Letters 10/15/08 - Baetens - Sparks

Teens could find themselves in a lot trouble for confrontations

I’d like to thank Walter Wasacz for his article about kids walking in the streets.

Last month I was turning onto Brombach at 9:30 p.m. at night and almost plowed over four teenage girls who were walking in a row across the street, covering my whole lane. Because I didn’t see them, I almost hit them (I swerved out of the way), and because of that one of them yelled out and called me a “b****.”

I notice more times than not people riding their bikes the wrong way in the street, too.

This is very dangerous, and I bet it’s illegal too. The police should stop people when they see them riding bikes against traffic. It could save their lives, and give motorists one less thing to worry about.

Back to the kids, I  also recently read on Hamtramckstar.com about a gang of teens who tried to rob a resident of his bike in front of his own house. When he wouldn’t give it up, one of them hit him in the face. If teenagers in our town are acting like this, what’s going to happen when they become adults?

Will they end up like the 40-something jailbird who was robbing women outside the Belmont Bar a few weeks back? Teenagers need to be held accountable for their actions.

The city and the police need to get the parents and the schools involved. I always carry pepper spray and a cell phone camera, but some people in town carry more than that.

What’s going to happen when a group of teens threatens someone who’s had enough?

M. Baetens

Hamtramck

There is nothing ‘special’ about anti-discrimination rights       

It is one thing to be curious, and possibly ill-informed about Hamtramck’s Human Rights ordinance, yet it is another to be openly deceptive.

The “special rights” campaign has graduated from the Karl Rove school of politics, embracing the philosophy:  play to people’s fears - even if it’s a lie - and then repeat it long enough until it becomes “true.”

I sincerely hope that reasonable voters will ask themselves if the egregious claims made by the “special rights” campaign are legitimate.  I mean, really?  Do they really think men are going to storm women’s restroom and demand a stall? 

It’s no wonder why they can’t find any legitimate court case to cite this baseless claim.  Does that stop them from repeating it and repeating it?  Apparently not, but that is the beauty of freedom of speech.

There is one thing that I do understand of Hamtramck residents’ curiosity about our Human Rights ordinance, they simply want to know the purpose of it.  In simple terms, the purpose is to provide everyone a zero-cost, local means of addressing claims of discrimination in housing, employment, and public accommodation.  (I also hope people will read the ordinance at www.hamtramckunited.org so they can confirm for themselves what I just said.)  I think everyone can agree that no one, whether you’re black or white, gay or straight, Catholic or Muslim, business owners or employees, landlords or tenants … no one wants to pay lawyers and judges to remedy discrimination injustice. 

This ordinance speaks to that and that’s why the “special rights” group has clearly avoided talking about the real function of the ordinance, because the “special rights” group is actually seeking the special right to discriminate against a group of people of whom they simply do not approve.

I think reasonable voters will agree that the right to a job and the right to a home is not a “special right,” but are basic rights that everyone should enjoy.

The fact is 16 other Michigan municipalities, and hundreds nationwide, have adopted Human Rights ordinances just like ours.  Some of those cities are right here within a birds eye view like Detroit, Ferndale, Huntington Woods, Dearborn Heights, Birmingham, Ypsilanti, and Ann Arbor, just to name a few.  These communities have committed to protecting everyone from discrimination while attempting to avoid any costly litigation process of which usually only benefits the lawyers.

One last thing, the “special rights” literature with the caricature depiction of my gay friends is not only debasing, it confirms why we need to provide protections against discrimination for everyone in Hamtramck.  These acts inspire hate and malice and are now acting as the platform to divide our city.

I hope that voters will see through the deceptive and divisive rhetoric of the “special rights” campaign and vote “YES,” as in “YES,” everyone deserves the basic right to live and work in our beautiful city.

Richard Lee Sparks

Hamtramck