August 5th In Detroit

We have three people running for County Executive on next month's 7th District ballot. Two of them
are African American.
Here's the thing. Burton Leland knocked on my door nearly forty years ago.
He asked us to vote for him.
He has two sons who live and work in the area.
One of his sons is a Detroit City Councilman.
His office is in downtown Detroit.
He hasn't always done everything my friends and I have wanted; but he has always been in touch.
He has initiatives in our District, and he follows through on them.
Burton Leland uses flyers on a regular basis to keep us informed.
Now, Ramon J. Patrick is an African-American young person running against Burton for the county
spot. The only bio I can find for him is that he is a Virginia businessman.
I did get a couple of calls from him belaboring the obvious problems in our District, such as
freeway grass not getting cut often enough. But we need lights on the freeway even more. Renisha
McBride may even  have been afraid to knock on a door a little farther down the freeway.
So, I have nothing on which to base voting for him. I don't live in Virginia. And I don't have my
own lawnmower.
The other person running against Leland is Monique Baker McCormick.
She doesn't say what her vision of county service should be. She only says Burton Leland lives in
Lansing.
Well, he has a home in Detroit- so he pays taxes in Detroit. I appreciate that because he has paid
taxes here his entire adult life.
I can't say as much for many of my friends.
We live in Wayne County, the same county housing all the Grosse Pointes. I don't think anyone
has trouble visualizing the disparity this fact highlights.
We need all the knowledgeable pro-active help we can get. So we have to vote for the person who
knows this county well enough to do the work here. Anyone who has a plan for us should come forth
with it.
However, I already voted the way I've been voting for 40 years. Besides, Burton went to the same
Detroit Public School as Axel Foley Jr.- Mumford.