I hope to meet Alexis Goggins some day. She is a hero to me. I’ve always thought I could take a bullet for family members and a couple of close friends, but always wonder what I’d actually do when the metal starts to fly. How about you?
Alexis didn’t hesitate to dive in front of multiple bullets aimed at her mom. They were fired from the gun of an assailant, Calvin Tillie, who sat at close range, a seat away from her mother, in fact, as they sat inside an SUV parked at a west side Detroit gas station. The man – a term I use loosely – was an angry and abusive friend of the mother, who was bent on teaching her a lesson. One Tillie hoped would result in the loss of her life. But Alexis would have none of that.
Sensing imminent danger, Alexis threw her body over her mom’s, just before the shots rang out – bang, bang, bang, bang, bang. Then the gunman fled. Alexis lay seriously wounded.
This week Wayne County Prosecutor Kym Worthy presented the first Alexis Goggins Everyday Hero Award, an honor that will, hopefully, be presented each year to a brave Wayne County resident. Alexis, 8, received an engraved glass plaque from Worthy.
Alexis' heroism has to be attributed, in part at least, to youth and naivete. But it's hugely commendable, especially in light of what some young people in our city did this week.
Detroit police arrested three suspects ages 15 to 18 some five hours after they were allegedly involved in the fatal shooting of 16-year-old Christopher Walker. The victim was fatally shot in the head and chest a block from Henry Ford High School, right after classes let out. Initial news reports indicate the son of a Detroit police lieutenant is a prime suspect no less. He and the other suspects are expected to be arraigned in 36th District Court this weekend.
Three other teens, ages 15 to 16, were shot and injured, in the senseless act of violence. Yet again, young people injured, dreams deferred and lives derailed for nothing that matters -- really, at the end of the day.
Tillie, was sentenced last month to to 25 years to 60 in prison, for shooting Alexis multiple times at point-blank range. The attack resulted in her losing an eye and having to endure a number of surgeries.
One young person saves a life while other youths take the life of a teen. I'm behind the hero. I hope that both are lessons that parents and young people learn from.
Friday, October 17, 2008
Thursday, October 2, 2008
Can't keep ignoring poverty
I have heard Detroit City Council President Monica Conyers called a lot of things since she emerged on the political landscape three years ago. However, "right," has seldom been one of them.
This week, Conyers called for the leadership in Washington, D.C., to make sure that the economic bailout they were working on include relief for poor and struggling middle class people. The statement is undoubtedly the most cogent, substantial plea she has made in her time on the council, and it was important that she made it.
Being the wife of U.S. Congressman John Conyers, strategically it made since to connect something he and other Capital Hill Democrats pushed for to the local level. More importantly, vocalizing her position openly makes since because most of Detroit falls into either the poor or middle class camps. During a presidential race in which Michigan is a prized state and Sens. Barack Obama and John McCain have been making visits here weekly, it's good that the issue is on their radar. Let's hope it is, anyway.
It said, "Detroit, the nation's poorest big city, is the poster place for a central city in a free fall, having lost half its population over the last 50 years, with no end in sight. Motown's economic losses have exceeded even those of its population. From 1970-2000, the city shed more than half its jobs.
The decline of cities like Detroit has undermined regional economies that support states and, collectively, the nation. Cities and their regions need a new set of federal policies and investments.
Healthy central cities attract and keep the young talent that drives the new knowledge-based economy. Members of the so-called creative class seek dense, diverse and walkable neighborhoods with access to mass transit. In other words, they want to live in cities that work -- and the lack of such places in Michigan has figured mightily in the exodus of young people from this state.
After decades of neglect, the federal government must become a more aggressive partner in the economic redevelopment of cities, as called for by the International Economic Development Council. In that regard, presidential candidate Barack Obama's plan for a White House office of urban policy is encouraging. "
Let's hope, as the candidates jump on the bailout the middle class bandwagon, that they make a strong move to do something in Detroit. If Obama is elected, I'd like to see the Conyers, both at the local and federal levels, do they part to make sure Detroit gets its slice of the pie. Our profile on the radar will only get larger between now and next January.
This week, Conyers called for the leadership in Washington, D.C., to make sure that the economic bailout they were working on include relief for poor and struggling middle class people. The statement is undoubtedly the most cogent, substantial plea she has made in her time on the council, and it was important that she made it.
Being the wife of U.S. Congressman John Conyers, strategically it made since to connect something he and other Capital Hill Democrats pushed for to the local level. More importantly, vocalizing her position openly makes since because most of Detroit falls into either the poor or middle class camps. During a presidential race in which Michigan is a prized state and Sens. Barack Obama and John McCain have been making visits here weekly, it's good that the issue is on their radar. Let's hope it is, anyway.
Now that McCain has scaled back operations in Michigan let's hope Obama picks up on Conyers' plea and does something to attack poverty on the home front -- on our home front.
The Freep ran a piece last week on poverty that bolsters her contention that something needs to be done to address poverty here.
It said, "Detroit, the nation's poorest big city, is the poster place for a central city in a free fall, having lost half its population over the last 50 years, with no end in sight. Motown's economic losses have exceeded even those of its population. From 1970-2000, the city shed more than half its jobs.
The decline of cities like Detroit has undermined regional economies that support states and, collectively, the nation. Cities and their regions need a new set of federal policies and investments.
Healthy central cities attract and keep the young talent that drives the new knowledge-based economy. Members of the so-called creative class seek dense, diverse and walkable neighborhoods with access to mass transit. In other words, they want to live in cities that work -- and the lack of such places in Michigan has figured mightily in the exodus of young people from this state.
After decades of neglect, the federal government must become a more aggressive partner in the economic redevelopment of cities, as called for by the International Economic Development Council. In that regard, presidential candidate Barack Obama's plan for a White House office of urban policy is encouraging. "
Let's hope, as the candidates jump on the bailout the middle class bandwagon, that they make a strong move to do something in Detroit. If Obama is elected, I'd like to see the Conyers, both at the local and federal levels, do they part to make sure Detroit gets its slice of the pie. Our profile on the radar will only get larger between now and next January.
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