Chronicles of a city in Exile

This is the first of a dispatch from Detroit Public School Board member Elena Herrada, who represents District 2, Southwest Detroit. We are under an Emergency Manager. I was appointed to the Detroit School Board in July of 2010, after the elected board member was forced to step down. I was invited to request the appointment by other school board members. Since I was appointed to the board, I have been in a pitched battle to restore Detroit Public Schools' right to govern itself. We have been under Emergency Manager since 2009, when Democratic governor Jennifer Granholm sent Robert Bobb to take over our district. Since that time, we have been beset with 2/3 more debt than we had before the takeover, and have won a court battle for academic control, only to have the law changed by Republican governor Rick Snyder. In fact, the change in law also mandates that if the Board sues the State again, we cannot go to a Detroit court; we must go to Ingham County, where we would likely never get an African American judge again.
I am writing this missive to go on record. If we do not record our history, someone else will and it will not be our truth. It is important to go on the record and state who was with us, who was against us, and who stood idly by. It is important to note who, among the non profit community, who, among the activist community collaborated with the State against the children of Detroit; against public education, against the concept of equal education for all, not just those who live in the "Promise Neighborhoods" selected by non profits and foundations, leaving many out in the broken promise neighborhoods. I am seeking to engage the people of Detroit in dialogue about ideas, about justice, about ethics in our everyday dealings with each other.
Welcome to Dispatch from the Promised Land.