January 8,2021 FridayMusings is your source for Livonia Cultural Happenings
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During January and February through Valentine's Day Musings will be exploring the issues that community leaders feel can impact our hometown and that will help define Livonia in the 2020s. January 4: R William Joyner, Volunteerism, January 6: Chris Last, Sustainability, January 8: Conrad Schwartz, Home of Art, January 11: Brandon McCullough, Progress, January 13: Laurie Pohutsky, Young families, January 15: Chuck Dardas, Kindness, January 18: Liz Jarvis, STEM Center, January 20: Jim Jolly, January 22: Kellie Whitlock. You can always refer back to an article you missed by going to our archive at Archive – Bill Joyner's Friday Musings.
On February 12 in a special edition Musings will offer up the opportunity for you, our faithful readers, to tell Livonia what it is you love about the town you call home. That issue will have a special message to our readers from Mayor Maureen Miller Brosnan.
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Mayor Brosnan
2020 into 2021
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Mayor Maureen Miller Brosnan discusses how COVID-19 impacted our community, celebrate those who have found a way to persevere and support others, and outline bold initiatives envisioned for the coming year. |
Livonia City Council Meeting Schedule
January & February
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Livonia's Robert Johnson Playing Cotton Fields on 1948 "Gibson J50" Guitar
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The ARC NW Wayne County Seeking a more inclusive hometown |
The Arc NW provides advocacy, support and information on disability-related issues. |
A return to normal means starting to look at 2021
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February
60th Anniversary
ARC of Northwest Wayne
February 20 - 27
Details to come
July
Touch a Truck
Livonia Interact Club, Livonia Rotary AM
Saturday, July 24th, 9:00 am - 2:00 pm
Greenmead Historic Village
Special Event Parking $1.00 donation
September
Good Old Fashioned
Neighborhood Picnic
Sunday, September 19, 12:00 - 4:00
Site to be announced soon. Free.
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What will the decade of the 2020's hold for Livonia? |
Livonia:
the home of Art
2020 goal for Livonia offered by Conrad Schultz
I have lived in Livonia for over 40 years and I have always thought of Livonia as a great city. Many times during my career at General Motors my colleagues would ask me why I lived here, as I could afford to move to some “sexier” city. I always responded “why”, Livonia has everything you need. Parks and Recreation centers, Educational opportunities at all levels, Police and fire professionals better than most and on and on the list goes. Livonia provides for its residents! That, my friends, is also what bothers me about this city. With its great riches and resources could it do more, could it look beyond its borders and reach out to other communities and do something special! Could it cooperate with Garden City, Redford, and Westland and create the Conservancy for the Promotion of the Arts. Could it cooperate with schools and universities and individuals and lead in its development.
As John Lennon would say, “Imagine” a location where artists of our area could come to paint and sculpt and create stoneware and porcelain. Imagine a location where these objects and others could be displayed. Imagine the Detroit Institute of Arts and the Toledo Museum of Art lending pieces to this Conservancy.
In my opinion, the success of this venture is having a critical mass that is made possible by joining with other communities, institutions and organizations. Livonia has the initial components for success. The Livonia Arts Commission would take the lead and the old courthouse would be the location.
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The The Conservancy for the Promotion of the Arts would be organized similar to the Detroit Riverfront Conservancy and seek funding from government grants, foundations , corporations, and individuals. The Arts Commission would be reprogramed and become the Western Wayne Arts Commission.
The old courthouse on Farmington Road would be designated for this effort, providing some surety to donors that this project has a chance to succeed. If anyone doubts this project can grow and prosper I would ask they drive to the Detroit Riverfront and visualize what can be if only they too could “Imagine”. Now the reality, establish a budget, pick a figure right here, right now, say Five Million Dollars to get it off the ground. We will need to fund a major redevelopment of the old building and the staff time to put it all in motion. Take it from me, Five Million Dollars is peanuts to foundations if the project is possible.
I am aware that others have tried to put together similar projects and have not succeeded, so let us learn from their mistakes and missed opportunities. Think big, reach outside of ourselves, non-believers will become believers. Art survives us all. Just “Imagine”.would be organized similar to the Detroit Riverfront Conservancy and seek funding from government grants, foundations , corporations, and individuals. The Arts Commission would be reprogramed and become the Western Wayne Arts Commission.
The old courthouse on Farmington Road would be designated for this effort, providing some surety to donors that this project has a chance to succeed. If anyone doubts this project can grow and prosper I would ask they drive to the Detroit Riverfront and visualize what can be if only they too could “Imagine”. Now the reality, establish a budget, pick a figure right here, right now, say Five Million Dollars to get it off the ground. We will need to fund a major redevelopment of the old building and the staff time to put it all in motion. Take it from me, Five Million Dollars is peanuts to foundations if the project is possible.
I am aware that others have tried to put together similar projects and have not succeeded, so let us learn from their mistakes and missed opportunities. Think big, reach outside of ourselves, non-believers will become believers.
Art survives us all. Just “Imagine”.
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Two leadership reactions to the
devastation at our nation's Capitol
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FridayMusings is proud that two of our elected officials responded to the devastation in our nation's Capitol. Mayor Maureen Miller Brosnan and Councilman Jim Jolly. I am sharing the post of the Mayor here and then following a separate post of the Councilman. Thank you both.
Yesterday a violent mob, intent on disrupting a sacred act of our democracy, stormed the United States Capitol. They may have breached the building and the halls of Congress, but it is incumbent on all of us to unequivocally condemn their actions and the rhetoric that inspired them if we are to ensure they do not breach our democracy itself. So, I want to do that right here and now. The mob that descended on and occupied the U.S. Capitol has been misled into believing something was stolen from them. And now they want to steal something from us — faith in our elections. The City of Livonia ran a safe and secure election, with results in which all residents can have complete trust. This was the case in municipalities across Michigan and across the country. Only if we speak frankly about how baseless these accusations are will we ensure that those who seek to undermine our democracy fail.
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FridayMusings had a conversation with Councilman Jim Jolly in which he shared his personal experience at the United States Capitol and how he was physically affected by the devastation in Washington. I am pleased to share his statement here:
I was fortunate to intern for US Senator Carl Levin in Washington D.C. during college. My responsibilities included some research and writing, running typical errands, and giving tours of the US Capitol Building to constituents from Michigan visiting the capital. I fell in love with the building and its history, noting that a particular spot in the old House chamber (now statutory hall) provided an acoustical reaction with the ceiling the would allow you to hear a whisper perfectly on the other side of the room, the old US Supreme Court chamber where cases of great importance to our constitution were argued, that a particular chandelier hanging in the small senate rotunda was purchased in Europe for a theater in Baltimore, hung in a Methodist Church and ultimately found its way to the capitol building, the marks in the marble that might be bullet holes from the war of 1812, the small plaque commemorating the Capital Police killed protecting the building in 1998, the what seems like miles of painted history on the walls, and many many more.
I was in awe each time I looked at the Apotheosis of George Washington looking down on the American people from the rotunda of the capital as if he was charging each of us with shepherding the American experiment. Are we meeting the expectations placed upon us by our citizenship and love of our country?
We each need to work together to find and cultivate the common ground and common interest in making the United States of America work, it is too easy to retreat to our corners, we can disagree about issues, but there is so much more to being American.
I felt physically ill yesterday watching the scene play out at the capitol, the temple to American Democracy, where we come from all corners of the country to do the work of the American people. I will work for and pray for the healing we desperately need.
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