Why Detroit Cannot Stand...

As I write this I have to really be prayerful. It is my desire to be as open and honest as possible. Please know that these words are an outpouring from my heart…My journey as a young politician and community activist started only a few years ago, although it seems like a lifetime. I was going through a very painful divorce from my children’s father and high school sweetheart. It was a very confusing time in my life. I had been a house wife, was uneducated and did not have a strong support system at that time. I thank God for the mentors and friends that He sent to help guide me on my journey. As lost as I was, young, naïve and inexperienced in most things, my heart was in the right place. My heart bled for the tragedies I saw and heard about in my neighborhood continuously, including the tragic death of my cousin Mannie.

I knew I wanted to do something, be a part of the movement. I found my footing in places like the Detroit Election Commission, Detroit Downtown Inc., Detroit Parent Network, NAACP, Young Dems and in people like Derek Blackmon, Brenda Jenkins, Edward Foxworth, Ken Harris, Raphael Johnson, Akindele Akinyemi, James Ribbron, Glenn Plummer, Malik Yakini , James Tate, Gloria Williams, Jackie L. Currie, Lynda White-Hodges, Barry Hubbard, Monique Lancaster, Sam Doyle, Shika Hamilton, and Weusi Olusola. There are so many more people and organizations that I could name, those are just a few that really took the time to nurture my dreams, my ventures, or made a great impact on who I am now as a young leader, as well as guided me when I was going in the wrong direction. Good or Bad they opened my eyes to so many things. If you see your brother or sister going down the wrong path, as we all do at times, or are just discouraged, I hope you do what so many of my mentors and friends do for me, give them sound direction.

What I found is in the “real world” most people will cut you before they help you. They will smile in your face after having stuck daggers in your back. I don’t know if it’s more painful when I’ve had people do it to me or when I know they are doing it to one another. I have been lied on and lied to more times than I can count. Yes, even by leadership.  Most of the time I don’t even let people know, I don’t try to hurt them back, I just keep on moving. I let people believe the lies because I don’t have time for foolishness or pettiness. I know what and who I am, most importantly I know who’s I am.

We are all working together to forge a better, safer more prosperous Detroit. Everyone has their own reasons. But as long as we cannot trust one another as leadership, support one another, as long as we stab one another in the back, talk about one another behind the back, blacklist or blackball one another, set one another up to take a fall and are just flat out disrespectful to one another, then we are not saving anybody. We are the ones who need to be saved. Those things say a whole lot about our morals and values. Everyone has their reasons for that behavior as well, whether it’s someone rubbed you the wrong way, jealousy or the continuation of the crabs in a barrel mentality. “I don’t want you to have anything, because I don’t want you to have more than me.” I believe that advancement and increase comes from God, not man. Man may be the instrument, but he is not the source.

How does all of this tie into the fall of a city? A city, a nation, a home is only as strong as the head. If the head of the household is not together, the household is in disarray. The leaders of a city, is its collective head. If those leaders, young and old are so caught up in “playing the game” and getting ahead, instead of creating solutions; being an island unto himself or herself instead of realizing you have to work with others who don’t look like you or act like you or think like you to actually be a community; disagree with someone without feeling the need to destroy them; then the community will continue to shrink and fall. If that happens, you will have no one to follow you anyway!

This has been on my mind for a long time and I just needed to share this and I hope that it becomes a benefit to someone. We are Detroit! We need one another and our hearts need to be right! Only then can we have a stronger Detroit!

Rom 14:19
19 Let us therefore follow after the things which make for peace, and things wherewith one may edify another. (KJV)

Want to Know How to Have Your Student Loans Forgiven?

On September 27, 2007, President Bush signed the College Cost Reduction and Access Act of 2007 (“CCRAA”) into law. In addition to other amendments to the Higher Education Act of 1965, the CCRAA created two new federal programs: a new Public Service Loan Forgiveness program and a new Income-Based Repayment plan (IBR) for the repayment of federal loans.


