“What does Kid Rock’s Debuting at the Little Caesar’s Arena Really Mean?”

Kid Rock

“What does Kid Rock’s Debuting at the Little Caesar’s Arena Really Mean?”

By Glenn Peppers

Tuesday evening, Sept 12th, 2017. Protesters marched up Woodward Ave. in Detroit, protesting Kid Rock’s opening of the new Little Caesar’s sports Arena. And well they should, but at the same time, they really should have been protesting those who are behind Kid Rock’s opening of this big giant elephant in the front room!

People Protesting Kid Rock at the Little Caesar's Arena

Kid Rock is in all actuality just capitalizing on all this hype! The once crossover/Hip-Hop influenced recording artist turned full country/rock is making a mint out of all this hoopla! 

Bikers Protesting and taking pictures in front of the Little Caesar's Arena

I say protest The Illitch Co., and all its financial supporters, and those involved in taking all that money from the Detroit Public Schools in order to aid in building of (what I think was) this unnecessary sports arena! They are the ones who sanctioned all this! Kid Rock's debuting at the Little Caesar's Arena is just representative of just how those in power in Michigan actually feel about a lot of the original “Longtime” inhabitants and citizens of Detroit!

All of this is akin and related to ignoring the problems and issues, and water shut-off's, and home foreclosures, and various other forms of "Quietly" continuing the act of bulldozing, and socially engineering america's long awaited and anticipated operation of this giant nationwide program of an "Urban Renewal Project!" 

This is a program started decades ago which would eventually include the gentrificationing of people of color out of the equation in Detroit, and in most american cities all over the country!... Little by little! Day by day! House by house! One burned out crack house, and dead crack baby at a time! One inner city shooting and car jacking, and Trump/Ice deportation and any smattering of racially charged police profiling's and police abuse incidents at a time.

Now that Kid Rock is once again considered officially to be a (country rock and roll) recording artist, and not the Hip Hop/crossover act he started out to be. Kid Rock's debuting at this arena is meant to be more of a symbol than anything else! 

Forget all that confederate flag business! That's old news! You don't have to look far to know where Kid Rock's loyalties and ideals and mindset are concerning people of color and politics! Recent pictures of him cavorting in the oval office with known racist and resident nut case, Ted Nugent and Donald Trump says it all right there!

Kid Rock, Sarah palin and Ted Nugent in the White House

By way of the photo’s they all took together in the White House, if you didn't get the subtle insinuations, and other inferences, and digs, along with those big "Screw You Gestures that clearly showed through their poses and Body Language!" You need a reality check! Especially if you are someone who feels victimized by this administration, and yet doesn’t see a problem with this kind of consorting in a snide sort of way, then you are so far out of touch, it's not even funny! 

Kid Rock's Opening night at the Little Caesar's Arena, coupled with his new restaurant located just inside the sport complex is Big Business and New Detroit's clear and present Sign-Post! A virtual Sign-Post that openly implies the same sentiment that has been thick in the air in New Detroit’s Downtown/Mid-Town areas for quite some time now. And it is that, "In this New Detroit, People of Color, Are Not Welcomed Here!" 

Kid Rock is the reflection of just what those in Lansing, and in state and local government and big business in Michigan think of people of color! Remember that giant photo mural plastered on the side of that building in downtown Detroit by Dan Gilbert's Bedrock Detroit Co. that had the caption, "See Detroit like we do!" and there was nothing but white people in the picture?

Bedrock Detroit's Message to People of Color, and Everyone Else!

That was not an accident! It was a Declaration! It was Dan Gilbert and his New Detroit companies and supporters telling people of color in Detroit that they can and will do their level best to exclude, expel and eradicate Blacks, Arabs, Hispanics, and yes, even poor folks out of the city! Not leaving out the elderly of course, and anyone else of non-white origin Out of the City of Detroit!

Little by little!... One street shooting, and opioid death and communicable disease and illness at a time! One water Lead Poisoning and lessoned food program at a time! One discontinued basic necessity program for children at a time, and one more axed benefit, and raised tax and insurance rate at a time! They are phasing out blacks and anyone else who they deem unfit to inhabit the city of Detroit!... Slowly!.... Quietly!... One block at a time!... One renovation of those classic old houses at a time, that you will never get a chance to inhabit or purchase, at a time!... And so it goes! 

Kid Rock's representation of this New Detroit sends a clear message! It should be an eye opening revelation that you should not trust very many promises made concerning your health and wellbeing from those running this big machine who say they mean well with you. Not without strict examination and scrutiny!

