What it takes to be
Celebrity marriages that endure
See page C-1
See page D-1
POWERED BY REAL TIMES MEDIA
Volume 79 – Number 18
michiganchronicle.com
Vitec helping the city to run smoother
Dr. Curtis Ivery to be honored at Trumpet Awards On Saturday, Jan. 23, Dr. Curtis Ivery, chancellor of Wayne County College, will receive the Education Award at the 24th annual Trumpet Awards, created to celebrate and honor history-making individuals in humanitarianism, philanthropy, entertainment and poli- Dr. Curtis tics. Ivery The black-tie event will take place at the Cobb Energy Performing Arts Centre, in Atlanta, Georgia. Dr. Ivery became chancellor of Wayne County Community College in 1995 and since that time the college has experienced enormous growth. To illustrate, there were 12,000 students enrolled at the start of his tenure; today the number is 70,000. This growth and expansion has everything to do with Dr. Ivery’s vision and tenacity. The Trumpet Awards was founded by Xernona Clayton. The event, being presented by the Trumpet Awards Foundation and title sponsor American Family Insurance, will air on Bounce TV and nationally in over 75 markets.
WHAT’S INSIDE Justice or comfort? (Page B-4) Julianne Malveaux looks forward to a time when activism will increase on all levels. “Too many of us prefer complacency to discomfort,” she writes. “Racism is alive and well … Too many of us would like to pretend that inequality and injustice are minor matters.”
R&B diva will stick with singing (Page D-1) Although she accepted criticism and early elimination well on last season’s “Dancing with the Stars,” Chaka Khan has made it clear that it is something she will never do again. She says it was major mistake and that she is “so glad it’s over.”
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January 13-19, 2016
By Keith A. Owens SENIOR EDITOR
Last October, the City of Detroit awarded a three-year, $11.5 million contract for vehicle parts inventory management to Vitec LLC, a Southwest Detroit-based member of the Global Automotive Alliance with expertise in warehousing and distribution. It was the largest contract awarded to a minority firm in 2015, and one of the largest awarded to any minority firm by the city in the past five years.
The reason behind Obama’s tears By Keith A. Owens SENIOR EDITOR
L
ast week, President Barack Obama shed tears as he announced his decision to invoke executive action to enact what he viewed as “common sense” gun legislation, designed to at least somewhat stem the tide of gun violence that has kept this country in an NRA-approved death grip for decades. Predictably, Obama’s actions were attacked by many on the right as anti-gun and as executive overreach. But just as much bitter reaction was directed at Obama’s tears, which were shed for the child victims of gun violence, as was directed at his end run around a maddeningly stubborn Congress that has refused to effectively address the issue, of gun violence, despite the president’s repeated attempts to get something done — and despite the steadily rising body count. No doubt a large part of that resistance was directed at Obama himself with no regard for the facts, for what was right or wrong, or even for what was in the nation’s best interest. Because in the eyes of the right wing, if Obama approves it then it must be opposed, even if it is something they may have approved before. Arguably the strongest lobby on Capitol Hill, the NRA has managed to effectively kneecap any effort, large or small, that would in any way hamper individuals from purchasing the desired level of firepower to fit their fancy. Guns for all, guns forever seems to be their mantra. So during the period of his presiden-
To say the least, the city is already quite pleased with Vitec’s performance, and equally pleased that it was a hometown minority-owned company that won the bid through the Sylvester Hester presentation of a superior proposal that far outshone the performance provided by their predecessor, Atlanta-based NAPA Auto Parts, which had held the contract for the past eight years. cy that has characteristically been labeled the “lame duck period,” Obama decided to flex his executive muscles once again and take yet another defiant stand. Because while the Republican-controlled Congress continues to bicker and stall, and the NRA continues to play puppeteer/profiteer with their obedient boughtand-paid-for minions, children continue to die — and commit murder — at alarming rates. Nowhere does this fact resonate more than in the streets of Detroit which, even in the midst of a much-trumpeted revival, remains the deadliest city in the nation for children. The city’s infant mortality rate — the highest in the nation — ranks as the number one killer of young children, according to a Detroit News special report published in September 2015. But homicide, according to the same report, ranks number two. From the News: “Nearly 500 Detroit children have died in homicides since 2000 — an average of nearly three dozen a year. Most were gun-related, and most were among children 14-18. Many youngsters just got in the way of a bullet intended for an adult, or for no one in particular. “The findings came from a six-month News investigation, during which thousands of bits of data from state health departments across the country were gathered and analyzed. The News found that the death rate from all forms of violence in 2010, the most recent year for which comparable data are available on other communities, is higher in Detroit than in any
See GUN
VIOLENCE page A-4
In a nutshell, Vitec, which was founded in 1998, will be responsible for maintaining a steady and reliable supply of parts for all of the city’s 2,400-vehicle fleet, which includes police and fire response vehicles, street maintenance trucks, parking enforcement cars, grass-cutting and forestry, and other equipment. The General Services Department employs 80 mechanics to maintain this fleet out of four municipal garages, each with a parts storeroom to be operated by Vitec/Mancon staff. This reliability of supply comes in handy when those vehicles are in need of repair, because the faster they can get the parts they need, the faster they can return to service. In the case of fire and police vehicles, Vitec CEO Sylvester Hester said it’s safe to say that this reliability has the potential to affect — and improve — response times in emergency vehicles such as police cars, fire trucks and EMS vehicles. “In essence, we’re procuring the parts themselves, as well as providing that part to that mechanic once he comes to the door at greater than an 85 percent fulfillment rate. That means that out of 100 times the mechanic goes to the parts department, the department should have
See VITEC page A-4
Stageplay imagines meeting between Martin Luther King, Jr., Malcolm X By Donald James SPECIAL TO THE CHRONICLE
Award-winning playwright Jeff Stetson often wondered what Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and Malcolm X discussed when the two black leaders met briefly on a cold afternoon in March 1964 at the Capitol in Washington, D.C. Civil Rights Movement historians believe that it was the only time the two men ever met faceto-face.
Photo of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and Malcolm X courtesy of New York Amsterdam News
style as leaders? Did they talk about their personal lives, including wives and children that they rarely saw? Thus, in 1987, Stetson wrote the stage play “The Meeting.” The production provides extended conversations at a fictional meeting between the two icons and what could have been discussed if they had met for a substantial period of time, or at various junctures of the Civil Rights Movement.
Did they talk about Dexter L. Overall the directions and tac“The Meeting” takes place in a tics that African Americans needed hotel in Harlem, one week before to pursue for equality? Did they talk about the differences in their
See THE
MEETING page A-4