Author Archives: trstanto

Today with the explosion of the Kwame scandal onto the national scene, various leaders in metro-Detroit and Michigan have finally spoken up against the mayor. Oakland County Executive L. Brooks Patterson, U.S. Rep Candice Miller, Macomb County Board of Commissioners Chairman William Crouchman, and Southfield Mayor Brenda Lawrence have all made comments stating that the Mayor should step down. Michael Cox is seeking the highest charges he can and Gov. Granholm is under pressure to remove Mayor Kilpatrick. 

While I am not defending the Mayor by any means, publicly denouncing him at this point seems like nothing more than a cheap and easy way for metro-Detroit politicians to score points. And given the tense political and racial past between Detroit and its suburbs I’m worried about including the overwhelmingly white suburbs in the process of removing Detroit’s black mayor. (This is further enforced by local coverage of the scandal, in which (at least when the news first broke) white reporters were asking white suburbinites what they thought about Detroit and its politicians)

I’d like to just open this up to everyone. How involved do you think the suburbs should be in trying to remove Kwame Kilpatrick? Does the racial difference between the city and the suburbs play into this at all?

Hey all,

In preparation for this year’s fourth of july, my brothers and I have decided to throw our “Patriotic Marathon.” This includes (over the course of this week–building up to friday) watching what we consider to be movies and tv shows appropriate for the holiday. Here is the list of movies/shows we plan on watching. 

1) The West Wing-seasons 1 through 3 (after which the series really started to take a dive)

2) HBO’s John Adams mini-series

3) 1776–the musical based on the signing of the Declaration of Independence featuring a singing Ben Franklin, Thomas Jefferson, and John Adams (played by William Daniels–a.k.a. Mr Feenie from Boy Meets World)

4) Independence Day–the movie where Will Smith and Jeff Goldblum save the world. In the end the President (a former fighter pilot) personally shoots down the aliens’ space ship. It also has Harvey Fierstein which is a definite plus. 

5) And maybe Gone with the Wind (I know I know–its about the Confederates, but it is still one of the greatest movies ever)

If anyone has any suggestions or holiday plans of their own please feel free to add.

Saturday night I was walking down State street in Ann Arbor and came across a familiar site. A Christian group had camped out on the corner of N. University and State, and had begun preaching and passing out scripture. My initial reaction was contempt. Like most people, I hate being inundated with flyers and I hate being told that I’m some heathen thats going to burn in hell. But rather than the preachers really offending me, I found that Ann Arbor’s reaction to this church is what I was offended by. I am not a religious person by any stretch of the imagination and I don’t like being preached to. But I saw passer-byers yelling back at the preachers, I saw some kids flicking off Church members, and I even saw a group of teenage boys and girls begin mocking them by holding a fake “prayer” meeting of their own. (These actions just disobey a general  sense of common decency) The contempt people had for these religious folk went much deeper than slight annoyance. And oddly enough, I didn’t think the preachers were even saying anything all that controversial. They mostly yelled about sin and the problems of drinking and promiscuity. I do not mean to turn this into a religious discussion or defend the church’s ideas (I, personally, disagree with them on many counts). But it struck me as odd that, Ann Arbor, a city and campus that prides themselves on acceptance and tolerance would so blatantly mock a religion. Now I realize that they “started” it, but I wonder if people would have the same reaction if this was a Jewish, Buddhist, or Muslim prayer meeting being held on the street. I doubt Ann Arbor would be so enraged. Its become cliche to connect devout Christian groups with homophobic, bigoted, and nasty views and so the mere sight of a Christian protest sets a lot of people off. Again, I do not wish to defend their views, and if they had been preaching against homosexuals, I would encourage people to stand up against them. But if Ann Arbor really wants to be liberal, and really wants to be accepting, this means they’ve got to treat their “enemies” with the same tolerance they would everybody else. (I do not claim that Christians are the “enemy,” but just that in a stereotypical way many liberals see these radical Christian churches as the opposite of themselves).Furthermore, radical Christian groups often give all Christian groups a bad name. And when Ann Arborites react with such contempt against a group (that was saying nothing negative–as far as I had heard), it re-inforces the stereotype of liberals as a satanic, god-hating bunch.  I’m not asking people to like this group that preaches on the corner (I don’t like them at all). But I’m saying for the sake of tolerance and decency everywhere, just ignore them. The more you try to protest these religious protesters, the more you’re going to encourage them and make all of us look foolish.