The Revolution Will Not Be Pretty by Akindele Akinyemi

Emergency Financial Manager Robert Bobb has announced Seventeen Detroit Public Schools high schools are being turned over to professional educational management companies as part of what DPS officials are calling the most dramatic restructuring of the troubled district’s history.

This is awesome news. A real educational revolution is occurring in Detroit Public Schools. It is long overdue.

Seventeen high schools will be run by educational management companies, Detroit Public Schools officials announced today.

EdWorks

• Central
• Crockett
• Henry Ford
• King
• Western International

Edison Learning

• Cooley
• Denby
• Finney
• Kettering
• Mumford
• Southeastern

Model Secondary Schools Program

• Pershing
• Detroit High School for Technology at Pershing
• Southwestern

Institute for Student Achievement

• Cody Campus
• Osborn Campus
• Northwestern

Of course the haters are going to protest. I can see BAMN raising hell on this issue. But we need to shut them down once and for all.

We also need to establish a "speakers bureau" to support the need for 21st century educational options in urban communities. I cannot keep doing this by myself. When BAMN shows up we show up as well. We need more people speaking up and speaking out against failing education.

Our children need to understand that, along with their parents, they are stakeholders in this revolution. Think about it. Who is under the age of 30 running for Detroit Public School Board this year? No one. Why? Because we have failed in teaching them that they have a stake in education in the City of Detroit.

Educational entrepreneurship is on the upswing here in Detroit. We need to open up the schools that closed this year under charter schools. Allow 21st century innovators to run and manage the schools not just collect a paycheck.

Our children should learn calculus by the time they enter 10th grade. That means part of this revolution will be establishing a counterculture to fight against the prison/ghetto culture.

This means the end of sagging pants, men and women wearing 15 tattoos and using their emotions to kill. No more BET and no more Lil' Wayne or Chris Brown. No more business as usual. Our children are depending on us to carry them to victory. That should be our primary focus first not anything else.

We cannot fix the economy here in Detroit until we fix education. No one is making that connection. Silver rights is about generating wealth not having a handout. Its about opportunities. Well that opportunity is now.

These educational management companies will save DPS money down the road. Privatizing these schools was probably the best idea Robert Bobb has done since coming to Detroit.

NOW we need to break up Detroit Public Schools into 7 smaller districts. We must follow the path of Dearborn Heights, Warren and St. Clair Shores. Accountability and academic success is what we need now.

Another revolution that should be taking place is the whole teacher certification process. It is NOW TIME to repeal the certification process and offer an "a la carte" certification track that will be faster, more consistent and transparent for the student. Most of these teachers who have been certified for 25 years could not even pass the test today if they tried so why taunt those who are having a hard time passing the basic skills test (which is a waste of time and money).

We do not need a basic skills test here in the State of Michigan and people who are already working in a classroom capacity should not be subjugated to "student teaching" that is unpaid.

These teacher certification laws need to be repealed.

The educational revolution is on. Will you join in?

Detroit Cultural Arts by Akindele Akinyemi

One industry that is never discussed in public here in Detroit is the Cultural Arts economy. Why are we so quiet on this issue I will never understand in a million years.

Nationally, the nonprofit arts and culture industry generates $166.2 billion in economic activity every year—$63.1 billion in spending by organizations and an additional $103.1 billion in event-related spending by their audiences.

The $166.2 billion in total economic activity has a significant national impact, generating the following:

• 5.7 million full-time equivalent jobs
• $104.2 billion in household income
• $7.9 billion in local government tax revenues
• $9.1 billion in state government tax revenues
• $12.6 billion in federal income tax revenues

Nonprofit arts and culture organizations are valuable contributors to the business community. They are employers, producers, consumers, and key promoters of their cities and regions.

The arts and culture industry, unlike many industries, leverages a significant amount of event-related spending by its audiences. Attendance at arts events generates related
commerce for local businesses such as restaurants, parking garages, hotels, and retail stores.

Right here in Detroit I can see silver rights leaders coming together under the umbrella of cultural arts to recreate a new synergy in our city. However we need to do several things.

There should be an cultural arts program in every school in our city. I am not just talking about engaging our young people in rap music but also engaging them in the classical arts. We have more than enough young people who can sing opera if we teach them.

Also, young people who participate in the arts for at least three hours, three days a week for a year are: 4 times more likely to be recognized for academic achievement, 3 times more likely to be elected to class office within their schools, and 4 times more likely to participate in a math and science fair? We must give our children every opportunity to succeed.

The key lesson here is that urban communities across Michigan that invest in the arts reap the additional benefits of jobs, economic growth, and a quality of life that positions those communities to compete in our 21st century creative economy.

Right now, cities around the world are competing to attract new businesses as well as our brightest young professionals. International studies show that the winners will be communities that offer an abundance of arts and culture opportunities. As the arts flourish, so will creativity and innovation—the fuel that drives our global economy.

It is our duty across Michigan, as urban conservatives, to reinvent urban cities that once struggled economically to help reinvent and rebuilding themselves by investing in art and culture. Both are proven catalysts for growth and economic prosperity. By creating cultural
hubs, nonprofit art businesses help cities define themselves, draw tourists, and attract investment.

Recently, Detroit Public Schools have cut funding to the historic Children's Museum in Midtown. Non-profit entities should be lined up to create a public-private partnership to save the museum from closing its doors.

The Charles H. Wright Museum of African American History is operated by the City of Detroit. If we are serious about self-sufficiency in a 21st century global economy then how come the city government is paying the bills? We need to let go of city government's breastmilk and take some global initiatives in preserving the museum.

Remember the NCAA Final Four that took place this year in Downtown Detroit? Super Bowl XL in Downtown Detroit? The All-Star Game at Comerica Park? NCAA Sweet 16 and Elite 8 last year at Ford Field? All done by our cultural arts community.

My proposal is to take the cultural arts community into areas in Detroit like Warrendale, Brightmoor, North End, Barton-McFarland, Morningside and Southwest Detroit/Oakwood Heights (48217). A civilization is defined by its culture. Do we want to continue being a culture of corruption, deception, foul spirits and death? Is our culture defined by prison, failing education and ignorance?

Detroit must diversity its financial economy by green technologies, urban agriculture, small businesses, and cultural arts.

Detroit City Council Candidates Talking Same Old Garbage by Akindele Akinyemi

Detroit used to be the wealthiest city in America in 1950 on a per capita income basis. Today, the U.S. Census Bureau reports that it is the nation's poorest major city.

What does that tell you? It tells you that Detroit has fallen from grace and now is dancing with the devil.

I have been attending the candidate forums for Detroit City Council candidates to state their position. I am hearing why they are running but most lack platform, substance and in many cases do not have an exit strategy to get Detroit back on track again.

We have a tax system in our city that aggressively redistributes income from businesses and the wealthy to the poor and to government bureaucracies. The mis-educated are pushing for a "living wage" ordinance, far above the federal minimum wage, for all public employees and private contractors.

How do we supposed we pay for all of this as taxpayers?

Detroit's minimum wage is a whopping $7.40 an hour, more than $2 above the federal minimum wage when it was enacted; and pressure groups are pushing for more. Additionally, any company contracting with the city must pay its employees $8.23 an hour if they offer benefits or $10.28 an hour if they do not offer benefits.

While Michigan is home to eight of the 20 cities overall with the highest unemployment and has the highest state unemployment in the country Detroit has the highest unemployment rate among all large U.S. cities. Furthermore, economists have examined how living wage policies were very likely to bring about the abject poverty and unemployment.

Anyone running for Detroit City Council must understand the need for a philosophical change in our community. Out of the 167 candidates running for Detroit City Council 90% of them do not have a serious reform plan to get Detroit back to prosperity.

The BIGGER issue is how most of the candidates have not presented to the public of how to make Detroit's overburden government leaner and more efficient fiscally.

The MOST SHOCKING part is how 95% of these candidates have not discussed how Detroit will join the global market and transforming Detroit into a global financial market.

