This week we have been given ample reason to question continued funding of the US military. In a Senate hearing requesting an additional $87.6 billion in supplemental funds, $67 billion of which is for the war on Iran, Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth revealed that the cost of the war on Iran thus far has been $37.5 billion in military spending.  This calculation does not include the toll on human life, on the people of Iran, on the people around the globe struggling with the inevitable effects of restrictions on oil and petroleum-related products, or on the distortions of life created by a war that has no purpose but to kill.

Much of the country has been suffering from the smoke of wildfires raging in Canada. Detroit, along with Chicago, New York, Toronto and other Great Lakes cities, is recording some of the worst air pollution in the world, with an Air Quality Index hitting 800.

This year, marking the 250^th anniversary of the United States, many people planned gatherings to think about our collective past and our possible futures.  For many of us, the Fourth of July holiday marks the beginning of summertime. Family reunions, fireworks, friends, and space to enjoy the world.

After a contentious meeting offering more than two hours of public testimony the Detroit City Council voted 5-4 to extend the ShotSpotter contract for 9 months. The decision will cost the city and additional $2.1 million dollars and brings the total cost of ShotSpotter to $10.56 million. 

The Detroit Fireworks display is a highlight of the city, marking the beginning of summer. Families and friends gather at the river’s edge to watch what is often billed as the world’s largest fireworks display. Most summers, more than a million people gather to enjoy Hart Plaza and neighborhood parks.  The fireworks are an international celebration of freedom, honoring the independence days of both the United States and Canada from colonial rule.

Fascism comes in many guises.  Brown shirts, storm troopers, hooded men with guns, and gangs of bullies with torches are all well-known, recognizable images. These are superficial expressions of efforts to dominate and control the lives of people. These forces are made possible by a complex network of laws, actions, and attitudes fostered by those seeking authoritarian control.

In the early hours of June 10^th, federal agents arrested seven young people connected with efforts to force the University of Michigan to divest from the Israeli government in the wake of the war on Gaza. With SWAT team armament, the Department of Justice roused college students, handcuffed them, and put them in armored cars because of their alleged actions during the 2023 - 2025 protests against the US support for Israel. Eight young people, one of whom is out of the country, are charged with conspiring to orchestrate a campaign of intimidation and terror targeting homes, businesses, organizations, and individuals.

Representative democracy in the USA has been in trouble for a long time. Since the beginnings of the nation 250 years ago, wealth, racial hatred, and private interests have dominated its development.

It has taken massive movements of people over extended periods of time to expand the ideas of whose lives matter, whose voices count, and whose interests should be protected.

This week, Pope Leo XIV released his first encyclical, Magnifica Humanitas (Magnificent Humanity). Its subtitle, “On Safeguarding the human person in the time of artificial intelligence,” offers a good summation of the doctrine’s focus. Some doubt that the massive work will have much impact on our futures. But anyone serious about creating a world of justice, peace, and love should carefully study this document.

This week the news for billionaire backers of mega data centers got worse. Although the county commissioners for Box Elder, Utah approved the construction of a project over the objections of thousands of local residents, there are no signs that the opposition is going away. And this mega center, like most others around the country is going nowhere fast.

Data Centers and Artificial Intelligence are changing the essence of warfare. Detroit is being positioned by corporate interests as central in the development of AI-generated weaponry.

Over the last year the emergence of data centers and the push to advance AI have accelerated. Communities across the state are facing serious questions about land use and access to resources. 

This week, I participated in the Michigan Statewide Environmental Justice AI Data Center Summit. Activists from around the state came together to share information, develop strategies and tactics, and to dream about the kind of world we have yet to create.

Techno-billionaires are telling us that massive data centers are necessary and inevitable. They tell us that these centers will provide thousands of jobs and do it all without harming the ecosystems on which we depend. 

This week I attended the 10^-year anniversary celebration of Detroit’s Community Benefits Ordinance. More than 100 people gathered to reflect on the grassroots movement that culminated in a victory over billionaire developers in our city. The event was hosted by the Peoples Platform and members of the Equitable Detroit City Wide Community Benefit Coalition that led the initiative.

Over the last few days, as Iran has suffered under US bombs and threats of extermination, I have been thinking about a winter evening in 1979. I was in Youngstown, Ohio, visiting my sister. It was in the midst of the Hostage Crisis, begun when hundreds of Iranian students swept into the American Embassy, ultimately capturing fifty-two hostages, holding them for 444 days. This action helped secure the revolutionary government of Ayatollah Khomeini and brought down the presidency of Jimmy Carter. But all of that had yet to unfold.

This week, I am in Harlem to join in the celebrations of the life and work of Dr. Vincent Harding. We gathered at Riverside Church to explore his contributions to peace, especially his role in helping craft Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s speech, breaking his silence against the Vietnam War. King called for a radical revolution in values against racism, materialism, and militarism and for the creation of a new America, rooted in love and compassion. Over the years, Vincent worked to bring that vision to life. He encouraged and organized the intellectual foundations of Black Studies and helped establish the King Center, the Institute for the Black World, Veterans of Hope, and the National Council of Elders.

The United States has been unravelling for a very long time. The Trump drive for an American style Fascism is the latest step in this disintegration. Underneath these efforts at domination and control are long-standing patterns that depend on violence. Increasingly, that violence is being rejected as more and more people are being subjected to it or are witnessing the consequences of it in the lives of their neighbors down the street and across the globe.

Power outages in Detroit are common. I have experienced some disruption in electricity every winter for the last 50 years. Like many Detroiters, we have candles, flashlights, blankets, firewood, and emergency water tucked in corners, knowing they will be needed. This is just part of winter in Michigan.

The 20^th Century was marked by two world wars. The first Great War changed the world. The death toll was in the millions. Empires crumbled and new nations emerged. It was a war of arrogance, incompetence, and mass brutality. And it made some people very rich.