The business and political elite gathered on Mackinac Island last week to determine ways that will advance their interests and solidify their political control. As reported, “Nearly 1,700 business leaders, politicians, and philanthropists headed to Mackinac Island to rub elbows, and discuss issues in the state ranging from education to transportation.

Last week Dan Gilbert received the largest tax subsidy in Michigan history to support his private developments. The board of the Michigan Strategic Fund in Lansing approved $618 million for four linked projects that are estimated to cost $2.2 billion. For perspective consider that the Little Caesars Arena cost $863 million, of which $329.1 million was in subsidies. Or consider that the city gave Belle Isle to the State because it could not afford the $6 million in annual upkeep. Or the $7.8 million the City Council approved for Homrich Wrecking to shut off the water.

This week Eastern Michigan Environmental Action Council (EMEAC) hosted a conference of activists concerned about creating a future based on regenerative principles of a just economy. People from around the country and several First Nations gathered to share ideas and practices. This was the gathering that Siwatu-Salama Ra worked tirelessly to bring to Detroit. It was the gathering she could not see from her prison cell. She is serving two years in prison for pointing an empty gun at a person who threatened to run over her mother and child. Those of us who came together to think about a different future were reminded how urgently we need to change our ways of living, and how much pain and destruction we have come to accept as normal in our daily lives.

Shortly after Mother’s Day, three Nestle semi-trucks will roll into Flint with free bottled water. Between Mother’s Day and Labor Day Nestle will donate 100,000 bottles a week to three service centers where people can pick up the bottled water. The Mayor of Flint has graciously thanked the company for its “willingness to help the people of Flint.”

This week the Rev, Edward Pinkney was vindicated by the Michigan Supreme Court. In 2014, the Benton Harbor activist was accused of election forgery and making false statements in a petition drive to recall Mayor James Hightower. Pinkney was accused of changing the dates on some signatures and allowing 6 people to sign the petition twice. He was found not guilty of making false statements, but he was convicted of changing dates and was sentenced to 30 to 120 months in prison.

Early this week people in and around Wayne State University were evacuated because of a gas leak. Across the campus and in nearby residents, the smell of gas was overpowering. The leak was caused by a construction accident. By Friday we were told all is well, classes reopened and people returned to homes. No one was injured. We are back to normal.

More than 120 people gathered together for a community dialogue on education and Black Male Achievement this Thursday at the Charles H. Wright Museum of African American History. The stage was set by the student co-hosts Lauren Danzy, the leader of the Detroit Independent Freedom Schools youth group, and Xavier Clemons, an 11th grader at Frederick Douglass Academy. Sharing their concerns about the importance of thinking together about education, they asked the gathering to focus on central questions. These included: How do we engage Black male youth in our schools and communities? What has worked for us collectively and individually? What is our vision for our schools and our communities? What is the importance of understanding ourselves, our cultures, and our histories?

It should be obvious to everyone that those in control of the State of Michigan oppose democracy, distrust the wisdom of people, and are determined to strangle cities and municipalities that are the home of our most progressive thinking.

Governor Snyder has persisted with his decision, and his alone, to stop free bottled water distribution in Flint. Both the citizens and their elected Mayor have asked the Governor to continue making free water available until all lead pipes are replaced throughout the city.

The past week exposed the vulnerability of people and the waters on which life depends throughout the Great Lakes region. We have seen extraordinary disdain from elected officials about our responsibilities to one another and our earth.

Last week we had an opportunity to reflect on the legacies of Emergency Management. Two schools of architecture, Taubman College of the University of Michigan and the Temple Hoyne Buell Center for the Study of American Architecture of Columbia University brought together scholars and activists from Detroit and around the country to probe what the experience of Emergency Management has meant to our city.

This week we learned that Friends School will be torn down to make way for a wealthy housing development. Friends School was a valued community resource. It offered an educational experience for young Detroiters based on Quaker values of peace and social justice. Detroit Friends was started in 1965 by Judge Wade McCree Jr. in response to his daughter being turned away from a white private school. Until 2015, when it was forced to close, Friends developed children in the city as responsible, thoughtful, creative citizens.

Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan delivered his fifth State of the City speech at Western International High School on the Southwest side last Tuesday evening. He gave a nearly hour-long power point, getting appreciation from the packed house. Mainstream commentators approved as well, noting his emphasis on neighborhoods rather than downtown development. Most lauded his ideas to improve schools, transportation, housing, and job training. The Mayor talked about reducing crime and improving access to higher education. His basic theme was that those Detroiters who “stayed” should now benefit from neighborhood initiatives. Under the banner “building one Detroit for all of us” he said, “We’re going to do it with the Detroiters who stayed.”

People are marking the 50th anniversary of the National Advisory Commission on Civil Disorders, usually called the Kerner Report, after the Illinois Governor who chaired the effort. President Lyndon Johnson appointed the commission on July 28, 1967 while the rebellion was still raging on the streets of Detroit. The commission was charged with answering three basic questions about the uprisings that had been raging across America. Johnson asked, “What happened? Why did it happen? What can be done to keep it from happening again?”

This week the students, teachers, and support staff of Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida will resume classes. They will find ways to move forward in a place infused with memories of violence, fear, and pain. And they will continue to show a deep commitment to organizing people against school shootings. They are planning a March on Washington “to demand that their lives and safety become a priority and that we end this epidemic of mass school shootings.” Schools and communities around the country are planning walkouts and marches in solidarity. 

This week a group of us from the Boggs Center attended the North Dakota Study Group’s (NDSG) 46th annual gathering. The NDSG is a loose collective of progressive educators, artists, activists, authors, teachers, and students who “come together annually to engage in an ongoing seminar on democratic possibilities in the U.S. and world education.” Its members have persistently and consistently pressed for deepening democratic theory and practice in education and in our communities.

Betsy DeVos has completed her first year as the head of the Department of Education. Some have argued that she has been ineffective in carrying out her right-wing agenda. Some take comfort in her foolish public statements; arguing for guns in school in case a bear wanders in, comparing schools to taxicabs and food trucks, and claiming Margaret Thatcher as her idol.

Members of the Michigan State Legislature have learned nothing from the poisoning of Flint. This week the legislature is considering handing over the Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) to corporate polluters by passing three new bills currently under consideration. Together these bills are an environmental disaster that would put all of us at greater risk.

This week, Governor Rick Snyder gave his 8th and final State of the State address. It was filled with relentless positive comments. Snyder emphasized population growth, reduced unemployment rates, a strong automobile industry, and gains in personal income. “We’re headed back in a positive fashion,” Snyder said. “The State has enjoyed a tremendous recovery and now we’re accelerating this comeback into the future.”

Last week Detroit received the news that it did not make it on to the short list of cities being considered for the new Amazon headquarters. A total of 238 cities pitched their virtues to Amazon in the hope of becoming the new home of Amazon’s second corporate center.

Amazon is the fourth largest company in the world and is planning on investing $5 billion in the expansion. It asked cities to apply for consideration and said they were interested in education and skills of the workforce, transit and the built environment, and the livability of their communities. It also asked for a list of the tax incentive programs each municipality would offer.

The celebration of the life and legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. comes in the midst of a moment of national disgrace. It is not only that the words of the current administration are cruel, hateful, and dangerous. It is also that its policies are. The brutality of a dying empire is seeping into all of our relationships, poisoning us.