O
n Saturday, I participated
in Detroit Partnership’s
annual
Detroit
Partnership Day for the
second year in a row.
This time, thankfully,
there
was
no
self-
congratulatory rhetoric
or
encouragement
to “fix Detroit.” We
were there to learn
about the community,
do what we could in
the few hours we had
and leave with the
understanding that we
hadn’t even made a dent
in the process. Residents thanked
us, but no one praised us for being
decent, as they had in years past.
Because of this, I was afforded the
clarity to connect with residents of
the city, and in doing so, I realized
the extent of their resilience in the
face of extreme adversity.
My
group
was
sent
to
Brightmoor, a four-square-mile
residential district on the city’s
northwest
side,
characterized
by abandoned homes, mounds of
garbage and a savannah’s worth
of overgrown grass. It’s an area
so presumably rough that people
who attempt to be clever and edgy
have nicknamed it “Blightmoor.”
A little online digging revealed
it was once a stable community
for working-class families to
purchase affordable housing, but it
took a hit after population decline
and institutional racism worked
their ways through Detroit like
tornadoes. Now it’s a ghost town, a
reminder of the city’s devastating
decline. At least, that’s what the
dominant narrative dictates — but
it’s far from the truth.
Our first stop in Brightmoor
was
a
park
with
wooden
benches wrapped around a
large tree in an amphitheater-
type fashion. A neighborhood
organizer spoke to us about the
residents’
accomplishments:
They built a greenhouse, they
grow their own food, they run
their own leadership academy
for the neighborhood’s ambitious
children. Following her speech,
we broke off into our groups and
received our assignments.
My group was paired with a
guy around his mid-30s named
Andrew, who pulled the 10 or so
of us to his house in a makeshift
flatbed trailer. When we arrived,
he explained our tasks (turn over
the dirt in the gardens, remove
the tree stump near the beehive,
etc.) and distributed some tools.
Soon, we were joined by his three
children, the eldest of whom was
only four, digging and chatting
excitedly alongside us.
I was bursting at the seams
with
questions,
but
Andrew
was
preoccupied
with
making maple syrup
over the fire, so I
waited
until
his
wife emerged from
the house to begin
my inquiry.
With a cautious
eye
on
her
daughters, his wife
told me she had
lived in Brightmoor
her whole life and that the
area had actually improved
significantly in recent years,
contrary
to
what
people
believe about it. Because city
services are scarce, residents
of
the
neighborhood
have
been
developing
innovative
alternatives.
For
example,
instead of waiting hours for
police to arrive to the scene of
a crime, they created a texting
system that sends a crime alert
to neighbors, who can organize
and chase away the perpetrator.
One of the biggest problems,
she
explained,
was
people
commuting from the suburbs
to dump trash into empty lots
around
the
neighborhood,
rather than paying to have it
dumped in a landfill. She told me
her husband had chased these
invaders out of the neighborhood
on numerous occasions and
even took their information
to the police, but nothing had
come of it. The city is slow to
demolish abandoned properties,
too, and residents often have to
personally board up the houses,
which seem to inevitably catch
fire and burn down.
Despite the local government’s
complete
disregard
for
the
area,
she
spoke
highly
of
the neighborhood’s sense of
solidarity and strength. She
described the various gardens
and farms — honey, vegetables
and even something called a
“pizza
farm,”
which
grows
tomatoes for an annual pizza
picnic — and gushed about the
park down the road, which had
new equipment, winding trails
and nearby Little Free Libraries.
Though she said she worried
about the local elementary school
closing because of population
decline, she seemed confident in
the abilities of both the charter
schools and the resident-run
educational programs to pick up
the slack.
At the end of the day, my
group waved goodbye to the
family, boarded the bus and
headed back to Ann Arbor
in the detached manner that
spontaneous
community
service dictates. But something
must have stuck, because I
haven’t
stopped
thinking
about the neighborhood since.
How can a community so
egregiously neglected by the
people designated to serve it
manage to essentially govern
itself? What will happen to
Brightmoor in the next five
years? Ten?
