Individual behavior, not collective liberation: Why DeVos Family foundation funding compliments AmplifyGR
During the AmplifyGR-hosted meeting on June 29, Doug DeVos stated that he and his wife have been, “active in many of the non-profit agencies that are here in this neighborhood.”
This statement prompted me to look at the 990 documents from all of the DeVos Family foundations to see how much money they have collectively contributed to non-profits that are based in the neighborhoods that AmplifyGR is operating or those that do work in those neighborhoods.
We found several non-profits that are currently operating in the area that AmplifyGR is targeting with their development plans. I then sent an e-mail to each of the organizations that are working in the designated area and have received DeVos Foundation money to ask them the following two questions.
First, does your organization have a position on the AmplifyGR development proposal for the Boston Square & Cottage Grove areas in the southeast part of Grand Rapids?
Second, your organization is listed as having been a recipient of funds from a DeVos Foundation between 2013 – 2016 (the most recent 990s available). Since your organization relies on DeVos Family funding, is there financial pressure to support the AmplifyGR development proposal? (Note: I looked at the 990 documents from 2013 – 2016 for the Doug & Maria DeVos Foundation, the Richard & Helen DeVos Foundation, the Dick & Betsy DeVos Foundation, the Dan & Pamela DeVos Foundation and the CDV5 Foundation, founded by Cheri DeVos)
What follows is a listing of the organizations I contacted, what their response was, a summary of the kind of work that they do and how much money they received from DeVos Foundations between 2013 – 2016.
Baxter Community Center’s mission “seeks to reveal God’s love by responding to human needs in its community through effective programs and partnerships.” Baxter Community Center provides a variety of social services, educational services and skill building opportunities.
The Executive Director of Baxter Community Center, Melanie Beelen, responded to the questions by saying: “1. Baxter Community Center does not have a position on the Amplify GR proposal. It is our understanding that at this point, they are still collectively getting information from others. 2. We have not received any pressure one way or another from the DV families regarding Amplify GR.” There are two Amway representatives who sit on the Baxter Community Center Board.
Exhalta Health (formerly Health Intervention Services) “was established in 1996 by local physicians, nurses, social workers, pastors, and business people to serve underprivileged women with faith-centered medical care. The acronym HIS was created to represent the Christian motivation for service.” The Executive Assistant Theressa Hoekstra responded to our questions by saying, “We have had no pressure from the AmplifyGR group.”
Restorers Inc. mission “is to show Christ’s love by promoting long-term sustainable change in families and neighborhood. We do this through unified committed relationships between community and church so that greater dignity and quality of life are achieved.” They provide entrepreneur programs for people wanting to start their own business, youth mentoring programs and work closely with Believe 2 Become. Restorers Inc. did not respond to our questions.
SpringGR is an entrepreneurial training program located in Grand Rapids, MI. This program provides training, mentoring, and networking opportunities designed for aspiring entrepreneurs from neighborhoods of few entrepreneurial opportunities to develop a thriving business. SpringGR works closely with Start Garden, one of the businesses projects that Rick DeVos runs. SpringGR did not respond to our questions.
Oakdale Neighbors is a Christian community development organization. Its goal is to create a neighborhood of grace and vitality by discovering, developing, and connecting skills and resources. Their response was: “Oakdale Neighbors has not taken a formal position on the development proposal. We try to build productive relationships with many partners and potential partners in the city.” I did speak with Tom Bulten from Oakdale Neighbors on the phone and he informed me that AmplifyGR had contracted with Seeds of Promise and Oakdale Neighbors to go door to door in the area and conduct a survey of residents. Oakdale Neighbors does list the Doug & Maria DeVos Foundation and CDV5 Foundation as two of its partners.
Jubilee Jobs’ mission “is to serve Christ by equipping and empowering the economically underserved toward self-sufficiency, emotional healing, and spiritual renewal.” Jubilee Jobs has a representative of Amway on its Board of Directors and lists Believe 2 Become as a community partner. Jubilee Jobs did not respond to our questions.
The Grand Rapids Urban League provides a variety of social services, like housing, education and employment. The mission of the Grand Rapids Urban League is to provide the means to empower African Americans and other minorities to achieve economic self-reliance, parity and civil rights. The Grand Rapids Urban League did not respond to our questions, but we did find something interesting on their website. You can see from this graphic that the CEO of Rockford Construction, Mike VanGessel, which is part of the AmplifyGR project, was given the Drum Major for Justice award.