People who send such strong symbolic messages in such a grandiose tangible way mean what they say, and say what they mean! Yet in some strangely perverted kind of a way, these individuals also like to send out codes and innuendos to taunt and pick at those they go after, before they stick it to you. 

Do you feel like a mouse?... Is New Detroit Chasing all of the mice out of Detroit!...
RUN mice RUN!

Like a cat toying with the mouse he has injured, but hasn’t killed yet! Like the comic book character, The Riddler in those old Batman Comic Books! Offering a riddle to further vex your predicament of figuring out where he’s going to shrike next! 

The Riddler before doing a Dirty Deed!

So if these people so boldly and blatantly mean what they say, and say what they mean concerning your life, livelihood and existence.... Then why shouldn't you!

Glenn Peppers   

“In a Global Catastrophe, Everybody Hurts!”

Mass graves for mud slide victims in Sierra Leone

“In Global Catastrophe

 Everybody Hurts!”

(Texas, Florida, Mexico, India, Africa and Montreal! Devastation isn't just all about us)

By Glenn Peppers

Isn't it amazing just how our news media can shut out a situation, or even a major news story, even a major event like that of an act of nature, like the aftermath of an 8.1 magnitude earthquake! I'm speaking of the 8.1 magnitude earthquake that happened in Mexico Saturday Sept9th, 2017 in the evening, EST! 

Massive Hurricane Irma

There's only been minimal news reports on just how badly those hundred's, and maybe thousands of earthquake victims have been ravaged and displaced! No news on any rescue efforts that I’ve seen! Maybe some of you have seen otherwise! I’m hoping so!

Remember, Mexico was, and actually did start to help us. And were on their way here to help us after Hurricane Harvey! And totally on an unconditional basis! But when they're own homeland in lower Mexico was hit with a huge major earthquake.

Mexican Mobile Medical Unit after 8.1 Earthquake

There were not very many news reports, and or stories of help or survivor information being broadcast concerning Mexico's dire situation and damage. Barely even on a minute scale! And that was understandable, because we were in the midst of the worse Hurricane winds and storm surge waters in modern history! 

Flooding in Asian

Still, there's 24 hour news stations on cable TV! And I watch a lot of cable network news! And I've barely heard anything, if at all about the extent of Mexico's devastation, and widespread mass destruction as a result of this earthquake! Not to mention (no pun intended) the massive storms, and massive flooding in other far-off places affecting various people around the world, even as you read this article!

Flooding in Mexico after Earthquake

There are global localities that are suffering very high numbers of injured flood victims, and many casualties registering in the hundreds of thousands.

African Flooded villages

Natural disasters are breaking down peoples and infrastructures in many places like India and Africa! Even Montreal, Canada! 

Flooding in Montreal, Canada

Yet we here in america act as if we are the only people, place and situation that matters in the world!

I know what happened here in Texas and Florida and Georgia and the Carolinas was massive! Even the word Catastrophic doesn't do the damage throughout the lower Atlantic justice!

Flooding in India, Bangladesh 

But that shouldn't stop us from at least acknowledging the affliction of others who are suffering horribly elsewhere, and at least offer some kind of encouragement; and at best Our Prayers! Just showing the entire world that we care would mean so much to so many! The blessings in return would be felt in so many ways, by so many!  

Many Deaths after African flood conditions

In the midst of our own pain, it should never just be all about us alone! We should be more compassionate! In truth, we should all be ashamed of ourselves! But I say, Fear Not! Hold On!..... A Bigger than life Vast Love is on its way! And it can heal much pain!

Glenn Peppers 

“Kid Rock to Open Detroit’s Little Caesar's Arena”

“Kid Rock to Open Detroit’s Little Caesar's Arena” 

(Will Kid Rock’s christening of Detroit’s new arena become a show and atmosphere representative of what New Detroit has shown itself to be toward people of color?... We’ll see!) 

Glenn Peppers                                                                                9-4-2017

Kid Rock! In my opinion, a barely talented, somewhat bigoted rebel wannabe is starting the concert series out at the brand new Little Caesar's Arena in downtown Detroit! A lot of people are not liking Kid Rock’s christening and debut at the Mike Ilitch Pizza themed Arena for various reasons that I won’t go into here!