I didn’t tell this story to
push the age-old “bootstraps”
narrative that everyone can
be successful if they just work
hard enough. No one deserves
the kind of gross callousness
and disregard for human life
that permits heaps of trash to
be dumped on their property,
near their homes, around the
areas where their children
play. No one should have to wait
hours for police to respond to
their requests for help. No one
should have to grow their own
food out of necessity, because
they cannot afford or access a
marketplace.
No,
my
mixture
of
astonishment and anger comes
from watching people serve
themselves when they can no
longer rely on others to serve
them. Detroit may be bouncing
back, but it’s not because of
gentrification
in
Midtown
or expensive downtown and
riverfront developments — it’s
because its residents are sick
and tired of being treated like
shit by their own government,
and they’re doing something
about it. When all is said
and
done,
Detroit
doesn’t
need University of Michigan
students to save it; it’s saving
itself from the inside.
U
niversities
are,
by
definition,
places
of
learning and growth.
And while I’d say a
vast majority of my
learning happens in
the
classroom
and
through my personal
engagement
with
class material, there
are still some things
school can’t teach you.
I lean on some
outside
sources
for
personal
betterment, such as
online tutorials, interpersonal
relationships and séances with
spirits. And for everything else,
there’s MasterCard.
Just kidding, I actually rely
on eavesdropping.
I honestly don’t intend to
eavesdrop; sometimes I’ll even
actively avoid it with earbuds
and a 20-foot-wide personal
bubble.
However,
Americans
are notoriously noisy people,
and my first-floor apartment
gets a lot of foot traffic outside,
so sometimes I’m made privy to
pieces of knowledge I’m perhaps
not meant to be in on.
From
these
accidental
eavesdropping
sessions,
I’ve
learned
about
gossip
and
parties on campus, found out it’s
extremely common for people
to sing while walking alone
and heard bits of discussion on
topics ranging from grades to
relationships to why the phrase
“tight budget” doesn’t sound
quite right.
Occasionally,
though,
the
things I inadvertently snoop
on can be extremely thought-
provoking. Recently, I overheard
someone
worry
aloud
that
sending a thank-you note to their
former host family would be an
annoyance or a burden of some
sort since they probably receive
tons of that sort of thing.
The person’s companion (out
loud) and I (silently)
were
in
complete
agreement: Showing
gratitude is rarely a
waste or unwanted,
and that host family
would
probably
be thrilled to hear
something kind and
unprovoked from that
individual. Plus, the
person would benefit
in return from having
conveyed the thanks.
According to a TED Talk by
David Steindl-Rast, “It is not
happiness that makes us grateful.
It’s gratefulness that makes us
happy.” It may seem like happy
people have the most to be
grateful for and the people being
thanked would benefit most from
demonstrations
of
gratitude,
but the ones doing the thanking
may actually emotionally benefit
more than anyone.
Research
on
gratitude
also
demonstrates
that,
for
emotionally
mature
people,
showing thankfulness is not only
connected to greater happiness
but also increased optimism,
healthier
social
relationships
and better physical health than
those who are less forthcoming
with their thanks.
In
my
opinion,
being
cognizant of the ones who
helped you get to where you are
can be an exercise in humility as
well as in gratitude. While U.S.
culture often puts emphasis on
individuals in driving their own
fate — pulling yourself up by
your bootstraps and all that —
it’s important to recognize that
everything you’ve built has been
made possible by the people who
have supported you in the past.
So, knowing the wonderful
benefits of showing gratitude,
and knowing that I would
be
neither
successful
nor
graduating without some of the
wonderful people in my life, I
would like to do a quick bout of
thank-you’s before the proverbial
award ceremony music comes to
play me out.
I have to thank my parents for
financing me, feeding me, driving
me to school when I missed the
bus and a small handful of other
things. I appreciate it.
I’d like to thank my lovely
professors for not only putting
together amazing lesson plans
and teaching me so much,
but also for their noble but
ineffective efforts to get me to
speak in class. Sorry about that.
To my wonderful friends: I
have nothing snarky to say here,
I just really appreciate that you
put up with my nonsense.