The Public Service Loan Forgiveness Program offers forgiveness for outstanding Federal Direct loans for those individuals who make 120 qualifying payments after October 1, 2007, while working full-time in a “public service job” as defined in the Act. The new Income-Based Repayment plan helps to make repaying education loans more affordable for low-income borrowers, such as an AmeriCorps member living on a stipend. IBR will become available in July, 2009.


Eligibility
The public service loan forgiveness program has several restrictions:

• Term: The forgiveness occurs after 120 monthly payments made on or after October 1, 2007 on an eligible Federal Direct Loan. Periods of deferment and forbearance are not counted toward the 120 payments. Payments made before October 1, 2007 do not count. Likewise, only payments on a Federal Direct Loan are counted.
• What is forgiven? The remaining interest and principal are forgiven.
• Employment: The borrower must be employed full-time in a public service job for each of the 120 monthly payments. Public service jobs include, among other positions, emergency management, government (excluding time served as a member of Congress), military service, public safety and law enforcement (police and fire), public health (including nurses, nurse practitioners, nurses in a clinical setting, and full-time professionals engaged in health care practitioner occupations and health care support occupations), public education, early childhood education (including licensed or regulated childcare, Head Start, and State-funded prekindergarten), social work in a public child or family service agency, public services for individuals with disabilities or the elderly, public interest legal services (including prosecutors, public defenders and legal advocacy on behalf of low-income communities at a nonprofit organization), public librarians, school librarians and other school-based services, and employees of tax exempt 501(c)(3) organizations. Full-time faculty at tribal colleges and universities, as well as faculty teaching in high-need subject areas and shortage areas (including nurse faculty, foreign language faculty, and part-time faculty at community colleges), also qualify.
• Eligible Loans: Eligible loans include Federal Direct Stafford Loans (Subsidized and Unsubsidized), Federal Direct PLUS Loans, and Federal Direct Consolidation Loans. Borrowers in the Direct Loan program do not need to consolidate in order to qualify for loan forgiveness. Borrowers in the FFEL program will need to consolidate into Direct Loans.(Beginning on July 1, 2008, FFEL borrowers may obtain a Federal Direct Consolidation Loan in order to qualify for public service loan forgiveness even if they had previously consolidated in the FFEL program. Such borrowers will be restricted to the income-based repayment, income-contingent repayment and standard repayment plans. Before July 1, 2008, FFEL borrowers who have not yet consolidated may obtain a Federal Direct Consolidation Loan in order to obtain income contingent repayment by stating that they are unable to obtain income sensitive repayment terms acceptable to the borrower. Before July 1, 2008, FFEL borrowers who have already consolidated in the FFEL program are only able to obtain a Federal Direct Consolidation Loan with income-contingent repayment terms if their loans have been selected by a guarantee agency for default aversion. Note that borrowers who took advantage of the early repayment status loophole have already consolidated their loans and so are subject to the more stringent requirements for a subsequent consolidation into the Direct Loan program.)
  Although Perkins Loans are not eligible for public service loan forgiveness, if they are included in a Federal Direct Consolidation Loan the entire consolidation loan, including the Perkins Loans, is eligible for public service loan forgiveness. One may use income-based repayment and income-contingent repayment on such a consolidation loan.
  Perkins loan borrowers will need to consider the tradeoffs of including the Perkins loans in a federal direct consolidation loan. When Perkins loans are consolidated, they lose several favorable benefits, such as subsidized interest, a 9 month grace period, and a generous loan forgiveness program.
  Although Parent PLUS loans are nominally eligible for forgiveness, since the definition of Eligible Federal Direct Loan in section 455(m)(3)(A) of the Higher Education Act does not preclude Parent PLUS, such loans are not eligible for income-based repayment (section 493C(a)(1)) or income-contingent repayment (section 455(d)(1)(D)), so there will be no financial benefit to seeking forgiveness for such loans. However, if a Parent PLUS loan is included in a Federal Direct Consolidation Loan, it will be eligible for income-contingent repayment (but not income-based repayment), making it possible to obtain forgiveness. (However, income contingent repayment is not available for Federal Direct Consolidation Loans that include PLUS loans for borrowers who entered repayment before July 1, 2006, per 34 CFR 685.208(a)(1)(ii). Income contingent repayment is available for Federal Direct Consolidation Loans that include PLUS loans for borrowers who entered repayment on or after July 1, 2006, per 34 CFR 685.208(a)(2)(iii).)
  Grad PLUS loans are eligible for forgiveness. However, the language in section 455(d)(1)(D) of the Higher Education Act of 1965 precludes the use of income-contingent repayment for PLUS loans. This is fixed by section 493C(b)(3), which amends the exclusion to apply to just Parent PLUS loans. But that amendment is effective July 1, 2009. So until July 1, 2009, income-contingent repayment cannot be used for Grad PLUS loans. On or after July 1, 2009, one can use income-contingent repayment for Grad PLUS loans. (Income-based repayment also becomes available for all direct loans except Parent PLUS and Perkins Loans on July 1, 2009.) However, as with Parent PLUS loans, Grad PLUS loans can become eligible for income-contingent repayment provided that they are included in a Federal Direct Consolidation Loan and the borrower did not enter repayment before July 1, 2006. Consolidation loans that include a Grad PLUS loan are also eligible for income-based repayment starting July 1, 2009.
  Note that borrowers who took advantage of the early repayment status loophole to consolidate their loans during the in-school period technically entered repayment before July 1, 2006.
  
