Liiving ƒor Change News, May 16-May 23



Jimmy and Grace
Our Mission is to nurture the transformational leadership capacities of individuals and organizations committed to creating productive, sustainable, ecologically responsible, and just communities. Through local, national and international networks of activists, artists and intellectuals, we foster new ways of living, thinking and being to face the challenges of the 21st century.
Living for Change News
May 16 - May 23

 

The Suburban Outreach Committee of Detroiters Resisting Emergency Management has organized a chalking/tagging/social media action for TODAY - Saturday, May 16:

It’s time to flood social media with images of our demands. All you need to do is get together with your friends to chalk key phrases in blue around your neighborhood. (WATER IS LIFE, TURN THE WATER ON, AFFORDABILITY NOW)

Share the images on Twitter, Tumblr, Facebook, etc with the hashtag “Water is Life,”
TODAY, SATURDAY, MAY 16TH. Don’t forget to tag your favorite elected official. Then join us at the GLWA meeting on May 18th at 11:00 to make sure our voices are heard.

Check out and share the attached flier! Let us know if you have any questions.


Wage Love

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Thinking for Ourselves
Council Resolves on Water
Shea Howell


The Detroit City Council has finally acknowledged the importance of a Water Affordability Plan. In a strong show of unanimous support last week the Council passed a resolution to take the first steps toward reassessing the water rate structure. The Council also resolved that the Mayor’s massive water shut offs be put on hold.

This is the first official recognition that the Mayor’s plan of using charity to offset water bills is unsustainable. It is recognition that we need a new approach.

That new approach was embraced by the City Council more than a decade ago, when the Council passed the Water Affordability Plan in 2005. This was a proactive plan, designed to keep the water flowing to all residents while providing the money needed to maintain and improve the system. At the core of the Water Affordability Plan is the idea that rates should be set by percentage of income, not use. The recommended government guideline is between 2% and 3% of household income. Many Detroiters are now paying more than 20% of their incomes for water.

This burden led to massive water shut offs and a plan cobbled together by the Mayor last summer. Its failure is evident as we are again facing up to 34,000 shut offs starting this month.

The Council’s action is critical in bring sanity to this inhuman situation. It is asking the Mayor to stop being reactive and to acknowledge that he needs to reassess his approach. We can provide water and fulfill our obligations as stewards of this precious necessity of life. That is the heart of a Water Affordability Plan.

This new thinking is especially needed as the Great Lakes Water Authority (GLWA) is currently being shaped by the Mayors reactive view of water assistance.  Under the leadership of the Mayor and his representative, Gary Brown, the Great Lakes Water Authority has been resisting every effort to discuss true affordability.

In the classic case of the fox in the hen house, the GLWA is depending on agencies like the United Way to develop “assistance plans.” In fact the newly emerging agency is heavily loaded with organizations that will benefit by being awarded hefty contracts to administer dollars to turn on those who are shut off.

As the city council resolution states the formation of this regional authority “presents a unique, virtually once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to quantify and evaluate the value (particularly in terms of quality of life in southeastern Michigan) of furnishing essential water services based upon a sustainable, proactive, affordability model.”

This opportunity will be squandered if the Mayor does not reevaluate his foolish attachment to “assistance.”

To help him begin new thinking, he should read the entire City Council resolution. He should get rid of Gary Brown as his representative to the GLWA. He should replace him with Deputy Mayor Carol O’Cleireacain. While at the Brookings Institute she wrote a report on the water system of the District of Columbia and said, “Clean water is non-negotiable and expensive. … the region needs a better financing system beyond [that city’s] narrow rate base.” This is the kind of regional, creative thinking we need to move forward.

This Monday community members and concerned citizens are will gather at the Spirit of Detroit at 9am to demand an end to water shut offs and a water affordability plan. Join us.


 
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Cap & Gown
Emma Fialka-Feldman


On Thursday, May 7, 2015, Micah wore a cap and gown, he crossed a stage when his name was called, received a pin and certification for his work toward earning a noncredit certificate in Disability Studies, his name was listed in the Syracuse University College Graduation program, his classmates, friends, trainer, college professors, and family cheered when he walked. In the official remarks opening this commencement, Dean of University College, Bea Gonzalez, confidently and enthusiastically acknowledged the significance of Syracuse's InclusiveU program (the program Micah completed) and the students' participation in this commencement. 
 
Micah returning to his seat with his friends and family. 
I have spent a lot of time this school year trying to unpack the social and academic elements of inclusion -- in a classroom where what I want, what I can do, and what may be "possible" conflict and meld together. It has been exhausting and rewarding. I have worked hard to figure out and think through what it takes to ensure that "all means all" -- from recess, friendships, counting, story problems, reading, telling stories, making mistakes, having consequences, and celebrating successes.

