Update:  The program I mention toward the end of this story was called “The Win Machine” and it was delayed for use but eventually went up and was successfully used by 2500 people, a significant number.  Also, and this did deserve a mention earlier today, but the miabsetee.com app/site was VERY successful and helped both many Democrats and Republicans register […]

The last time I reached out to you I was just a few weeks into my tenure here at Eclectablog and since then many words have left my fingers on their way to you. Some of you have been incredibly supportive of my work and words, and for that I am grateful. Yet some of you have been more critical, […]

Ray Holman is the Legislative Liaison for UAW Local 6000 and, for those of you not familiar with this Local, they represent over 22,000 state of Michigan workers that cut a wide path. Their membership, according to their website, “represents workers in every Department in State of Michigan government. We are the nurses, teachers, doctors, probation officers, social workers and […]

Today marks the celebration and remembrance of the life and journey of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. It took decades of struggle to set aside a day, and then another lengthy campaign to memorialize Dr. King in Washington, D.C., to honor someone this critical and authentically important. Given his great vision and what he did for the Civil Rights movement […]

It’s mid-morning on Monday, December 29, 2014. The air is crisp and clear and the light is shining through a slight morning frost/haze as the sun will surely burn it off and present the day. I’m in Downtown Detroit, just off I-75 on East Larned a block behind Jefferson. It’s 26 degrees and the almost empty field in front of […]

A few days ago I posted an article on my Facebook page about a speech Catholic Pope Francis gave, a speech the Washington Post described as “roughly the equivalent of a CEO sending his or her top executives off to Christmas vacation with a cleverly-worded list of everything they do wrong at the company.” The speech makes it clear that […]

Today is December 15, 2014 and that, in itself might mean many things to you. However, for political observers, pundits, analyzers, etc., today marks the final days of the Michigan Legislative agenda for 2014 and will also usher in, in a few very short weeks, a new House and Senate. This is the last week of what is known as […]

This past week I have been mired in the aftermath of the Board of Regents meeting at Eastern Michigan University, where a politically appointed and partisan Board of Regents ignored the will of those in attendance, the thousands who signed a petition, mountains of evidence that prove that Educational Achievement Authority (EAA) is failing students in Detroit as well as […]

The table was set, the supporters were there and prepared, and the Eastern Michigan University Board of Regents in Ypsilanti were set to act on a resolution to end their contractual relationship with the increasingly controversial and toxic Educational Achievement Authority (EAA). Though it currently involves only a dozen Detroit schools now, Republicans want to take this state takeover district […]

Public Education is a partnership and has been for many decades now. That partnership includes our local communities, the school board, our cities, the state, and the federal government, to simplify this part of my message. For many years Public Education was working well. It educated us all, kept to constitutional promises, improved over time. It was a natural or […]

Like many of you, Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday of the year. Being a literal person, Thanksgiving is a time and an opportunity to give thanks for the many things in our lives that we are truly thankful for and blessed with. The people, the opportunities, the occasions, the events, the connections, and sometimes just being alive. Oh sure, we […]