Go West Young Man

I was working the Taste Fest in the New Center Area a few weeks ago for Transportation Riders United, when a young couple asked me why they could not get a train from Ann Arbor, where they lived, to Detroit Metro Airport. "Because the dang thing does not stop at Merriman Road", I tells 'dem. They were not satisfied with this answer, so I asked Mike Whims of the a train passengers association about this and he said Amtrak will stop where enough people will get on or off, all they have to do is ask. OK. So I'm asking; will you stop the train at Merriman Road so people can catch a plane?

But of course this got me thinking about our great City of Detroit. The auto,manufacturing and financial elite left the City for Birmingham, Bloomfield and points North after World War Two and into the 50s and 60s. This powerful group of movers and shakers headed out for whatever reasons and never looked back. This left the City with a lower and middle-class with out leadership, (much like a so called Magnet School skims-off the high achieving, leadership students and leaves the other schools rudderless). Ever since, the City has looked longingly to Oakland County, (not Pontiac!), for leadership.

I was at a MOSES meeting in,yes,as always, Very Fashionable Ferndale, when the discussion turned to partnering with Ann Arbor and Washtenaw County for a transit system. Now think about this: Detroit and Wayne County must stop looking to Oakland County as their guiding light. Look West instead, Ann Arbor as the Western wheel and Detroit as the Eastern wheel. Metro Airport, Michigan Avenue, I-94, and the rail line as the axel. Not only for transit, but politically and culturally as well. This is a well matched and balanced metropolitan Region. This Metropolitan Region will be an economic, educational, and political powerhouse.

"well detroit
i don't know,
we've done so many shows in a row"

Jackson Brown

Political Career is on hold

After running for school board this past spring and not winning I had to re-think most of what I had known about politics. In America we suffer from Mark McGuire syndrome; win it all with one swing of the bat. Bush thinks he can defeat terrorism by getting rid of Hussein, but he never imagined that his clan runs so deep and wide. We have exchanged secular fascism for Islamic fascism and a Civil War that will never end.

The Republicans are about the Republican Party and bringing a one party system to America, a Soviet style military machine style. Bush would be pro abortion if he needed to be.

At the local school level,the balance is upset between Authority,(the State of Michigan,the writer of checks and collector of taxes), Responsibility, (Local School Boards who pass through vast amounts of tax dollars and argue details such as what back-hoe to buy), and Accountability, (the tax payers that don't vote). The present system demands that School Boards should be picked from local residents by the state legislatures and the district voters during the November general election. This would better reflect that taxes are being spent from across the state, not just collected locally. More voters would choose the Board members which would enable new ideas from the business and community at large to flow into the schools.

As for me, I have decided to switch to the Democrats but not run for office until my children are in college. Right now my primary responsibility is to be a parent. The time required to run and hold office will take too great a toll on my family. I would encourage all parents to consider their children first before jobs, houses, volunteering, church, drinking, drugs, girlfriends/boyfriends, television, boats...

Just be around the house when they need 'ya.