Discuss Detroit » Archives - Beginning January 2007 » July 23rd is coming up...... « Previous Next »
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Beavis1981
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Username: Beavis1981

Post Number: 449
Registered: 08-2006
Posted on Friday, March 23, 2007 - 10:11 am:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

Just wondered if any special exhibits are planned or if one of our forumers has finished their history projects? If I have to spell out why the 23rd is special/or not you belong on a different forum!
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Irish_mafia
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Username: Irish_mafia

Post Number: 807
Registered: 10-2003
Posted on Friday, March 23, 2007 - 10:19 am:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

July 24th is coming

which is right after July 23rd

and if you don't know what that means well then why are you here?
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Southwestmap
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Username: Southwestmap

Post Number: 749
Registered: 01-2005
Posted on Friday, March 23, 2007 - 10:23 am:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

Many civic leaders are hoping that no recognition will be given to the 40th anniversary of the Detroit Riot.

Yesterday, at the Pancakes and Politics breakfast, this topic was raised. The Freep's Rochelle Riley said that she for one hoped that the anniversary would be ignored.

However, since some serious scholarship on the effects on cities of the riots in Watts and Detroit (and other places) has begun to be published (40 years provides a long view), I have no doubt that journals and big papers like the NYT will cover the anniversary.
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Beavis1981
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Post Number: 450
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Posted on Friday, March 23, 2007 - 10:42 am:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

Is the 24th actually significant or are you just merely being a jackass?
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Miss_cleo
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Username: Miss_cleo

Post Number: 440
Registered: 05-2005
Posted on Friday, March 23, 2007 - 10:45 am:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

To deny history is to repeat it.

I cant believe RR said that! Lets just ignore everything unpleasant that has happened in the past,yeah, thats the answer.
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Lilpup
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Post Number: 1894
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Posted on Friday, March 23, 2007 - 10:52 am:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

The tone with which a remembrance is rendered makes all the difference. RR probably doesn't have much faith in everybody being able to get along, especially since, once again, there's economic stress in the region.
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1953
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Username: 1953

Post Number: 1332
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Posted on Friday, March 23, 2007 - 10:53 am:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

Sounds good to me...
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Irish_mafia
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Username: Irish_mafia

Post Number: 809
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Posted on Friday, March 23, 2007 - 10:56 am:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

Beavis,

The 24th is significant. It is known as the day after Jackass day.

Do you really want to focus on the 40th anniversary of the day a bunch idiots tore this city apart. Do you really think that significant moment in our history will help build the positive vibe that will continue the drive towards a new Detroit?

July 23rd is a day for losers. You want to celebrate it, reflect on it? Perhaps have a prayer vigil around the Joe Louis fist?

Move on.
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Lilpup
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Post Number: 1895
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Posted on Friday, March 23, 2007 - 11:06 am:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

^^^^ Prime example of tone making a difference.

Irish, do you really believe there is nothing to be learned from the event?


(Message edited by lilpup on March 23, 2007)
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Beavis1981
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Username: Beavis1981

Post Number: 453
Registered: 08-2006
Posted on Friday, March 23, 2007 - 11:17 am:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

As the decades go by, the generation gaps widen, as do mental boundries between suburbs/city black/white, and people forget WHY? Forgetting why/how it happened does not change what IS.
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Defendbrooklyn
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Username: Defendbrooklyn

Post Number: 66
Registered: 11-2005
Posted on Friday, March 23, 2007 - 12:26 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

Celebrate and Learn....Detroit doesn't...judging from the media and pr people....