Madison Square Church is part of the Christian Reformed Church. They have numerous ministries in the community, including youth and missions projects, particularly in Liberia. Pastor David Beelen responded to the questions by stating: “We do not have a position from our church in support of Amplify. And, although we are listed as getting funds from DeVos we were simply providing a fiduciary 
oversight function for one of our former pastors, Samuel Reeves, who is now pastoring in Liberia, West Africa and has used those funds to build and support a medical clinic there. DeVos foundation has not applied pressure for us to support Amplify nor do I perceive pressure from them to support it. On the contrary, we have used our place in the Madison community to pressure them to hold meetings, be fair to our neighbors and do their work in a manner that is just to our parish.”
Linc Up, formerly Lighthouse Communities Inc, is an economic development entity, that also is involved in housing, education and some advocacy work. Linc Up has relied on DeVos Foundation money for most of its existence, until last year when the Doug & Maria DeVos Foundation stopped providing funding. A great deal of the DeVos funding over the years was to contract with Linc Up to implement the Believe 2 Become program. Linc Up Executive Director Jeremy DeRoo responded to the questions with these comments: “In terms of Amplify GR I haven’t seen something that I would consider a “development proposal” but have heard them say they want to fill underutilized industrial space with businesses that will hire locally. They also want to develop a large track of land in Boston square into something that will include affordable housing and more business opportunities. They are also going to be starting a community engagement process at the end of the month to hear what the best way to do all that is. LINC supports community driven processes that successfully create local jobs and 
affordable housing.”
The Inner City Christian Federation (ICCF) is a non-profit housing organization that rehabilitates existing housing and builds new housing. Their mission statement says, “At ICCF, we believe God desires our community to be a healthy and vibrant place for all people to have opportunity to flourish and have safe and beautiful homes they can afford.” ICCF did not respond to our questions. The organization does utilize as its primary construction partner, Rockford Construction, which is part of the AmplifyGR project.
It is also important to mention Believe 2 Become, a program which not only provides a mechanism for inserting faith-based dynamics in the Grand Rapids Public School system, it provides a means to develop workforce talent, as their most recent report acknowledges. Both Doug DeVos and Mike VanGessel are intimately involved in Believe 2 Become. We include some of their comments about Believe 2 Become here. It is also important to note that the Doug & Maria DeVos Foundation has been the largest contributor to Believe 2 Become, which was already mentioned, is a partner with several of the entrepreneurial programs listed above. 
It seems clear that the kinds of organizations that the DeVos Family foundations are funding that are working in or based in the southeast part of the city that is being targeted under the AmplifyGR project are social service agencies, Christian groups and organizations focused on entrepreneurial opportunities. What these organization don’t do is provide any real analysis of systemic oppression or skill building for challenging systems of power. This seems rather obvious when one considers that the DeVos Family and their foundations are rooted in power, thus they would not want to provide funding that in anyway undermines their own power and this is exactly what the AmplifyGR project is all about…….not challenging systems of oppression and systems of power.
Grand Rapids African American Museum & Archives hosts photo exhibit and film discussion on the 1967 riot
The Grand Rapids African American Museum and Archives, founded by George Bayard, is currently hosting a photo exhibit on the 1967 riot in Grand Rapids.
The photo exhibit includes headlines from local newspapers and photos taken mostly by journalists who were present during the three days that the riot in Grand Rapids lasted in July of 1967.
The photo exhibit will last through July 30th at the Grand Rapids African American Museum and Archives, located at 87 Monroe Center in downtown Grand Rapids. The photo exhibit is available for viewing between noon and 5:00PM, Tuesday through Saturday and is free to the public.
In addition, the Grand Rapids African American Museum and Archives is producing a short documentary film about the 1967 riot, which will include interviews from several historians and some eye witnesses to the what took place from July 25 – 27th in 1967 in Grand Rapids just south of Wealthy Street between Division and Madison.
The documentary film on the 1967 riot will be shown at the GVSU downtown campus, in the Loosemore Auditorium, on July 25 between 6 – 8pm. After the film screening there will be a panel discussion on the same topic.
The Grand Rapids People’s History Project interviewed George Bayard last year on the mission of the Grand Rapids African American Museum and Archives, which you can watch here below.
The Acton Institute defends White Supremacy and Imperialism, all in the name of Faith and Family
There are statements that politicians make all the time, that are often quite hollow and devoid of any real meaning. However, often, such statements are taken at face value to be truisms, like God and Country. These truism are both the result of extreme naivete and ideological constructs.
Last week, while President Trump was attending the G20 gathering of world leaders and imperialists, he invoked one of these truisms when he said, “We put faith and family, not government and bureaucracy, at the center of our lives.”
Last Thursday, Rev. Ben Johnson, who writes for the Acton Institute, posted a piece reflecting on President Trump’s speech that was given last week in front of a memorial to the Warsaw Ghetto uprising during the Nazi occupation of Poland in 1943.
