DETROIT AND D.C. DEMAND HOME RULE

Speaker at Washington, D.C. home rule rally/ Photo by Greg Thrasher

 By Greg Thrasher, VOD Washington Bureau, contributing editor

December 4, 2011

Many of the readers of Voice of Detroit know that for a number of reasons I have relocated to the DC region. I look forward to continue my role as a contributing editor for Voice Of Detroit to offer my opinions, commentaries and advocacy on behalf of Detroit and those facing the dailiy realties of injustice and oppression. I will be your Voice of Detroit correspondent in the nation’s capital. 

DC protesters demand democracy/Photo by Greg Thrasher

The similarities between the District of Columbia and Detroit and the common denominators  at a social and political level are eerie and interesting. With regard to how the residents of both cities are treated, the powers who govern these urban areas often provide these residents with inferior leadership and stewardship. There is an intentional disregard for the plight of those living in urban venues and quite often this mindset is reflected in public policies and public governance.

In America too often the function of local, national and federal policies has reflected and exhibited a systematic legacy of contempt for people of color , including the disenfranchisement of voters who as residents are often non-white. It is quite tragic to witness that, in the most powerful country in the world where democracy is the weapon used to invade foreign nations, the residents of the District of Colombia are often as powerless as those in third world nations living under a despot or a dictator.

In the District of Columbia, chants of statehood, home rule and self determination are everywhere from radio talks show to posters and bumper stickers protesting the absence of voting rights for the residents of the district in the congress. Residents of both Detroit and the District are suffering from both lousy political leadership but also a failure of the emergence of progressive leaders outside of the normal organizations. As with Detroit many of the non-profits and activist groups in the district are impotent and add little value to the agenda of the poor and oppressed.  Too often many of the so-called allies of the poor and oppressed are nothing more than conduits of ego and self empowerment at the expense of the poor’s fate and circumstances. 

Rally for DC home rule/Photo by Greg Thrasher

What is also a farce is how both venues suffer from the oversight of other government agencies, In Detroit you have an inept and corrupt county government that is layered with a dysfunctional and marginal state government apparatus seeking to insert an emergency manager to control Detroit’s finances, when both of these government entities are lacking and failing in handling their own fiscal budgets. In the District of Columbia the federal government is legally responsible for many of the fiscal responsibilities of the district, yet our federal government is in a meltdown and hardly a beacon of sound financial standards and principles.

Our urban venues in this nation are deserving of the best services a nation as great as America can offer and provide. The residents of our urban cities are worthy of superior pubic services as well as premium educational outcomes and systems for their children. It is therefore imperative that policies must be developed and implemented to protect and support the very existence of life in our urban cities. Stay tuned to my column where I will report and offer up solutions and paradigms that enhance not only the quality of life for both the people of Detroit and the District but all urban citizens in our nation .

Greg Thrasher in Lansing April 13

 FROM DETROIT TO D.C.

VOD welcomes our contributing editor’s move to the nation’s capital, where he can report first-hand on events that impact not only D.C. and Detroit, but the entire country.

Greg can be reached at greg_thrasher@msn.com.