Maybe we need to start celebrating important economic days...Detroit leaders could use a few lessons.
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Irvine_laird
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Username: Irvine_laird

Post Number: 14
Registered: 02-2007
Posted on Friday, March 23, 2007 - 12:30 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

This was not an event that ended 40 years ago; this is an event that is happening now. The riots still smolder in our collective imagination and memory. Here is what scares me: An African-American preacher who has devoted his life to reconciliation in this city told me recently that he believes '67 could happen again at any time. The anger, despair, and restlessness that were fuel for the fires 40 years ago are still flooding the city. He said if we don't face this head-on, we are going to end up with something much worse. I'm relatively new to Detroit. Is he right?
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Lilpup
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Post Number: 1898
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Posted on Friday, March 23, 2007 - 1:02 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

Right now? Not really - things don't feel tense because it seems like everybody is getting economically clobbered this time around. Ask again when the weather starts getting hot.

If anything does break out it's probably going to be at a city/suburb mixed event.

You do understand that the riot then was really about economics and heavy-handed authorities than race, right?
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Southwestmap
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Post Number: 753
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Posted on Friday, March 23, 2007 - 1:12 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

I thought the 1967 event was being characterized as a "rebellion" - and who would the participants be rebelling against now? The government of the city, the schools and the police department are all controlled by and people mainly by Black people.
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Irish_mafia
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Username: Irish_mafia

Post Number: 813
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Posted on Friday, March 23, 2007 - 1:17 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

That does pose a bit of a quandary...
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Lilpup
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Post Number: 1899
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Posted on Friday, March 23, 2007 - 1:18 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

It wasn't about black & white as much as it was poor vs. everyone else nearby. Black and white owned stores were looted, blacks and whites did the looting.

(Message edited by lilpup on March 23, 2007)
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Fury13
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Post Number: 1474
Registered: 10-2003
Posted on Friday, March 23, 2007 - 1:59 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

Don't kid yourself, Lilpup. It was about black and white, too. I was a youngster at the time, but I remember the event and what people were saying about it.
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Lilpup
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Post Number: 1900
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Posted on Friday, March 23, 2007 - 2:39 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

Oh, yeah, I forgot. You're the only person here who was around then.
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Irish_mafia
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Username: Irish_mafia

Post Number: 817
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Posted on Friday, March 23, 2007 - 3:00 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

Gosh,

I was around then....seemed pretty black and white to me.
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Irvine_laird
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Username: Irvine_laird

Post Number: 15
Registered: 02-2007
Posted on Friday, March 23, 2007 - 3:24 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

The summer of '67 was about the human condition. This is what we tend to do to one another. Those who are scared amass power to keep that which they fear from encroaching on their illusion of safety. Those who are held back/down--oppressed--develop a deep resentment. In the end, both sides do violence against one another. It's have's versus have-not's. In America, that has almost always played out as white against black. Detroit is one of the most intense examples of this. So, while the '67 riots may not have been entirely about race per se, "black and white" is the easiest thing for most of us to see. That is why we must look deeper.
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Lilpup
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Post Number: 1901
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Posted on Friday, March 23, 2007 - 3:34 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

Exactly. Some will even say that the 'haves' perpetuate the idea of black v. white (or some other such scenario) in an effort to keep the real issue obscured.
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Beavis1981
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Username: Beavis1981

Post Number: 455
Registered: 08-2006
Posted on Friday, March 23, 2007 - 3:54 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

Irish_mafia said,
July 23rd is a day for losers. You want to celebrate it, reflect on it? Perhaps have a prayer vigil around the Joe Louis fist?

would it appease you if there was a counter-demonstration at the sprit of detroit on october 29th?
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Gravitymachine
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Username: Gravitymachine

Post Number: 1553
Registered: 05-2005
Posted on Friday, March 23, 2007 - 4:14 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

this begs the question, what happened on the 10th, 20th, 25th and 30 year anniversaries?
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Michmeister
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Username: Michmeister

Post Number: 147
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Posted on Friday, March 23, 2007 - 7:36 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

Economic? Based on what? Unemployment was at very low levels at the time, if memory serves, yes even in the tense areas. Just a case of the man coming down hard on the little guy.
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Softailrider
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Username: Softailrider

Post Number: 23
Registered: 02-2007
Posted on Friday, March 23, 2007 - 9:39 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

I don't understand how it could be ignored ,it was the straw that broke the camels back . After that the middle class tax base left the city . Lot's of luck having a fully functioning city unless they come back .
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Irish_mafia
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Username: Irish_mafia

Post Number: 818
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Posted on Friday, March 23, 2007 - 11:18 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

Softrailrider,

Its easy to ignore. Its ancient history.