 As I sat at Micah's graduation, I couldn't help but wonder about some of my own students. How do all families know what is possible for their child? How do peers know what their classmates are capable of? How do my individual students learn to dream, build determination, and constantly advocate for what they need to show what they are capable of? 

 
 
Micah with me (his sister!). 
After Micah's graduation, I went to a house party where dozens and dozens of people flooded the home. I knew maybe a handful of people. This was Micah's world. This was Micah's community -- his friends, his professors, his students he had when he co-taught courses in the School of Education. These were people he cooked with, people he went to bars with, people who he had mock dates with, people he stayed with when he was worried about his heart surgery last winter, people who felt loved, supported, and respected by Micah. No pity. No "buddy." No charity. Simply friends and community.


Micah reminds me over and over again that this work -- this work of creating the beloved community -- must involve intentional and authentic inclusion. Micah is who he is because inclusion (and Micah!) is working at its very best. 


 
Micah at his graduation party, looking at his phone.
His inclusion has authentic age-appropriate experiences like wearing a cap and gown (he wasn't allow to wear when he attend Oakland University), like walking across the stage (some students with intellectual disabilities aren't allowed to walk across the stage for their high school graduations because they can't get the diploma until they age out of the system), like drinking alcohol to celebrate his accomplishment. These moments are not necessarily about an IEP Goal or about growing academic or job-related skills. These are moments that allow Micah to see himself as a valued and respected member of his community. These are moments that allow his community to see his full participation.

His inclusion has intentional experiences like attending an inclusive university program that facilitates academic and social interactions on campus, like creating circles of support since he was in elementary school so that when Micah moved from Michigan to New York he knew what he needed to feel supported without his parents nearby, like having parents that constantly, lovingly, and fiercely keep expectations and possibilities high so that phrases like "he's not capable of that" or "that's not within his IQ" doesn't limit him, like using technology so that he is learning what he wants to learn about both possibilities and injustices in the world. These are moments that allow Micah to travel interdependently in his community. These are moments that allow Micah to see that learning is truly a life long process. 

 
 
Micah with his parents who are smiling and laughing.
They both just received "Syracuse Dad" and "Syracuse Mom" shirts.

So as I continue to work at better understanding inclusion, now as a teacher and not just as a sibling to Micah, I hold Micah's story.

I hold on to the moments where my students need opportunities to grow academically as mathematicians, readers, scientists, writers, and artists. They need intentional academically rich experiences.

And equally, they need opportunities for authentic experiences. They need opportunities to wear their caps and gowns and cross the graduation stage. They need opportunities to "get in trouble," to learn how to annoy and not annoy their classmates, they need to learn how to stand on stage with their classmates and perform at the music concert, they need to ride a bike (however they do and whatever their "bike" looks like), they need to go to nurse when they fall and go to the nurse when they're bored in class, they need to eat school lunch and sneak in the lunch line to grab a second slice of pizza,  they need to share their writing in front of the class, and they need to have friends and community members who constantly help them and their family know what possibilities exists (and have yet to be imagined).

What happens if we don't make inclusion of people with intellectual disabilities intentional and authentic? We limit possibilities and potential for people and deny their (and our) humanness. That's a lot of power.

I don't know what the world will look like for my 1st & 2nd graders in 10 years when they are leaving high school. My hope, like my hope has always been for Micah, is for them to surround themselves with people who challenge them -- people who believe that a sense of safety, confidence, and growth comes from taking risks -- people who see that inclusion must both be intentional, authentic, and always, always on-going. 




SAVE THE DATE - Grace Lee Boggs 3
BC logo

Dear Friends of the Boggs Center,

It’s never too late to make a tax-deductible donation (click on the yellow 'donate' button on the right-side of the page) to the Boggs Center. Over the last year, we have been part of the new energy emerging in our country. With each passing day, it is clear that the world as we have know it is disappearing. It is up to all of us to create new of ways of living and being that affirm life and restore the earth.

We have much work to do in the year ahead. We know we have a profound responsibility to contribute to the emerging movements that hold the promise of creating a new country, based on values that reflect our deepest aspirations for justice and peace.

This year we plan to:
  • Deepen our organizing on the East Side, working toward models of new life and work.
  • Establish Peace Zones for Life in response to the militarization of police power.
  • Maintain and refurbish the Boggs Center, creating a new collaborative creative space.

We ask for your support by sending a check to

Boggs Center
3061 Field Street
Detroit, MI
48214


Or by donating online here.
(click on the yellow 'donate' button on the right-side of the page)

In Love and Struggle,

The Boggs Center
The James and Grace Lee Boggs Center to Nurture Community Leadership

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3061 Field Street
Detroit, Michigan 48214
US
 
 
 
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Boggs Center to Nurture Community Leadership
3061 Field Street
Detroit, Michigan 48214
US
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