I have to thank anyone who
read these articles and allowed
me to give them secondhand
embarrassment as I shared details
of my life they probably didn’t want
to know. Remember when I told
everyone that I accidentally slept
on some chocolate and it melted
in my hair and I went to class like
that anyway? Good times. Thanks
for putting up with being forced to
read that with your own two eyes.
I also have to thank the editors
at the Daily for parsing through
and publishing my improperly
edited, regurgitated words.
And, perhaps most importantly,
thank you to the people who
(incidentally)
allow
me
to
eavesdrop
and
inhabit
their
world, even for just a moment; I’ve
absorbed more of your secrets and
wisdom than you’ll ever know.
Opinion
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
4 — Friday, April 7, 2017
REBECCA LERNER
Managing Editor
420 Maynard St.
Ann Arbor, MI 48109
tothedaily@michigandaily.com
Edited and managed by students at the University of Michigan since 1890.
EMMA KINERY
Editor in Chief
ANNA POLUMBO-LEVY
and REBECCA TARNOPOL
Editorial Page Editors
Unsigned editorials reflect the official position of the Daily’s Editorial Board.
All other signed articles and illustrations represent solely the views of their authors.
EDITORIAL BOARD MEMBERS
A lesson from eavesdropping
SARAH LEESON | COLUMN
Making do in the D
LAUREN SCHANDEVEL | COLUMN
Lauren Schandevel can be reached
at schandla@umich.edu.
Sarah Leeson can be reached at
sleeson@umich.edu.
LAUREN
SCHANDEVEL
MICHELLE SHENG | CONTACT MICHELLE AT SHENGMI@UMICH.EDU
P
resident Donald Trump’s
second
month
in
environmental policy has
continued down a dangerous path.
Policies that prioritized clean
energy, environmental health and
sustainable
business
practices
during former President Barack
Obama’s administration are being
dismantled step by step.
On
March
24,
Trump
announced the granting of a
permit for construction of the
Keystone XL pipeline. Obama
had stopped this construction
in
2015,
acknowledging
the
pipeline would carry crude oil
from tar sands, which requires
a particularly energy-intensive
process to extract and ultimately
contributes to climate change.
A 2015 study conducted by the
Department of Energy found
this extraction process emits 18
percent more greenhouse gases
than traditional U.S. crude oil
when processed into gasoline.
Additionally,
the
Trump
administration’s promise of the
pipeline’s job creation is deceptive.
After the pipeline was projected
to be completed in 2019, it was
calculated that only 35 permanent
employees and 15 temporary
contractors
will
be
needed
to operate the pipeline. The
disturbing neglect of scientific
facts regarding climate change is
predicted to continue as Trump
has noted the pipeline will be
“the first of many infrastructure
projects” he plans to approve in an
effort to create more jobs.
The construction of the Dakota
Access Pipeline is also now well
underway. Though a federal judge
denied a motion brought by the
Standing Rock and Cheyenne
River Sioux tribes, who sought
to prevent the flow of oil through
DAPL, the $3.8 billion project
has continued to face significant
opposition. Chase Iron Eyes, the
lead counsel of the Lakota People’s
Law Project, acknowledged the
motion, saying that “once again,
the federal government and the
Army are treating the original
inhabitants of this land as though
we are less than human, as though
our lives and lands are something
to be ignored and discarded in the
never-ending quest for profit.”
While March 22 brought the
annual celebration of World
Water Day, there have already
been
numerous
dramatic
changes
in
water
policy
during the second month of
the Trump administration.
Trump has been planning a
97 percent cut to the EPA’s Great
Lakes
Restoration
Initiative
funding, which has been central
to over 3,000 projects tackling
issues like wetland restoration,
algae blooms in western Lake
Erie, invasive Asian carp in the
lakes and improving shoreline
habitats.
This
initiative
has
spent over $2.2 billion since
2010 on improving and restoring
the Great Lakes. The proposed
budget includes a 30 percent cut
to EPA funding for state-level
enforcement of the Clean Water
Act, Clean Air Act and other
federal environmental laws.