Focus on what will move this city forward.
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The_rock
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Username: The_rock

Post Number: 1647
Registered: 11-2003
Posted on Saturday, March 24, 2007 - 5:58 am:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

July 23 is recognized as the day the ice cream cone was conceived, as well as the first full day of the NMRA national convention meeting at Cobo Hall.
Ice cream cones and model trains. A cause to celebrate downtown.
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Lmichigan
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Username: Lmichigan

Post Number: 5299
Registered: 10-2003
Posted on Saturday, March 24, 2007 - 7:00 am:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

Oh, the irony. It seems many of the usual suspects that routinely wax poetic and reminisce about the city as if it was once a utopia, instead, would choose amnesia for a particular point in history for whatever reason. I, for one, don't see anything to celebrate, but it should be remembered just like every other significant event that ever happened in/to the city, the good, the bad, and the ugly all included.

Yes, Lilpup, as shown painfully clear in just a few posts after the start of the thread, RR isn't the only one who shouldn't trust that the region can handle something like this. We still have to wait for another generation to die off before there is any kind of trust.

(Message edited by lmichigan on March 24, 2007)
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Ed_golick
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Username: Ed_golick

Post Number: 580
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Posted on Saturday, March 24, 2007 - 11:52 am:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

In the fall of 1967 I had just entered the 6th grade at Lincoln Elementary in Warren. Our first assignment was to write an essay, "What I Did On My Summer Vacation," which we had to read aloud. After hearing a dozen boring stories about going to the family cottage up north, my best friend John stood in front of the class, cleared his throat, and said,

"What I did on my Summer vacation, by John Poisson.
I went to Detroit. I had a riot!"

Needless to say, old Miss Reiter didn't appreciate John's sense of humor, and despite the laughs and cheers from my fellow classmates, sent him to the principal's office.
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Beavis1981
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Post Number: 457
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Posted on Saturday, March 24, 2007 - 11:55 am:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

For the record I never said anything about celebrating. I just wondered if any museums were going to have a special exhibition. Or if any of the forumers working on their individual projects were going to have a presentation. Our region is f-ed up and this is one of the roots. I was not around for it but still see it's effects. The lines are invisible between race/class but you can almost "feel" them. No other place i've been is like this. Ohio is close but not near as bad.
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Lilpup
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Post Number: 1906
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Posted on Saturday, March 24, 2007 - 12:36 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

I want to believe this: talking about things the way we do here, even when conversations get heated, is a big part of what keeps stuff from happening on the streets. Don't kid yourself about other places being more accepting. There have been times other cities had fighting when Detroit didn't. There have been periods of tension here that have been eased through channels other than violence and I hope that, through dialogue, that remains the case.
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Gravitymachine
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Post Number: 1554
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Posted on Sunday, March 25, 2007 - 3:13 am:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

quote:

this begs the question, what happened on the 10th, 20th, 25th and 30 year anniversaries?

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Kathleen
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Username: Kathleen

Post Number: 2130
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Posted on Sunday, March 25, 2007 - 6:25 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

Who needs memories of Detroit in 1967?

Rochelle Riley, Detroit Free Press
March 25, 2007

"During a "Pancakes and Politics" panel discussion about the media, a radio executive asked for ideas to cover the 40th anniversary in July of Detroit's 1967 riot.

When it was my turn, I said my greatest hope was that there would be no coverage.

Before you lecture me about how we can't know where we're going unless we know where we've been, let me say this: We know where we've been. I don't think it's worth going back.

Detroit's problem isn't that it hasn't learned the lessons. It is that it rejects the lessons. The city has been permanently stuck in July 1967 and permanently defined by the riot.