Some of these candidates say Detroit needs more jobs. But where are these jobs coming from, as they don’t grow on trees, much like money doesn’t. There is almost a presumption about jobs and job creation, and they almost always are tied to big business. Well, every big business was once a small one, and in many cases that same business started out as an idea in someone’s garage (Bill Gates and the founding of Microsoft with partner Paul Allen).

What most of these candidates running do not fully understand is that government cannot hold their hands forever. Our community must began to understand the language of financial responsibility. When I say Detroit must be transformed into a financial market I am not just speaking of the Four Asian Tigers (the East Asian economy in Singapore, Seoul, Hong Kong and Taipei) but creating a global call for the nurturing of a new generation of young entrepreneurs, small business owners and self-employment projects. The door to get there is financial literacy and teaching an entire generation of self-sufficiency.

Former President Bill Clinton once said that every nation must focus on creating an entire new sector of jobs every 10 years or so. This is precisely right, and this is also where Detroit and the American automotive industry, and with respect their unions, went wrong.

I can also say this with our educational system here in urban America. We stayed in our comfort zone and forgot that the world was evolving around us. Today, Detroit is home to over 55% functionally illiterate constituents.

I hope these candidates understand how in the 21st century our community must be engaged in an environment where it is estimated the world will shed more than 50 million jobs in the backdrop of this global economic crisis (more than half of that in China alone), and where the Middle East is crying out for 100 million new jobs for a generation of young people (estimated that 60% of the population in the Middle East will be under 25 years old within a decade), we cannot continue to cry out for traditional “jobs” to solve our economic and soon social problems.

Detroit must nurture a generation of entrepreneurs, small and micro-business owners if it is serious about entering the global market. It is every candidate's duty who is running for Detroit City Council to express themselves to help empower people to solve increasingly help solve their own problems because governments cannot and will not solve them. We must help Detroiters help themselves, and the door to self-reliance is teaching people financial literacy, the language of money and helping them “crack the code” of free enterprise and capitalism, in their lives.

Literacy, in general, is a critically important and much overlooked tool in the financial and economic recovery and stabilization toolbox. In the backdrop this local, state and global economic crisis, financial literacy is the new public policy competency that all leaders must learn to master – for the sake of their people. I find it interesting that no Detroit City Council candidate has brought this up in public.

Tom Bray, former editorial page editor for The Detroit News, has made the following observation:

"Detroit, remember, was going to be the 'Model City' of Lyndon Johnson's Great Society, the shining example of what the 'fairness' of the welfare state can produce. Billions of dollars later, Detroit instead has become the model of everything that can go wrong when you hook people on the idea of something for nothing - a once-middle class city of nearly 2 million that is now a poverty-stricken city of less than 900,000."

After witnessing the candidate forum I attended on Tuesday at the Roylat Community Group on the city's east side I can clearly say, with the exception of 4-5 candidates, that we are rehashing old guard leadership, and passing these old, civil right/black power sound bites and leadership to our younger generation. Until we forge a new silver right initiative here in Detroit we will continue to suffer, go around in circles, embrace conspiracy theories and lose our population to other states.

Detroit Public Schools Must Go Charter by Akindele Akinyemi

Detroit Public Schools Emergency Financial Manager Robert Bobb has stated that Detroit Public Schools may have no choice but to file Chapter 9 bankruptcy. DPS has a $259 million deficit that could well go higher as more information is uncovered. Bobb has said in the past that he may not be able to balance the budget.

While Detroit Public Schools are trying to figure out what to do its time for charter advocates to put on our silver rights hats and start promoting educational entrepreneurship by building public-private partnerships in the school district. One major plan is to take a look at moving the state legislative school cap on charter schools here in Michigan.

The debate on charter schools is no longer viewed as a Democrat vs Republican thing. It is viewed as a silver right initiative. Take a look at what is going on in other states on charter reform.

-- Illinois. On Tuesday, April 14^th, Duncan kicked off his nationwide “listening tour” in Chicago, saying “business as usual, to be clear, would basically eliminate Illinois from [Race the Top] competition” and citing funding inequity, a limit on the number of charter schools, and marginal efforts to police teacher quality as the biggest areas in need of change. In the wee of hours of June 1^st, the Illinois state legislature answered Duncan’s call and ended its session by approving 45 new charter schools for Chicago, 5 of which would reserved for high school dropouts, and an additional 15 charter schools for the rest of the state. As a result, about 13,000 students now on charter school waiting lists or in otherwise low-performing schools will be enrolled in high-quality charters subject to stricter accountability requirements than other Illinois schools.

-- Colorado. Gov. Bill Ritter took the unusual step of appointing Lt. Gov. Barbara O’Brien to serve as “Race To The Top Czar,” to make sure the state was positioned with enough progressive education policies to win the race outright.

-- Tennessee. In late May, Duncan said Tennessee would “not be helping its chances” for Race to the Top funds if it continued arbitrary caps limiting the growth of charter schools. This set off a chain of events in which the state legislature held a special session and Democrats were freed to reverse their positions against charter school expansion from their leadership (and given a pass from the Tennessee Education Association), culminating in approval of charter school expansions in six school systems on a lopsided vote of 79-15.

-- Rhode Island. On Monday, June 22 at a conference attended by thousands of charter school parents, teachers, and Administrators, Duncan said, in response to a question from the audience, that Rhode Island risked eligibility for Race to the Top funding if it continued to roadblock efforts to establish and equitably fund charter schools.

On Friday June 26, just after 2 a.m. the Rhode Island legislature approved a final budget deal that fully restored funding for a system of “mayoral academies” that will serve students attending some of the lowest-performing schools in Providence. The first school, set to open this Fall, will be run by Democracy Prep, a Harlem charter operator. The lottery for slots will be held the first week of July.

-- Connecticut. Duncan’s comments regarding Rhode Island rippled out to Connecticut, when on June 26, virtually simultaneous with Rhode Island’s action, Connecticut reversed its decision to cut charter school budgets, and moved toward an agreement that would fully restore charter school funding.

The victory was hailed not only by charter school advocates, but also by those who are working on behalf of statewide school reform efforts, like Alex Johnston, Chief Executive Officer of the Connecticut Coalition for Achievement Now (ConnCAN): “The education reform movement in Connecticut is gratified that this budget averts the tragedy of half-completed public charter schools so that they can continue their work to close Connecticut’s largest-in-the-nation achievement gap.” -- Massachusetts. On Monday, June 29, Massachusetts Secretary of Education Paul Reville announced that Gov. Deval Patrick will soon introduce legislation to lift the cap on charter schools in school districts in the lowest 10 percent on performance exams. Earlier this year Patrick said he was opposed to lifting the cap on the number of charter schools – proposing instead to increase spending on them in the lowest-performing districts. -- Louisiana. On Thursday, June 25, on the last day of Louisiana’s legislative session, Rep. Walt Leger III, a New Orleans Democrat, introduced legislation lifting the cap on charter schools. The state Education Department’s press release indicated that states that lift caps on charter schools will be viewed more favorably by the federal government in the Race To The Top. -- Indiana. The new state budget approved by the Legislature this week lifted the cap on charter schools and allows student performance to be used in teacher evaluations. Duncan had warned Indiana legislators that a failure to remove obstacles to reform, like charter caps, would jeopardize the state’s standing in the contest. These are encouraging developments.

State Representative Lamar Lemmons Jr (D) has introduced House Bill 5084 on June 11, 2009, to authorize a ballot measure in Detroit that would place the Detroit School District under the authority and management of the mayor. I would like for an amendment added to allow the authorization of charter schools under the Office of the Mayor here in Detroit.

Detroit as well as Michigan needs serious educational reform efforts. This includes repealing the archaic teacher certification process and replacing it with a leaner and more 21st century certification process. We also should place alternative teacher certification as a priority as many workers who are laid off are seeking new career paths. Finally, certification should be allowed for multicultural instruction such as African American History.

Detroit Public Schools must reopen some of their schools as charter schools. Management companies must be able to manage the schools for a very short period of time and then phase themselves out to allow the school's leadership to become self-sufficient.