That Trump chose this location, the site of one of the most famous acts of Jewish Resistance during WWII, is in and of itself an insult to all those who have fought oppression. The United States is seen by millions around the world as an oppressor nation and an imperialist nation that has contributed to a tremendous amount of violence through war and economic exploitation.
However, the Acton Institute writer saw this declaration from President Trump at the Warsaw Ghetto uprising memorial site as visible sign that the United States in continuing a tradition of promoting faith and family foundational principles of this country.
Johnson then quotes Trump at length, where the President is speaking about Poland’s transition from Communism to Free Market Capitalism:
“Through four decades of Communist rule, Poland … endured a brutal campaign to demolish freedom, your faith, your laws, your history, your identity; indeed, the very essence of your culture and your humanity,” the president said. Yet despite the onslaught of a soulless system, the Polish people “stood in solidarity against oppression, against a lawless secret police … and you won. Poland prevailed. Poland will always prevail.”
The Action Institute writer takes great joy in Trump’s assessment of Poland post-communism and believes that much of the “success” after communism had to do with people putting their faith in God.
However, we have learned since the fall of communism in Poland, is that many people have felt betrayed by the Solidarity government and its imposition of an economic shock doctrine on the country. This assessment is affirmed in Naomi Klein’s book, The Shock Doctrine, specifically her section on Poland, but if you prefer a more moderate source, this Harvard study (a shorter version appeared in the journal Foreign Affairs) draws many of the same conclusions that Klein does.
The Acton Institute writer then cites the US President’s condemnation of “radical Islamic terrorism” as the current threat to the United States. Johnson, again quotes Trump:
“While we will always welcome new citizens who share our values and love our people,” Trump said, “our borders will always be closed to terrorism and extremism of any kind.”
Such a statement is both absurd and historically inaccurate. The US has closed its borders most often when refugees and immigrants have come from non-European and non-White countries, since the US has always embraced a White Supremacist immigration policy that has historically demonized the Chinese, Japanese, pretty much all of Latin America and some African nations as well. (see Aviva Chomsky’s book, Undocumented: How Immigration Became Illegal)
The statement by Trump is also absurd, since it doesn’t take into account that there have been and still are numerous domestic groups that advocate terrorism and extremism, such as the KKK, neo-nazi groups, Militia groups, Christian Identity groups and a whole list of organizations that embrace and promote White Supremacist and Xenophobic values. These groups are not only free to engage in all kinds of violent behavior, they are often supported by mainstream US society, which is tends to embrace White Supremacists values. (see the Southern Poverty Law Center’s Hate Map)
Much of the rest of what Rev. Johnson has to say in his post on the Acton Institute website continues to extol the values of The West (read: White values), with particular emphasis on family, faith and free market capitalism.
While some may want to simply respond with a dismissive tone that, “this is Trump speaking, so of course he would say this shit.” The reality is that every US President has said uttered the same kinds of truisms that the current President did last week. The lessons we should walk away with are: 1) the Acton Institute is essentially an apologist for US imperialism; and 2) the Acton Institute is a very dangerous organization that promotes White Supremacy, Colonialism and the exploitative nature of neoliberal capitalism.
MLive’s fascinating facts about Henry Ford: False claims and glossing over Ford’s connection to Nazi Germany
On Friday, July 7, Mlive posted an article entitled, 14 Fascinating Facts about Henry Ford.
The article, like much of contemporary journalism, centers around superficial aspects of personalities and celebrities. Most of the 14 facts would only interest those who seeks to understand the man and the entrepreneur, facts like where he was born, his interest in planes, his role as a father and that he may have fathered a child outside of marriage.
However, there were two “facts” included in the last of 14 that are worth discussing. One claims that Ford invented the weekend or more specifically the 8 hour work day, and the other interesting “fact” identified Ford as an anti-Semite. Let’s begin with the 8 hour work day claim.
The MLive article states, “Ford is frequently credited for pioneering the five-day, 40-hour work week – reduced from six days and 48 hours – believing leisure time was not only beneficial and valuable for his workers, but also something to be enjoyed by all social and economic classes.”
This claim is just utter non-sense. Organized labor had been fighting for an 8 hour work day since the middle of the 19th century, with various trades adopting such a policy on a factory by factory basis. However, let us be clear by saying that no industry boss or capitalist ever just invented the weekend or gave workers an 8 hour day. Unions fought to make those gains, through a variety of tactics, including strikes, walkouts, work slowdowns and sabotage. The fact that any industry boss or capitalist ever agreed to an 8 hour work day was simply because it became too much of a financial risk to not grant workers the right to an 8 hour day.