• Eligible Repayment Plans: Borrowers may use income-based repayment, income contingent repayment, standard repayment or a combination of these repayment plans. Payments made under other repayment plans (e.g., extended repayment and graduated repayment) do not count. To maximize the amount of forgiveness, borrowers should use income-based repayment. When income-based repayment is not available (e.g., prior to July 1, 2009), they should use income-contingent repayment.If a borrower were to use only standard repayment for repaying their loans there would be no balance remaining after 10 years and so no debt to cancel. Standard repayment is only provided as an option to address situations when a borrower is unable to continue under income-based repayment because they no longer have a partial financial hardship and the payments under income-contingent repayment exceed standard repayment. In such a situation the borrower would use standard repayment for the remaining payments and obtain some loan forgiveness at the end of the ten years of payments.
  
• Taxability: Public service loan forgiveness is not taxable under section 108(f) of the Internal Revenue Code. See Taxability of Student Loan Forgiveness for additional details.

Bottom Line Advice
Although the details may seem complicated, the advice for taking advantage of this program is more straightforward.

• Borrowers who will be employed in public service jobs and who have loans under the FFEL program should obtain a Federal Direct Consolidation Loan as soon as possible. (Before July 1, 2008, they will need to consolidate into direct loans by stating that they were unable to obtain acceptable income-sensitive repayment terms. On or after July 1, 2008, they will be able to consolidate into direct loans to obtain public service loan forgiveness.)
• Parent PLUS borrowers who entered repayment on or after July 1, 2006 will need to consolidate their PLUS loans even if they are already in the Direct Loan program.
• Borrowers should start off with income-contingent repayment, if they can. They should switch to income-based repayment as soon as it becomes available on July 1, 2009, if they can. (Consolidation loans that include Parent PLUS loans are not eligible for income-based repayment.)

Caveats
The public service loan forgiveness program is targeted at students who pursue public service careers and who have high debt and low income. Borrowers with low debt or high income will not benefit as much.
As a back-end loan forgiveness program, the public service loan forgiveness is an all-or-nothing benefit. If a borrower stops working full-time in a public service job, even with just a few of the 120 payments left, they get no forgiveness.
The public service loan forgiveness option's main impact is to remove debt as a disincentive to pursuing a career in public service. Most borrowers will still earn less in a public service job than in the private sector, despite the forgiveness. But previously borrowers were precluded from long-term employment in public service jobs because the debt-to-income ratios were unaffordable.

American Democracy in 2010

By Tiffany D. Tilley

Chair of International Advocacy

United Nations Association-USA Greater Detroit Chapter

Democracy is a failed system.  This system’s utilization of partiality for the majority giving them vantage over the minority leaves it corrupt and its citizens disillusioned.  Power is supposed to “the people,” however while the majority rules, protection is without garner for minority voters.   While the majority rule does not in fact represent absolute power of the people, it does in fact create an abuse of power in the system against minority rights. 