Detroit Public Schools must break up into 7 smaller school districts to make it more leaner and more fiscally efficient.

Detroit Public Schools must also leave the New Center Area (Fisher Building, Albert Khan and New Center One) to save the district money.

Detroit will not be able to produce wealth until the schools are drastically reformed. However, while educational policymakers are reforming the district our faith based and non-profit entities MUST help create a counterculture to redirect the negative energy in our community and help make parents stakeholders in their children's education. In fact, faith based and non-profits must join in the charter revolution to produce quality and accountable children to help them compete in the 21st century.

Additional charter schools under the auspices of Detroit Public Schools, as well as partnering with the KIPP and Green Dot schools will help reduce classroom sizes and increase individualized instruction to students who need it.

This is our task as charter and educational reform advocates. Let's make it happen.

Building Independent Minds by Akindele Akinyemi

Today is the 4th of July. In other words Independence Day. We must reflect on our nation's birth.

But I am declaring another type of Independence Day. An independence of our minds.

Oftentimes, we cannot think for ourselves. One of the major factors of poverty is ignorance. To many, the word ignorant is an insult. What we mean is simply that some people do not know some things; there is no shame in that.

In urban communities all across America we have not reached independence. We are still trapped and enslaved in our own minds and hearts. Single families are on the rise and our churches are in decline. There is a liquor store on every corner next to the church. Blacks generate over $910 billion as consumers yet we are not producers. We drop seeds in one woman and move on to the next woman. We still think social power is the key to our problems. Nothing can be further from the truth.

Here in Michigan when I look at urban centers like Benton Harbor, Ecorse, Detroit, Flint, Saginaw, Highland Park, and even River Rouge I see a crumbling infrastructure, lack of jobs, high crime and failing schools. We cannot celebrate any level of independence, regardless of what party affiliation we belong to or what church we belong to , because if you are not part of the solution you are part of the problem.

Independence has to begin in the mind and spirit first not waving your flag on the 4th of July. In urban communities our independence will not just come from spiritual and mental freedom but also creating a counterculture. I am pretty sure you heard about the 7 teens that were shot at a Shell Gas Station here in Detroit after summer school a few days ago. This happened around the corner from my house and the police had this community on lockdown. How come we cannot come out of our homes with the fear of someone conducting a home invasion in broad daylight?

Our children are out of control. We stopped parenting and gave up our right to be free a long time ago. This intergenerational crisis has transpired into a culture of poverty and a culture of death. With the lack of jobs in our community we are left with hopelessness and a culture that are still living in the dark ages.

The biggest trap from urban communities becoming free and independent is education. Education is a passport to freedom. However, we have liberal ideologies dominating the academic landscape and conservative ideologies not creating an academic counterculture to combat this. Education must be taught from a global perspective to begin to break down the stereotypes, fears and ignorance that will help uplift people in our communities out of both spiritual and mental poverty. Yet, no one is using education as a chief policy platform to create (1) a counterculture, (2) generate wealth and (3) compete globally. When we stop emphasizing geography in K-16 education something is wrong.

My social conservative colleagues preach about there is a need for Christianity in urban communities, yet I see a church on every corner in my community along with abandoned homes, prostitution and crime. It has gotten so bad that our own children are practicing self-destructing behavior by committing murder in the aisles of the church. These godless children, who are being raised by godless single parents, have created a new level of slave behavior that has transpired into the hip-hop culture, television and radio, and even in public where we cannot even enjoy going to the grocery store, sitting on your porch or get this..sitting in your living room watching cable without someone shooting, someone raping or someone carjacking an individual or family.

Our churches are change agents and we must hold our preachers, pastors, and bishops accountable along with our local police and non-profit entities. Accountability, integrity and trust are three factors we need to improve our communities.

The biggest factor of independence will not come from a tea party, criticizing Sarah Palin for resigning as Governor of Alaska, critiquing Michael Steele's performance as RNC Chair or President Obama on supporting cap and trade. The biggest factor of independence will come from freeing our minds and hearts from the fear, ignorance, racism, and sexism that plagues our community. Black leaders in Detroit are still caught up on civil right/black power leadership that died out a long time ago. We are still playing these race games when the race that we are losing in our urban communities is the race to save our men from destruction, save our women from their dignity and saving our children from violence that they are bombarded with on television and in the streets. We never talk about that race. We only discuss the race that has something to do with the color of our skin.

We are now in a silver rights era where we are striving for global education, global dignity and respect by rebuilding our family structure to generate wealth creation that will create a legacy for our children. We have to teach the language of money and financial wealth to our children if they want to compete. If they do not have a bank account then we are creating a new generation of economic slavery.

One out of three black men who are released from prison take two paths. They either clean themselves up and walk the straight and narrow path or they bring the prison culture right into the homes. Sagging pants and the feminization of men come from a combination of broken homes, lack of fathers and homosexual activity right out of the prison system. Our men are MORE emotional than our female counterparts. I have seen this tend even in educational, civic and political leadership.

What we need to do is stop fighting among each other and come together with a common cause. If liberal thought has destroyed urban communities how long will it take for conservatives to even come into urban communities and join those who live in the community to take a stand on apathy and destruction? Traditionally, conservatives who previously lived in urban communities did not stay to live in areas like Detroit after the 1967 riots but moved out to areas like Oakland County. First it was called white flight and now we are experiencing black flight from the inner cities (for various reasons). Now I am not saying that black folks should not live outside Detroit because I may leave myself (for various reasons) but at the same token who will be left to fix the urban communities?

Independence will come from our minds when we realize that (1) no political party will come in and save us and (2) we have to save ourselves. The Democratic Party and their policies have not done anything to enhance urban communities to move them into the 21st century and the Republican Party still think that they can win elections without coming into the urban communities. It is a sad day when Democrats can run on conservative principles in rural Michigan and win elections but Republicans will not even open the discussion on an urban execution plan to even forge relationships in urban areas. The ONLY groups that is making headway in urban communities in Southeastern Michigan are the North Oakland Republican Club and the Family Rights Coalition.

Any conservative who is waiting for the RNC or Michigan GOP to help them in their local political races will be waiting for a long time. Try being self-sufficient. Start a PAC or 527 group and raise money on your own. Develop your own strategies that fit your target audience. Create your own style. Stop trying to sound like Rush Limbaugh, David Axelrod, James Carville or Mark Levin and develop your own speech and energy. This is what urban conservatism is about..self-sufficiency. To wait on someone is a handout when you should be working on a handup.

If urban conservatism is going to take root in urban communities we must create an independent vision and take a radical different approach to solving problems in our community. We cannot discuss social conservative issues in our community if our faith-based structure is broken. How can a minister preach against homosexuality when you are bi-sexual yourself? How can you talk about not having an abortion if you label the very same woman a welfare queen or whore? How can we discuss national defense when our city defense is broken because of the lack of quick police response time in urban communities? How can you criticize a woman who wears pants instead of a long skirt when both of you suffer the same things that other women are suffering from? The ego and ignorance must stop.

How can conservatives and liberals mock urban agriculture projects in the inner cities when Blacks suffer the highest rate of health problems ranging from diabetes, heart disease and AIDS? There is a fast food restaurant on every corner in Detroit. We have to eat better and exercise. We do not need to hear President Obama's plan on health. Close your legs or wear a condom and get tested for STDs is a start. I do not want to hear about abstinence education because how many young people you know are virgins before they get married? Very few so we need to EMPHASIZE in our homes the need to wait as well as practice healthy relationships around our children. Notice I said the homes FIRST. The church will reinforce this through youth ministries and actual biblical teaching. A counterculture through media and culture arts will be the third factor in creating a culture of respect and love.

If you participated in a tea party today good for you. Just keep in mind that a tea party does not equate into improving education and bringing in new industries into our community. These are practical things that only we are capable of doing. While we should hold government accountable for their actions let's hold each other accountable for our actions as well. You cannot have a tea party and protest the government about raising taxes if we are not protesting the fact about looking out for our fellow man and woman.

