Detroit has few friends in Lansing. We have learned over these years of right-wing Republican rule that a favorite trick of those in power is to withhold funds from a city or school district and then declare a financial emergency which their actions have intentionally created. This emergency becomes the justification for imposing an unelected, unaccountable overseer. This single individual supplants all democratic authority and rules in ways that benefit the rich and powerful. This was the bitter lesson of the Detroit Bankruptcy process, the experience of Benton Harbor, Pontiac, and the poisoning of Flint. Emergency managers are bad for democracy, bad for cities, bad for schools, and bad for people who care about fair and equitable decision-making.

This week the Michigan League for Public Policy released a new report on the crisis of education in our state. It identifies the failures of decades of so-called reforms and argues for an honest look at systemic racism embedded in these efforts

The report urges legislators, leaders, and all concerned people to face “the inescapable truth of deep inequities in educational opportunities and outcomes for children based on race, ethnicity, place, and income.”

The push for local and state-wide policies to protect our water is accelerating. This past week saw both a successful student walk-out on count day in Detroit emphasizing the crisis of safe water in the schools and the need for a water affordability plan and a declaration of faith in support of water as a human right by people of faith. On Oct 4th people gathered at the Spirit of Detroit to celebrate over 240 signatures of faith leaders in a call to all people of good will to become stewards of our waters. Faith leaders declared they will continue to organize to stop water shut-offs, get those who have been shut off reinstated, and for a water affordability plan that allows people to pay for water based on their percentage of income.

Detroit young people are taking the lead in challenging the complacency of the Mayor and Superintendent of Schools over the water crisis in our city. Detroit Area Youth Uniting Michigan (DAYUM) are hosting a Freedom School today (October 3rd), urging students to stand up for themselves, younger students, and their community by striking on Count Day. Elders, university professors, and community leaders are invited to join the students to learn and strategize together about how to continue to press for safe, affordable water and an education that encourages critical thinking, creative action, and collective wisdom.

“I love my museum. I’ll be damned before I let you take it away.” That sentence summed up the determination of the nearly two hundred people who gathered at Sacred Heart on September 19 to organize to protect the Charles H. Wright Museum of African American History. People want to be sure it remains a place that reflects the heart of the African American community.

It has been 17 years since the attacks on September 11. That was a lifetime ago for the young people entering the military, going to university, or heading to what they hope will be the beginnings of life after high school. Many are preparing to vote. All of them have spent their lives in a country at war. They have known Shock and Awe and a series of promises to end the death and killing. Each promise proved a lie.

Daily life moves quickly. But some moments deserve reflection. This past week we had such a moment, with the funerals of Aretha Franklin and John McCain.

Detroit engaged in a week-long celebration. Neither the 6-hour concert nor the 8-hour funeral could fully encompass the generous, soaring gift of the life of Aretha Franklin.

Early Wednesday I drove to my usual downtown meeting, about 20 minutes from my home. Most of the drive is on freeways. On the few miles of surface streets, I passed four Water Department crews working on broken lines. Two included fire hydrants spewing water into intersections.

Trump’s defense is crumbling. Criminal charges of corruption are moving closer and closer to the White House. The President is now referred to as a Mafia Boss, described as waging war on the rule of law. As guilty verdicts and plea bargains proliferate, more and more people are focusing attention on Republicans in Congress, asking how it is possible for them to remain silent in the face of mounting evidence of corruption, immorality, and greed. Most Republicans cannot find their way to denouncing Trump’s behaviors.

Children working with the Detroit Independent Freedom Schools (DIFS) have been harvesting eggplant, tomatoes, greens, herbs, and other vegetables at the Charles H. Wright Museum of African American History. This is the second summer of the garden celebrating the agricultural expertise of African Americans and fostering skills needed for the burgeoning urban agricultural movement that shapes much of Detroit. Next summer the garden will be part of a visionary landscape, designed to emphasize water as a human right and a public trust.