Yet given some of his remarks concerning people of color, to me, in essence, I think its only fitting that Kid Rock opens up at this new sports arena; considering the climate and air that this New Detroit is projecting and boldly showing the world! Clearly showing this defiant, headstrong, intolerant, and exclusive gentrified re-working of Detroit that in many ways appears openly to NOT include, or be geared for the non-white population of citizens in Detroit! 

Personally, they can keep their damned fancy new sports arena! The Gillitch gentrification development projects in Southeastern Michigan, and all the other outright onslaught, city land-grab moves that never had people of color in mind from the start, barrel shamelessly on! 

So why should I frequent an arena built allegedly with monies that were originally supposed to go to the Detroit Public School system? Notice the word, “Allegedly!” When you look around Detroit (all of Detroit, and not just downtown). This town surely has gotten its priorities and its civic britches on backwards when it comes to “All Detroiters!” A lot of people started noticing that “Hey! They’re sure spending a hell of a lot of money for a place that claimed to be so fiercely broken, and in need of Emergency Manger to mend things!" Financial problems so out of hand that Lansing and the city of Detroit went as far as filing bankruptcy a couple years back! But then magically, out of nowhere!... 

In a matter of three or four years or so, everything seems to be Alright! Just like that, we’ve got new busses, some street lights here and there, Belle Isle got all cleaned up and became a State Park, and we now have a Q-Line, and a sprig of new buildings springing up everywhere downtown! Just like that!.... Hmmm! Sure there were and are investors and such. But all that civically restored magic didn't come from the Gillitch projects! Or did it!? Maybe some!... Nah!

So in the midst of all this sudden abundance of monies (from who knows where) we've gone Arena and Stadium Building CRAZY! To hell with big giant sport complexes that are already standing! Places like the Palace in Auburn Hills, Michigan (opened in 1988), home of the Pistons! This very nice arena is going to be pretty much left standing come basketball season!... Just like that! 

A practically brand new sports arena not even as old as Prince's Purple Rain album, left vacant except for an occasional rock concert or a circus or two! Oh that's right. There is no more Ringling Brothers and Barnum and Bailey Circus anymore! No more Ice Capades either! Maybe a Wrestle Mania tour will come ‘round every now and again, or Circus Soleil!... Hmmmm!

So they're gonna demolish Joe Louis Arena (build in 1979) basically because they can! Some say that they're trying to eliminate, and tare down and kill off anything honoring people of color in Detroit. Well, I don't know this to be true. But if there is some truth to this rumor, then I wonder how long that Joe Louis boxers fist monument that sits at the foot of Woodward and Jefferson, and that statue of Joe Louis standing just inside the Cobo Hall Center will be left standing with people destroying monuments and statues now day? 

The reason I heard they wanted to demolish Joe Louis Arena is that engineers claimed that structurally, Joe Louis Arena is very much unfixable!... Umm well, I don't know 'bout all that either! I'm no contractor! But personally, I think a gang of those very talented HGTV/DIY fix-it folks could-a made Joe Louis Arena A Fabulous Made-Over new Sport Complex for the New Age! 

I imagined Big giant bay windows all around the arena, overlooking Canada and the Detroit River! Everything digital and Wi-Fi, and a slew of really great restaurants, and a people conveyer walking unit (like at the Airport) and escalators, along with a small amusement park and a retractable glass dome!... But that's just me dreamin'! And who da' hell am I though, right?

Hey we can't forget The Silver Dome Football Stadium in Pontiac, Michigan now can we? It's been sitting there rotting away for years, awaiting demolition! Pieces of its tattered roof blowing every which way in the wind, out in its abandon parking lot and beyond! 

So what's next? How many more arena's are we going to build and destroy, just because we can, and clandestinely at the public’s expense? Think about it! Most Stadiums and Arenas last pretty much a lifetime. In other cities and towns that is! 

But not here in Southeastern Michigan! In our lifetime (for some of us) we’ve had Classic Tiger Stadium... Gone! Olympia Stadium... Long Gone! Joe Louis soon to be gone! The Palace of Auburn Hills, Michigan... in effect, Gone! We have Ford Field, Comerica Park Baseball Stadium! And now, they want to build a Soccer Stadium downtown!... Wowsers, another sports arena downtown loaded up somewhere near or on Woodward Ave.? 

My thing is why? Am I missing something here? When did lower Michigan and greater Detroit become such a big Soccer-City Region? Is Soccer bigger than Arena Football? Is there still Arena Football at all? Another arena... are you serious! 

