Earlier this month, the matriarch of my family passed away. My great-grandmother taught me so many lessons. Ironically, one of the poems she wrote applies to the work that still must be done in Detroit. Detroit is a city full of potential, all we have to do is use the people and resources that we already have. Much like my grandmother described in this poem… I hope she knows just how much her logic will inspire me and my work…<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
When Moses went down in Egypt to free the Israelites<\/p>\n
He headed for the promise land, but saw some curious sights.<\/p>\n
When he got down to that Red Sea he gave up on the spot<\/p>\n
The Lord said \u201cWhat\u2019s that in your hand? Use what you’ve got.\u201d<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
The wilderness was on each side, Ole Pharaoh\u2019s horses behind,<\/p>\n
The big Red Sea spread out in front, no bridge of any kind.<\/p>\n
His faith got weak, he prayed for help, \u201cLord must I fail or not?\u201d<\/p>\n
The Lord said, \u201cSmite that sea apart, and use what you\u2019ve got.\u201d<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
He long had lugged that heavy rod as shepherds often do,<\/p>\n
But never had he figured out it would open waters too.<\/p>\n
To kill a snake or walk along it helped him out a lot,<\/p>\n
But save six hundred thousand men? Just use what you\u2019ve got.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Now look here folk, it\u2019s a fact\u2026 believe it if you please.<\/p>\n
Some of us at times in life get between gun and seas,<\/p>\n
But if you bear this thought in mind, it works out on the dot:<\/p>\n
Don\u2019t pray for things right in your hand, USE what you\u2019ve got.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Don\u2019t say fate got in your way and that\u2019s why you are black,<\/p>\n
God made all the colors, and loves them all alike.<\/p>\n
So stand for something, hold your own if times be cold or hot.<\/p>\n
You have the talent in your brain just use what you\u2019ve got.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Earlier this month, the matriarch of my family passed away. My great-grandmother taught me so many lessons. Ironically, one of the poems she wrote applies to the work that still must be done in Detroit. Detroit is a city full of potential, all we have to do is use the people and resources that we […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":56,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-31251","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/challengedetroit.builtrare.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31251","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/challengedetroit.builtrare.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/challengedetroit.builtrare.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/challengedetroit.builtrare.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/56"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/challengedetroit.builtrare.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=31251"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/challengedetroit.builtrare.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31251\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/challengedetroit.builtrare.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=31251"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/challengedetroit.builtrare.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=31251"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/challengedetroit.builtrare.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=31251"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}