Politically Detroit

      In the aftermath of yesterday’s primary election in Detroit, and some of the discussions I partook in today regarding it, I have decided it was time for another commentary to get some stuff off of my chest. This is the best way for me to fully and openly express myself, without the frustrating interruption of character limits in comment boxes. I can’t say the entire primary went the way I had hoped, but I can’t say that there were any surprises either. Martha Reeves and The Vandellas made a grand exit, Sheila Cockrell made a graceful exit, and the media flexed its muscle this time around boasting a 100% win rate for all of their endorsed candidates. The candidates endorsed most heavily by the local media, made the cut – including a former member of the media (Charles Pugh) leading the way! What a country! Before you read any further, you should be warned that I am not on the political correct bandwagon, so there may be some views, opinions, and terms that can be found offensive by some…you’ve been warned.

      Speaking of media and Charles Pugh, let’s start there. I cannot tell a lie, originally I was not on the Pugh train! I was against his candidacy for more than one reason: Is he counting on name recognition alone? Does he plan on pushing a gay agenda (sorry Wanda Sykes)? Does he know anything about politics? And so on and so forth. However, I came to find by Election Day that he was one of very few candidates that seemed to actually have a passionate appeal to the city. He actually wants to see the city do well, and is passionate about it. It’s not about prestige with him, not about the money, it’s about the city – I can respect that. I didn’t see that in most of the candidates. I saw a lot of people feeling like they can get in simply because they can’t be any worse than the last batch of council members. I’m sorry folks, that ain’t good enough for me! Unfortunately, that’s what we have. So we didn’t see much of the candidates, we didn’t hear much from the candidates, and quite frankly we don’t know jack shit about most of the candidates…we just know that we don’t want The Vandellas back. So congratulations Charles, and handle that power you are bound to receive with a lot of care.

      I’m not quite done with the local media yet. An unnamed member of the local media posted a message on facebook expressing extreme disdain towards the piss poor voter turnout for the election. 17% is indeed piss poor! They attacked the 83% non-voters claiming they lacked passion or “love” for the city. Told them to take off the Old English D hats and stuff like that. I responded, not confrontationally, but to add that it is also the responsibility of the candidates and city clerk’s office to help motivate the people. See, I think people underestimate the affect that having something to vote for has on the voter turnout. People were passionate about Obama, and so they got out and voted for him. In quality control we are taught to not blame the lower-level operator for making a mistake, but instead blame the management level employee for putting the operator in a position where he/she was able to make the mistake. Fix the system/process so that the operator’s job is easier…try to make it impossible to do wrong. The smart ass response I received was short, sarcastic, and I didn’t like it. Is that part of the problem? I’m not holding it against that person, which is why I’m withholding their name and gender, because at least they cared! But why do members of the media think they can just talk down to us? Just because you’re on radio or television or in the paper means you’re smarter? You don’t have to be smart to be in the media, all you have to do is try. I’d like you to be smart because you have a powerful voice, but it doesn’t make you better than me. I was in media for almost 10 years and bailed out because of the egos around me. Most of them were unwarranted egos. Hell, I worked with the person in question before, but because I was in sales capacity I wasn’t “good enough”, and am willing to bet that person doesn’t know me from Adam…I digress. However, I don’t feel the low voter turnout was a product of the lack of passion for Detroit, but rather a lack of passion for the candidates!

      There are members of the media that I will call by name, station, and gender, because they don’t care, they just want to take shots at us. 97.1 FM “The Ticket” is notorious for holding degrading discussions about Detroit(ers). Mike Valenti in a discussion once said that Detroiters were “just dumb”, and asked his co-host Terry Foster to agree. Terry refused to go there and tried to reason with Mike, not quite vehemently enough for my taste, but I appreciated him not totally folding. About a month later Terry wasn’t there and Mike went into the Detroiters are dumb rant again, this time with no opposing voice. Most of the callers were suburbanites laughing and mocking out their agreement, and I was appalled! I seem to hear this same type of conversation whenever the facilitator has never lived in the city (I will save the rest of my feelings on this for another commentary). Now if the media can come on air and attack who the city votes into office, not only by insulting the city official but also insulting the citizens, does that not start to wear on people to wonder if there’s any value to their vote? Maybe? If the TV and Radio are constantly telling me that I’m too dumb to make the right decision, is it possible that I may decide to stay out of the next round. If the person I voted for last time was pursued by the media, and eventually ousted, is it unreasonable for me to start to feel like my vote doesn’t matter? I mean, if I don’t vote for the person the media wants me to vote for they will call me names or say I’m too dumb to know any better. Then they’ll end up pushing him/her out of office until they get their way anyway, so what’s the value in my vote? 83% is a big number to attach that attitude to, but there must be at least a small percentage of that 83% that feels under appreciated enough to not show up to the polls.

      Last but certainly not least, I’d like to address the one man that I believe will get a seat that I despise…Gary Brown! This asshole has the nerve to say the first thing he’d like to address is the city budget. Well start by giving the city back the $8 Million you extorted!!! We, as a city, have been bamboozled by the media into ignoring this man’s deviate action. It was media against Kwame for years, so anyone against Kwame was their friend and they turned this criminal into a hero - he is NOT a hero. This is in no way supportive of the actions of Kwame Kilpatrick, this is about the actions of one Gary Brown. This man did not prove his case in court, so he blackmailed the Mayor of Detroit and readily and wrongfully accepted $8 Million of the city’s money. The documents he was paid to withhold were soon after released anyway. So my question is, if you were going to release the documents anyway, why not just do that in the first place? See, had he just released the documents – so be it…Kwame sucks. But by blackmailing the Mayor first, he committed a crime…it is called extortion, and he should be made to return that money before he takes a seat on city council! If his name was Gary Kilpatrick or Gary Conyers, he’d be brought up on charges for it. He never proved there was a party, he never proved there was involvement in the Tawanna Green case, and he never proved any of the inappropriate actions he claims to have been a result of Kwame’s affair with Christine Beatty. He only proved that they had an affair...AFTER he got paid. He’s credited for slaying the dragon so he was made out to be some kind of hero – hero my ass! You’re no better than the dragon you slayed because you stole from us in the process. You want to fix the budget, start by giving back that $8 Million! That would be the admirable thing to do. Until then, you’re at the bottom of my list you crooked cop!