It is no secret that Henry Ford hated organized labor. Ford hated unions so much that he hired former boxer Harry Bennett to head up the Ford Motor Company’s Service Department, “which was designed to suppress union organizing and strikes, and constituted to world’s largest private army, numbering between 3,500 and 6,000 men,” according to Sharon Smith’s book, Subterranean Fire: A History of Working-Class Radicalism in the United States.
As for the claim that Henry Ford was an anti-Semite, this was true. The MLive post states the following:
“No doubt, Ford was a complicated man, and this is his ugly underbelly. From 1920-27, Ford owned the Dearborn Independent newspaper, which ran anti-Semitic articles dictated by and credited to the industrialist. The articles became a book titled “The International Jew: The World’s Foremost Problem,” a notorious tome that became affiliated with the Reichstag. Ford was reportedly admired by none other than Adolf Hitler, and in 1938, Ford accepted the Grand Cross of the German Eagle, a Nazi medal. Ford eventually renounced his writings.”
Henry Ford was indeed an anti-Semite, but the brief commentary in no way does justice to what Ford actually believed and how it impacted his company’s dealing, both while he was alive and after his death.
Henry Ford did own and operate the Dearborn Independent from 1919 – 1927, although his anti-Jewish beliefs had begun before that. When Ford took over the newspaper, he moved it to one of his factories. Henry Ford was also deeply influenced by the book, The Protocols of the Learned Elders of Zion. This book claimed there was a global Jewish conspiracy and that was a mix of global finance and global war-making. Ford even re-printed sections of the book in the Dearborn Independent, under a regular heading of, “The International Jew – The World’s Problem.”
Adolf Hitler did speak highly of Henry Ford and did award him a Nazi medal. What the MLive piece fails to mention is that the Ford Motor Company manufactured Nazi pins for Germany, that Henry Ford met with Nazi agents in his Detroit office and that the Ford Motor Company and Nazi Germany enjoyed a rather lengthy relationship all the way through the end of WWII.
According to Christopher Simpson’s book, The Splendid Blonde Beast: Money, Law, and Genocide in the Twentieth Century, the Ford Motor Company engaged in what was called the Aryanization of Germany. The Aryanization of Germany included the takeover of formerly-owned Jewish companies or Jewish land by the German state or by companies like the Ford Motor Company. In addition, Simpson documents the use of forced labor by the Ford Motor Company in Nazi Germany.
Edwin Black, in his book the, Nazi Nexus: America’s Corporate Connections to Hitler’s Holocaust, cites a 1945 US Army report, which called Ford, “the arsenal of Nazism” with the consent of the company in Dearborn.
The Ford Motor Company operated factories throughout Germany during WWII, for both automobile manufacturing and for the production of munitions for the Nazi army. (Nazi Nexus) In addition, the Ford Motor company was manufacturing vehicles that were used by the Nazi military up until at least 1944, mostly at their facilities in Detroit/Dearborn. This dynamic is well documented in Charles Higham’s book, Trading with the Enemy: The Nazi-American Money Plot 1933 – 1949.
Therefore, eulogizing the person of Henry Ford by the MLive reporter not only presents mostly useless information about one of the first automobile barons in the US, it misinforms the public about the real practices and policies of the Henry Ford and his Ford Motor Company.
During the AmplifyGR town hall meeting that was held on June 29, many of the speakers kept on stating that they wanted to create opportunities for the people in the Southtown area.
The CEO of Amway, Doug DeVos said he wanted to create opportunities for people in the area. Mike VanGessel, the CEO of Rockford Construction Company said he wanted to create opportunities and every speaker representing AmplifyGR also wanted to create opportunities for people living in the Boston Square area.
I have been thinking about this theme for the past few weeks and what it truly means when the DeVos Family says they want to create opportunities for people. In thinking about this theme, there are three responses that seem worth discussing when thinking about what it truly means when a member of the DeVos Family says they want to create opportunities for people.
First, it is important to acknowledge that when a member of a family that is worth billions says they want to create opportunities, we should be rather skeptical. How did the DeVos Family make its money, but by creating a company built on a pyramid scheme that exploits both the workers they hire and uses the human beings who sell their products.
We are all aware of the model that Amway uses, which is to get people to sell their product and to get those same people to find more people who want to do the same. This process creates a hierarchical structure, wherein those who recruit new sellers make money off of those they recruit. The few that are on top, those referred to as Diamond level distributors, will make a a ton of money just by virtue of the fact that they recruited people, who recruited people to sell Amway products. This dynamic does not create opportunities for people, but instead it creates benefits for the few, while most people do the hard work and end up with little to show for it. This essentially is the economic system of capitalism that we all live under.
Second, when the DeVos Family says they want to create opportunities for people, we need to seriously examine how much political influence they have in this community, in Michigan and the rest of the country.
