A New Day in Detroit

The city of Detroit is in transition, it is moving away from the strong city for blacks to share power and authority. All through the 70's and 80's the black citizens of Detroit enjoyed the fact that the power to be couldn't ignore them. For things to move in the city or indeed in many cases the state the people of Detroit had to be acknowledged. There will had to be considered.

The last time I can remember the will of the people being acknowledged was when the newly elected Mayor Denis Archer proposed moving city hall to the old G.M. Building on Grand Blvd. There was a powerful out cry. I explained to Mayor Archer and the army of G.M. representatives with him that in didn't look good for so many G.M. people to be at the public hearing. There presence make it look like it was their idea. That crowd of vocal radicals wouldn't accept it just base on it not being an insider of Detroit idea.

The G.M. people agreed to leave but the loud vocal protest continued. The cry was don't give away what is our city hall. I make the case that the building didn't belong to the city and the G.M. building was a central location. People could gain access by moving the city hall and with computers and fax machines (so popular then) all locations were central.

But the crowd didn't let up, they cried no and they meant no. I thought it would help the new mayor if I explained to the crowd that he was only making a suggestion. So, I told the old parable of three men riding a mule, but only one can ride up front. The mayor was only acting as a leader and that is want leaders do. They don't say which way you all are going let me get up front. The offer a path and wait for followers.

Today the city is losing the power of collect bargaining and any control of the jobs and authority over city work. And the people are satisfied to let it go in hopes for better days ahead. There is no cry for control.

The Black Surprise

The nomination and election of the man we call the first Negro or Black person to become president of the United States, surprise and shock me every step of the way. I never thought that a person of color would be president of the United states in my life time or my son's life time. And I am not sure if his name was Brown, Johnson or Smith he would have won the nomination or the presidency. But today Barrack Obama a person of color is hoping for a second term.

The candidates on the GOP side of the race make me think it is possible if not probable that he can win a second term. Perry can't debate, Romney can't decide, and the rest of the group just ain't got it. Newt Gingrich is sharp with is tongue and super intelligent but seen as wicked by a party that is religious if not Christian.

But the big black surprise is this Cain guy. I mean that he is a survivor and one tough cookie. Cain as look his challengers in the eye and remained strong and defiant. He has reminded me of the late great Coleman A. Young mayor of Detroit 1973-1993, nothing shakes him. He as stood up to the debate and the press on all questions and grounds. Herman Cain has remained on message 9 9 9.

But can a person of color and I do mean a real Negro, African- American, son an ex- slave and share cropper represent the GOP? Man.

The present GOP was the Democratic Party for a long time. But between the Civil War and Civil Rights things changed. The Republican gave us Emancipation and the Democrats gave us Jim Crow. Even Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was a Republican a registered Republican but that's another story.

Ideologist in both parties don't talk about it and intellectuals don't teach about the flip-flop but it is the same fight today that is dividing the country over the intent of the founding fathers concerning the Negro. Some of the same men that owned slaves help write the very Constitution that is used to bring justice and freedom to the slave.

The GOP today is all about what the Democrats were about between the Civil War and Civil Rights, “returning America to the state in which they claim it was meant to have been” Confederate Vice President Alexander Stephens, Cornerstone speech, 1861.

Can a southern-dominated, fundamentalist, evangelically controlled party nominate a man that is everything they have said a person of color could ever be? Can a person born to be a slave become the leader of those that would have him a slave today?