Independence Day is about being free. In this silver rights age we must strive to be free from political and religious dogma, racist actions, anarchy and failure. We must work together for the sake of our children and future.

The Right Spirit for the Right Season by Akindele Akinyemi

Everyone is buzzing about Dr. Coreletta J. Vaughn who is running for Detroit City Council. If Detroit needed the right spirit for the right season this is the time now.

Did I say right spirit for the right season?

Dr. Vaughn, the Presiding Bishop of the Go Tell It Ministries Worldwide, has spent a lot of time over the past three decades talking one-on-one with Detroit residents – from prominent community leaders, to business owners and schoolteachers, to the homeless and low-wage workers.

It's evident, that Detroit is in a crisis; in a desperate state of emergency for change. For too long our political leaders have played on our fears and exploited our differences for their own personal and partisan gain.

They have waged wars in the name of peace;
Spewed hatred and bigotry in the name of love (and sometimes color);
Slashed critical services for the poor and the infirm in the name of compassion;

When Dr. Vaughn speaks with concerned citizens, the agreement is that we need change of spirit.

Citizens see taxpayer dollars being used for questionable purposes, and wish for greater fiscal responsibility and transparency in government.

We see poverty, and wish to expand opportunities for people to become self-sufficient.

Detroiters see their children getting frustrated in school and losing hope in life, and wish to provide them a better future.

They see important decisions being made with too little input from the citizens who will be affected by those decisions, and wish for more openness and participation in the decision-making process.

It's tempting sometimes to just resign ourselves to the idea that there's little we can do to change the way things are. But if we don't work towards and demand change, who will? It's time to take our destiny, our future into our own hands. We can no longer depend upon the status quo.

Detroit has been run by civil rights/black power advocates for too long. They have given the citizens of Detroit rights, but not access. It's time for us to cancel their agendas and take a seat at their council meetings with the message that enough is enough.

This is why Dr. Vaughn is running for City Council. She is a change agent that is needed to balance out the equation.

The argument that spiritual leaders in our community cannot lead in an elected position is false. Can we say Rev. Nick Hood, Bishop Keith Butler and others who have served on the Detroit City Council in the past? With the rapid decline of our family, our faith and in many cases our future we need a spiritual light at the end of the tunnel.

I strongly believe that Dr. Vaughn can bring a sense of hope back into the community. Her church, the Holy Ghost Cathedral of Faith near Poletown on the east side of Detroit, has demonstrated over time that through faith and determination all things are possible.

Dr. Vaughn's commitment to human services to the community has expanded over three decades and she is showing no sign of slowing down.

For quite some time I have stated that the faith based, government and non-profit communities must work together to create new opportunities and generate new industries in Detroit. Dr. Vaughn simply calls it "marrying government with non-profits" to generate jobs. She calls for a philosophical shift in ideology to come on board with this new innovative way of thinking. We simply cannot keep doing things the same way.

But she cannot do this by herself.

I am calling on those who would like to see the City of Detroit move into the 21st century to join in our Right Spirit Right Season movement. We simply call this movement the Vaughn Revolution. We are needed on this battlefield and if you do not think fighting to save our families, our health, our jobs, our industries, and our God is worth fighting for then you might want to take a look in the mirror and ask yourself what spirit is holding you back from doing what is right.

Dr. Vaughn is my TOP candidate for Detroit City Council. She should be yours as well. This is the right time for change. This is the right time to for the right spirit for the right season.

Educational Incubation For Urban Communities by Akindele Akinyemi

We are at a crossroads here in Detroit. For the next two years we will experience a leadership shift in ideology that we have not seen in decades. For silver rights activists this is the time to seize the time by creating educational incubators within our educational system to generate wealth and increase our educational attainment.

The way we halt voting by name recognition here in urban Michigan is to have an approach that will force those in power to either come up with innovative ways to keep our communities intact or push them out of the way with new leadership that will eventually work for us.

Educational incubators are programs designed to accelerate the successful development of educational entrepreneurial companies through an array of business/education support resources and services, developed and orchestrated by incubator management and offered both in the incubator and through its network of contacts. Educational incubators vary in the way they deliver their services, in their organizational structure, and in the types of clients they serve. Successful completion of a education incubation program increases the likelihood that a start-up school will stay in business for the long term.

Educational incubators differ from research parks in their dedication to start-up and early-stage companies. Research parks, on the other hand, tend to be large-scale projects that house everything from corporate, government or university labs to very small companies. Most research and technology parks do not offer business assistance services, which are the hallmark of a business incubation program. However, many research and technology parks house incubation programs. The goal here is to "marry" both the research park and educational incubator.

Unlike many educational assistance programs, educational incubators do not serve any and all needs of the school. Entrepreneurs who wish to enter a educational incubation program will have to apply for admission. Acceptance criteria vary from program to program, but in general only those with feasible business ideas and a workable business plan are admitted.

The reason why it is important for both government, business and technology industries to take a look at educational incubation here in Detroit because Detroit Public Schools cannot be fixed. While I applaud the DPS Emergency Financial Manager Robert Bobb's efforts to bring DPS back to fiscal health he has concluded that DPS should file for bankruptcy.

I have long been a proponent of breaking up Detroit Public Schools into 7 smaller school districts. With in these districts we need to set up what is called an educational empowerment zone where not only we will be able to allow the Office of the Mayor to authorize charter schools but support the creation of educational incubators through public-private partnerships.

More than half of all educational/business incubation programs will be "mixed-use" projects; that is, they will work with clients/students from a variety of backgrounds.

Educational incubation can lead to a variety of economic and socioeconomic policy needs, which may include:

• Creating jobs and wealth
• Fostering a community's entrepreneurial climate
• Technology commercialization
• Diversifying local economies
• Building or accelerating growth of local industry clusters
• Business creation and retention
• Encouraging women or minority entrepreneurship
• Identifying potential spin-in or spin-out business opportunities
• Community revitalization through urban and regional planning

These educational incubators must be non-profit, faith based or community organized.

Utilizing educational incubators within the educational community here in Detroit will help bring forth a new silver right initiative for our future student population who are ready to become future small business owners.

Creating Smarter Neighborhoods by Akindele Akinyemi

The City of Detroit must utilize a Neighborhood Empowerment Initiative by way of a Citywide System of Neighborhood Councils to create the beginning of a profound restructuring of our city's government.

This system is not dealing with council by districts. What I am discussing here is a mechanism that should work along with those people who are elected to city council. In the past these actions were called Citizen Advisory Councils and that was barred from the current Detroit City Charter in 2001.

Historically, the perception of power in Detroit has been concentrated in a small group of people, physically located Downtown and isolated from the far flung masses. I am asking for those who are running for Detroit Charter Commission to adopt this new plan for recognized, certified, and functioning neighborhood bodies citywide (if only legally "advisory") that will represent a major step toward de-centralizing political authority. Empowering active local councils will be a sea change for Detroit, radiating power, and responsibility, back to the communities that make up the fabric of the city as a whole.

The mechanics detailing how this shift is going to take place will benefit from flexibility rather than having one uniform set of strict rules and requirements. The unique circumstances in each of the city's individual neighborhoods will ultimately generate a range of organizations with widely varying interests. One size will definitely not fit all.

Neighborhood Councils will be subject to three basic criteria. First, each council must encompass a minimum of 25,000 residents. The delicate balance lies in insuring Detroit doesn't wind up with too many councils, relegating the participants to background noise, and at the same time guaranteeing that neighborhood issues are not lost along the way. The answer for groups which may represent large, dense population segments (Livernois-7 Mile) or desolate geographic areas (Brightmoor) will be to operate at a sub-committee level and then come together in the interest of the community as a whole.

This plan wisely foresees that Neighborhood Councils may overlap, but wrongly permits councils to establish a veto power over sharing territory. Given the volunteer nature of grass roots organizations, and the ebb and flow associated with the life span of such organizations, it should left to the council to decide if a group is viable and whether it's boundaries make sense. Along with that must come some formal means of communication and interaction between neighboring and overlapping councils.

