Editorial: Et Tu

I had a bad week, so as seen in my last couple of posts I'm going to vent a little. I'm not naive. The only reason why anybody runs for office is because they think they can do the job better than the next guy over (well on second thought there is also the power and prestige) and to do the job requires getting elected and staying in office.

It's the game.

And that's what Walmart was. With everybody taking sides it's easily a campaignable issue. And I can live with the idea that nobody wanted to be on the wrong side of it come November, well August. I know how the wind blew, but Monday night I listened to subtle digs and insinuations that if the planning commission had their way it would have been Council that would have taken the political hit.

It may be true, but either be blatant and transparent about it or leave the bear alone. Don't be coy about it!

Then there was Tuesday night where I had to listen to a 5 minute speech for the Board of Education President dismissing the MEAP scores for the district,  which by the way are atrocious.


I like these people, and I want to believe that they are not in the same category as the guys who sign pledges to never raise taxes, and the guys who refuse to pass a federal budget in an election year.

Don't pander to the public. And don't try to weasel from the truth. The people of Southfield have too many problems that will never get solved if our leaders are too busy dodging bullets. Property values declined, test scores are pretty bad, the unemployment rate while improving is still high, there is a shrinking city budget, traffic is backed up, and as I keep saying we have plenty of vacant buildings.

I believe and continue to believe that government can make peoples lives better and be used as a tool to solve problems. Furthermore that is no more true than in local government where people have access to their leaders and can actually tell them about their problems, but, none of that can happen if everyone is too busy trying to dodge blame, pass the buck and convince the public that these problems don't exist.

It's simply an abdication of responsibility for them to, "play politician" the way they have been lately.

While listening to that stuff this is how I felt.

P.S. And for the love of God do not say the words, "We don't complain" while you are complaining.