economy in the region which has the worst economy in the state during a national recession (it’s really a depression) is like tossing naked gladiators screaming into the coliseum to fight the lions with a stick and a feather.

But this is what we’ve come to.

Barack Obama gaining more ground in Pennsylvania

Barack Obama on Hardball - MSNBC

Still closing the gap in Pennsylvania.

Jeremiah Wright is not the story

I already know I’m not the first one to say this, so no need to attack me for claiming to be an original thinker on this particular point, but you do have to wonder why it is in this current presidential campaign that we’re still discussing (non) issues such as Sen. Barack Obama’s former pastor Jeremiah Wright. At this late date. Among other (non) issues. Like Barack’s low bowling score.

I guess I just wanted to add my name to the roster of those who keep trying to bring everyone’s attention back to what this election is supposed to really be about. About what really matters. Why it is that so many major media outlets continue to spend more effort keeping everyone’s focus away from what’s important instead of the other way around is maddening to me, even though it’s been this way now for probably close to two decades if not more. But I still can’t get used to it. Don’t want to get used to it.

And, thankfully, there are still occasionally stories reported out there that attempt to balance the scales. For example, there’s the story that appeared in the New York Times this morning which begins with the unfortunate but hardly unique circumstance being faced by a man from my beloved city of Detroit. The man’s wife took a job in Phoenix, AZ, last fall, and figured her husband would be right behind her just as soon as he sold the house. He had just taken a comfortable early retirement package from General Motors and apparently figured it wouldn’t take that long to unload their Detroit home.

You already know where this is going. The man is still here, his wife is still there, and who knows when they will ever sell their Detroit home. Which means he is still apart from his wife, and she may ultimately have to give up her job in Phoenix and return here. Because one mortgage is enough to sink some families. Two mortgages is guaranteed to sink just about any family.

Meanwhile, on a related note, the discussion continues among the High and Almighty Lords of Judgment about whether the supposed dumb, ignorant homeowners should pay the price for the foreclosure crisis because they just didn’t have the good sense not to know they were buying too much house before they got scammed by crooked lenders. This self-righteous crew insists these foolish citizens are flat out guilty of financially biting off more house than they should have known they could not afford. Consequently they of course should be allowed to drown in a fiery lake of debt and misery while clutching a load of crumbling bricks torn from their once-upon-a-time dream home.

Well, that was the case until the government decided it was OK to bail out stupid, ignorant Bear Stearns, the nation’s fifth-largest investment bank, to the tune of, ohhh…around $30 billion. Now, suddenly, miraculously, the discussion in the Senate seems to be much more accommodating, realizing that, you know what? Maybe these poor homeowners do deserve a break after all. All those things we said before? We misspoke. Oopsie. And the world stumbles on…

Detroit is shrinking

So now we get the word that nearly 30,000 people have left Detroit in the past two years. OK. So it’s only 27,300 according to recently released Census data. But you get my point.

Detroit is shrinking.

It’s not enough that our mayor could be going to prison if his $700 an hour Chicago attorney doesn’t manage to pull enough golden rabbits out of his briefcase, or that the rest of the world is reading about this story, nodding their heads, and either muttering what a shame it is about that poor, poor city or laughing and saying “I told you Detroit ain’t shit.” I mean, that’s bad enough, right?

But now we have to sit and watch our friends and neighbors throwing their belongings into the back of the truck and gunning it for Anywhere But Detroit U.S.A. And then we have to ask ourselves the painful question about what in the hell is keeping us here, anyway? I’m not talking about those who can’t leave, but about those of us who still keep hanging on in the midst of the storm. What the hell is it with us, anyway?

And I mean, it’s not like we haven’t been watching this outgoing tide for quite some time now. Detroit used to be nearly 2 million people strong. Now we’re barely 900,00. It was several years ago when the story broke that we were losing approximately 10,000 people a year. Yeah. Well, given these new figures it looks like that may have been a bit of an optimistic assessment of things.

