February 17, 2022
Bi-Weekly Executive Newsletter
Dear Friends,
On Monday night, I watched the news with increasing horror as they reported about yet another senseless act of gun violence in Michigan.
We lost three precious lives at Michigan State University, including Clawson High School graduate Alexandria Verner, and Grosse Pointe alumni Brian Fraser and Arielle Anderson. Five more students were critically injured and remain hospitalized.
All I could think of were the terrified students and their parents, including many Oakland County employees, frantically trying to reach their kids at MSU. The delayed response to text messages had to be causing mounting panic and sprints to the car to retrieve their kids.
Then my thoughts turned to Oxford and the students, parents, teachers and extended school community and how they must be spiraling at having to relive the all-to-familiar images – students running with hands raised, legions of body armor-clad police armed and poised to protect and defend, kids collapsing into each other’s arms.
Can you imagine the Oxford students who endured the mayhem 14 months ago, only to be faced with the same cycle of violence as new students at Michigan State?
I am heartbroken at the loss of life and innocence, the unbridled fear and the tragedy that has become a cruelly American ritual.
But I’m also angry and outraged that our children continue to bear the brunt of this scourge of violence. That they have to endure increasingly frequent practice lockdown drills and that they have to live with the terror of knowing that today might be the day that practice becomes reality.
This is the time in their lives when they should be carefree and charting the course of their lives, choosing majors, falling in and out of love and becoming healthy and functioning adults.
Instead, their peace – and ours – has been shattered once again. I implore the people who have the power to do so, to summon the courage to address this very real threat because this madness in our schools and in our society has got to stop.
Do the right thing.
With gratitude,
Dave Coulter Oakland County Executive
Black History Month activities throughout Oakland County
February is Black History Month and a variety of activities are happening across the county,
To find Black History Month events near you, go to: https://oaklandcountyblog.com/things-to-do/black-history-month-events-in-oakland-county/
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