achieve a successful outcome of the Governor’s proffered justifications.
For this reason, we hope to demonstrate the human cost and undue hardship outweigh any potential fiscal
benefits. Imagine a parent being called to an emergency at school to find a child abandoned in a room so
dark as to need a flashlight. Imagine a parent’s surprise to hear a child explain that he and his classmates
were forced off DPS campus to find food for lunch. Imagine a prized collection of African American books
at a library thrown in the garbage without afterthought. Imagine a city where water service is being
disconnected for 29,000 families, but leadership allows thousands upon thousands of gallons to spill freely
into the basements of abandoned property, including schools. Imagine the horror of headless and burned
bodies found inside of schools left open. We will tell you about schools so far apart that a six year old must
ride a city bus. We will tell you about the impact of school closures, and the large and small ways that
Governor Snyder, through his Emergency Manager has robbed a community of its culture and dignity.
The State’s actions have insulted the dignity of the community and created a widespread perception of fear
and retaliation. In every issue we present, there are alternatives; there is no justification for the pattern of
discrimination and retaliation which has resulted in trauma and damage inflicted on our community.
We want to know whether the Governor’s agents considered more ethical, more humane or
safer methods of achieving the goal. For instance, is the best idea to send un-chaperoned
students onto an unfamiliar street to find food from restaurants, regardless of whether those
children have money to buy food or know their way around?
In 1981, Mayor Coleman Young used eminent domain to seize portions of Poletown, a working class Polish
neighborhood in Detroit, to build the General Motors Detroit Hamtramck Assembly Plant. More than four
thousand residents, as well as businesses and churches were relocated. Some displaced residents sued. The
Michigan Supreme Court ruled economic development was a legitimate use of eminent domain. However,
Father Joseph Karasiewicz, the priest of Immaculate Conception Roman Catholic Church, defied the
Cardinal and refused to leave voluntarily. A 29-day sit-in in the basement of the church ended when police
forcibly evicted protesters from the church. Many descendants of Poletown grew up feeling that Mayor
Young discriminated against a white working class community which supported his political opponents and
destroyed their heritage. Certainly, the Polish community contributed to and is an important part of
Detroit’s history and culture. Today, the General Motors Detroit Hamtramck Assembly Plant employs 1600
people. Although there was an economic benefit, something was lost. When Josephine Jabukowski was
interviewed four years later from the comfort of a new home in Shelby Township, where she was relocated
she expressed people’s amazement that she fought to stay in Detroit. “It’s because our roots were there. My
church was there, and we were like one big family in our parish. The Motor City has long been a tough
working class community and we roll with the punches.
There was bitterness, an impossibility of forgiving Mayor Young, and a part of so many hearts missing from
the seizure of part of just one historic neighborhood.
Therefore, we cannot express the pain of living through the destruction of so many neighborhoods from one
side of the city to the other by Governor Snyder. His rampant closure of schools and seizure of schools is
42