Kwame's Inaugural Speech

several months ago, Sam Logan Jr. editor of the Michigan Chronicle put out an article talking about how Detroiters, specifically black Detroiters, need to change their tone… he spoke of how if Detroit wants to succeed, they must look past racial barriers otherwise Detroit will end up, “black, proud – and broke”... i thought Logan’s article was very wise and also gutsy… i think it took a lot of boldness to come out and say something like that, and at the time, i hoped that the readers and people of Detroit would take it to heart…

last night, to my delight, Kwame’s inaugural speech echoed many of Logan’s sentiments and even more… Kwame’s statement that our region’s “obsession with turf and race is literally killing us” is exactly what the people of this city and region needed to hear; especially from one of it’s top political figures… Kilpatrick’s speech was more broad than Logan’s in that it was addressing the suburbs and all of southeast Michigan…

it is true… this region cannot survive as fragmented as it is… a better Detroit means a better Livonia… a better Detroit means a better West Bloomfield… a better Detroit means a better Macomb Township… a better Royal Oak means a better Detroit… my prayer is that the people of southeast Michigan will come to understand this…

i was talking to a co-worker about Kwame’s speech… he was skeptical… i can’t blame him for that… Kwame used the race card in his re-election campaign and his record over the past couple years make last night’s speech tougher to swallow… but we really don’t have any choice other than to believe that he means well… that he has changed… that he wants to change... and if we can’t work with him, then we need to work around him… working against him won’t help anyone…