Deeply ingrained beliefs that aren't actually true

This evening I went to a physics talk for non-physicists ("Einstein's Biggest Blunder: A Cosmic Mystery Story"). It was given by Professor Lawrence Krauss and fairly interesting. Opinionated as I am, I had a lot of reactions towards certain things he said, but one thing is sticking with me. He related how he wished that all students have the experience of having some cherished belief proved wrong. He believes that that opens minds and that greatest and most important advances in science share the characteristic of forcing us to throw out some deeply held belief.

I'm really not thinking of this in terms of science, what's rambling through my mind is interactions between people. How, many times our deeply held belief about a situation keeps us stuck in the same pattern. How, sometimes we just KNOW we are right and do not bother listening to the other person since of course we already know where they're coming from. Last summer around this time, I was reading Don't Be So Defensive by Sharon Ellison. I must have told everyone talked to about it. The main idea was that traditional methods of communication follow a war model and accelerate conflict. The author outlines Powerful Non-Defensive Communication, communication strategies to increase authentic exchange.

Earlier today, I somehow found myself on a post from early 2009 on the blog of someone whose self-described identities include South Asian, immigrant, and feminist. In it, she described how, during election season, she and others were worried that "blacks might feel that Obama is their savior, that there is hope in our current system because a black man is now at the helm." Starting there the group of communists approached Black activists "to find out how to alert blacks to the corporatist-capitalist nature of Obama’s presidency." Oy. My head is spinning from the condescension. Suffice it to say, they did not get the reception they had hoped. She goes on to write "[h]onest overtures are not wanted, apparently. Nor is it acceptable for whites to discuss problems being faced by minorities. "

Here's the thing: people do not appreciate being told that they should think what/how/when you think. If you go in somebody's house with an agenda on how they should redecorate, please don't be too surprised when you're told "don't let the door catch you on the way out."

People. I know this is difficult. Step one of communication: listen. I fall down at that point myself at times (I frequently revel in the delusion that I'm always right). Folk do what they do for a variety of reasons. Before you try to change someone, it might help to know what they think and why. People's motivations and thought processes are complicated so starting from a place of wanting to understand often helps.

The cost of war

During primary season, I was a supporter of Dennis Kucinich. One of the major reasons was that I wanted a Department of Peace (in 2008 and 2004 and now). I want to know what is possible outside of the violence we currently operate under. I worry about its effects: on the enemy, on us, on the world. Even in the case of "just" wars and revolutions, somehow even the "right" side always seems to engage in powerful wrongs.

In The Gazette of Colorado Springs, there is a very thought-provoking story. It is about one of costs of war: its effects on our soldiers and, by extension, ourselves. It's a long piece, but I think an important one.

It begins with:

Before the murders started, Anthony Marquez’s mom dialed his sergeant at Fort Carson to warn that her son was poised to kill.

It was February 2006, and the 21-year-old soldier had not been the same since being wounded and coming home from Iraq eight months before. He had violent outbursts and thrashing nightmares. He was devouring pain pills and drinking too much. He always packed a gun.

“It was a dangerous combination. I told them he was a walking time bomb,” said his mother, Teresa Hernandez.

His sergeant told her there was nothing he could do. Then, she said, he started taunting her son, saying things like, “Your mommy called. She says you are going crazy.”

The full story is available at Casualties of War, Part I: The hell of war comes home.

Doing our work

Audre Lorde wrote: "...I am myself -- a Black woman warrior poet doing my work -- come to ask you, are you doing yours?" Alas I fall short of that. I am not doing my work. I haven't quite figured out what my work is. So I am drawn to stories of people who most certainly have found their work and are doing it.

On NPR today there was a profile on a couple in Karuchi, Pakistan (interesting: the way the article is titled and framed, it is about the husband; the way I read the story, it is about both of them). They run the largest social service network in Pakistan--so far this year, they have raised $36 million to serve the city's poor. Their efforts include running two maternity wards, burying the city's unidentified dead, placing children with adoptive families, assisting families displaced by fighting in the Swat valley, and advocating for prison reform. The NPR story is embedded below.

Abdul Sattar Edhi and Bilquis Edhi

"I feel happy. There's so much craftiness and cunning and lying in the world. I feel happy that God made me different from the others. I helped the most oppressed," he says.