This is how cities die, folks. One small wound followed by another. And then another. And then another. And then the wounds become larger and uglier. Look, when you start losing three times as many people as any other metropolitan area, which is what the March 27 story said in the Detroit Free Press, then you should know that you’re facing a problem of fairly sizable proportions. And when you add to that all the twisted mess circling around the Mayor Kilpatrick scandal, and then figure that this sordid spectacle will be blanketing our city like a poison cloud for at least a year, you also have to figure that the prospects for continued revitalization are beginning to look noticeably worse.

And this is what hurts so bad. Because prior to …to…all of this …it really was starting to look like good things were starting to happen again. When the Riverwalk opened up last summer and River Days kicked off, my wife and I damned near cried because it was such a wonderful feeling to see this happening in Detroit. The place where so much of the country would never believe such a wonderful thing could happen. And then there were the festivals. And then we heard that Quicken Loans was coming to downtown. And that was just one bit of evidence of the turnaround. Or what those of us who insist on believing in this city insisted was evidence of a turnaround.

But now here we go again. Only this time it appears this just might be the worst mayoral scandal in Detroit history, which of course is happening at a time when Michigan is in a recession, which of course means it’s worse than that in Wayne County and worse still in Detroit. So I guess you could say that a scandal such as this could have come at a better time. Of course, you could also say how much better things may have looked for the rest of the city if Kilpatrick had just stepped up and stepped down, but that would have been too much like right. After all, why would Kilpatrick do what’s best for the city when he’s got himself to think about?

Detroit is shrinking, but it’s not because of the loss of population.

You’re killing us, Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick

Not knowing quite where to begin after such a long absence, I suppose I’ll begin with a wished and prayed-for ending. That would be the end of Kwame Kilpatrick as mayor of this city.

As someone who strongly, damned near adamantly supported the man during both mayoral elections, it is rather hard to describe the pain, anger, rage, and anguish that brings me to a point where I feel compelled to scream all of this out loud. And given my current job, which is where it is, some might even say this isn’t particularly wise. But I just can’t shut up about this any more. The man is ripping the bleeding, furiously pumping heart right out of the chest of the community which he hilariously reminds us on a daily basis that he loves so much.

I say ‘hilariously’ because by any rational, recognizable definition of love, Kilpatrick’s warped contortion of both the word and the sentiment are a tragi-comical parody of epic proportions. Simply put, you just don’t do this kinda shit to someone you love. OK? That’s not love, that’s sickness. And when you’re that sick, you need help. You don’t need to be governing a major American city in crisis. YOU NEED HELP, MAN.

There is no need to recount this entire sick episode here because there are more than enough news locations that can provide more minute-by-minute, day-by-day breakdowns than anyone could possibly want. And with each passing day this circus of perversities and wonders simply continues to expand, repeatedly outgrowing one tent and squeezing again and again into another and then another. But it’s hard to imagine a size big enough to contain all of what we’re seeing here. This is simply not a one-size-fits-all situation. This is some record-breaking, jaw-dropping insanity we’re witnessing here that reduces all comparable fictional episodes and TV dramas to boredom-inducing wannabes.

How could any act of fiction rival such a rabidly perverse real deal such as this? We have dead hookers. We have a high-profile politician who has stepped out on his wife to sleep with one of his co-workers. We have lying to a jury, we have secret deals concocted to hide it all, we have hotshot out-of-town lawyers, we have hot and saucy text messages, we have…we have…just so much shit.

What’s not to love?

God I wish this was fiction because if it were I wouldn’t be able to put this book down. But this is happening in my city which I love. This is being done to our city by a man who once had so much potential that it was hard to see where the top floor was. By someone who has already accomplished so much more than many want to give him credit for but which cannot be denied. I mean, it would be bad enough if Kilpatrick had been a mediocre individual. But for some reason it’s always the most promising ones whose sheer brilliance is matched only by their madness. These are the ones who seem to repeatedly crash and burn like Icarus because they cannot resist the lure of the sun, despite the lessons of history. Like Prince said in one of his songs, “The beautiful ones always crash the picture. Always. Every time.”

You’re killing us, Mr. Mayor. And you don’t even give a damn, do you?