The DeVos Family spends millions of dollars on every election cycle, just like they during during the 2015 – 2016 election cycle, as has been well documented by the Lansing-based organization, the Michigan Campaign Finance Network.
This political spending by DeVos Family is designed to elect officials that are committed to the same ideological framework they embrace; which puts its emphasis on a neoliberal capitalist economic model, a reactionary social model and an exclusionary religious belief system.
The neoliberal economic model the DeVos family embraces supports a deregulated system, where there are no checks and balances by government structures at any level. However, at the same time, that the DeVos Family doesn’t want government to interfere with their ability to make as much money as they want, they also buy elected officials that promote tax policies which provide huge benefits to the wealthy and transfer more public money to the private sector – what we call subsidies.
The reactionary social model that the DeVos Family promotes is one that dismantles any form of a welfare state. This means they do not think that the government should provide any kind of safety net for those who are unemployed, disabled or struggle to meet basic needs like food and health care. This reactionary social model has resulted in policies like making Michigan a Right to Work state, which undermines the ability of labor unions to organize workers; it means dismantling public sector pensions and other benefits, which recently happened to Michigan teachers; it means denying same sex couples from adopting in Michigan and attempting to limit equal access to members of the LGBTQ community; and it means attacking the public education system and redirecting public money to support charter schools and private education systems through voucher programs, like what we have seen happening in Detroit in the past year.
Therefore, the kinds of policy the DeVos Family has imposed on the rest of us through their financial support for political candidates, disproportionately takes away opportunities for working class people and communities of color, like the Boston Square neighborhood.
Third, the very fact that the DeVos Family has created AmplifyGR to promote this neighborhood re-development project should gives us all cause for concern. Besides the reasons we have already stated, what the AmplifyGR project does is that it creates an unfair and unjust power dynamic. It is bad enough when people with worth billions of dollars come into your community and say they want to provide you with opportunities, but they also have created a front group that they have been less than transparent about, to solicit input from residents about what they want. On top of that they (Rockford Construction and the Doug & Maria DeVos Foundation) have purchased dozens of properties in the area, which makes them the single largest land owner in the Boston Square/Cottage Grove neighborhoods.
So, the DeVos Family/Rockford Construction Company controls a large portion of land in the Boston Square/Cottage Grove area, they have millions more they can invest to “create opportunities” – jobs, housing, etc., they have a track record of causing harm to the very people they claim to want to help and then they want to solicit input from the local residents? This is the kind of power dynamic they have created and bring to the residents of the Boston Square/Cottage Grove area.
What the DeVos Family/Rockford Construction Company has done is to come into a neighborhood that has been de-industrialized, has high rates of poverty and has suffered the consequences of decades of White Supremacy. And yet they have to audacity to say they simply want to help.
Late last month, the US Supreme Court decided on the case of Trinity Lutheran Church of Columbia, Inc. v. Comer. 
The ruling was in support of Trinity Lutheran Church, which basically means that the State of Missouri must give taxpayer funding to a house of worship.
On the same day as this ruling, Education Secretary Betsy DeVos, released the following brief statement:
“This decision marks a great day for the Constitution and sends a clear message that religious discrimination in any form cannot be tolerated in a society that values the First Amendment. We should all celebrate the fact that programs designed to help students will no longer be discriminated against by the government based solely on religious affiliation.”
So why would the Secretary of Education weigh in on a decision from the US Supreme court, particularly since it is a separation of church and state matter?
The answer, for those who are familiar with Betsy DeVos’ background, has to do with the religious ideology that the DeVos and Prince families embrace and have attempted to impose on the rest of society for several decades now.
The Family Research Council, which the DeVos family has funded for several decades, released a statement in support of the courts’ decision, which reads in part:
“At the heart of the First Amendment is the idea that Americans should be able to not just hold beliefs but follow those beliefs as they live their lives. The Free Exercise of religion, explicitly protected by the First Amendment, protects varied and robust religious expression in the public square. Certainly the Framers never meant to exclude churches from public life in the way the state of Missouri and lower courts have here.”
The Cato Institute, which has a long history of pushing for privatization of public education and an advocate for religious education, stated:
“Today’s Trinity Lutheran ruling strikes a blow against patently unequal treatment of religious Americans under state laws, an inequality felt no more acutely than in education. But it does not yet get us to where we need to be.
The huge impact of today’s ruling is that it says religious institutions cannot be barred from participating in government programs simply because they are religious. The Trinity Lutheran Church could not be ruled ineligible to participate in a grant program to improve playgrounds simply because it is a religious entity. This should have been a simple decision: It is clearly unequal treatment of religious Americans under the law to say “the reason you are ineligible for this benefit for which anyone else is eligible is that you are religious.”