A few pictures from the Hotter than July picnic

Ah, the sights of Hotter than July....

Such as the folks who, like me, probably belonged at home, resting with their feet propped up:


I also saw one more person on crutches, but I hadn't started snapping pictures yet.

And of course there were the couples. Mostly I left the anti-romanticism at home and just went "aw." Below are two I spotted. The first hammed it up for a picture (not mine). The second, I assume was a couple because of the matching shirts (cute!), but I suppose they could have been other people's partners (doubt it though).

The wonder of health insurance

I have health insurance. Woohoo!

I had minor surgery yesterday and I did not have to decide to stop paying my mortgage to maintain my health. I did not have make a plan for which bills I would no longer pay. I did not have to delay the surgery until my relatively small issue became a major one and I had no choice but to make my way into an emergency room for treatment. All because the surgery was covered by my health insurance plan.

I have health insurance. Woohoo!

And I do not think I'm special. Alright that's a lie, I think I'm very special. But not special in the sense that I deserve health care more than anyone else. I do not feel that having a decent job means that I deserve health care. I do not feel that having a job job means that I deserve health care. I do not feel that if my employer did not provide health insurance, but that I could afford to privately pay for insurance and I had no pre-existing conditions that I would deserve health care more than anyone else.

This is where I start on health care. So, yeah, I suppose I do think that health care is a right, not a privilege.

According to a CNN report, medical bills contribute to 60 percent of bankruptcies in the United States. In 2006, there were 47 million Americans without health insurance and it was estimated that 22,000 people died because they did not have health insurance (see Dying for Coverage from Families USA). How much worse have things gotten with the last year of extreme economic turmoil? The Urban Institute has a report that puts the estimated $1.6 trillion cost of the Senate's health care plan in context (Beyond the $1.6 Trillion Sticker Shock).

This morning I signed a petition asking the House of Representatives to stay in session in order to pass health care reform bill (they're quickly approaching their August recess). I know some people are seriously doubtful about the impact of online petitions, so if you really want to make sure your Representative understands you want him or her to stay in Washington to get real reform, call. You can call the switchboard at the Capitol (202) 224-3121 or you can look up your Representative's office number online by entering your zip code in several places, including the Congress Merge: Online Congressional Directory).

So here's the thing...

There is this segment of the U.S. population that believes that only white people are worth anything.

I really don't understand them, yet they exist. These are the people who will read the report on discipline of public school students in Michigan and dismiss the fact that Black students are disciplined way out of proportion with what you'd expect based on their percentage of the population. They will say that it must be because Black students commit more offenses. They will believe it. I read comments to this effect on a forum which had posted an article on the report. Even though the story specifically stated that this was not the case. It must make life if easier if you can believe that the status quo is also the right thing.

Conservatives going crazy over the nomination of Judge Sonia Sotomayor were incensed over the centrist jurist (with 60 Democrats in the Senate, we still can't get a liberal nominee? le sigh). The main focus of their ire? The Ricci case, in which the New Haven civil service board threw out the test it had chosen to use to decide promotions because only one non-white applicant passed the test and they feared a lawsuit. A federal district court ruled no laws were broken and, on appeal, a three-judge panel which included Sotomayor, affirmed the ruling. I'm not versed in the specifics of the case--I don't know why New Haven thought having a written test designed by an outside consultant was a good way to do promotions. I don't know what the test consisted of. So I am making no comment on the specifics of that case.

What I do want to note is how it has a certain segment of the population fired up. And it seems to me that this is mainly because they find it completely unbelievable that this metric could have possibly been biased. From what I can tell they seem to feel that if white people have a disproportionate share of the power, it's because they deserve it. Pat Buchanan was advancing this idea in an interview with Rachel Maddow (see below). I'm with Elon of This Week in Blackness of this one. I get stuck right there and find it hard to have something to say because it is an idea that makes no sense to me. TWiB is hilarious to me, so here's a link to the episode, 2009 is the New 1952 (there are a few cuss words, if that bothers you).

A couple shallow notes on the above post...

1. Is it just me or does Elon from TWiB look like of Lemont from the comic Candorville?

2. I swear that every time I see Rachel Maddow's show, she gets a little more feminine. Hmm. Must. Conform. Hmm?

Let America Be America Again

I'm in the midst of reading Static by Any Goodman and David Goodman and reflecting upon the ACLU report and thinking about torture and a thousand other things. And I thought how wonderful we would be as a nation if we lived our ideals. And that of course brought me to this poem by Langston Hughes, recited below by Danny Glover.