The week of August 11 to 14 reverberates still from the uprising in Watts. Part of a long history of resistance and rebellion, this uprising, sparked by police brutality, ushered in a period of intense urban rebellions as the long, hot summers from 1965 in Watts to Omaha in 1969 engulfed the country.

Detroit has always been shaped by the impulses of white men. It was established in 1701 in the midst of war by white men pursuing land and access to the wealth of the natural world. Over the centuries, war and violence, the pursuit of personal wealth, and the destruction of the commons have been part of our legacy. But so, too, are the moments of resistance to these efforts. Chief Pontiac forged one of the largest armies contesting imperial expansion on the globe. Henry Ford’s mechanized industrial production, made possible by publicly financed streets, water, and sewers, was contained by the humanizing thrust of the labor movement, emphasizing the dignity of people who work. Many of our streets bear the names of those who wantonly killed, enslaved, stole, and sold other human beings. Yet we also honor the Abolitionist, the outlaws, and the troublemakers and peace seekers.

Democracy in Detroit is in trouble. As we approach this primary season vote, the efforts of the corporate power to distort and destroy democratic impulses are intensifying.

The latest instance is the effort to get voters to authorize a revision of the City Charter. Proposal R should be voted down.

Vincent Harding has been on my heart these last few days. July 25 marks the passing of 87 years since he was born. Many know him as a theologian, an historian, a friend and collaborator of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. He was the primary author of the 1967 speech delivered at Riverside Church where Dr. King denounced the war in Vietnam, identified the U.S. as the greatest “purveyor of violence” on the globe called for a “radical revolution in values against racism, materialism and militarism.” Vincent thought it was that speech that marked King for destruction by the white power structure. Its vision was too expansive, too challenging, too inclusive, to be allowed to stand.

Water seeks connections. Over this last week we were reminded of the essential role of safe, clean, affordable water for human life. While Donald Trump drew attention for his destruction and destabilization of international relationships, his new hometown was suffering from a water crisis. Tens of thousands of people in Washington D.C. were warned not to drink their water. For over a week, a temporary drop in water pressure due to an infrastructure failure resulted in a boil water advisory to much of the city. When water pressure drops, the possibility of toxins entering the water system soars.

Over the last few weeks the word fascism has entered the public conscience. In part this is thanks to Attorney General Jeff Sessions. In the midst of the horrific caging of immigrant children, public officials and ordinary people found themselves comparing the detention centers to Nazi Germany’s concentration camps. Sessions took to Fox News to defend the policy saying the comparison was “a real exaggeration.” His reasoning for this claim was chilling. He argued that Nazis “were keeping Jews from leaving the country” and he is trying to keep people from coming in. Then he said, “Fundamentally, we’re enforcing the law.”

People rallied across the country to fiercely denounce the horrific immigration policies of Donald Trump and his administration. New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, Boston, and Detroit saw large rallies. Smaller towns gathered as well. Here in Maine, Portland saw so many people come to the steps of the City Hall that streets had to be closed down to traffic. I went with friends to the tourist town of Bar Harbor where about 250 gathered on the Village Green.

Many of us hold a vision of a world without borders. We do this in the face of a reality where everything we call sacred is defiled. Only money and military might move freely. People and ideas are controlled and confined. Our lives are distorted and disrupted by the effects of corporate money. People and places we love are desecrated and destroyed by bombs and guns.

Walking down Cass Avenue this weekend felt like a slip in time. It felt like I had found a way into a joyful future. The streets from Wayne State, the Detroit Institute of Art, to the Cass Café and Avalon Bakery were filled with Allied Media Conference goers. Together, they managed to create a vision of what our world could look, feel, and taste like if we put justice and care in the center of our lives.

There is a new sign about town sparking a lot of controversy. In bold white letters on a black background, it proclaims “Majority-Black Detroit Matters.” For some this simple statement captures the growing concern that we are not only becoming two Detroits, but increasingly a Detroit dominated by and for white elites.