Both of these statements are reflective of the ideological framework within which Betsy DeVos views the world. For a more detailed analysis of the religious views that DeVos embraces so fervently, see Janet Reitman’s article in Rolling Stone, which was published earlier this year.
Americans United for Separation of Church and State had a much different take on the courts’ decision, saying:
“Taxpayer-funded religion is bad for churches, communities and citizens. Americans United will continue to fight to buttress the church-state wall because that’s the only thing that can ensure true religious freedom for everyone. This ruling threatens to open the door to more taxpayer support for religion, which is at odds with our history, traditions and common sense.”
The ACLU also came out against the court ruling, with the following statement:
“Abandoning a longstanding constitutional protection for the separation of church and state, the Supreme Court ruled earlier this week that a church must be allowed to participate in a state program that provides direct taxpayer grants to improve school playground surfaces. The decision was very troubling. As we argued in our friend-of-the-court brief in the case, Trinity Lutheran v. Comer, the government should not be funneling public funds directly to churches or other houses of worship, for any reason. Period.”
The statement from Betsy DeVos, in support of the US Supreme Court ruling that says the State of Missouri must use public money to fund a religious school, should not surprise us, but it should make us all worry about the commitment she has to furthering “God’s Kingdom.” This has been the commitment of both the DeVos and Prince families for decades, but now that Betsy is the Secretary of Education, she has an even greater platform in which to impose religious beliefs on the rest of US society. The question is, will we allow this to happen or fight against it?
Last night, about 50 people gathered on the northeast side of Grand Rapids to get clarity on whether or not the Guiding Light Mission would be moving into the neighborhood.
As we reported two weeks ago, some neighbors living near the 3000 block of Coit St. were alarmed when the thought that the Guiding Light Mission was going to move into the area and use an abandoned building to house homeless people. Those involved in the organizing effort had a petition for people to sign that was in opposition to a building at 3019 Coit NE as a shelter.
You can see from the flyer here that those who organized the meeting still believed that the Guiding Light Mission was moving into the neighborhood. The person spearheading this campaign to keep the Guiding Light Mission out of the neighborhood, Mrs. Scott, asked 2nd Ward Commissioner Joe Jones to speak to the issue.
Commission Jones made it clear to everyone that based on a conversation he had with the director of the Guiding Light Mission, Stewart Ray, that the organization was not interested in moving to the building at 3019 Coit NE. In fact, Commissioner Jones said he received a signed statement from the Guiding Light Mission making it clear that they were not interested in moving. This signed letter was even shared with Mrs. Scott, who didn’t bother to mention the letter in her opening comments, nor did it have any impact on how she promoted the meeting.
In addition, Mrs. Scott kept saying that what she and others wanted was for the Veterans Home to use the building at 3019 Coit NE, despite the fact that the Vets facility had built a new clinic years ago in Wyoming, near Metro Hospital.
After a few minutes, a representative from Care Resources was invited to speak. The person with Care Resources made it clear that they had purchased the building, and baring any resistance from the State of Michigan, they would be moving into the facility, once it was upgraded.
Care Resources works with senior citizens to offer a variety of services to prolong the need for them to go into a nursing home facility. Care Resources offers rides to their facility, provides medical, therapeutic and social services to seniors and then provides transportation home.
This revelation was completely new to those in attendance, even though the flyer clearly states that a “potential buyer” would be attending the meeting. The representative from Care Resources made it clear that they would be investing roughly $4 million in the building and drastically improving the outside area, like removing the fencing and upgrading the landscaping to make the property more inviting to the neighborhood.
After all of this new information was shared, some people still were asking questions about the work of Care Services and “if they would be doing drug and alcohol treatment” in the facility at 3019 Coit NE. The person with Care Resources said they do offer that service, since all people, including seniors, have a percentage of individuals who are in recovery.
By this time, many people had left and more were becoming frustrated by the fact that that those with Care Resources were being questioned, despite the fact that what they would bring to the neighborhood would be great for everyone.
As we mentioned in the previous posting on this issue, there was plenty of racism attached to the opposition to Guiding Light Mission moving into the area. This time, there was a certain nativist attitude on display that some found to be frustrating and even insulting.
On Saturday, MLive ran a story headlined, West Michigan congressmen on opposite sides of immigration bills.
The article talks about two recent pieces of federal legislation, The No Sanctuary for Criminals Act — House Resolution 3003 and House Resolution 3004, referred to as Kate’s Law, which increases the penalties for people reentering the US without documentation.
However, the MLive story begins the article and frames the issue not so much about immigration policy, but about the difference between how Congressman Huizenga voted on the matter and Congressman Amash, based on some recent votes.
It is clear that Congressman Huizenga supports the Trump administration’s position on immigration policy, a policy that is punitive and does not address the root causes for people entering the US without documentation.
