DECEMBER 2009

GUEST column
your LETTERS
2009 year end musings
MICHAEL G.
SARAFA
SPECIAL TO THE
CHALDEAN NEWS
What a tough
year — for
most of us
anyway. I hesitate to call
for celebration that the
year is over in hopes of
a much better 2010. We
tried that last year and
look what happened. But
things have to be close
to “bottomed-out.” It just
has to be. Hope springs
eternal. So here’s looking
forward to the New Year.
Speaking of having a rough year,
Kwame Kilpatrick probably tops the
list. He was disgraced into leaving
office, served jail time and just
generally humiliated by his own antics,
behavior and misguided sense
of his own “ordination.” Come to
find out he was actually bribed out
of office by some of Detroit’s top
corporate enablers of bad government,
who should be ashamed of
themselves for supporting him after
it was clear he was not worthy of
their support. But they were “big
Kwame Kilpatrick fans,” as one of
them once told me.
I remember coming out of the
Archer Administration how some
in our community took some
pleasure in the fact that I lined up
on the wrong side of the next two
mayoral elections. First I supported
Gil Hill and then Freman Hendrix.
Kwame had their number both
times. But I was thinking about this
the other day and just wanted to
say I told you so.
On another front, it’s getting
difficult to keep on supporting the
various and disparate community
causes — from a financial perspective,
that is. The Chaldean Federation,
Adopt-A-Refugee Family, the
Chamber Foundation and PAC,
Shenandoah, our churches, the
E.C.R.C., the Ladies of Charity
and others. All of these groups
are hurting for funds. Nowhere is
the lack of fundraising prowess
and sophistication more apparent
than at the church level. It took St.
Thomas nearly three years to finish
the grotto because of a lack of
funds. (By the way, it is beautiful).
Nonetheless, we need to get our
act together and better coordinate
and centralize these efforts.
It was a good year for gas stations
in terms of getting
beer/wine/liquor licenses.
State law has been completely
flipped on its head
as these licenses proliferated
in drastic numbers
this year. I’ll buy lunch for
anyone who can find me a
gas station with $250,000
of inventory excluding beer,
wine, liquor and gas. I’m
not sure what happened
but it’s out of control.
In politics, it has been disappointing
that President Obama’s
initial call for bipartisan cooperation
has fallen flat. His style of leadership,
which seemed to be exactly
what the doctor had ordered, may
prove ineffective. We shall see. It
is not entirely his fault, however.
The Republican Party, especially
in Washington, D.C., has fallen off
the right side of the partisan cliff
to become barely recognizable as
a mainstream political party. Most
disappointing to me is Congressman
Pete Hoekstra who, at one
point, seemed like an interesting
and independent-minded person
possibly worthy of support for governor
of Michigan. But he’s part of
the herd that fell off the cliff so I no
longer expect him to be formidable
in the race for governor.
On Shenandoah, it seems that
the club will stay in the hands of
the community. That arrangement
should be wrapped up before
year’s end. That has been a very
difficult and stressful part of the
year for many. Thankfully, many
good people stepped up in different
ways to help. We have many
good and loyal members who are
the bulwark of the club and the
community. Foremost among the
supporters has been His Excellency
Bishop Ibrahim Ibrahim.
Thanks to him for his leadership on
this and sorry to those who were
rooting against Shenandoah’s success.
I’m sure you’ll find another
cause for the New Year.
Finally, this year, like all others,
It seems Shenandoah will stay in the
hands of the community. That arrangement
should be wrapped up before year’s end.
had its ups and downs; its moments
of happiness and, at times, tears; its
moments of tragedy and triumph.
On balance, though, it was a
somber year, appropriately so. As
a nation we are still bogged down
in two wars and a severe economic
downturn. For those of us in Michigan,
we are in the midst of an economic
depression. Somber is the
feeling for those of us still working
and living in our own homes. For
many others, it’s more like fear, anger
and pain.
Ultimately, it is a matter of perspective.
I was reminded of this yet
again at this year’s Candlelight Vigil
at Covenant House of Michigan.
Each year, we hear testimonials
from young people who have survived
some of the worst life conditions
possible in America. These
are kids who have been tossed out
on the streets by those unwilling or
unable to care for them and love
them. These are young people who
have crack addicts and murderers
for parents. Some of the young ladies
are “babies with babies” and
have been sexually active since
their early teens as part of their
“street” condition. Their personal
stories are heart wrenching.
This year we heard from four
of these kids. They were thankful
to Covenant House for a place to
stay and food to eat; for staff that
guided and loved them. They are
thankful for the schooling, job training
and the chance for a career.
Most of them are just thankful to
be alive, off the street and amongst
people who care about them. We
know from our experience that
some of them will not make it; they
will land back in the street, in jail, in
the hospital or dead.
But for these kids, for now, it was
a good year — maybe the best year
they ever had. May God bless them
and give them another good year.
Michael G. Sarafa is president of
the Bank of Michigan and a
co-publisher of The Chaldean News.
Hard to Swallow
An open letter to the Shenandoah Country
Club Board of Directors:
This is in regard to the subject of your report
on August 11, 2009.
To say that the club “has always been
something we supported for the enjoyment of
our families and community, etc.” is a sheer
misrepresentation of the truth. The fact of the
matter is that this is and always has been a
shareholders’ institute as clearly defined in its
constitution. A good witness to that fact is that
a shareholders’ value has already been paid
to certain resigning members. To deprive hundreds
of resignees of their legal sharing equity
is to deny them their years of contribution, morally,
physically and materially, to their beloved
club. Most of those resigning members were
forced to resign by old age or inability to pay
the rising annual fees, or both. I, for one, have
given a quarter of my life to the service of the
club as a co-founder, a board vice chairman
and its bulletin editor. To punish me and hundreds
of unfortunate retirees is an outrage.
To say that equity is “no different than
what has happened to the values of our home
or investment property” is a misleading interpretation.
A huge property like a country club,
equaling in value hundreds of regular homes,
cannot make a like-kind comparison.
Your hardship is understandable, but your
best choice is to keep the prior equity alive
for the resigning members and their successive
family generations until such time as
they can be paid their fair shares. To erase or
usurp the retirees’ shares by a stroke of your
pen is not possible. It is a large chunk of legal
morsel to swallow.
The court of law is the only legal authority
to decide the fate of legal shares, especially
since the club is still alive and functioning and
no bankruptcy has been declared. It is very
unfortunate that the board has chosen this
time to throw this bitter taste in the throats of
our old-timers. Killing the only link the retirees
have left with the club is a severe blow to the
harvest of their lifetime labor for this institute.
The club downfall is a result of the poor
management on the part of the successive
boards. For the retirees to pay the price is
a big sin.
It is worth mentioning in this respect that
I wrote two letters to the club boards warning
them of the wrong elite stand they were
adopting by increasing the costs to the members
and the party-goers, plus the “serving
staff” who were foreign to our Chaldean culture.
No reply did I ever receive from the club,
the reason being, as I see it, that the old-timers
are something of the past generations,
regardless of their experience.
This letter represents the grief of all the
club retirees. Amen.
– Joseph Nadhir
West Bloomfield
DECEMBER 2009 CHALDEAN NEWS 11
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