John Stine, a commissioner for
the Minnesota Pollution Control
Agency, says cuts to programs
like the Great Lakes restoration
project “would drive up the costs
of water treatment, which in turn
will be passed on to consumers.”
U.S. Rep. Dan Kildee (D–Mich.)
highlighted the flaw in Trump’s
attempt to save money and
generate jobs, explaining that the
Great Lakes sustain 1.5 million
jobs in the boating, fishing and
tourism industries, bringing in
billions of dollars each year. U.S.
Rep. Debbie Dingell (D–Mich.),
who represents Ann Arbor, added
“(the Great Lakes) are vital for
clean drinking water, jobs and
our economy. This shortsighted
attempt to zero out funding for the
GLRI is unacceptable.”
Also of importance to Michigan
residents, on March 17, three
years after Flint River water
started flowing into the city
and beginning the water crisis,
the
Environmental
Protection
Agency awarded $100 million
to the Michigan Department
of Environmental Quality in a
package signed off on by Obama
in 2016. The funds will go toward
making critical changes to Flint’s
crumbling water infrastructure,
specifically to contribute to the
city’s goal of replacing 6,000 pipes
by the end of 2017. Though this
funding is a critical first step in
Flint’s recovery process, it fails to
provide an immediate solution to
residents who do not have access
to safe drinking water.
While Flint has benefited, the
general pattern of budget cuts
has extended beyond the EPA,
as Trump announced his plan to
cut 18.3 percent of the National
Institutes
of
Health
budget,
accounting for a nearly $5.8 billion
reduction. This cut is premised
on reducing administrative costs.
However, over 80 percent of the
NIH’s current budget goes toward
funding
biomedical
research
projects, training programs and
science centers. In 2016 alone,
the NIH was able to award
832
research
project
grants.
Additionally, the NIH partnered
with the EPA to create five new
research
centers
focused
on
improving health in communities
that
face
health
disparities
brought about by pollution and
other
environmental
factors.
Funding to the NIH will be critical
to continuing this groundbreaking
research and supporting scientific
advancement.
Trump’s attempts to create jobs
by undermining environmental
regulations
continued
as
he
signed the “Energy Independence
Executive Order” on March 28.
The order launched a review of
Obama’s Clean Power Plan, a
policy proposed by the EPA in
2014 that puts a cap on the number
of greenhouse gases that can be
emitted from power plants. This
executive order is predicted to
have significant adverse effects
on both the environment and
the economy. A 2006 study by
Nicholas Brown, the former chief
economist at the World Bank,
detailed
that
human-caused
climate change could result in
the “equivalent to losing at least 5
percent of global GDP each year,
now and forever.” Moreover,
deregulating our existing climate
policies will compromise our
position and credibility as a global
leader in climate change issues.
After
another
tumultuous
month,
funding
for
vital
environmental
protection
programs
and
agencies
has
been threatened and cut, while
plans for projects that threaten
long-term environmental health
are underway. In light of these
changes, in a meeting with the
University’s chapter of College
Democrats, state Rep. Yousef
Rabhi (D–Mich.) and former state
Rep. Jeff Irwin highlighted that it
will be essential to actively remain
in contact with our local elected
officials and educate ourselves
about
these
environmental
issues.
This
community-level
involvement will be critical in the
months ahead as we continue the
fight to protect our planet and our
quality of life.
March’s egregious environmental policy
ENVIRODEMS | OP-ED
EnviroDems is the environmental
justice committee in College
Democrats at the University of
Michigan.
Carolyn Ayaub
Megan Burns
Samantha Goldstein
Caitlin Heenan
Jeremy Kaplan
Sarah Khan
Anurima Kumar
Ibrahim Ijaz
Max Lubell
Alexis Megdanoff
Madeline Nowicki
Anna Polumbo-Levy
Jason Rowland
Ali Safawi
Sarah Salman
Kevin Sweitzer
Rebecca Tarnopol
Stephanie Trierweiler
SARAH
LEESON
Detroit doesn’t
need University
of Michigan
students to save it;
it’s saving itself.