Detroit's -- and Michigan's -- leaders have to realize that we must let go of the past to embrace the new.

Look where clinging to the past has gotten us: The state is on a solo economic decline. The rescue ladder is Detroit, but the state keeps trying to get out of the hole without the ladder. It won't work.

Get the context right

Instead of using the riot and the anniversary as bookends -- what happened then, what happens now -- why not analyze how Detroit changed in between? Why not, for example, study what the riots birthed: Focus: HOPE, New Detroit, integrated neighborhoods? Study what works.

Forty years later, it is time to place Detroit's 1967 violence in context. It was one in a series of riots that erupted from the frustration and pain of black Americans nationwide who were "sick and tired of being sick and tired," said Heaster Wheeler, executive director of the NAACP's Detroit chapter.

"It was wrongfully phrased. It was an urban rebellion," he said. "If you're going to tell the story, tell the whole story. What happened to Detroit was what happened in eight to 10 cities all across America."

Detroit's was among more than 15 riots occurring between the summer of 1964 and 1968's Democratic National Convention in Chicago. Federal troops were deployed in several cities, not just here. Tens of thousands of people were arrested in cities that suffered millions of dollars in damage.

....

Full column at: http://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs .dll/article?AID=/20070325/COL 10/703250535/1081/COL
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Miss_cleo
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Post Number: 443
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Posted on Sunday, March 25, 2007 - 6:51 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

Detroit's -- and Michigan's -- leaders have to realize that we must let go of the past to embrace the new


lets also let go of the tired old slavery/racisism as well too......oh wait, I guess only some of us get to be seletive in what history we remember
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Oldredfordette
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Post Number: 1373
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Posted on Sunday, March 25, 2007 - 7:00 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

Rochelle Riley is such a tool. Pundits. pah.
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Psip
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Post Number: 1632
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Posted on Sunday, March 25, 2007 - 7:13 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

Miss_Clio, I couldn't agree with you more!
Whats so troubling is that deep racism is still embraced by some on both sides.
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River_rat
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Post Number: 258
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Posted on Sunday, March 25, 2007 - 7:55 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

Every once and a while, this subject recurs on the Forum. From one who lived through the whole thing while residing around the Bonstelle Theater, it remains an indelible memory of senseless violence and destruction. To "commemorate" it in any fashion would be absurd, to study it for "prevention" in the future preposterous, and to acknowledge it for "historical" purposes is ludicrous. Cut the crap.

What Detroit needs to do is look at itself now, No "whitey" overlords, declining population, incompetent government and systems, employment flight, and no cogent plan to stem the decline into the abyss of irrelevance.

Instead of wasting time with words of sound and fury that mean nothing, get rid of the incompetence and incompetents in government, the tired ideas of both business and labor, stop blaming Al Gore, George Bush, Granholm and Stabenow, dispair and hopelessness, ad infinitum.

What is left of Detroit needs to stop acting like it someone elses' fault. The riots were 40 years ago and the Civil War 140 years ago and the Spanish Inquisition 400 years ago. Change NOW.
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Irish_mafia
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Username: Irish_mafia

Post Number: 824
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Posted on Sunday, March 25, 2007 - 10:16 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

River Rat,

Amen.

The logic used for recognizing this date would also logically mean that the date of essentially "any" act of destruction or violence which occurred in the city is worthy of an anniversary.

Go ahead. You will have an anniversary every day.

and then the same clowns who celebrate this crap, whine because people around the country think of Detroit as a city of riots, violence, racism, poverty, crime, injustice.... essentially somewhere to stay away from.

(recall how many people were afraid that the dirt bags that burned the cop car after the world series in 84 would be repeatedly shown on the news this year).

The fools that are advocating recognizing this date in some form or fashion are just handing this kind of crap to that vulturous media that they supposedly despise.

They have no idea that as they celebrate this crap, they reap the rewards of such idiocy.

