Saturday, September 10, 2011
Ronald Haddad is a staunch believer that his city can rise above the negativity it faces to be safe, happy and free of hate.
As a former Detroit deputy police chief and the current police chief of the Dearborn Police Department, Ronald Haddad knows a thing or two about defending cities that have a sometimes unfair reputation. In Dearborn, that has meant not only fighting crime, but also preventing hatred from seeping into the city, which has the most concentrated population of Arab Americans in the country. Haddad, who is of Lebanese descent himself, knows that his city has much to be proud of. But he believes that message could be clearer if it weren’t clouded by misinformation and prejudice. “Dearborn is an example of a great American city,” he says, “but our example is sometimes diminished because we’re under attack.” Attacks, Haddad continues, often come in …
Friday, September 9, 2011
Conceived long before 2001, Dearborn's Arab American National Museum took on an increasingly important roll after 9/11. Here's why.
More than 50,000 have visited the Arab American National Museum in Dearborn each year since its opening in 2005. But while the museum was conceived of much earlier, Deputy Director Devon Akmon says there was some anxiousness on the part of the founders as to what role the museum would play in the community after Sept. 11, 2001. “There was anxiety within the community," he says. "To put yourself out there, to share your story at a time when there was criticism of where your money was going and what it was supporting … it took a lot of trust.” And for Dearborn nonprofit ACCESS, the umbrella organization that dreamed of and built the one-of-a-kind museum, there was anxiety in not knowing how the community–and the world at large–would react to…
Wednesday, September 7, 2011
Sgt. Steven Balderrama has served nine years in the Air Force and Army. From his station in Iraq, he told Dearborn Patch why he does it and what he misses about his hometown.
Every military service member has different reasons why they decide to enlist, whether it’s to gain funding for college, to continue a family tradition or just to get a good job to support their family. For U.S. Army Sergeant and Dearborn native Steven Balderrama, his reasons were clear. “I decided to enlist back in 2002 because of Sept. 11,” he says without hesitation. “Mostly it was patriotic pride, at the time. Being from Dearborn, I had a big connection with the Muslim community. So after 9/11, I got involved to just kind of work through it.” Since then, Balderrama, an Edsel Ford High School graduate and the first member of his family to enlist, has served four tours of duty–two in the Air Force and two in the Army, including his …
Tuesday, September 6, 2011
Five things you need to know to start your day in Dearborn.
Ready to start your day? Here's what you need to know. 1. After a chilly Labor Day, things will warm up a little today in Dearborn, according to the National Weather Service. The high will hit near 70 degrees, with mostly sunny skies. 2. City council meets tonight at 7 p.m. at Dearborn City Hall. Attend yourself, or watch for updates from the meeting on Dearborn Patch. 3. Our 9/11 Reflections series begins today. Look for one interview per day all week on the effects of Sept. 11 from various leadership perspectives: Dearborn Mayor Jack O'Reilly, Chief of Police Ronald Haddad, U.S. Army Sergeant and Dearborn native Steven Balderrama, Arab American National Museum Deputy Director Devon Akmon, and InterFaith Leadership Council founding member…
Council of Islamic Organizations of Michigan and InterFaith Leadership Council co-founder Victor Ghalib Begg admits that prayer can't solve everything.
Victor Ghalib Begg has spent his adult life fighting stereotypes. In the 1980s, the Bloomfield Hills-based businessman founded the Council of Islamic Organizations of Michigan. In 1993, Begg founded the Muslim Unity Center mosque Oakland County. And on Sept. 12, 2001 in Dearborn–the first day what would eventually become the InterFaith Leadership Council of Metropolitan Detroit met–Begg was there, leading the charge to ensure that 9/11 didn't mean that they had to start over from scratch. "We met the day after 9/11 in a Dearborn mosque and decided we were going to do an interfaith service," Begg recalls. "At that meeting, I raised my hand and said, ‘We’ve got to think of doing more than a prayer service. Prayers are good, but we’ve got to …
Kevin micheals
12:02 am on Thursday, September 8, 2011
Serving in Tikrit Iraq and will not be staying with the army more ›