Second, each Council must be open to all stakeholders in the community. The criteria for certification are specifically designed to encourage participation by all community members, and to prevent one interest group from pre-empting all others. The real difficulty will come in areas of the City historically lacking participation. Outreach to those communities must be an essential component of the plan. At the same time, we cannot hope to enforce rigorous, expensive and onerous reporting requirements for certification, lest they scare away the very groups necessary to make the system successful. Nurturing groups in traditionally under served communities will be complex, consuming significant resources.

Lastly, each group must be self motivated. If it works at this scale, this will be a spectacular lesson in grass roots democracy. Differing groups will come together for varying purposes. One community will focus on land use, another will highlight police services and yet another will feature recreation and parks. Groups will come and go with time. The official map of Neighborhood Councils will be a fluid one, yet as power ultimately flows to the councils by the virtue of the fact that they exist and are recognized as legitimate voices of the community, they will take on a life of their own.

Like everything else in city government, it comes down to money. This revolution isn't going to come cheap. Implicit in the recent vote to revamp the City Charter was a recognition that Neighborhood Councils would cost money.

In the current election cycle, every charter commission candidate must commit to supporting the Neighborhood Councils that must be part of the new charter here in Detroit. The last thing this City needs is for the hopes and dreams of neighborhood empowerment embodied in Neighborhood Councils to be left uncommitted, for the want of adequate funding.

Real Teacher Reform Starts With Teacher Certification Requirements by Akindele Akinyemi

With the school year fast approaching, many school districts blame the teacher shortage for their inability to fill teaching vacancies with certified teachers in areas such as math, science, English as a second language, and special education. But the so-called teacher shortage is a myth.

School administrators struggle to find “certified teachers” to teach these subjects, yet many willing and well-qualified experts in their field are locked out of the classroom due to cumbersome certification requirements.

Michigan’s lengthy and unwieldy teacher certification process is an unnecessary government restriction that bars entry into the classroom for potential teachers.

Teacher certification emphasizes pedagogy (the “art” of teaching) over subject matter expertise. Certification requirements include coursework in child development, foundations of education, pedagogy, and diversity. All teaching candidates must pass a state certification exam, which tests their knowledge of pedagogy and their specific content area. Yet the exam is multiple-choice and only has an oral component for those wanting to teach a foreign language; otherwise there is no evaluation of an individual’s presentation skills or teaching ability.

If student learning is the main objective, then it defies common sense to bar a business guru like Steve Forbes from the classroom because he doesn’t have a teaching certificate.

Since the demand for certified teachers outweighs the supply in certain fields, schools assign teachers to teach subjects for which they have no training. Thus, a high school unable to fill a math teacher vacancy could assign a history teacher to teach a couple of geometry classes.

There are many public school teachers that are currently teaching classes out of their field of study. Nationally, more than half of those teaching physical science classes (chemistry, physics, earth science, or space science) do not hold a college major or minor in any of those subjects, according to the National Governors’ Association’s Center for Best Practices.

When teachers teach what they themselves do not know, student learning suffers. Research finds that math and science teachers, who majored in those subjects, produce 39 percent more high performing students.

Even more troubling is that students attending school in a high-poverty area are 77 percent more likely to be assigned to an out-of-field teacher. Thus, students from disadvantaged backgrounds who arguably would benefit the most from knowledgeable teachers are the least likely to have them.

Federal policymakers tried to end this practice with the requirement in the No Child Left Behind Act that all teachers be “highly qualified” in core academic subjects by the end of the 2006-2007 school year.

Teachers are deemed “highly qualified” if they have a bachelor’s degree, full state certification, and know the subject they teach. Therefore, within the “highly qualified” requirement, states have flexibility in how they define certification.

Prominent figures in the education world favor scrapping traditional teacher education policies and basing teacher licensure on a candidate’s intellect and superior teaching ability – not on courses taken.

Even President Clinton’s Secretary of Education, Richard Riley, understood the need for reform. In his 1999 State of American Education address, he implored state leaders to rethink teacher licensing requirements. Riley observed that “too many potential teachers are turned away because of the cumbersome process that requires them to jump through hoops.”

An easy way to solve the teacher shortage problem and improve student mastery of subjects like math and science is to simplify the hiring process for teachers and allow our best and brightest to teach. Focus on results, not on inputs.

Legislators and policymakers can improve student learning and give students the best possible chance for success, by unlocking the classroom door to qualified individuals who have a desire to teach, yet don’t hold a teaching certificate.

A Vision for Detroit: Biotechnology by Akindele Akinyemi

Urban agriculture is the mainstay of the majority of our urban communities. Most of our people live in the urban areas and depend on neighborhood grocery stores that sells rotten or bad foods for their livelihoods. As the population of the City of Detroit decreases, urban agricultural production and the ability to feed the populations are not only challenged by local conditions in Detroit, but statewide by the economic recession, high food and fuel prices, climate change and related disasters.

We need to meet the quality food demands of the city’s decreasing population. We also need to accelerate and turning open space into incubators of food production. Our goal of course is always eradicate extreme poverty and hunger in the City of Detroit.

The regional approach to biotechnology and biosafety policy in Detroit is never discussed. We must place pressure on the debate to create gene technology for food security and agriculture. Our people are not to blame; it is the policy makers and the scientists at large who have to take the blame for the inconclusive debates on this subject. Considering the emerging development in modern biotechnology harmonization of biotechnology and biosafety policies is critical to mitigate potential impacts on food security in Detroit.

What I am seeking from those who are running for Detroit City Council is a new way to create innovation and economic revenue in Detroit. I recently discussed the need for transform open space in Detroit into research parks and facilities that will bring in new IT jobs and services. Biotechnology is no different. A bio-safety roadmap must be developed to support harmonization of biotechnology and bio-safety policies in Detroit.

For some time now, the rising cost of food all over the world has taken households, governments and the media by storm. The world food crisis is hurting a lot of people, especially those who cannot feed themselves or have been cut off by state aid for food (bridge card). There is a need to increase productivity and diversify food crop varieties among farmers in Detroit through urban agriculture and biotechnology.

With the exception and care in Bio-pharming technologies that may compete with the priorities for increasing food production and food security; the rejection of the patenting of all life forms, and positive engagement at national and regional levels with stakeholders and partners, we should make a 20-year Vision for Biotechnology consistent with our local and state priorities; among which is the need to employ all city measures to make this work. It is our collective responsibility to provide support as required to ensure that all is done to support the City of Detroit for in developing these strategies.

A Vision for Detroit: Improving Public Service by Akindele Akinyemi

For much too long, the City of Detroit was (and still is in many cases) considered a center of consumption and corruption, rather than a center of innovation, partnerships and service delivery. Indeed, amongst many in Detroit and the rest of Michigan, such perceptions continue. However, with the race for Detroit City Council and Charter Commission I can clearly see that the tide is beginning to turn and other Detroiters as well as individual public servants are beginning to demonstrate that they are very capable of leading Detroit into a new era of innovation, economic and service delivery.

For much too long, our intellectual reflections have been intertwined with simplistic theories on the public service reform experience, with our analysis also embedding itself in populist rhetoric on the failures of Neo-liberalism. Very seldom do we experience a willingness to move beyond ideology to focus on what is actually unfolding and the potential development across the City of Detroit.

For those who are running for public office both this year and next year in the City of Detroit we must move beyond the surface and engage with actual practices to understand what lies beneath in order to be in a better position to guide future policy. If we remain in the realms of philosophical rhetoric only, we tend to lose sight of the bigger picture and the imperatives of responding to the day to day demands of our people. We must avoid such a situation, if we are to make the partnership between practitioners and academics a real and productive one.

As we move forward in this globalizing world and with Detroit's agenda of integration, it becomes necessary for us to begin to reflect on commonalities as much as we recognize our diversity. The realities of what we are experiencing across the world do indeed push us in this direction. Integration and diversity of ideas is a reality and the commitment expressed by our future leaders in this direction, needs to also reflect itself in the policies and practices established by our both government and public service sector. It is in the realm of public service that commitments are implemented and demonstrable to all our people. Whereas political commitment is absolutely necessary for service delivery, this should not detract us from recognizing that such commitment becomes meaningless without an effective, efficient, innovative and responsive public service.