"Let America Be America Again" is also available in print for your reading pleasure at http://www.poets.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/15609.

Has anyone seen an ACLU card?

I'm a card carrying member of the ACLU. Okay, that's not technically true. I have no card (are there really cards?) but I remember some Republican politician (the first George Bush?) treating the phrase as if it were a high insult and I remember having no idea why. I actually still don't get it. Who thinks defending civil liberties is a bad thing?

You might ask what the ACLU of Michigan has been doing lately. While you can go to their website and read up on them yourself, I wanted to share two things. First: the ACLU represented a Michigan minister whose probation was revoked based on the judge deciding that an article he wrote for a small Chicago newspaper was “defamatory and demeaning” and such communications
violated the conditions of his probation. The Michigan Court of Appeals found that the terms of the probation were unconstitutional as they impinged on the first amendment rights of the man.

Second: they released a report on the school-to-prison pipeline in the state and the disproportionate disciplinary actions taken against Black students:

“In school district after school district, from one end of the state to another, we found that black kids are consistently suspended in numbers that are considerably disproportionate to their representation in the various student populations,” said Mark P. Fancher, ACLU of Michigan Racial Justice Project staff attorney and principal author of the report. “More alarming still are studies we examined that show that the behavior of black kids and white kids is essentially the same, and black kids are still kicked out of school proportionately more often. This is true regardless of socio-economic factors and geography.”

Previous studies have shown that students who are suspended are more likely to drop out of school. 68% of incarcerated Michigan residents are identified as high school drop outs. More information on the report can be found in the linked press release and the report is “Reclaiming Michigan’s Throwaway Kids: Students Trapped in the School-to-Prison Pipeline." Well worth reading.

Broccoli flower followup

I almost forgot...the broccoli flowers are pretty good. They gave the broccoli a lemony taste. I'd advise that if you let the flowers bloom that you not also try to eat the largest part of the stalk; that was a bit tough and cooking didn't really make it more edible. This is a picture of them in the colander in the sink:

Who sponsors petitions?

I was sitting at the bus stop today and a woman was trying to get signatures on a petition. The young brother sitting next to me signed it for her. He then asked a really good question: whether she was volunteering to circulate the petition. Interestingly enough, she got a little defensive. Hmm. So I asked her who was sponsoring the petition. She dodged and skated and then settled on an answer: "the city." I insisted that that didn't make sense and asked directly who was paying her. She stated that she was not allowed to talk about who was paying her or how much she made. I assured her that I would not ask her how much she made, but I was curious who was sponsoring the petition. She asked me if I was a registered Detroit voter and if I wanted to sign. I am, but I told her I am not interested in signing something being circulated by shadowy persons who don't want to be revealed.

The petition was to get the question of districts on the ballot. Basically the petition wanted a proposal before voters that would move us from an at-large city council to a council that has only two at-large members and seven members that each represent a specific district. I am not against this idea. Council could definitely use more accountability and districts might be a way to do that. But I am very concerned with the process that would draw up districts. Very concerned.

Even more Detroit events

If only I could be in more than one place at time...

In my list the other day, I forgot to mention a few other things coming up in the next two weeks:

The 17th annual Concert of Colors is this weekend. It's a "free diversity-themed music festival." It's going on Saturday and Sunday around the Max M. Fisher Music Center at the corner of Woodward and Parsons in Midtown. Check out their website.

Also the Afro-Semitic Experience, a group of "African-American and Jewish-American musicians who are dedicated to preserving, promoting and expanding the rich cultural and musical heritage of the Jewish and African Diasporas," will perform live at the Charles H. Wright Museum on Saturday, July 25th. You can order tickets online. There's a clip below of them performing:

"I got big shoulders. "

Kimberly Anyadike few across the country and back. The 15 year old pilot is believed to have set a record as the youngest African American female to fly a plane coast to coast. She learned to fly in an after-school program at Tomorrow's Aeronautical Museum in Compton, CA. When the museum's founder warned her that the flight would be a huge undertaking, she insisted: "'Put it on. I got big shoulders. " She flew in a plane owed by the museum, accompanied by a safety pilot and an 87 year old veteran who had flown with the Tuskeegee Airmen.

