Is it time to unelect the electors?
By Paul Rozycki In the United States we elect over 500,000 individuals to office. Every election year, the voters choose who will be their governors, senators, state representatives, mayors, city council members, judges, county commissioners, school board members, township clerks, drain commissioners, and perhaps an occasional dog-catcher here and there. And all of those individuals are chosen based on one cardinal rule. Whoever gets...
Education Beat Analysis: Flint’s public schools tipping into arguable freefall
By Harold C. Ford As the newly-constituted Flint Board of Education is beginning to look a lot like the old board, with chaos repeatedly breaking out, a multitude of sobering realities about the school district are undeniable. Arguably, Flint’s public schools are in freefall. Its student population has fallen from around 40,000 a few decades ago to about 3,000 at present. Though economic malaise and population loss explain away most...
Book Bans: What’s the real motive?
By Paul Rozycki “Controversial LGBTQ+ memoir the subject of heated Lapeer library meeting” (MLive, March 17, 2023) That was the headline of a story about a recent Lapeer District Library Board meeting where a crowded room of local residents attacked and denounced the local library for placing the book “Gender Queer: A Memoir” by Maia Kobabe on its shelves. The controversy began when the Lapeer County prosecutor inquired...
Dysfunction and Democracy from Flint to Washington. Is Flint a model for the nation?
By Paul Rozycki For much of the 20th Century Flint was a leader for much of what mattered in the nation. It was home for one of the largest manufacturing corporations in the world. It was the place where one of the most progressive and influential labor unions in the nation stood up to that corporation and negotiated a labor agreement. It was known for its premier public school system. It was where a major foundation built a Cultural...
Commentary: A tribute to “Master of the State Senate” Jim Ananich
By Michigan State Representative Jasper R. Martus “Thank God for Michigan,” President Lincoln proclaimed when troops arrived to join Union forces in the early stages of the Civil War. Pundits and politicians from across the country offered similar sentiments on Nov. 8 when election returns pointed to Democratic wins up and down the ballot in Michigan. The state’s first Democratic trifecta in over 40 years, a woman’s right to...
Commentary: Looking back and looking ahead — Will 2022 set the stage for 2023?
By Paul Rozycki The combined December/January issue of the East Village Magazine marks the end of one year and the beginning of another, and gives us the opportunity to take a look back at what mattered in 2022 — and to look forward to what might matter in 2023. Looking back: The national level Politically, the year 2022 was a year of surprises. The first midterm election after a presidential election is almost always bad news...
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