This year marks the 100th Anniversary of the birth of Detroit revolutionary philosopher, writer, and activist James Boggs. To explore the contributions of his thinking to understanding our present crisis and what we must do to advance our common humanity, the James and Grace Lee Boggs School and the Center to Nurture Community leadership are hosting a series of events.

The future of our city is driven by countless small decisions. Of course, political choices, like giving 200 acres of land to Fiat-Chrysler, or flattening a community for a Cadillac plant, have enormous consequences. But often, the things that touch our daily lives are far less dramatic.

Several hundred people gathered at the Detroit Police Commissioner Board hearing at St. John’s Lutheran Church to discuss the expansion of a facial recognition system tied to Project Green Light. Currently, Detroit and Chicago are the only cities in the country implementing real-time facial recognition.

This is High School graduation season in Detroit. Across the city new graduates are walking around with caps and gowns. People driving by in cars honk in acknowledgement. In neighborhoods, lawn signs are sprouting up congratulating the students and naming the schools they attended. Front porches display balloons and decorations announcing a high school grad lives here. These celebrations mark the mixture of pride and hope in the achievements of young people. They reflect the enduring faith in our community that education matters.

For 39 years, Michigan’s business and political elite have gathered on Mackinac Island to discuss plans and policies for our state. Hosted by the Detroit Regional Chamber of Commerce, this gathering produces some of the most vicious and damaging ideas affecting people. For example, as the Detroit bankruptcy was unfolding, the Mackinac gathering was credited with framing the “Grand Bargain,” pitting pensioners against the DIA and stifling any creative thinking about how to address financial issues in the city.

Mayors can make a difference. Chicago’s new Mayor Lori Lightfoot took office this week, becoming the first African American, openly queer woman to head the city. A few days before she took the oath, she announced she would stop water shut offs.

The city of Northville MI faced a boil water advisory this weekend. Over the last few years these advisories are becoming more common. This latest directive to boil water before drinking it was because of a water main break on Friday morning.

The Trump administration is ramping up its efforts to attack local, democratic, compassion efforts to protect people who are seeking safer and more secure lives. Recently the administration announced a new program to allow local law enforcement officers to arrest and detain immigrants, even if local policies prevent them from doing so. Local officers will be encouraged to arrest people based on ICE warrants.

Mayor Duggan announced last week that he has secured nearly 215 acres of land on the east side to hand over to Fiat Chrysler Automobiles (FCA), ensuring the development of the first new auto plant in the city in 30 years. FCA is making a $4.5 billion investment in the new plant and expansions to five other Michigan plants. FCA says it will create 6,500 jobs. They had given the city a short 60-day window to come up with the land for the new plant.

Speaking as a member, servant, and leader of this community, I strongly favor the ideas and recommendations put forth by the Neighborhood Advisory Council (NAC), creating a way forward to building Community Prosperity and long-term sustainability in the impacted area and beyond.

Hantz Farms is briefly back in the news this week. By the time you read this, the City Council will most likely have approved the swap of 37 parcels of land on Beniteau Street for 450 parcels scattered throughout the East side. That means Hantz is getting a more than 10 parcels for every one he is giving up. And he is getting these additional parcels for 8.33 cents per square foot.

Sanctuary cities are back in the news. Trump has renewed his efforts to punish cities that have declared sanctuary for people coming to this country seeking safety and new ways of life. In both a speech and a tweet, Trump vowed he is thinking about rounding up people who are being detained at the border and sending them to cities that have declared sanctuary. He is taking special aim at California.

April 4th is an important day for our country. It is the day Martin Luther King Jr. denounced the Vietnam war and called for a radical revolution in values, in 1967. It is also the day he was murdered, one year later.  Over the past two years, this day has been acknowledged widely. In 2017 thousands of people gathered to read Breaking the Silence and discuss its meaning 50 years later. Last year, people gathered to consider how movements live beyond individuals, shifting and changing to overcome the challenges we all face.

The arch of the universe bent a little closer to justice this week. The massive, toxic trash incinerator that has been poisoning Detroit for more than 3 decades announced it is closing down. This marks a victory for one of the most sustained, imaginative, and persistent campaigns for environmental justice anywhere.

Neil Barclay is getting a lot of press. As the new CEO of the Charles H. Wright Museum of African American History, Barclay has been filling up the airways, giving interviews and penning columns. All of this is in an effort to justify the opening of the exhibit entitled Slavery at Jefferson’s Monticello: Paradox of Liberty. Barclay has been the subject of major news stories, written an op-ed, and appeared on Detroit Today and Michigan Radio. Even the Non Profit Quarterly has profiled his new job.

This week the exhibit “Slavery at Jefferson’s Monticello: Paradox of Liberty” opened at the Charles H. Wright Museum of African American History. The opening was greeted with spirited protests. Every day people gathered to draw attention to the horrific decision by the museum board to open an exhibit that attempts to sanitize slavery.

Detroit joined thousands of communities across the globe celebrating International Women’s Day last weekend. Nine years ago, Grace Lee Boggs and the Boggs Center joined Cindy Estrada of the UAW to reinvigorate local celebrations.

For the first time in more than a generation, Detroit will see a new auto plant. Last week, Mayor Duggan and Governor Whitmer joined leaders from Fiat-Chrysler (FCA) and the UAW to announce a possible $4.5 billion expansion that will result in 6,500 new jobs. Most of these jobs will be in Detroit.

Detroit Future City is back in the news. After a contentious, widely criticized community engagement process, Detroit Future City produced a 50-year plan nearly a decade ago. The plan laid out a blueprint for shrinking our neighborhoods and established a framework for a transition to a whiter, wealthier city. The bankruptcy process overshadowed this effort. Now Mayor Duggan has dropped the signature concept of the plan, the shrinking of the city. Instead, Duggan is all about growth.

This past weekend the North Dakota Study Group gathered in Jackson Mississippi to explore “different ways of thinking about schools, communities, teaching and learning.” The group was formed in 1970 to support the development of “powerful, progressive, active community rooted education.” Vito Perrone, one of the founders of the group explained in a closing speech in 2000, “Our task is to share our learning with others, engage the struggles that surround us, keep the flame of hope alive, allow possibilities for helping our children and young people to be in position to change the world.” “That,” Perrone said, “Is a standard I think is worth pursuing.”