The history of the Tuskeegee Airmen motivated her: "I had big shoes to fill. All they wanted to do was to be patriots for this country. They were told no, that they were stupid, that they didn't have cognitive development to fly planes. They didn't listen. They just did what they wanted to do." She flew roundtrip from Compton to Newport News, VA. She made 13 stops along the way and met dozens of Tuskeegee Airmen during the 13 day adventure. She stopped in Detroit on July 8th:




Check out her Facebook page here: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Kimberly-Anyadike/103060227810

I am so impressed with this powerful child, this amazing young woman. The world needs more big dreamers who have the will to push beyond the ordinary.

Upcoming Events

I had this idea that I was going to create a calendar of Detroit events. Well, people, there is a lot going on! And I have less and less hope of finishing it. So instead, here are a few suggestions about what to do with yourself for the next couple of weeks...

Hotter than July (that would be Detroit's Black Gay/SGL Pride event) There are events from July 18th to 26th. There'll be a pride march, a candle vigil, film festival, brunch, literary event and more...check out the website.

Community Activist Grace Lee Boggs is turning 94! There's a celebration/fundraiser with Danny Glover, Invicible and other local artists July 19th at 7pm at Central United Methodist Church. Check out the website for the Boggs Center.

The Detroit Women of Color International Film Festival is going on next weekend with films from 7:30-10:30pm Friday July 24th and from 12-7:30pm Sunday the 26th and workshops on Saturday the 25th. Films are listed on the website (though warning, last I looked the times for Sunday were wrong).

Volunteer to farm! Detroit Black Community Food Security Network needs volunteers at D-Town farm. The farm is around Orangelawn & W Outer Dr, Detroit, MI 48239. Their work schedule is:

Monday	11:00am - 7:00pm
Thursday	6:00pm - 8:00pm
Saturday	8:00am - 11:30am
Sunday	8:00am - 11:30am and
	5:00pm - 8:00pm

Check out their website for more info.

Slow Food Dinner at Capuchin Soup Kitchen Tuesday, July 21 at 6:30 PM at the Capuchin Soup Kitchen (1264 Meldrum) dinner prepared by Executive Chef Alison Costello, featuring Earthworks salad greens, local loin of pork, and more. The cost is $15.00 per person and proceeds will benefit the Capuchin Soup Kitchen and Slow Food Detroit. There will also be a tour of the Earth Works Urban Gardens. They asked for people to RSVP via email to valerie@slowfooddetroit.org. by Friday, July 11, but try anyway if you're interested.


Okay, I'm already tired with all this typing and I just got started. Why don't you just go check out more good things at the calendar of events on the Detroit City of Hope website?

Urban Planning and Plotting

There was an interesting story on NPR about an attempt by Flint to downsize. Just 60 miles from Detroit, another casualty of the auto industry is reeling. According to the article, one third of the homes in Flint have been "abandoned." (I suspect that while one third of the houses may well be vacant, foreclosures and evictions probably have taken a greater toll than "abandonment.") The vision of at least one city planner there is to have it be a shrinking city: "The idea is to bulldoze entire neighborhoods. The smaller city would then be cheaper to run and help pave the way for better times ahead, advocates say."

On one level, I see the point. Cities that are no longer at capacity are not earning enough in tax revenues to pay for all the needed city services. Providing police, firefighting, streetlights, and trash collection would definitely be easier with a smaller geographic area. The demolition of vacant houses would make areas much safer. Using the vacant land for urban agriculture would benefit the community as a whole.

On another level, every suspicious impulse I have is on full alert. I don't know Flint, but I'm wondering if this is another push at urban removal. I'm guessing that much like Detroit, while some areas have higher concentrations of vacant homes than others, empty houses dot most neighborhoods in the city. So when the Genesee County treasurer talks about needing to create a new map, deciding block by block where "it makes sense to either let nature take the land back or to create some intentional open green space," I get nervous. I know I wouldn't want some county executive deciding whether my block would be razed or not. I'd hate to live in a Detroit where it was decided that Downtown, Midtown, East English Village, and Rosedale Park are big enough to contain all remaining city residents so the rest of us just need to relocate there so the rest of the city can be leveled and Detroit be more efficient.

No thank you.

