The Beginning of the End

Written by Karen D. Swim

Today marks the beginning of the end of Mayor Kilpatrick’s reign in the city of Detroit. A plea deal was reached today and the Mayor proffered his resignation, effective September 18, 2008. As many Michiganders watched or listened to the live court proceedings, we did so with a mixture of relief and sadness.

In these troubling economic times, Michigan has been further embattled by the Mayor’s legal struggles. Economic revitalization came to a crashing halt in the past several months. Today we saw the retirement of the Chief of Police, and the end to the Kilpatrick reign. Now we must pull together to move Detroit forward.

However, before we can move forward we must create a strong foundation on which we can build. It is likely that we will see more resignations from the Kilpatrick administration. We also have the ongoing Synagro scandal and the still unsolved Tamara Green murder. All of these issues must be swiftly dealt with before we can truly move forward.

We must heal our fractured communities and mend the rifts that have polarized the region. We must cross the lines of disagreement and link arms as citizens of this state. We must diversify our economic base and get our citizens back to work. Let us take our collective energies and work together for change that benefits us all.

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