Messages to the Grass Roots

by Maureen D. Taylor, State Chair, MWRO

March 26, 2006--What does this describe? We are being picked off, neighborhood after neighborhood, by elected hoodlums who live like royalty at our expense. We are assaulted daily by an on-going campaign of misinformation spawned by major media hoodlums, and we are left at the end of the day with our hands trembling as we wonder where the truth is. We are exposed to stories every moment about the street hoodlums who openly violate the peace of the block, some of the violators dressed in Detroit Police uniforms. Women and children are in danger when out after dark. Seniors must get indoors before sundown. Both school children and school education are under attack. We can’t get an accounting of where the city finances have gone that put us in this dismal shape. We can’t get bulk pick up. The city suffers as the local government assigns private companies to operate those sites that made Detroit special, while the residents who work at those places have their benefits and salaries slashed to bare bones existence.

Water, a human right, is routinely disconnected at the homes of the disabled, the aged, the low income and the unemployed and the Water Dept. budget again in 2006-2007 assumes 45,000 more new addresses will be shut off. The reward for cutting off water to suffering Detroiters is to offer the Water Czar a $10,000 increase in his already inflated salary. Ten’s of thousands are without heat and lights at this moment. We have no health care, public transportation is unreliable, unemployment is up, welfare is fading, help is harder to find and the churches close early on Sundays. It looks like, it feels like, it smells like, it tastes like, it sounds like war…and it is!

click here to continue