Personal in Public

Today I was waiting for a bus. Not unusual at all. Today I was waiting for a bus. And there was a couple under the bus shelter. At first I didn't realize they were together. His beard was scraggley and he looked bit older than she was and and vaguely homeless. In his right hand was a tall can wrapped in a brown paper bag. Her clothes were neat and if her wig was off-center, it was just by a tiny bit. She leaned away from him as he talked to her. I was making a few calls on my cell, but watched them out of the corner of my eye. Eventually I realized that even though she would step away whenever he got closer, they knew each other. I felt uncomfortable watching them, and tried to look away, but their body language made me more uncomfortable than the watching. Eventually the exchange became physical: he grabbed her arm and she tried to pull away. She waved her other arm at a passing police car. He was smiling, a playful, childlike smile and her movements were theatrical so I wasn't sure how seriously I should take it. Then he wrapped his arms around her waist and her struggle seemed less theatrical.

I stepped closer to them and asked "Are you okay?" He told me that she was, that they were just playing. She said nothing. I looked directly at her and asked two more times before she said she wasn't. He dropped his beer and it foamed around their feet. Not really having a plan, I asked him "Could you stop that, please?" He paused as I stared at him. He repeated that they were just playing as I continued to stare, but he let her go and I said thank you. She commented that she just got out of the hospital. He didn't touch her while I was there, but when the bus came neither of them got on. Now, I wonder if there was anything I could/should have said or done to make a difference.

A Little Nikki Giovanni is a Beautiful Thing

I do like my Youtube:

I will stay if...

Someone forwarded me a link that I found really interesting. The Great Lakes Urban Exchange (GLUE) "is a growing network of young leaders who are committed to the revitalization of the cities of the Great Lakes region, through building a constituency, sharing information, telling our stories, and advocating for what our cities need." They are collecting images of people with posters that say "I will stay if..." It's an interesting idea, though I'm not sure how they mean to use these images (To convince policy makers what their cities need? Not with images by themselves--these definitely are not representative of the city at large. To illustrate what they've found in surveys of residents? That would add a nice visual. To spark conversation among those looking to improve their city? Excellent!) Over 80 people had submitted images about Detroit.

I admit to being a little disturbed by one sign that wants "loitering in Midtown" to be addressed. Hmm. Really? I work in Midtown and I can't say I've been bothered by excessive "loitering" so I'm a little curious which undesirables the person does not want in her neighborhood.

My favorites involve people who've turned the statement around to be "I am staying..." Some completions to that are "to be part of change," "because I am Detroit," "to make a difference" and "to work with my community." And I know it's not a scientific study, but I will mention that several of the people's signs are asking for better public transportation and there are a few that want a better educational system.

One of the images from the site http://gluespace.org/iwillstayif/index.php?/project/detroit/

The way the world works

I am naive. If the legally elected president is forced out of a country by the military, I think that is clearly a coup. So I would think that the proper course of action is to officially declare it a coup and, as required by the U.S. Foreign Assistance Act, send no funds to the installed government. It seems very clear to me. But, like I said, I'm naive and believe in a right way to do things. If, say, around spring of 2008, the Marines decided to ship out then-President George W. Bush, I would not have done my "finally!" happy dance. I was willing to save that for Inauguration Day. I need at least a pretense of democracy.

So why is the administration of President Obama having to be dragged by the rest of the hemisphere into speaking out against the coup in Honduras? Why is Secretary of State Clinton not willing to say that elected Honduran President Zelaya should be returned to power? Why is she carefully avoiding officially labeling his ouster as a "coup" so that funds (we're talking $100 million in aid here) can still flow to Honduras?

While I continue to shake my head, check out an article in the UK Guardian, Does the US back the Honduran coup?, and a story from Associated Press, Zelaya to discuss Honduras crisis with Clinton.

Biking Ideas for Detroit

There's an op-ed column in the NY Times, Bike Among the Ruins, that describes an incident in which the writer crashed his bicycle and flew across Woodward. He states that anywhere else he would have been quickly hit by an oncoming car, but "this being the Motor City, the street was deserted, completely motor-free." From there he suggests that Detroit can be reborn into a bicyclists' utopia with the bicyclists powering the city's revival.

Um.