Perception is in many cases reality. (Witness the regular tourists that fly to "Hollywood" only to find there is nothing there).

As long as people continue to define, celebrate, remember and draw experiential wisdom from a stupid few days of violence and destruction that happened almost half a century ago, they drag this place down.

and then companies like Comerica or or my company or any other company with national resources will say "why the hell would I want to go/stay there?"

There are good things going on in this city and the people who dwell on this kind of crap are just a hugely frustrating bunch of mindless groupies who have no idea how much trouble they cause for this city and this region.

Move on, move on, move on already.

Some of us actually want to get a positive message out and build up this region.
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Lilpup
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Post Number: 1920
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Posted on Sunday, March 25, 2007 - 11:02 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

What if it were refashioned as something like a Unity Day used to focus on charity/peace/interrace/interf aith undertakings? Or some type of diversity event that emphasizes the exact opposite of the riots? Or do you object to Angels Night in the face of the bad years of Devil's Night, too?
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Exmotowner
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Post Number: 132
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Posted on Monday, March 26, 2007 - 8:45 am:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

Lilpup, I think thats a great idea! If your going to remember it, remember that it was a BAD thing and that it has passed but now its the time to move foward and "unite" to make a new face for detroit. But then on the other hand, maybe a new riot this year would be a good thing, then I could buy the fisher mansion for $40,000. LOL (Just kidding guys - dont clobber me).
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Irish_mafia
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Post Number: 825
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Posted on Monday, March 26, 2007 - 8:49 am:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

Angels Night is a specific event to stop insurance-driven arson. It would be nice if the city was eventually stable enough that it would not be required.

Are planning to stop imminent riots with this event?

No?

Then why not use that same effort for a Unity Day to focus on charity/peace/interrace/interf aith undertakings on Pere Gabriel Richard's birthday... thereby focusing the day on the positive history of this area and the wonderful educational resources available to those who live/move here?
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Jtw
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Posted on Monday, March 26, 2007 - 8:55 am:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

I wasn't even alive for those riots - in fact, I wouldn't even be born for another 15 years. But how can anything think that it will do anything other than further divide our region?

It obviously has to be acknowledged as an event (a significant one) in the past but conjuring up the terrible memories and images only reinforce and freshen the feelings that led to the riots in the first place.

and it's almost trolling, when you bring a topic up like this 4 months ahead of time.
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Southwestmap
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Post Number: 755
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Posted on Monday, March 26, 2007 - 9:43 am:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

I just can't think that attempting to "re-fashion" the idea of the riot into a unity day would be anything more than trying to put lipstick on a pig.

There is no way to cover up that bitter memory of anarchy and its after-shocks.

Forty years later we can clearly see what happened to the city - short and long-term, and it isn't pretty. And, as I said above, the opinion journals aren't going to let Detroit off the hook this summer. There is too much emerging scholarship that details what both Blacks and Whites lost (never to be regained) from a moment of emotional rebellion that fanned and fanned in the summer heat. If we had had rain the entire course of Detroit's history would have been very different! And if you don't believe me, just google up 1967 riots and rainfall.
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Lilpup
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Posted on Monday, March 26, 2007 - 11:19 am:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

Richard's birthday is in October. July 24th is the date recognized as Cadillac's landing - it would be better to have some type of positive event around then to help carry the positivity of the Freedom Festival through the worst days of summer.
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Southwestmap
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Post Number: 757
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Posted on Monday, March 26, 2007 - 11:41 am:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

JTW - what does that mean, "its almost trolling when you bring up a topic like this four months ahead of time."

This topic has been out for more than a year. There is a group that the local Salvation Army offices has been leading that has been planning a big anniversary concert for a year. Stevie Wonder was announced as a headliner. I have read that the group has some roadblocks (they couldn't book Ford Field) but I think that the idea is dying because there is so much antipathy to any sort of "happy that so much progress has been made" commemoration.

