Michigan's most odious #9: Small mind in the big city

by: Eric B.

Sat Dec 31, 2011 at 09:00:00 AM EST

Mayors in the vein of Janice Daniels are traditionally trotted out to cut ribbons, pass checks, and occasionally administer weddings for middle aged people on their second marriages. They don't normally have to apologize before a national audience for having posted slurs to their Facebook accounts several months previously. Or, in her case, twice make the city over which she presides a national laughingstock in less than a month.

It isn't just for that slur that Daniels has made remarkable progress in pushing her way onto this list. It's her defence, which initially was that she was a victim of First Amendment-related bullying and that she was being censored. She also played an active role in rejecting federal dollars to build a modern transit center in the city of Troy based on race baiting fears that it would bring "urban" youth to Troy ... and by "urban" we mean "black."

Fortunately, the wreckage of Daniels' tenure as mayor has been largely confined to the Troy city limits. If Gary Peters' plan comes to fruition, the city of Royal Oak -- long respected for the general inclusive thinking of its city fathers and modern way of thinking -- will get the federal transit dollars that the narrow minded Daniels helped turn down.