Category: Commentary
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Commentary: Flint loses 20,000 residents. What does it mean for the city?
By Paul Rozycki With the current census, the city of Flint has lost Grand Blanc, Davison, Swartz Creek, and Montrose. I don’t mean that those places are gone. They are still here in Genesee County and doing fine. But the City of Flint has lost enough population to fill those cities, and that has powerful…
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Commentary: After the water crisis and the pandemic, what’s next?
By Paul Rozycki It looked like the Flint water crisis was over…and it wasn’t. It looked like the pandemic was over…and it wasn’t. The water crisis In Flint, as July ended, nearly all of the lead pipes in the city had been replaced, a court settlement was on track, lead levels were at record lows,…
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Village Life: Viral time revisited, 2021 — personal panic, wine, and the witching hour
By Teddy Robertson We were all so new at balancing mortal threat and daily life. Inept, but resourceful. That’s how it felt a year ago this May when East Village Magazine staff shared their first experiences of the COVID pandemic. That’s odder than you might think—reporters usually don’t want to be part of a story.…
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Commentary: For the Aug, 3 city council primary, take the time to learn about your candidates, and vote!
By Paul Rozycki They typically have eight- or ten-hour meetings that often last until dawn. They spend hours bickering and attacking each other personally. They failed to approve the current city budget on time, a violation of the city charter. Only after the city faced the prospect of a shutdown was the budget finalized. Some…
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Commentary: The right to vote — It’s not just about Democrats or Republicans. It’s about democracy.
By Paul Rozycki Guess what? There was cheating in the 2020 election. And guess what? There was so little of it, in a nation of 330 million, that it scarcely mattered. And from what we know, there were both Republicans and Democrats doing it. According to a Washington Post survey, there were 16 cases of…
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Commentary: A visionary plan to revive Flint Community Schools — “Let’s make this work.”
By Paul Rozycki Are you ready for some good news for Flint and its students? We all know this has been a year of bad news that included a national pandemic, statewide infection spikes, racial division, daily mass shootings, a rash of fires in Flint, bears in our backyards, and chaos at city council meetings.…
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Education Beat Op-Ed: Put Flint kids first — say YES now to Flint Education Continuum
By Harold C. Ford ‘”Noli equi dentes inspicere donate.” (“Don’t look a gift horse in the mouth”) …Latin text of St. Jerome, The Letter to the Ephesians, circa AD 400 “Shame on you, Mr. Ford.” …Laura MacIntyre, treasurer, Flint Board of Education (FBOE), Apr. 21, 2021 I am a progressive. My 56-year resume of social…
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Is it time to get back to “normal”? Maybe, but not yet.
By Paul Rozycki “It ain’t over till it’s over” -Yogi Berra There is a feeling of spring in the air. The days are getting warmer. The snow is melting. More and more people are getting the COVID vaccine. The Flint water crisis seems to reaching some sort of conclusion. And the divisive, tumultuous election of…
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Commentary: Civility workshops for City Council? Good intentions, but keep the Jack Daniel’s handy
By Paul Rozycki Can workshops bring “civility and decorum” to City Council meetings? Imagine an Alcoholics Anonymous meeting which starts out with good, sober, intentions, but concludes several hours later with most members passed out on the floor, littered with empty Jack Daniel’s bottles. Now imagine a Flint City Council workshop aimed at bringing civility…
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Fifteen days in January: The nation faces insurrection, impeachment, and inauguration.
By Paul Rozycki In the early 1960s, at the height of the cold war, there was a best-selling novel, and a movie, that told a story of a potential military coup in the U.S. and possible nuclear conflict with Soviet Union. The book was “Seven Days in May” by Charles Bailey and Fletcher Knebel, and…
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