**I did not write this**
"Tuesday November 15, 2011 there was a Detroit City Council meeting. During the public comment portion I addressed the Council and things went as expected. See the Council president has made it the STATUS QUE to allow the public to speak for one minute which is not nearly a sufficient amount of time to address, inform, or petition the governing body of our city. The sta...ndard time for public comment is 2 minutes nationwide and this tactic being used is a ongoing attempt to dismiss, and silence the Citizens of Greater Detroit, knowing this behavior has been going on, I decided to show this lack of consideration for our first amendment rights. I had someone with me fill out a request to speak and the yielded their time to me which should have gave me 2 minutes to speak in accordance with Robert's Rules of Order, however I was only given 1minute and 30 seconds. as I began to read the council president continued to interrupt me as expected which is why I chose to read the Declaration of Independence and pointed out how if the document that made it possible for them to be there is not respected then there is no respect for the Citizens at large
After speaking I was approached by a young lady from Occupy Detroit saying she was upset that I would pick a fight with the council president which could not be further from the truth.
(SEE ATTACHED VIDEOS) I began speaking and was continuously interrupted, even thought my 1st amendment rights were violated; I did send an email to the council president clearfiing my intentions here is a copy of the email.
Good evening Councilman Pugh, this is Mr. Lee the gentleman that exchanged word with you during public comment this morning. Please be advised that I in no way hold any ill will towards you, Mr. Brown nor any other council member for that fact, as a matter of fact I would like to take this opportunity to say thank you all, for your sacrifice in serving the Citizens of Greater Detroit, my fight is to insure the citizens of Greater Detroit are afforded every right to speak without infringing on our freedoms.
I understand there is a need to set a time limit in order to deal with the overwhelming amount of business you all must conduct and I commend the Council on its effectiveness in improving the Quality of Life for the Citizens of Greater Detroit. and there is a noticeable improvement in city services; police response time is up, along with other service I have personally called about in my neighborhood. Thank You again for your efforts and please don't take my presence or comments personally that is not my purpose nor my intent. I am a product of the first wave of African-Americans raised and educated in the Suburbs and when I was of age to move out on my own I looked to the Suburbs as the place to go. It was my Grandfather who persuaded me to move to the City and I after living in the City I came to love it and in all my world travels I have not found a place I would rather be.
Please reconsider eliminating the time limit of 1 minute all together during Public Comment Perhaps in the interests of the Public Good you and your fellow council members could curtail the amount of time you all take throughout your meetings to allow the public you all serve to have an additional 60 seconds to address the Council. Yes I know sometimes there are people who comments are either way out there or without merit, however the few should not cause the Honorable Body you represent to limit the voice of those who do have a matter which is of importance to them and the city as a whole. We all know the importance of the 1st amendment and the smallest violation of our first amendment rights is unacceptable.
I brought my son with me to see how city government functions and he was anything but impressed as he watched the animosity that was displayed and cannot grasp how the behavior he sees in the streets can come from the City Council; I explained to him that just anywhere when there is a lack of understanding of any one's intentions then then is a perceived threat until there is understanding and that you all deal with contentions all day long from every side. he told me he wants to move to the suburbs and I told him the same thing his Great-Grandfather told me "Stay in the City the people who need our help are in the City"
In closing, I would like to make it perfectly clear that my fight is not with the Honorable City Council nor any member of out City's governing body. My fight is to insure that the people's rights to seek redress and/or to petition the governing body that represents them is not infringed upon, and to this end I must quote John Paul Jones "I HAVE NOT YET BEGUN TO FIGHT" "
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