Congressman Amash has voted against these pieces of legislation, he argues, because he “believes in defending the Constitution.” There maybe some truth to this, but this does not provide adequate support for how he votes.
Congressman Amash identifies with the libertarian-wing of the GOP, which has the support of lots of Tea Party people. The libertarian wing believes in small government and a government that stays out of the lives of citizens. However, it would be a mistake for people to think that Rep. Amash is committed to the dignity, respect and permanent protection of immigrants. This is hardly the case. He has not introduced legislation to support these goals and is in no way working with community-based groups to make sure that all immigrant lives are valued.
In addition, we have to come to terms with the fact that, Congressman Amash is in a safe district, which means he can vote against his own party, because this district has been controlled by Republicans for decades. Former Congressman Vern Ehlers was able to fool “progressives” into thinking he was committed to environmental issues and alternative energy. West Michigan leadership of the Sierra Club would often vote for him when Ehlers was a member of Congress after replacing the late Paul Henry.
Therefore, the MLive article and headline is misleading and naive, since the reporter believes that Rep. Amash and Rep. Huizenga are on opposing sides of the immigration debate. The reality is that Rep. Amash does not support Sanctuary Cities, does support the increased militarization of the US borders, will not actively oppose the increase in Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents, nor the detention and deportation of undocumented immigrants.
Finally, MLive fails to even consider talking to the number of organizations working on immigration rights and immigration justice that are based in West Michigan. There are several long-standing immigration lawyers, social service agencies, grassroots groups and of course there are thousands of immigrants that could have been sourced in this story, which would have significantly changed the way MLive readers would have been impacted.
AmplifyGR meeting received a lot of push-back from the community on plans to re-develop parts of southeast Grand Rapids
Last night an estimated 200 – 250 people showed up to the community forum organized by AmplifyGR. The event was scheduled to go from 6 – 7:30pm, but lots of people showed up early.
It was clear that AmplifyGR has no shortage of money, since staff and volunteers were all wearing AmplifyGR t-shirts. Upon entering the door to the church (where the event was held) people were encouraged to fill out an information card or place dots on sheets of paper that listed some areas of concern.
In the church sanctuary, where the forum was being held, it had the feel of a concert or an awards ceremony, with the big stage all lit up and AmplifyGR logos projected on multiple screens.
The event did start promptly at 6pm, with city commissioners and the AmplifyGR team and funders on stage to start the show. The pastor of the church welcomed people and was followed by comments from the two Third Ward City Commissioners, Dave Allen and Senita Lenear.
Both of the commissioners generally spoke in support of the AmplifyGR project, although at one point Commissioner Lenear said, “We don’t want what happened on Wealthy St. to happen here, We know that people could no longer afford to live in that neighborhood.” This statement received lots of verbal affirmation and applause from people in attendance.
After the commissioners spoke, Doug DeVos then took the mic and addressed people in attendance. You can view the 6 minutes and 15 second comments by the Amway President. DeVos shared an Amway story, spoke about their involvement with Believe 2 Become (which is primarily funded by the Doug & Maria DeVos Foundation) and that they have been involved with many of the non-profits in the Boston Square area. DeVos says that he just wants to be a better neighbor by partnering and collaborating with the people who live there. If this is the case, why would AmplifyGR/Rockford Construction have spent the last 3 years purchasing roughly $10 million worth of property in the area, yet most people are unaware of it?
Following DeVos was the CEO of Rockford Construction, Mike VanGessel. VanGessel shared a bit of his background and then talked about the development end of the project, except that he didn’t really talk about any of the actual development end of the project, despite the fact that representatives from Rockford Construction have been meeting with members of the Southtown Corridor Improvement District since January of this year, with plans they had for the area. None of the slides that were presented to those who sit on the Southtown Corridor Improvement District, were shared with those who came to hear about AmplifyGR.
The next speaker was John Ippel, who is the director of AmplifyGR. We also taped what Ippel had to say in the video below. Ippel talked a bit about an open house that AmplifyGR held in May, where people shared concerns about improving education and having access to affordable housing. What Ippel failed to say is that these issues were already the focus of their plan, before listening to concerns from people in the community. This slide was shared as early as January with the Southtown Corridor Improvement District, which clearly articulates a vision for what AmplifyGR wants to see happen.
Ippel also mentions that the AmplifyGR project wants to utilize the Purpose Built Communities Model. Again, what was not shared was the fact that the Purpose Built Community Model is not driven by residents, but former politicians, business people and non-profit professionals. One interesting aspect about the Purpose Built Communities model that was used in Atlanta, was that a 650 unit public housing complex was torn down and replaced by a mixed-use model. People who lived in the public housing were invited to come back, but 13% of the families were not allowed to come back because of lack of employment or because of felony records.