Definitely it is an interesting essay. Definitely I dream dreams of Detroit becoming Bicycle Heaven. And yet I wonder exactly how late at night the writer was out riding because no matter how late I have been out, I have yet to see Woodward free of vehicle traffic. And there is something disturbing about his attempt to give the impression that Detroit is deserted and that the streets are open and just waiting for cyclists. Realistically--I bike in this city and I like biking here, but cars (and, really, there are a lot of cars in Southeastern Michigan) do not respect bicycles and seem to think we should be on the sidewalks. I do not bike on Woodward. I do not have nerves of steel so I try to stay on the smaller streets.

A bixi rental station in Montreal

This weekend I learned about bixi, a bike rental program provided by the Canadian city of Montreal. People pay a fee to access the system and there is no additional charge for rides that are 30 minutes or less. Stations are located every few blocks and a bike can be returned to any station. The plan is to have 300 rental stations and 3000 bikes. Right now there are considerably less than that and the bikes seem to be only in the city center.

I love this idea. But would it work in Detroit? I'm not sure. As I said Detroiters do not have a culture of easily sharing the road with bikes. Montreal is really a bike city--supposedly there are 500km of bike paths in the city. This is a city that had a bike parking station so that people could leave their bikes safely while they went to enjoy the jazz festival. It's a different kind of place. Additionally, the bixi depends on people using their credit cards at the self-service stations. There is a substatial cross-section of Detroit that would not be served by a system that operated in that way. Finally, it is the city that runs Montreal's system. The City of Detroit, which struggles to provide basic city services, could not afford to do that.

The self-service rental machine at a bixi station

Another bicycle model is that of the apparently now defunct Decatur Yellow Bikes. They took bike donations and repaired them, painted them yellow, and let folks "adopt" a bike for $25.

Hmmm...so many ideas...

A long four-day week in Detroit

Tuesday two young men with machine guns fired on a crowd at a bus stop, hitting seven teenagers. Thankfully all are still alive. See story on WYXZ news, also which also includes a statement from Wayne County Prosecutor Kym Worthy. City Councilwoman Monica Conyers resigned after admitting to selling her vote (story on AP...I wouldn't link to the major local papers because the comments make my stomach hurt).

Seems like with everything I've heard this week, I've just been stuck on "But what do we do about it?" I'm still stuck there.

"Be silent, or say something better than silence. "

People, the world does not need to know all your business. Really. I swear. I know that this is hard to believe, particularly given all the water cooler discussions on Jon and Kate, but it's true. (And really there needs to be a Nonproliferation Agreement for reality shows. I'm just sayin')

Why is Mark Sanford still talking? He left the country for five days, not bothering to let anyone know where he was. Perhaps he felt he had no pressing gubernatorial responsibilities after the lawsuits that students and school administrators filed over his refusal to accept stimulus funds had been settled (the state Supreme Court ruled that it was the legislature's decision and the state's lawmakers had already passed a budget that made use of that money...see CNN story for more detail). In any case, oopsie. He held a news conference, admitted his affair with an Argentine woman, and said he would pay back the state funds he had misused to finance a 2008 trip to Argentina. End of story, right? Apparently not, since then the South Carolina governor has opted to do interview after interview, seemingly unable to contain himself. For whatever reason he felt the need to share that his mistress is his "soulmate" (uh, sweetie, #4 on the list of ways not to reconcile with your wife: insist your mistress is your soulmate) and that he has "crossed the line" with other women as well, but not the "ultimate line." Help. The South Carolina GOP is attempting to shush him now--actively working for his resignation (see story on POLITICO).

Whew, anybody else feel the institution of marriage needs defending here? Because suddenly I'm feeling all anti-marriage...I mean even if did find the perfect woman and it was legal for us to get married--I wants no parts of this mess. In order to defend marriage, I think the South Carolina legislature needs to pass a constitutional amendment annulling the Sanfords' marriage and prohiting him from remarrying. Ever. And the US Congress can enact a law that ensures that no future marriages of Sanford, no matter where performed, will be recognized by the federal government. I'm just sayin'.

There's an interesting op-ed piece on the New York Times website about social conservatives and hypocrisy.

And one more question: do South Carolinians feel embarrassed and ashamed because of this? Are people cracking jokes about their state? Or are they allowed to feel outraged without the not-all-subtle hints that they were somehow responsible for and deserving of the shenanigans from their public officials? I'm wondering because Detroit sure caught it over Kwame Kilpatrick.