Recently a conservative Detroit News columnist wrote a piece
titled “Is Detroit ready for white mayor?”
He wrote the article because Mike Duggan, a white, political
machine politician that has been around Detroit politics forever, just moved
into Detroit from the suburbs and started talking about running for mayor of
Detroit.
I will mention at the outset that Raymond Wojtowicz, a
white, Polish guy that is a millions years old, has been the Wayne County
Treasurer forever…why...I don’t even vote for him.
Duggan has been around Detroit
politics as County Executive , County
Prosecutor and recently he ran the Detroit Medical Center
Yes he is a politician but he is definitely very competent
and as far as I know, clean of any corruption; in other words someone Detroit government has
not seen in years.
Dave Bing, the current mayor whom I have supported at the
outset with genuine gusto, has been disappointing in that he was clean but his
competency became a question. He had and has the heart and the determination to
do what is right for the city but he was not a real executive and failed to
surround himself with competent people and when things started unraveling and
bankruptcy was inevitable; he started playing the race card as a means of
defending himself.
Bing will run again because he likes being in the spotlight
and likes the trappings of office and people in Detroit that still insist on a black mayor
will elect him.
The Rev. Charles Williams, a Detroit pastor, on a local talk
show talking about the Finley article did not think Detroit would vote for a
white mayor because the city is 90% black and they want a black mayor who is
culturally and racially connected to them which is, according to him,
absolutely OK.
He added that this is not a racist position or a separatist
position, it is just voting for someone you feel will represent you the best.
The moderator of the show asked about a black man as the president
of a white majority country but Williams said that Obama could be considered
white also…and he has a point there, although Americans believe your skin color
determines what race you are and not the race of your parents as in Tiger Woods
case who had an Asian mother and a father that was part African-American and
part American Indian; Tiger is considered black…period.
The Rev. Williams then changed from the race issue and said
that Duggan could not get elected because he is a part of the one (1%) and is
not really from the community and does not understand the community. The
current mayor of Detroit was also not part of
the community, was a basketball player for the Pistons and then became a
businessman, a career few in Detroit
could relate to.
There is no question that race and power are key in Detroit but are they key
to everyone or are they key just to the people that speak the loudest because
their welfare depends on the continuation of the dysfunctional but beneficial
to some, status quo.
It would seem logical that Detroiters are so fed up with the
lack of service, the corruption, the rising lawlessness of the streets and the
utter incompetency of their leaders to do anything about those problems that
they would take a chance on a white guy with a proven record of getting things
done?
Maybe Mike Duggan can sense that and maybe he can get black
leaders that care about Detroit
residents and not their own welfare, to back him?
We may be in for a very interesting season…
Thank's janusz szyszko.great article. the truth will hurt some but inlighten others.
ReplyDeleteHow old are you grandpa? you must of forgot the 80 in wayne county? dah!!!
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