But, the media are talking about this - they prepare their big story calendars annually, not just the week before a big day. If this is indeed a story that the national media will cover, it would be good to have a local game plan to shape the stories, rather than, as usual, a lot of hand-wringing after the story hits the mainstream.
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Defendbrooklyn
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Post Number: 74
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Posted on Monday, March 26, 2007 - 12:03 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

"What Detroit needs to do is look at itself now, No "whitey" overlords, declining population, incompetent government and systems, employment flight, and no cogent plan to stem the decline into the abyss of irrelevance."

further...
"Instead of wasting time with words of sound and fury that mean nothing, get rid of the incompetence and incompetents in government, the tired ideas of both business and labor, stop blaming...

Are all the state of the city addresses ringing in your ears...

Very nice post river rat.
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Mattric43
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Post Number: 120
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Posted on Monday, March 26, 2007 - 1:06 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

Very nice posts River Rat and Irish Mafia!! I couldn't agree with you guys more!
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Irish_mafia
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Post Number: 826
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Posted on Monday, March 26, 2007 - 2:10 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

"Richard's birthday is in October. July 24th is the date recognized as Cadillac's landing - it would be better to have some type of positive event around then to help carry the positivity of the Freedom Festival through the worst days of summer."

______________________________ _________________

Lilpup, and I apologize for this:

I agree with you!

I will be down on the 24th to celebrate with you.

French wine for all!...no don't send me the bill.
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Charlottepaul
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Post Number: 717
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Posted on Monday, March 26, 2007 - 2:17 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

Not to necessarily be a Devil's advocate, but I think that the question can be rightfully asked, is Detroit better off than it was in 1967? It isn't a matter of commemorating anything, but rather a simple time to be observant. What the answer is, and even how you define the question may be very complicated in its answer. The importance however does lie in the answer; if it is 'no,' then what happened in '67 could again at any point.
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Exmotowner
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Post Number: 133
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Posted on Tuesday, March 27, 2007 - 1:49 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

Not to be a bring me down, but I've always expected it (riots) to happen again there, and I do believe 8 mile will be the front line. Tension is so high there! The next question is how to avert anything like that happening again. I think it deserves remembering, but definitely not celebrated.
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Irish_mafia
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Username: Irish_mafia

Post Number: 830
Registered: 10-2003
Posted on Tuesday, March 27, 2007 - 1:51 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

Thanks Mattric
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Beavis1981
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Username: Beavis1981

Post Number: 479
Registered: 08-2006
Posted on Tuesday, March 27, 2007 - 2:01 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

According to Irish_mafia,
Some of us actually want to get a positive message out and build up this region.

Please see any "detroit comeback" threads. That will show how positivity has helped.

There is new projects downtown and lofts everywhere. However, socially and econimically the city gets worse every year. Somehow this should be ignored but reparations are brought up out of left-field on 1/10 discussions. A hundred years of being polite to someones face but using racial slurs behind closed doors has obviosly not helped anything. So hold a memorial for those who died. Run "what happened today in 1967" stories. Or just put it next to the harleys and navigator and see if it goes away......
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Dds
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Username: Dds

Post Number: 182
Registered: 10-2006
Posted on Tuesday, March 27, 2007 - 2:08 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

9/11 will be commemorated forever. There are Civil War reenactments every year. There are remembrances to murders and car accidents all over the city with impromptu monuments. State plaques remember massacres... Tragedies need to be remembered, whether we like it or not.

Observances need to be made. The way to make such an observance is the touchy question.

