Detroit cannot wait to see if and when a new person can get things done. The citizens of the beleaguered and battered, yet fiercely proud town need someone who has gotten things done for Detroit time and time again, and who possesses the thick portfolio to prove it. America needs Congresswoman Carolyn Cheeks Kilpatrick in Washington. And Detroit needs her now more than ever.
As the media and the congresswoman’s opponents gorge themselves on the frantic feeding frenzy that is the former Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick’s unfortunate circumstances, Detroit is being bombarded by adverse conditions on a variety of fronts — simultaneously. The Motor City is saddled with the worst unemployment and high school graduation rates in the country. Citizens are migrating out of the city by the thousands. The number of blue-collar jobs have shrunk tremendously. Crime is skyrocketing.
That’s why it is paramount to keep someone of Cheeks Kilpatrick’s pedigree and experience on Detroit’s team. She is the only representative from Michigan, and the third black woman, to serve on the all-powerful House Appropriations Committee and the first black woman in American history to sit on the Defense Subcommittee. Her work, her abilities and the respect she garners from colleagues is how she secured more than $1 billion to address the needs of families in the 13th Congressional District and throughout Michigan, funds that were used to create jobs, expand access to health care and education, stimulate community development, provide transportation options, improve infrastructure (e.g., water, lighting, streets), and strengthen families.
“They want the best for America, the state and the best person they believe can deliver,” Cheeks Kilpatrick told local reporters, explaining why the Detroit Council of Baptist Pastors & Vicinity, Grosse Pointe Democrats and several other groups are endorsing her campaign. Cheeks Kilpatrick has also secured powerful endorsements of respected Detroit Mayor Dave Bing as well as long-serving Congressman John Conyers.
These groups and individuals have inventoried her public service career in its totality — separate from any other issue — and know that she continues to fight for Detroit. A distinctive example is when Cheeks Kilpatrick fought to save thousands of union jobs when she successfully prevented another casino from being constructed near the Detroit Metro airport. She also preserved the jobs of 2,594 Michigan workers by securing $312 million in funding for the Stryker Medical Evacuation Vehicle.
Cheeks Kilpatrick helped 12 Michigan cities, including two in the 13th Congressional District — Detroit and Wyandotte, secure $220 million in American Recovery and Reinvestment Act funding to address the negative effects of abandonment and foreclosure in neighborhoods.
Cheeks Kilpatrick built her formidable legacy from her staunch community advocacy, particularly of issues that impact individuals right where they are. This was illustrated when she hosted “Believe … Hope … Dream: A Congressional Conversation about Breast Cancer” to emphasize the important role that education, early detection, and research play in helping diagnose and treat breast cancer. Along with breast cancer survivor Congresswoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz, D-Fla., who discussed her own battle with breast cancer, Cheeks Kilpatrick pledged to continue working to support efforts aimed at educating the community about breast cancer, improving the quality of life for breast cancer patients and their families, and finding a cure for the disease.
Cheeks Kilpatrick’s record of service and production dwarfs her opponents. But it is a most interesting concept that the congresswoman’s son, the immensely talented and troubled former mayor, would so adversely impact his mother’s image and allegedly impede her chances for re-election.
When reporters asked her if she believes her campaign is being unfairly tainted by the travails of the former mayor, Cheeks Kilpatrick told the Detroit News, “You know I’m his mom. So I get some of that, but I’m telling you, the love that I feel from so many more is overwhelming. And I’m trying to keep [focused] on my work. I do get that but I don’t let that stop me. I think some of those people I won’t get anyway.”
The Detroit media, bloodthirsty and virulently anti-Detroit in their routine coverage of the city for years, seems to think that Cheeks Kilpatrick should be replaced or step down because of her son’s indiscretions, that she’s somehow sullied and implicated in some of the problems. She can’t even broach the subject of the multiplicity of issues that wreck the Motor City because all the media wants to talk about is what the former mayor did and what is happening to him now.
And the congresswoman’s opponents — mainly John Broad, state Sen. Heneson Clarke and Rev. Glenn R. Plummer — are all too eager to pounce on her troubles. It’s apparent that her son is the ever-present flashpoint. They are ruthlessly using her son as political currency to try to curry endorsements, media coverage and to try to sway the electorate away from the very woman who has fought for them for more than 30 years on the local, state and federal levels.
Without her son’s name blaring from headlines with nauseating regularity, would Cheeks Kilpatrick even have any opponents? Would those who look to unseat her have a strong enough platform from which to propel their message to the electorate? Would they even have the political capital and intestinal fortitude to muster a race against her?
Yet, campaign coordinator Eddie McDonald stated succinctly: “They [voters] know the difference between her and the job she is doing and the unfortunate circumstances that her son finds himself in. People were smart enough to separate Congressman John Conyers from his wife [and] he had no opponents in his primary. People are smart.”
Besides, if we begin to discredit and denounce parents for their children’s waywardness, then there would be a legion of political icons we’d have to renounce. The examples are endless. We’d have to definitely disregard the legacy of the legendary Ronald Reagan, whose wild-child daughter posed for Playboy and engaged in all kinds of unsavory acts. We would have not re-elected George W. Bush to a second term because he couldn’t control his daughters, who exemplified a propensity for public intoxication. And let’s not even mention the Kennedys. Should we wipe out what that family meant to American politics in the 20th century because of the indiscretions of a few siblings and children? Should we remove the names of Reagan and JFK from the airports in Washington, D.C., and New York, respectively?
When are adults responsible for their own actions? Should we sandblast the name Robert F. Kennedy off the side of the U.S. Department of Justice because one son died of a drug overdose and another had sexual relations with an underaged babysitter? Does that even sound rational?
No, of course that’s not going to happen. That’s because the aforementioned individuals were measured by their own works, and not judged solely on what happened to those in their bloodline. Congresswoman Cheeks Kilpatrick should be held to the same standard. If judged by her credentials and résumé alone, she would easily win another term.
T
he lifelong Detroiter adores her city as much as anyone ever has and continues to work to protect it, restore and grow it like few others can. That’s why Congresswoman Carolyn Cheeks Kilpatrick deserves to remain in office. –terry shropshire
