Selling the DIA at Mackinac

Week 10 of the Occupation

The political and economic elite of Michigan are gathering on Mackinac Island for the annual Policy Conference sponsored by the Detroit Regional Chamber of Commerce. It is billed as an opportunity for “comprehensive dialogue on culture, education and the 21st century global market.” Former Florida Governor Jeb Bush is the keynote speaker. Michelle Rhee, a primary figure in the test-students-to-death movement, will be interviewing with WDET’s Craig Fahle. Carlos Gutierrez, George W. Bush’s Secretary of Commerce and former CEO of Kellogg, joins the heavily republican list of speakers. Detroit Works announced it is attending to “meet with regional stakeholders to discuss how the strategic framework can be utilized to inform decision making, and improve the quality of life in Detroit and Southeast Michigan.”

Whatever the specific theme, the tone of the Conference is clear. Taxes need to be cut. State and local government needs to be reduced. Unions are a problem and need to be destroyed. Global competition is key. Private capital should take over public responsibilities. It is here that right wing think tanks have rolled out their ideas for reshaping Michigan. The intellectual framework to defund cities, destroy public education, and diminish civic life are fostered, providing the basis to establish emergency managers, right to work, and Educational Achievement Authorities.

This year a lot of people not invited to the island are making their presence known through direct actions and informational campaigns. The resistance to this gathering is welcome.

The people at this gathering, whose ideas are responsible for many of the financial woes of Detroit, will be surrounded by exquisite reproductions of Detroit Institute of Art paintings. Van Gogh’s "ThePostman” and Monet’s “Gladioli” will be among the nine pieces displayed in outdoor public spaces as part of the Inside Out project of the DIA.

These are from the same DIA collection that the Emergency Manager has talked glibly of selling as a way to pay the debts. The firestorm greeting the request by the Emergency Manager for an appraisal of the collection was perhaps unexpected. The EM justified it, saying, “We've got a responsibility to rationalize all the assets of the city and find out what the worth is and what the city holds.” It seems the move was prompted by “big creditors” trying to protect their interests, should the city finally declare bankruptcy.

Whatever the motivation, the move has been greeted with a furor likening the looting of the DIA by bankers to that of the Nazi raiding the great Art Works of Paris during WWII for their private collections.

It also reveals the crassness of the efforts to make financial decisions without civic constraints. The DIA, founded in 1885, is an international treasure, home to over 65,000 pieces of art in 100 galleries. The American painting collection is one of the finest in the world and the Rivera murals are without parallel.

Fortunately for all of us, the museum and art world are governed by long standing covenants and traditions that preclude the sale of art to pay the bills. The likelihood of courts setting these aside to protect creditors is not high.

The DIA responded saying, it and the city” hold the museum's art collection in trust for the public" and that "the city cannot sell art to generate funds for any purpose other than to enhance the collection." They have also hired a team of lawyers to help protect the collection.

Meanwhile, we the people are finding ways to resist this assault on all of our public assets. New forms of resistance are emerging every day. If you cannot go to protest the goings on at Mackinac, attend the People's Platform and Convention June 1 at Marygrove. They say, “Detroit is full of vibrant, resilient people who look out for each other and are committed to protecting the public assets and resources we share as a community” and we want “a meaningful say in rebuilding our city.”

Reducing Violence in our Neighborhoods

By Marcia Lee

For the past four years, Forbes magazine has ranked Detroit as the most violent city in the nation. Some may argue that this is because we are a city without much financial capital. Others may blame the abundance of guns on the street.

Although there is truth in both of these statements, I believe, as my colleague Henry McClendon likes to say, “The problem is not that we have a violence problem in Detroit. It is that we have a relationship problem.”

There was a time when we did not go to the police or courts to resolve anti-social problems in our communities. Instead we would get together with the people in our communities, our friends and neighbors who included cousins and elders .

The focus was on listening to one another describe what had happened. It was on working with the people who had been impacted and trying to resolve the problem instead of punishing the perpetrator. It was a time when elders guided the younger generations and the younger generations worked with the elders to maintain the community.

Now is a good time to recall these practices so that we can not only work to resolve conflicts after they occur, but begin creating spaces for healthy relationships that will lead to fewer conflicts. Now is a good time to build relationships with our neighbors, and find creative and community-guided solutions. Now is a time to share our stories and learn from each others’ wisdom.

This is the focus of Restorative Justice: working with people, in their/our communities to bring healing to the people who have been harmed by violence and conflict. We work on healing wounds and holding people accountable for their actions.

In line with this vision and in response to horrible violence, the Detroit Area Restorative Justice Center and Corktown Restorative Justice Network were born. Over the past couple of years small groups have been meeting to envision how to work together to create peace zones in our city. We now have an office in the Hive Space at St. Peter’s Episcopal Church.

We host training on introduction to Peacemaking Circles and a Speaker’s Series in alternating months. The office is currently open on Tuesdays if people want to drop in to talk through a conflict or set up an appointment.

With the Corktown group, our focus is on supporting people who live in Corktown, but we are also happy to work with people or organizations in other areas to support them in resolving conflicts as well.

On April 27th we hosted a gathering for Restorative Justice practitioners to learn from each other and together create a vision of how to make Detroit into the Restorative Justice city in the United States.

Grace Lee Boggs began the day by explaining how the administration of Justice has evolved down through the years.

She cited Discipline and Punishment: The Birth of the Prison, by Michel Foucault in which the author explains how the penitentiaries created after the French Revolution, where offenders were incarcerated to repent of their misdeeds, were much more humane than the guillotines which had beheaded them.

However, in today’s world where millions are incarcerated, depriving children of parents and adults of partners and costing billions of dollars, we need to create more advanced ways of administering justice.

If you have questions about the restorative justice work happening in Detroit or want to become involved, please contact us at detroitrestorativejustice@gmail.com. Together we can make this vision come to life, one relationship at a time.

Marcia Lee is a member of the Detroit Area Restorative Justice Network (DARJUN)