Personally, I think there needs to be some sort of public remembrance.
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Irvine_laird
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Username: Irvine_laird

Post Number: 16
Registered: 02-2007
Posted on Tuesday, March 27, 2007 - 4:55 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

The 40th anniversary of the '67 event is less an occasion for an observance and more an opportunity for education. On the surface, Detroit prospered in the first half of the 20th century, but beneath the surface the causes of the 1967 conflict were taking root. The social dysfunction that went unchecked during Detroit's industrial rise eventually became too powerful for economic prosperity or social contracts to contain it. Economic prosperity, while generally a good thing, is no guarantee of SOCIAL prosperity. The greedy could get greedier while the hungry could get hungrier. So, it's dangerous to assume that commerce and real estate development in one part of the city is enough to make Detroit strong. In fact, it could weaken the city by polarizing the have's and have-not's--the very thing that induced open conflict in '67. We must learn our past or we will most certainly repeat it. Those who have the courage to look at the city's entire story--even the parts we would rather forget--and make changes in their own attitudes and behaviors will truly lead the next great evolution in the story of Detroit.
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Jt1
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Username: Jt1

Post Number: 8684
Registered: 10-2003
Posted on Tuesday, March 27, 2007 - 4:58 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

Great post. An important thing to realize, as you said was that the inequities were there and getting stronger even as the wealth of Detroit as a whole increased.

Some people chose to ignore that fact or lie to themselves about the ways and reasons it came to be.
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Middleageguy
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Username: Middleageguy

Post Number: 13
Registered: 01-2007
Posted on Tuesday, March 27, 2007 - 5:36 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

Agreed with Kathleen, Irish , R Rat.

It almost seems like some peoples' mentality is that the riot was supposed to change something, and they are waiting for that change to happen, or better put, to happen to them. The focus is on "do something for us". And the city has kept waiting for the Ren Cen, Ilitch, Federal $, Coleman and Kwame to come in and make the big difference.
Well, 40 years of that has not worked.
Mainly, I offer, because not enough people have realized that they also have to do their part to keep any momentum going. But most people are stuck in that "do something for us" mentality.

Analogy: You can spend a bunch of money to make an ideal garden plot, put in thousands of seeds, but if most of those seeds don't have the motivation to grow, the weeds take over, and the few seeds that tried and sprouted get shaded by the weeds and just give up.

And, in case you think I am being racist, you can see the same thing in eastern Kentucky, where most counties have essentially no black people in them.
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Beavis1981
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Username: Beavis1981

Post Number: 485
Registered: 08-2006
Posted on Tuesday, March 27, 2007 - 6:08 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

Seeds need motivation to grow? Last time I checked you just add water,nutrients, and sun. Maybe I should take away there car keys and ground them. That should motivate
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Michmeister
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Username: Michmeister

Post Number: 152
Registered: 10-2006
Posted on Tuesday, March 27, 2007 - 6:24 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

If the human being had ten eyes, eight should be looking forward to the future, one to the side at the present, and one to the rear to see the past. If any of the three get neglected, it spells big trouble for society. Does anybody follow me? The date should surely be observed but not to the point of the O.J. Simpson media circus. One day all of us should rise above our prejudices and mistrust and live to the tune of M.L. King, judging by the content of character and not the color of skin, or whatever basis we use for seeing others differently as we see ourselves. There are three ways out of this whirlpool of hate-1. Education 2. Education and this is the most important, 3. Education.
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Middleageguy
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Username: Middleageguy

Post Number: 16
Registered: 01-2007
Posted on Wednesday, March 28, 2007 - 10:50 am:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

Beavis, seeds are essentially plant fetuses.
They can't drive.
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Irish_mafia
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Username: Irish_mafia

Post Number: 834
Registered: 10-2003
Posted on Wednesday, March 28, 2007 - 11:10 am:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

a fertilized seed is a plant fetus
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Middleageguy
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Username: Middleageguy

Post Number: 20
Registered: 01-2007
Posted on Tuesday, April 03, 2007 - 12:59 am:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

Seeds are the result of fertilization.

A flower has ovaries, just like Mom.
Pollen is like sperm, and it travels down the style to the ovary and fertilizes the ovules in the ovary. The seed develops from that pollen / ovule union.
The ovary swells if seeds develop in it, and that swollen ovary is what you usually eat when you eat fruit. Of course, the seeds are inside.

Quiz next week.

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