While we focus our attention on all that is good in our public services and we ultimately find ways of encouraging further excellence, let us not do this at the expense of recognizing that our city government and public service organizations are faced with some immense global and local challenges. The pressures on city government and the public service have multiplied as a result of a series of crises, including the financial and economic crisis, major shifts in energy prices, climate change and food supplies. The combined effect threatens economic and social breakdown as our people suffer unemployment with the resultant effect of entrenched poverty. Whatever the role of the public sector has been in contributing to the crisis, few would doubt its role in shaping our responses. Detroit city government must be compelled to intervene in an unprecedented way in private markets to stem the current tide of collapse.

Now, more than ever, the our leadership must discharge its functions efficiently and effectively. This must also be done in a context where very few have established a track record or reputation for excellence. On the face of the realities that stand before us, the approach to reform and change cannot and should not be about skimming the surface of what needs to be done. Our efforts need to be broader, deeper and faster. The crises provide both the chance and necessity for change on a larger scale, with the attendant need for an immediate and decisive intervention. Thus, to postpone reforms until a crisis is resolved may not be the best approach, as we know too well that a crisis period is usually the best time for us to engage in change.

If we recognize that reform is a necessity and not a choice, it would become more and more imperative that local government and non-profit organizations look towards partnerships to respond efficiently and effectively to such crises. In this respect, we must, as a matter of urgency move beyond the rhetoric of private versus public modes of delivery. Circumstances warrant that the shape of delivery and the institutions involved will vary from one circumstance to another. However, in all delivery efforts, partnerships would be fundamental to having the best and most appropriate delivery framework.

The idea of partnerships and collaboration for sustainable delivery of services embodies within it a commitment towards civic engagement as a critical norm and value for reform efforts, an emphasis that we must place at the center of the draft of the Detroit City Charter. It is evident that when we reflect on partnerships and collaboration, we must pay attention to the gap that often exists between the rhetorical commitment of government and the actual participation that leads to concrete results, benefiting the poor in home-rule cities such as Detroit. Such a focus would require that we engage with the practicalities of participation in public sector activities such as policy development, budgeting, service delivery and public accountability.

This is why I urge all Detroit city council candidates to adopt the Covenant for Detroit platform.

The Covenant for Detroit are based on nine steps to improve city government.

1. Fiscal Responsibility: A balanced budget/tax limitation proposal and a legislative line-item veto to restore fiscal responsibility to an out- of-control Mayor/City Council, requiring them to live under the same budget constraints as families and businesses.

2. Reclaiming Our Streets: A REAL anti-crime package including stronger truth-in- sentencing, good faith exclusionary rule exemptions, and cuts in wasteful spending to fund prison construction and additional law enforcement to keep people secure in their neighborhoods and kids safe in their schools.

3. Encourage Personal Responsibility: Work with state lawmakers to discourage illegitimacy and teen pregnancy by prohibiting welfare to minor mothers and denying increased benefits for additional children while on welfare, cut spending for welfare programs to promote individual responsibility.

4. Real Family Preservation: Child support enforcement, tax incentives for adoption, strengthening rights of parents in their children's education, stronger child pornography laws, and an elderly dependent care tax credit to reinforce the central role of families in the City of Detroit, shared equal parenting rights which equals to children needing both parents.

5. Educational Reform: Repeal the tax credit in the Michigan Constitution to allow Universal Tax Credits for parents and children in Detroit, expansion of theme based charter schools, private scholarships for children in failing public schools, prayer in schools, replace multiculturalism with patriotic education, encourage private sector participation in math and science education, fighting adult illiteracy with private based programs that will create job readiness.

6. Detroit Restoration : A S500 per child tax credit and creation of Detroit Dream Savings Accounts to provide middle class tax relief.

7. Job Creation: Small business incentives, capital gains cut and indexation, neutral cost recovery, risk assessment/cost-benefit analysis and unfunded mandate reform to create jobs and raise worker wages.

8. Citizen Legislature: A first-ever vote on term limits to replace career politicians with citizen legislators in Detroit. Also, vote City Council by districts and place term limits on each council member. Mayor of Detroit should have term limits.

9. Senior Citizens: Provide tax incentives for private long-term care insurance to let the elderly in Detroit keep more of what they have earned over the years.

Most of these people who are running Detroit (both local government and public service organizations) represent the old guard of leadership (civil rights) and not the new age of leadership (silver rights). Our city needs both a philosophical and intellectual change if we are going to transform Detroit from an automotive market into a financial market.

Breaking Down The Walls in Detroit by Akindele Akinyemi

Detroit is on life support as we speak. However, there are some well educated people in our city that is ready to usher in a new paradigm of thinking.

Our city must embrace leaders that are fully committed to the building Detroit back through silver rights. The Silver Rights Movement is a campaign that is fully committed to developing direct-action through economic change, social change and educational change.

Even though levees do not exist in Detroit an economic levee has broken here. Both General Motors and Chrysler has filed for bankruptcy. There is a massive brain drain with our young people leaving the city. And the spiritual morale of our city does not exist.

And there are still unfortunately economic levees ready to break in the backdrop of other industries leaving Detroit and the rest of our region. The reality is, things could quiet possibly get worse, before they get better in the recovery effort to bring back Detroit.


This is what happens when you have a population of people who were effectively in a state of personal economic disaster even before the global economic crisis hit them. Individuals living from paycheck to paycheck; financially illiterate, economically unprepared, and fundamentally under-educated – in one of the poorest cities in the nation.

This is what happens when the average income in the Brightmoor District of Detroit was $10,300 annually.

This is what happens when folks don’t earn enough to own an automobile, and felt so economically strapped by life that, to them, the only decision that seemed to make any sense at all is to "weigh it out" despite high criminal and mis-educated activity. This is what happens when people are forced to live hand to mouth in Detroit.

The reality is that when you and I get into trouble with a disaster or unfortunate situation, we find a way to pick ourselves off, dust ourselves off, get our families resettled and situated, update our skills, find a new job, and move on. But poverty-stricken people in Detroit don’t generally fit this description.

This is why we must make education worthwile again in our community. We must continue to educate the urban and suburban public, government and private-sector interests about the growing economic disaster that most always follows the physical and emotional disaster.

An answer gets ahead of the problem, and finds creative ways to taps down on risks, until the problem becomes no more than an inconvenience. This is the miracle of modern financial markets in Detroit and the rest of Michigan. Experts, at identifying, managing and taping down on risks.

What are the risks associated with millions of Detroiters who feel disconnected from the whole of Michigan, and worse still, feel that the invaluable social contract with Detroit has been irrevocable breached?

I am suggesting that there is really no alternative now to Detroit making a real and sustainable investment in its poor, it’s under-served, and the wealthless in our city. An investment focused on a hand up, and not a hand out.

An investment that insures that our children, not just Detroit but in other urban communities across Michigan, are no longer financially illiterate but financially literate.

An investment that insures that a man, willing to work, finds an honest job before he is enticed by or otherwise drawn into a dishonest life. If a man cannot find a job, he will unfortunately find something else to invest his energies into, another way to seem of value to himself and those he considers his family, even it if is not honorable.

Unfortunately there are economic levees about to break all across this great city of ours, and going forward we must all do what we must, to insure that there are no more economic disasters in 21st century Detroit.

If the 20th century was about issues of race and the color line all over the world, or what we call civil rights, then the 21st century, an economic era, will be about issues of class and poverty, or silver rights.

For the first time in modern American history Detroit and the rest of urban Michigan has put a face on poverty, for all the world to see. However, with the help of some fostering and developing a new silver rights leadership in Detroit we will have the real potential of converting the ignorance into accountability.

The Importance of the Detroit Research Park by Akindele Akinyemi

Urban conservatives should lead and strive to build a talented and globally competitive workforce, a vibrant economy and great quality of life and effective, efficient, and accountable government that works for the inner cities of America.

