When I was an undergrad at U of Detroit, Focus:HOPE enjoyed the status of local icon. A multi-purpose civil rights outpost, the organization provided a slew of food distribution, job training, and community education services. With a philosophy rooted in catholic social justice teaching, Focus:HOPE went beyond 'charity' and always emphasized 'justice.' Through the university, I went on several volunteer trips to Focus:HOPE's main campus on Oakman Boulevard, near the University, mostly packaging food and, once, helping out at their daycare facility. The flagship program was the manufacturing operation, a full-service (and profitable) production line that built auto parts for the Big Three, while providing industrial training, degree programs, and good jobs to community members. I took several social ethics and social justice courses at U of D with the late Fr. Art McGovern, who had a close relationship with Focus:HOPE and frequently foregrounded and illustrated theoretical issues (historical praxis, consumerism, underemployment) by talking about Focus:HOPE's programs.
With sadness, I heard on the local NPR station this a.m. that, due to Michigan's struggling auto industry, Focus:HOPE will stop making auto parts and begin doing r&d work for the pentagon. The Detroit Free Press confirms, reporting that the organization "will end a 12-year venture making auto parts and shift into research and development work for the U.S. Department of Defense." I can't help but see this shift as a betrayal of the group's long-standing committment to justice issues. Contracting with a D.O.D. engaged in pre-emptive military action--an explicit violation of just-war theory--and a D.O.D. contemplating the legitimacy of torture. The Freep goes on to say that Focus:HOPE COO Keith "Cooley declined to discuss much of the defense-related work except to say that it does not involve weapons systems, but rather various types of manufacturing procedures and products for equipment needed by the government." I admire Focus:HOPE very much and this quote from Cooley leads me to believe that the group is trying to keep its hands clean. I desperately want to give them the benefit of the doubt until more discussion emerges.
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Recently re-elected Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick has never been very popular with city employees, many of whom have been threatened with layoff since his tenure began. In addition to the alarming news about Focus:HOPE, this morning's papers also included reports that Mayor Kilpatrick will fire 414 city workers as part of his latest too-little-too-late plan to lessen the city's massive deficit. That plan also involves closing the Detroit Historical Museum and various other cultural and recreational centers around town. The kicker is that this plan won't even begin to address the deficit. Four-hundred-plus more unemployed Detroiters in exchange for a drop-in-the-bucket.
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Finally, as Jeff reports--and rightly laments--WDET has abandoned its weekday free-form music programming. You could hear indie rock alongside jazz alongside Detroit's storied local garage rock bands alongside electronic alongside classic blues. The station has mostly replaced that daytime programming with NPR shows that most Metro Detroiters can already hear on the station out of Ann Arbor. What a rip-off. Although it's good to see that Democracy Now--which interested lefties could already listen to for free on the web--has a place in the new line-up. Looks like the web really is the only place to hear free-form radio now. Thank goodness for woxy.com and wfmu.org.
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To get off the negative tip for a moment, cool story in today's Metro Times about Detroit bloggers. Even inspired me to (finally) update my links.
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