In the last six months Michigan has experienced two potential nuclear disasters. Both were due to rising flood waters. In late November the Revere Dock collapsed, spilling unknown amounts of limestone and aggregate materials. In the course of the investigation of his spill, it was discovered that the site also stored nuclear waste material, forgotten by the most recent owners. The Environmental Protection Agency has since found uranium, lead, toxic chemicals and heavy metals in water samples at the site.

The failure of the federal government in the face of this global pandemic has created a space for protective, positive actions at the state and local levels. Across the country governors, mayors, and city councils have been stepping forward to respond in thoughtful and innovate ways. The orders to slow the spread of the virus came from governors, with Gavin Newsom of California, Jay Inslee of Washington and Andrew Cuomo of NY offering early, forceful actions with stay at home orders, closing businesses, and providing real, concrete information to people. Michigan joined the effort with aggressive shelter in place strategies as we suffered tremendous losses of life.

For many of us, the new-found effort to base decisions on data is a welcome change from ideologically driven pre-pandemic politics. Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer and Chief Medical Executive Dr. Joneigh Khaldun insist they will continue to work with experts and provide fact based, data driven approaches to decisions, especially about reopening the economy.

For many Detroiters, Senator Mitch McConnell’s comments that states should consider declaring bankruptcy was as frightening as that of the President’s pushing bleach to cure Covid-19. Certainly, it is as ill-informed.

This week our attention has been on the question of how the State of Michigan will begin to “open up”  as the number of deaths and instances of the disease decrease. Governor Whitmer extended her stay-at-home order through May 15 as the total deaths in the state reached over 3,300 and the number of cases approached 40,000. Meanwhile, Georgia, Alaska, and Oklahoma are reopening. Almost everyone is watching these moves with caution as the country marks the loss of more than 50,000 lives. No one thinks life will return to what we remember any time soon.

A group of civil rights attorneys have asked Governor Whitmer to establish a community-based task force to oversee Detroit water restorations.  In an April 7th letter to her, they noted, “With both the rates of infection and deaths from Coronavirus increasing daily in Detroit, the urgency to promptly identify all occupied homes where water service remains terminated is critical.”

For more than 400 years, the decisions made by the powerful in this land have been to increase economic benefits over human life. From the onslaught of violence against indigenous peoples to the human horrors of slavery, the economic well-being of some has been secured at the expense of the many. Over the centuries, this way of thinking has become commonplace. As James Boggs often said, “We are economically overdeveloped and politically underdeveloped” as a culture.

Mayor Duggan assured the city that he has restored water to everyone who has been shut off at his daily Covid-19 briefing on Friday, April 3. He praised the Detroit Water and Sewerage Department for restoring water to 1,100 households.

For the second time in less than two decades, the US economy has collapsed. Each time, the government and forces of finance have joined together to craft a “bailout.” This time it is several trillion dollars. This time, it took only a few weeks to reveal the shallow, brittle, and often brutal nature of an economic system based on extraction, high tech controls, violence, and constant, unnecessary consumption. The political leaders who told us we cannot afford universal health care, living wages, and the Green New Deal, all allocated the trillions to shore up this economy. Efforts to protect the lives and well-being of ordinary people were minimal, resisted by the most ardent of neo-liberal republicans. They continue to worry that government support for life will “erode” our will to work.

What will our world look like after this virus? This is the question we all need to be talking about now, even as we struggle with managing our new day-to-day reality. One of the most hopeful signs that we can come out of this crisis better than how we went into it is the emerging recognition of how interdependent we are on one another for our health and well-being. For example, this week in New York, facing the most severe outbreak of the escalating virus, Governor Andrew Cuomo offered a version of what is becoming a commonly understood value. He said simply, “We need everyone to be safe. Otherwise, no one can be safe.”

It has taken a global pandemic to stop water shut offs and restore it to homes in Detroit. Barely two weeks ago, the Governor and the Mayor denied the request of activist groups to stop water shut offs for public health concerns. While we are all grateful that the city and state are acknowledging the danger, water shut offs create for everyone, state officials need to do some serious reflection about how they have been thinking about our connections to each other and their public responsibilities.

The control and containment of human beings is a primary aim of right-wing forces around the globe. The efforts to refine methods of control are accelerating under Donald Trump. Although he is by no means the chief architect of these efforts, or solely responsible, there is no doubt that he and his allies recognize the political and financial gains to be made in surveillance, control, and containment of large groups of people. They are fostering fear and distrust to manipulate people and protect their own wealth and power.

Governor Gretchen Whimer needs to rethink her refusal to declare a statewide moratorium on water shut-offs. If there is one major lesson from the spread of Covid-19, it is that we are all connected. More than three months ago, people went to purchase dinner in an open market in Wuhan China. This was a very ordinary, everyday task. But it was there that some few people were exposed to a new virus, emerging in crowded cages of live animals. Today the virus has spread to 58 countries. Over 83,000 cases have been reported and most people believe this is an understatement. At least 2,900 people have died, many of them healthcare workers. This week, for the first time, the daily toll of new cases outside China has begun to outstrip the rate of infection there. The first person in the US died from it.

Facial recognition is big business. Since September the number of police agencies with access to this technology has doubled. Nearly 900 agencies across 44 states now have systems that not only increase police capacities, but interface with home security systems. One such system, Ring, is promoted as increasing neighborhood safety. Ring spokeswoman Yassi Shahmiri says, “When communities and local police work together, safer neighborhoods can become a reality.” In most cases, this new, hyper-invasive technology has never been proven to be more effective than other, more human ways of creating safety.

Last week Councilman Scott Benson reached a new low in public argument. Over the last few months, he has opposed efforts to provide civilian input on the purchase and use of surveillance technologies.

Many people hoped Governor Gretchen Whitmer would bring a more thoughtful, responsible approach to the education crisis. But her recent comments on the controversial third-grade reading law and the future of public schools demonstrate a lack of serious understanding of what is happening to our children.

The fragility of modern life was underscored this week. The spread of the novel coronavirus has been rapid. This weekend the death toll passed 300, with the first person outside of China dying of the disease. Authorities are reassuring people that there is no immediate risk to public health in the US. The New York Times reported “While the virus is a serious public health concern, the risk to most people outside China remains very low, and seasonal flu is a more immediate threat.”

This week nearly 200 people attended the Detroit City Council meeting hosted in district 5, by President Pro Tem Mary Sheffield at Tabernacle Missionary Baptist Church. Much of the meeting was devoted to the progress made on the “People's Bill of Rights,” a package of bills “aimed at creating upward economic and social mobility for Detroiters focusing on low income and generational Detroiters.”

Detroiters have been faced with the horrific news that many of our family, friends, and neighbors have been driven out of the city illegally. Thanks to careful reporting by the Detroit News, we have learned that 90% of the tax delinquent homes were illegally over assessed between 2010 and 2016. The News calculated 28,000 homes were foreclosed since 2013 because of this. The amount of over taxation was estimated at $600 million. The dimensions of this scandal are staggering. 

The possibility of war with Iran cooled a little this week, thanks to the mature decisions of the Iranian government.  Unlike President Trump, who took the most extreme action offered him by his advisors, Iran chose a limited show of force, firing 16 missiles into a base housing Americans in Iraq. Miraculously no one was hurt. But in the tensions caused by Trump’s decision to kill Maj Gen. Qassim Suleimani,  176 people were killed when a civilian passenger jet was shot down by Iranian defense forces, fearing it was a missile attack.