Detroit right now has to redevelop its land base to make it more competitive. The city needs MUST invest in high speed rail. Not just any high speed rail but rail speeds that top 600 miles per hour to make it economically sound for both the city and region. Urban agriculture is also a plus. But we need to also invest in research parks.

Research parks are emerging as strong sources of entrepreneurship, talent, and economic competitiveness for regions, states, and nations. They have become a key element in the
infrastructure supporting the growth of today’s knowledge economy. By providing a location
in which researchers and companies operate in close proximity, research parks create an
environment that fosters collaboration and innovation and promotes the development transfer, and commercialization of technology.



Presently, there are three cities that can fit into Detroit. Those cities are San Francisco, Boston and Manhattan Island. Therefore, we have space to develop a new tax base here in the City of Detroit.

While we have Tech Town (a research park in Midtown Detroit) that is connected to Wayne State University there are still a need for these parks. This is nothing new as we can look into Oakland County or Western Wayne County to see technology parks.

However, we are seeking to rebuild our tax base here in Detroit. Therefore, there are some things we need to take a look at when building additional research parks here in the city. One such park should be built right along the corridor of I-94 south of the GM Poletown Plant in Detroit. It should be called the South Poletown Research Park.

Normally, a Research park is a research facility which is often linked with a major research university. What we need to do here in Detroit is something different. Not only we should link our research parks with a major research university like Wayne State University but linking them to our high schools in Detroit.

We neglect our high schools. While some universities partner with a high school we do not include them in the actual practice of institution building. A research parks that is centered around a high school can be the result of spurring economic growth in Detroit's high-tech sector. partnering with several foundations the South Poletown Research Park will be focused on companies operating in the arenas of life sciences, homeland security, engineering, advanced manufacturing and information technology.

Let us also understand that research parks are now placing greater emphasis on supporting incubation and entrepreneurship to grow their future tenant base and less on recruiting. Present research park directors are indicating that creating an environment that encourages innovation and entrepreneurship is a high priority.

Normally a research park is situated around a population less than 500,000 people. Detroit is at 871,000 people and is shrinking. Also, I am not stopping here just in Detroit but other urban areas across the state of Michigan. Places like Flint, Saginaw, Pontiac, Benton Harbor need research parks.

The need for quality high schools are needed today in Detroit. A high school should not have over 500 students and must be driven by a high-quality curriculum. Thus, a new model—strategically planned mixed-use campus expansions—must emerge here in Detroit that includes space for academic and industrial uses. These mixed-use campus developments are designed to create an innovative environment with a free and frequent exchange of information between academic researchers and their industry counterparts. Our high schools must be a part of this innovation.

The development of a high school-university research park would use various mechanisms to foster high school-university-industry relationships. The most effective include having partnership-developer staff or others charged with relationship building between industry and departments that would lead facilities open to industry and human resource matching programs such as internships and co-ops, and access to university research labs and university technology transfer and commercialization offices.

Amenities will be an important offering of future research parks. On-site amenities, such as restaurants and retail stores, are considered important in attracting innovation employees.

Detroit also need to look towards building more research parks to leverage the assets of non-university R&D organizations such as federal laboratories. In addition to high schools and universities, major medical research centers and public and private research organizations can be key drivers of technology-based economic development. It is becoming increasingly common for communities in which a federal laboratory is located to create a research park to leverage laboratory resources to realize economic development.

Sustainable development involves balancing development needs against protection of the natural environment. In the future, it is likely that research parks will be developed to minimize impact on the environment and to use renewable energy sources and “green” building practices.

In Detroit, international partnerships will become more important in high school-university research parks. Detroit sits on an international waterway. Most of us forget that Windsor, Ontario, Canada is part of the region we live in. It will be important for our high school students and university students here in Detroit to connect with our counterparts in Canada to conduct research partnerships for growth and development.

We cry about the brain drain that is leaving Detroit. With the development of a research park, this may be the very tool to retain, attract, and grow talent, from establishing advanced training facilities to partnering with community colleges to ensure a supply of skilled technicians.

It is likely that technology tenants want more opportunities to network among each other and with sources of knowledge in labs, research organizations, and elsewhere. Parks will, in partnership with trade and other associations, need to increase their focus on tenants’ networking needs and requirements.

Research parks may have a role to play in offering safe, secure environments for technology development. The post-9/11 world suggests the need for controlled access to key strategic technology assets, whether in education or industry. Parks may be well positioned to test, demonstrate, and pilot approaches to address secure and safe environments for replication in the world economy.

What I am looking at Detroit in the next 5-10 years is building a Midwest Silicon Valley or Research Triangle Park. Planned mixed-use campus expansions that provide shared space in which industry and academic researchers can work side by side. These developments embody a commitment by universities to partake in broader activities, offering companies high-value sites for accessing researchers, specialized facilities, and students and promoting live-work-play environments. This is what we need to discuss when Black-owned businesses have conferences. The main problem here is we are meeting and discussing the need for Black-owned businesses but we never leave out with an assignment.

Also, our thinking is too small in Detroit. These research parks must be discussed at the various Black business conferences we have here in the city. We must begin to have policy, economic and educational discussions on developing these research parks at our conferences. Instead of fighting over Cobo Hall and other things Detroit cannot afford to maintain anymore we need to look at revamping our tax base with creativity and innovation.

There must be a strong focus on entrepreneurship and start-up and emerging companies. Research parks can be used as a tool to spur homegrown business retention, expansion, and creation.

For those who are running for political office should take a look at this concept of using research parks as a means of building a stronger and better tax base for the City of Detroit. If we use the research parks along with urban farming, the Port Authority and the aerotropolis we will help reconstruct our region like never before.

The Political Plantation by Akindele Akinyemi

I find it interesting to hear how so many people think the Republican Party is the modern day Ku Klux Klan. Some go as far as saying how white people in the GOP hate Black people. Some go as far as saying that the GOP are irrelevant.

More interesting is the fact that so many people ask me why do I consider myself a Republican as opposed to being a Democrat.

First and foremost, I am not a follower. I am a leader and I intend to stay like this until I depart from this Earth.

Second, as far as the GOP being considered the modern day KKK is outrageous. That does not mean there is no racism in the GOP. In fact, there is racism in both Democratic and Republican Party. Ignorance breeds racism and racism breeds hate and confusion. We can see this on both sides of the aisle.

Third, as a Frederick Douglass Republican and urban conservative I have nothing to prove to anyone that the GOP was founded on the pretense of freeing slaves from bondage. Urban conservatives are still doing the works of freeing people from bondage through education that leads to opportunities.

Black people do not have time for finger pointing, slander or politics. Our mission in this day and age is creating sound public policies that will benefit our communities. We have to think out the box if we are serious about transforming our economy and educational system.

Democratic apologists will conclude that Black people should not be part of the Republican Party. Republican apologists will conclude that Democrats have butchered in the inner cities of America.

Both parties are guilty of keeping us on what I consider a political plantation.

This is a plantation where both parties use the same tactics in different forms. Democrats have a plantation called dependency.

Democrats are under the illusion that minorities need affirmative action to succeed in life and "to level the playing field." Most people who follow this notion do not understand why affirmative action was even created in the first place.

Ever since the Emancipation Proclamation in 1863 Black people have always been successful even at the peak of Jim Crow. Black Wall Street in 1921 in Tulsa, Oklahoma to Paradise Valley here in Detroit to Idlewild Blacks have always prospered economically.

Prior to the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s there were a rich tradition of Black self-help. Our Historically Black Colleges and Universities used to publish the Journal of Black Business Success. But in order to get the Civil Rights laws to apply to Blacks we had to present ourselves as victims of racism. In order to do that the HBCUs had to stop publishing the accounts of our success.

