Category: Commentary
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Education Beat Analysis: Flint’s public schools tipping into arguable freefall
By Harold C. Ford As the newly-constituted Flint Board of Education is beginning to look a lot like the old board, with chaos repeatedly breaking out, a multitude of sobering realities about the school district are undeniable. Arguably, Flint’s public schools are in freefall. Its student population has fallen from around 40,000 a few decades…
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Book Bans: What’s the real motive?
By Paul Rozycki “Controversial LGBTQ+ memoir the subject of heated Lapeer library meeting” (MLive, March 17, 2023) That was the headline of a story about a recent Lapeer District Library Board meeting where a crowded room of local residents attacked and denounced the local library for placing the book “Gender Queer: A Memoir” by Maia…
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Dysfunction and Democracy from Flint to Washington. Is Flint a model for the nation?
By Paul Rozycki For much of the 20th Century Flint was a leader for much of what mattered in the nation. It was home for one of the largest manufacturing corporations in the world. It was the place where one of the most progressive and influential labor unions in the nation stood up to that…
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Commentary: A tribute to “Master of the State Senate” Jim Ananich
By Michigan State Representative Jasper R. Martus “Thank God for Michigan,” President Lincoln proclaimed when troops arrived to join Union forces in the early stages of the Civil War. Pundits and politicians from across the country offered similar sentiments on Nov. 8 when election returns pointed to Democratic wins up and down the ballot in…
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Commentary: Looking back and looking ahead — Will 2022 set the stage for 2023?
By Paul Rozycki The combined December/January issue of the East Village Magazine marks the end of one year and the beginning of another, and gives us the opportunity to take a look back at what mattered in 2022 — and to look forward to what might matter in 2023. Looking back: The national level Politically,…
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Opinion: Let’s prosecute real criminals, not women and doctors
Letter to the Editor By David Leyton, Genesee County Prosecutor As county prosecutor, it is my top duty to protect the health and safety of the citizens of Genesee County. This is one of the many reasons I am supporting Proposal 3, which restores the right to reproductive freedom in Michigan’s constitution — a right…
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Commentary: Facing enrollment and financial challenges, UM-Flint asks, what’s next?
By Paul Rozycki “Academic politics makes me yearn for the simplicity of the Middle East.” -Henry Kissinger Could the University of Michigan-Flint go the way of Auto World? Probably not. But there are more than a few who are worried that the Flint branch of the Ann Arbor campus could face the same fate as…
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Village Life: Romance of city life sometimes falls short, but neighborly life can be full of grace
By Jan Worth-Nelson When I’m dying, will I be able to mutter to my grieving loved ones, hey! I’m glad I lived in Flint? I know, I know, macabre thought…but as fall crisps in with its inevitable melancholy reminders of the cycle of life and death, I find myself ruminating on mortal matters. And this…
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Commentary: What’s at stake on the Nov. 8 ballot? Here’s a preview
By Paul Rozycki It’s common to refer to every upcoming election as “the most important election” of our times. Most of the time that’s just political rhetoric to get people out to vote. Yet, this Nov. 8 mid-term election may be the exception to that old rubric. Yes, it’s just one more mid-term election, but…
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Commentary: The Tom Sumner Program leaves a history of civil conversation in an uncivil time
By Paul Rozycki After a decade and a half of giving Flint area listeners hours of civil and wide-ranging conversations in politics, music, science, writing, and the arts, Tom Sumner has decided to end his radio program. It has run on WFOV 92.1 FM in Flint. In his recent post, Sumner said “I’m suspending production…
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