MLK DAY: In Detroit, some good, some bad...

Today is Martin Luther King, Jr. Day (MLK Day) in the country. My wife has been working diligently these past few months, getting ready for the MLK Celebration & March down Woodward Avenue, which she and her committee put on every year in downtown Detroit.

I admire her commitment and dedication to this cause which she feels very deeply about. Organizing the celebration is no easy task as she has to bring in speakers from around the country, contract with chorales like Mosaic to perform during the ceremony, clean and decorate the Central United Methodist Church where the festivities take place among many, many other duties.

Many communities in Michigan and the nation have special events commemorating MLK Day; I have always found it slightly ironic that the celebrations in Detroit are spearheaded by a blond, white woman from the suburbs.

Today, the black leaders in Detroit are organizing to march in Governor Snyder’s neighborhood against the “Emergency Manager Law” which they feel disenfranchises Detroiters; making their votes invalid.

I have written about this issue at some length. Governor Snyder has consistently said that this is a financial crisis issue and not a racial issue but the organizers of the protest insist that Martin Luther King, Jr. would have been with them if he were alive today…I don’t think so.

MLK had issues he felt strongly about but what the leaders in Detroit are saying and doing is not an issue at all; it is a last resort by the state to help Detroit stay out of bankruptcy court which will devastate Detroit and its residents; to not see that and to bring race into the issue, is to “play the race card”.

And why would you play the race card when the issue is obviously not about race? Well, as always, it is to get something for nothing.

Where a financial emergency manager would put the city on a solid financial footing by eliminating incompetence and corruption from city government, the leaders of Detroit would prefer to keep the incompetence and corruption where it is BUT would like the state and federal government (read taxpayers) to donate millions if not billions to the city to help pay its huge debts so that the leaders in Detroit can keep riding the gravy train like they have for decades.

I think what Detroit’s leaders are doing on MLK day is an embarrassment to the memory of Dr. King. Yes, Dr. King tried to shame government into doing the right thing because he had to but he would never use deception to falsely shame a government that IS DOING THE RIGHT THING for the people.

I guess I am disappointed that no black writers have come out and pointed out the scandalous way the race card is being played in Detroit and on MLK Day at that.

Related articles

• Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. ~ An Inspirational Leader (candacereese.wordpress.com)
• Celebrate Martin Luther King Jr. Day by facing racism and including intersecting identities (stuffqueerpeopleneedtoknow.wordpress.com)