What most of our Democratic colleagues fail to tell you in areas like Detroit we have over 19,000 Black owned and operated businesses. The problem is not the fact that we cannot get jobs because the so-called playing field is not "leveled" so we still need affirmative action. The main issue is the fact that we do not hire each other in the very community we live in. And if we do get hired we lack the customer service skills to bring in additional clients or customers that will make our businesses grow. We do not need affirmative action per se. We need to affirm our actions when we move into the economic realm of things.

The other thing about the Democratic plantation is the fact that they use social engineering tactics to keep us dependent when we should be following our ancestors lead on development.

The GOP has a plantation also and its called anarchy. Some in our party feel that we do not need government in anything.

The United States has a mixed economy. So there is no qualms about this. You will never have a 100% capitalistic society. Ever. There is not a nation on Earth that is 100% capitalistic.

Some of my GOP and Libertarian colleagues feel that we should take government out of every damn thing and that we should not support government or government sponsored programs. Do you go to the public library? How are roads funded? Is it funded by private dollars by us passing the plate in church to donate to the road? Did you ever use financial aid when you went to college? What about hospitals with a trauma center? Are they actually private? Do we have a private telephone and communication service?

What about large corporations and businesses using government subsidies? What about electricity and other energy services? Very few water systems are privatized but most have what is called a public-private partnership.

There has to be a balance between government, business and technology in both the public and private sector. When we start getting caught up on rhetoric we lose focus on what we need to do.

Both plantations use fear as a means of control. Democrats use fear tactics like we need affirmative action or we will go back to Jim Crow, the GOP is going to look out for the rich and the GOP hate Black people. Republicans use fear tactics by saying Democrats are Godless, hate Black people, and how President Obama is taxing your grandchildren.

Both of these parties will keep us mentally in bondage with useless rhetoric unless we begin to see through the fog.

So let me bring my point home. What we need is a vision for our communities. The Book of Hosea 4:6 says "without a vision the people perish." Right now we are perishing. The issues in our communities are very complex. Neither party has done a good job in trying to resolve the issues. Democratic policies has failed the inner cities and the GOP will not even take the time to even invest in the inner cities to create a solution (not a sound bite). Urban communities need political balance to resurrect the spirit in these broken areas.

Urban conservatives are policymakers not sound biters. What I mean by this is that urban conservatives think for ourselves not follow anyone who do not understand our plight. Some people say we need a stronger national defense. We say we need quicker police response time in our community. Ladies and gentlemen, racism, discrimination and “the white man” even, are not the main threats in our communities anymore. Apathy is, and apathy kills. Love and hate are opposite emotions, but at least they move in a direction. Apathy just lies there, saying nothing. Doing nothing. Love and hate are opposite emotions, but indifference is the death nail of the soul. And while we are on these plantations we have become apathetic to crafting out solutions.

The church has failed our communities. It has failed so bad that the population of the church is dwindling. People are tired of the fear factors, control and mis-interpretation of the scriptures to fit a certain philosophy. That alone is a crisis. Not to mention the lack of economic development that the church can lead us into. I am not saying all churches fall into this category because they don't. But why are we fighting gay marriage when I cannot find a woman to meet, date or marry FROM YOUR OWN CHURCH? Shouldn't we fight to strengthen marriages among men and women since the core problem is trust? And I do not know why people are fighting gay marriage when people in their own church is gay (this includes the pastor, lead choir director, and deacon). I do not support gay marriage at all because I personally do not see any benefit from it but before we protest let's take a look at our OWN sanctuary and see if all the loose ends are tied up.

If Planned Parenthood is a problem then we should OPEN OUR OWN CLINICS to take care of our women and children. Detroit alone has 90 square miles that is vacant. 1 out of 3 buildings down a major street in Detroit is vacant. If Black Republicans are so serious about protecting life then here is a way to resurrect life in a dead community. Planned Parenthood is going to continue doing their thing. Therefore, the best way to eliminate the problem is to (1) create a counterculture and (2) compete. If we INVEST in our own clinics then Planned Parenthood would not be a factor. Support pro-life programs like the Alpha Teen Center in Grand Rapids, MI.

We have got to get our lives together, our spirits back in intact, our respective rear-ends engaged in positive, productive activities, and our MINDS FOCUSED ON THINKING FOR OURSELVES. Not because I believe discrimination doesn't exist anymore or is no longer a factor. But because no one else cares. We must become for ourselves the change we want to see in the world. Period.

No one is going to save us, but us.

I do not care what you call yourself. If you are a Black Democrat then I highly suggest you STOP thinking like these old civil rights leaders and hardcore liberals and craft a new reality. If you are a Black Republican then I highly recommend you stop hating and eating on your own and help build a silver rights movement. The RNC under Michael Steele is NOT going to give any money for Black GOP causes so let's stop wishing and handle our business. If the RNC gives any money to Black Republicans it will have strings attached. The same with the DNC giving money to Black Democratic candidates. It's all a game and with 90% of Black people giving their damn vote to the Democratic Party we still have not even learned how to play the game.

Black folk are the only race of people in America that only talks to one political party, and it doesn't seem to me to make much sense. Latinos, Asians, Indians, and of course our White friends, all talk to everyone, particularly when it speaks to their interests, ...but not us. We often get hung up on emotions, about whether we like someone or not, when in reality business, economics and interests (both private and societal in nature) run this nation. It simply makes no logical sense, but we keep doing it. Even the definition of insanity is doing the same thing, over and over again, yet expecting a different outcome.

We are also the only ones that created a political powerbase, before we created an economic powerbase. Furthermore, public policy in America is principally designed around America’s first priority; economics and ownership. Individual property rights. Think about it – from tax breaks and other protections for homeowners, to incentives for the working class, to incentives for small businesses and major corporations alike.. it’s all about owners and producers. If we are wasting our time on JUST social issues then we are missing the bigger picture.

Tax cuts or tax breaks are a foreign language to some people in the community. As a result we have effectively tied one hand behind the collective back of our political leadership; forcing them to pursue a doomed public policy strategy not of proactively protecting, enhancing and growing our own individual property rights, but rather a reactive, defensive “strategy” of trying to protect and preserve an ever decreasing pool of mostly entitlements and public subsidies.

Somewhere along the line we confused producing in the private-sector with mandating in the public sector.

Urban conservatives in a silver rights movement must take the lead in creating a stakeholder class in America. This way we will no longer see homeowners as Black, White or Brown, but green. We will see our urban, inner city communities not as wastelands, but emerging markets in vastly under-served, and the last bastion of lost capitalism. A place of future riches.

This is why I always have a vision for places like Flint, Saginaw, Pontiac, Detroit, Inkster, River Rouge, Benton Harbor, Ypsilanti Township and Muskegon. We need to invest in the aerotropolis, global education, green initiatives, fuel cell research and high speed rail. The Japanese have invested $45 billion in the design and construction of a new 'very high speed rail transit system' that will travel at 660 mph. Why? The logic is simple - give their citizens a guaranteed greater geographic range of economic opportunities. For anyone to fight against high speed rail in the 21st century is delusional as hell and lives in a cave.

If Detroit becomes the central hub of a high speed rail transit system for the tri-state region (Michigan, Indiana, Ohio)with speeds being greater than 660 mph it can create economic opportunities. Our thinking must be out the box.

I keep saying we have bigger fish to fry. Start discussing policies and kill the politics.

Black people are leading every negative indicator you could imagine - from poverty, to illiteracy and financial illiteracy, to lack of ownership and too much obesity, to diabetes, to high school dropouts, to Black men in jail, to you name it.

That as a community we are effectively rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic, and increasingly the community as a whole are in no mood for political gamesmanship and selfish power plays. They want results, not rhetoric.

We can disagree without being disagreeable. Dr. King marched with Jews, and they had a disagreement about a man named Christ, but they agreed on most everything else. Nelson Mandela did the same thing in South Africa, negotiating with then President DeKlerk, when those in his own party were calling him a sellout for doing it. I think Republicans like Newt Gingrich, Michael Steele and Colin Powell are just as important as President Obama for the Democrats. All are needed at the table to move America forward.

People will always debate and disagree but the end result is how do we move forward off these traditional political plantations called dependency and anarchy and stay focused on the task at hand?