POLITICS: Cities’ problem isn’t federal abandonment
Urban Journal’s “What I Saw in Detroit” overlooks the fact that the federal government, through Johnson’s Model Cites Program, invested $450 million dollars to revitalize a 9-square mile section of the city (equivalent to $3.2 billion dollars in 2011), and in the past 34 months the federal government has awarded $1.015 billion more to be spent on projects in the city of Detroit.
That’s hardly a nation deciding that cities no longer matter. The building block of society is a functional family, and government programs that keep paying people to have kids will never help to create that functional family.
Politicians, in the quest for votes, have done something that white plantation owners in the South were unable to do: they have destroyed the black family. Detroit has been doomed by the politicians. That said, Detroit Mayor David Bing is a very courageous individual, and I wish him well.
RENNY BOWERS, GREECE
EDUCATION: Blame the parents, not the teachers
Regarding the graduation rate in city schools: It does not take a village or, in this case a city, to raise a child. People can politicize all they want as to why the graduation rates are less than 50 percent. It’s not the teachers. It’s not for lack of books or programs. It’s not about poverty. What it is about is the parents.
The parents are 100 percent responsible for what their children do or do not do. I say hold the parents’ feet to the fire. Education is not all about buildings and teachers. If the parents cared one bit, they would make sure they know where their kids are. If they need to be in school, they should make damn sure they are. Period.
Don’t be so quick to blame everything and everyone else for their shortcomings as parents.
DAVID C. LOMBARD, WEBSTER
POLITICS: Be proud, Democrats!
I must speak out about elected Democrats who, when asked to comment on the Supreme Court’s ruling on the Affordable Care Act, come out with chicken-liver responses: “Oh, it’s an imperfect law. Oh, we need to improve on it,” and other weak replies. I say, Don’t be a Wuss; be a proud Democrat.
In New York and many other states, some elected officials will not attend our National Democratic Convention, because they are afraid of how Republicans will paint them for doing so. As a grassroots organizer since 2007, and a 2008 and 2012 delegate for President Obama, my head wants to explode. Their main excuse? They want to spend more time with their constituents!
What do they do on the other 51 weeks of the year? What about when they go on vacation? What about when a family or personal tragedy strikes? Or is the old adage true that “we only see politicians when they want our vote?” I say, Don’t be a Wuss; be a proud Democrat.
The Republicans and Tea Party are united – maybe not to elect Mitt Romney but to bring down President Obama. The Republicans and the Tea Party want to dismantle Social Security and Medicare. Please stand with President Obama and the National Democratic Party at our convention. Don’t let the Republicans and the Tea Party steal the message. The Supreme Court ruled that the ACA is constitutional. We won.
Don’t be a Wuss; be a proud Democrat. Explain to your constituents English how beneficial the ACA is to all Americans. Don’t run away from it. The president doesn’t.
KEN PRESTON, IRONDEQUOIT
Preston is a member of Rochester for Obama 2012.
City Newspaper 
“be a proud Democrat. Explain to your constituents how beneficial the ACA is to all Americans. Don’t run away from it. The president doesn’t.”
Tough to be a proud Democrat with a pseudo-liberal like The One in the White House. I don’t want to run a aware from Obamacare… just from Obama.
Make that…”run away from”. Obviously I failed typing class in high school MANY years ago.
This is all too typical of Democrats. Fall in line and blindly support. That’s the problem and that’s the reason I am no longer a Democrat.
“It’s an imperfect law…we need to improve on it” are not weak responses. They are honest responses. Obama’s healthcare law is, at best, weak and it gives me nothing but hope when I hear elected representatives state this. It gives me hope that someone will want to continue to improve healthcare in American instead of being happy simply because their is a law.
Adding gay marriage to the mix, Obama graces the cover of locally distributed Pride 2012 magazines and some in the gay press, if there is such a thing, are falling over themselves to praise the President for paying lip service to gay marriage. But it is just that, lip service. The President doesn’t intend to do anything other than announce his support. What I really don’t understand is how an African American could admit to “wrestling” with the idea of equal rights.
Jill Stein, Presidential candidate for the Green Party, and the Green Party itself has never wrestled with equal rights or the issue of gay marriage. They have always stood up for it. So Obama’s words are again, weak.
Tom – Please refresh my memory. At what point did the GOP become a political party of renown for its diversity? When did the members cease being political lemmings and neuters and start acting like thinking individuals with minds and ideas of their own? On what Golden Day did they stop falling into line every time their leadership snapped their fingers?
And just when did Will Rogers’ statement (“I’m not a member of any organized political party. I’m a Democrat.”) cease being an accurate description of that organization?
Good luck with The GOP Tom.
It was a lawsuit brought by the Log Cabin Republicans that was far more instrumental in ending Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell than anything Obama ever did. Also, please fill me in on Obama’s time table for universal gay marriage/equal rights protections nationwide….oh, that’s right, he isn’t doing anything to actually move along the progress of gay marriage. He supports it in words only.
I’m not sure I even understand the references to the GOP. I don’t support the GOP. I am a liberal progressive who supports Green Party candidates. I also support the truth.
Falling in line and blindly repeating the Dem talking points is the wimpy thing to do. Speaking one’s own opinion, in the presence of the party takes courage. It seems after nearly 4 years of Obama, the truth makes victory more difficult so the answer to name call and label some people “wuss”. Good luck with that.
Would someone chime in on Obama and the Trans Pacific Partnership? After promising to change direction from what Bush started, Obama now appears to be finishing what Bush started. That’s very GOP of Obama.
It’s official. Today in Baltimore, Green Party nominated Dr. Jill Stein for President….the only candidate who dares to be against hydrofracking.
http://www.c-span.org/Events/Green-Party-Nominates-Presidential-Candidate/10737432256/