Constitutionally speaking, when the founding Fathers of this nation apotheosized the document, their inclusion of the Bill of Rights was to eradicate the implications of tyranny.   It was abundantly clear that outside forces were not the only threat waged towards the freedom and liberties of Americans.   Self rule of one leader, usually embarked by kings, queens or dictators, could now be imposed through one united voice of the majority.  Therefore, allowing that majority to inflict the minority body with a crucially imbalanced authority.   

There are many groups that suffer the oppression of the popular vote, including the gay and lesbian community, religious groups, minority groups, the poor and uneducated.  We have witnessed the toxic results for all of these groups when forced to succumb to an illegitimate process.  In many states gays and lesbians have been denied the privilege of the marital sanctuary set forth for heterosexual voters.  Religious groups have lost the privilege of prayer in schools, inflicting great hypocrisy, it denies the right to practice traditions that this country was founded on.  Affirmative action has been removed from various states, resulting in the discontinuation of many health and sports programs for females.  Taxation has oppressed the underclass, while the public school systems have failed many of our underprivileged youth.  Cut backs have continued to exasperate collapsing institutions, resulting in a revolving door of drop out students and disproportionate disparities due to the Achievement Gap.

While there are many cons to democracy, the pros still ring true.   Inalienable rights are supposed without prejudice to every individual.  In 1776, Thomas Jefferson thoroughly examined and affirmed what inalienable rights means for Americans.  "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal; that they are endowed by their Creator with inherent and inalienable rights; that among these, are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness; that to secure these rights, governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed;…,” Declaration of Independence.

Democracy also allows individuals, groups and communities to conceptualize ideas and influence due process.  The responsibility is not just left up to the government to directly influence change, laws, or rights.  Everyone has a voice.  Legislatures and delegates represent those voices.  However, non-electoral voices, sometimes self-appointed, can at will challenge the government’s authority and control.   

Flexibility is also afforded in the democratic process.  The voting methodology of the majority rules enables decisions to be made without impeding progress.  It can be viewed as the most efficient way to appease a group without negating the rights of individuals.

Democracy is the American way of life.  It creates a more balanced view of citizens needs, and includes them in how those needs will be generated.   As opposed to dictatorship, authoritarianism, totalitarianism or communism where factions decide what individuals needs are and how they will be met.  Our system is flawed and at times diluted; however it helps us to preserve our human and inalienable rights in the process.  It separates us from the governmental controls felt around the world in other countries.   Americans enjoy prosperity and its remnants while many others experience unfair cast systems, planned economies and a government hostile towards its own people.  As we continue to embrace democracy within our shores, America remains the land of the free and home of the brave.

Levin for Congress Campaign Position

Job Posting- Spring and Summer Campaign Job

Congressman Sandy Levin is looking for staff for the spring and summer to work in his campaign office. 

Campaign staff will be responsible for the following projects plus many more:

·        Organizing and training volunteers

·        Help develop and execute volunteer driven field activities

·        Maintain campaign data base  

Campaign staff should posses the following qualifications:

·        A passion for progressive politics

·        Highly organized and detailed oriented

·        Willing to work in a fast paced environment for long irregular hours

·        Able to work with diverse groups of constituencies

·        Comfortable with computers and able to quickly learn new programs

Please send your resume, cover letter and three references to:

Levin for Congress

PO Box 37

Roseville, MI 48066 

Or Email sandy@levinforcongress.com

  

Mason Radio's 2nd Annual Skate Party!

Join Mason Radio and His Mason Radio Morning Crew from 107.5 WGPR for The 2nd Annual Skating Party at Northland Skating Rink!

Wednesday, May 12th
Doors Open 6:30p.m. and We Skate until 10:00p.m.
$6.00 gets u in $2.00 gets u skates...

Mason Radio will give away prizes and one lucky family will win a FREEZER FULL OF FOOD : )

All ages Welcome!!!

Family Friendly Skating Event!