A few other members of the AmplifyGR team spoke after Ippel, but after all of them had spoken, there was a mere 45 minutes for people to ask questions or make comments. Well, sort of. The Q&A process that was used, only allowed for people to write down questions on cards, but this was never stated at the beginning of the forum, so people were scrambling to get cards that they could fill out. On top of that, there were a few people from AmplifyGR who had all the cards and were clearly sorting them and selecting which ones they wanted to have read.
What is it about those with power not wanting to actually hear from people who have questions or comments? It is extremely important for people to hear those who have questions, not just for the content, but the way in which people say what is on their minds.
This process demonstrated to many in the room that this event was highly orchestrated and managed so that AmplifyGR could determine the parameters of the dialogue that would take place. However, after just a few questions were read, people began to challenge the process and make it clear that the responses provided by those on stage were vague or avoided the questions completely. People began speaking from their seats or the back of the room, thus defying a process that excluded or marginalized voices.
The AmplifyGR people were clearly frustrated and flustered by the audience response. In addition, there were several people there who came with small signs with words like gentrification, Done Deal or Opportunity for Whom? written on both sides, so that those on stage and those in the audience could read what was being held up.
Some of the more poignant questions that were asked were, “What is your definition of what affordable housing really means?” This question was never really answered and at one point VanGessel said that people could go to the State of Michigan’s website to see what affordable housing meant.
Another question asked, “why create another group instead of supporting Linc?” This question elicited a loud applause from the audience. Again, the response was vague and evasive.
Another important question that was asked was, “Will there be an opportunity for residents and neighborhood businesses to have a chance to own, instead of Rockford Construction owning everything?” Again, people from the community applauded and gave verbal affirmations.
As the forum ended it became clear to many people that despite AmplifyGR’s efforts to control the direction of the meeting, people from the community were not going to play along. People asserted themselves in such a way as to suggest there was significant discontent with how the meeting was organized and how little their concerns were actually heard.
There will be another meeting held on July 27, although no location has been provided. People can check the AmplifyGR Facebook page for updates and once we know, we will certainly post the location on this site.
Grand Rapids Cosecha Movement to host a regional organizing assembly July 14 – July 16
The Grand Rapids Cosecha Movement is one of the more exciting and dynamic movements to in recent years, centering around the struggle of immigrants.
The Cosecha Movement is born out of the failure of electoral politics to move towards a just immigration policy. This new movement does not put faith in either political party and no longer seeks to lobby for comprehensive immigration reform.
Instead, the Cosecha Movement is demanding respect, dignity and permanent protection for all immigrants and they are working to achieve these goals by organizing the immigrant community and using direct action has the primary strategy. This movement also practices a relational form of organizing that centers the people in the movement, rather than making it an issue focused movement. In addition, they are working towards a national strike as the main tactic of achieving their goals.
The Cosecha Movement recognizes that the immigrant community has a great deal of power, both political and economic power. The labor they provide, the money they spend and larger impact that undocumented immigrants have on the US is why the Cosecha Movement is calling for a strike.
We have been documenting this movement in Grand Rapids since their first action, which took place with a march on South Division back on February 16. Since that first action, Cosecha GR attempted to march on the highway and block traffic near the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) office in downtown Grand Rapids on February 28.
Cosecha GR organized another action near the ICE office on April 19, where they were able to block an off-ramp coming from 196. This action by Cosecha GR resulted in 3 people being arrested for blocking traffic with a simply message that if the government continues to disrupt the lives and families in the undocumented community, then we will disrupt business as usual for everyone else.
On May 1st, the Cosecha GR movement got several thousand people to not go to work, to not spend money and to participate in a march going north on Division that shut down that road for over an hour.
The most recent action took place on June 4, where Cosecha GR members disrupted sales at the Walmart on 54th street.
We recently put together a compilation video of these actions over the past 6 months to demonstrate how many people have participated and what an impact they have had in the community.
Cosecha GR to host regional assembly
From July 14 – 16, Cosecha GR is hosting an organizing assembly that anyone is invited to. The assembly will consist of discussion on the principles and methodology of the Cosecha Movement, organizing in circles, participating in direct action and how we can all make commitments in moving forward with this movement.
There is information about the assembly on their Facebook event page. Cosecha GR is inviting people to join this movement, whether you are an immigrant or an ally in the struggle.
Cosecha GR is also looking for volunteers to assist with housing for people coming from out of town, food and child care. In addition, Cosecha GR is asking people to help them spread the word about this assembly and to invite others to attend. We need each other to be successful in this struggle. You can contact the Cosecha GR movement by going to their Facebook page.