Basic appeal or not! You have to ask yourself.... “and with whose money are they gonna end up building this big shiny new Soccer arena with?....” Take a wild guess people! 

So as Kid Rock Christens New Detroit's latest Gentrified-Gem, The Little Caesar's Arena with his confederate flag waving, black women hatred filled songs and other rhetoric. I'll be enjoying some REAL home-grown Detroit delectable dishes and food items, and a movie! 

I'll be chomping down on some legendary, Detroit style, Buddy's Deep Dish Pizza, and sipping on some hometown Vernor's Ginger Ale! I may even down an ice cold Town Club Michigan Cherry Soda along with my homemade buttered popcorn, as I enjoy my movie, and the pleasant company that I keep!

By Glenn Peppers                                            9-4-2017      9am Labor Day

“Life Changes”

“Life Changes”

(That Stand the Test of Time)

By Glenn Peppers                           June 26, 2017 4:50am           

A friend of mine's dad was sitting on the front porch one hot summer night, back in the day, laughing at us kids goofing around kung fu kicking each other, and just being kids. He told us that "One day, you all might not be around each other, or see each other as much when you guys grow older!" 

We asked him why! And he said "Its because people change! Life changes, and life's circumstances begin to move people in different directions!"

My Friend's dad said, "When you're just getting outta high school, you may see most of your friends a lot, living in the same town. Bopping around here and there in the neighborhood, at the corner store, or at the movies, and at parties, etc! 

Then when you're 25 years old or so. Some of you may get married, some will go off to the military!" Others will get run over by a car, or get a job working in the factory, while some of your other friends will play professional football, or go to school to be a doctor! 

Then when you're 45 years old or so, you'll find that a lot of your friends will have moved out of town. Certainly out of the old neighborhood! A lot of people you grew up with, and came along with, you'll lose track of completely! 

Facebook has been a big reconnection link for many of us Baby Boomers! Putting a great lot of older people back in touch with folks we might not have ever seen again in this lifetime! 

I found that as I got older, like a lot of you. I've experienced some of the friends and people that I went to school with have passed on, become crippled and disabled; while others in time have revealed themselves to be Gay, or have switched over to being Muslims, or shown themselves to be Mentally ill! 

While there will always be that one friend who'll appear to be the same old person they were coming along in life when you were kids playing in the mud. 

No matter how many years its been since you've seen them! As life moves along with you and them in it, the surprises are worth it alone!

My friend's wise dad told us that "By the time we reached 55-60 plus years. We'll barely see any of the people we came along with in your younger years! Many of them will have passed on. Or moved out of state!" 

I've found that after almost a lifetime of close and or distant friendships. Some friendships survivor battles will reveal people who were and are alcoholics, cancer survivors and even people who have been suffering with depression! 

Sometimes we may be dealing with a drug habit that we've been fighting since our teen years!" And if this be the case, So What!... That's LIFE People! Things happen! No matter who They are. Good bad or indifferent; They'll still always be my friend! No Matter What!

As I've grown older. I've found a great lot of what my friend's dad said to us that hot summer evening to be true! 

Now in my older years, I have only a handful of friends that I grew up with, knowing them from grade school that I talk to. 

Then there are my life-long friends with whom I still associate with! We may not see each other everyday, but we still  know each other as people from a soul-core perspective! We know where each other's head is at!

As people grounded in wisdom, humor and life, no matter how far we get separated, we always seem to pick up where we left off from the last time we saw or talked to one another! 

God blessed me with friends who know me well enough, to understand my need and want to sometimes disappear, and go off to my quiet space, within myself from time to time!  

I found that by the time you reach 60 years old, you may be in touch with possibly only 3.1 of those people on a regular basis that you grew up with. 

To this day, I still know and love and keep in touch with friends whom I've played in bands with. People I've DJ'ed with, and hung out at parties with! People I've studied the martial arts with, and gone to concerts with! And people I've sat and cried with! 

I still have those friend's I've gone to amusement parks with, and witnessed getting married and having children! And all the while, throughout the years, never losing touch with each other for very long, as we all came along with an Unspoken Old School--Code of Honor! "Friends for Life!" 

Friends are just that! FRIENDS! You don't have to say it out loud! It just shows! It's something that just happens! 

Friends at the movies clowning

Friend's listen to music together! Friend's act a fool and clown in the movie theater on a Saturday afternoon! Friend's will tell you when your pants are flooding way up high, or talk about your old brown ass, out of style tennis shoes in a way that will crack you up!

Friend's chill at home, eating junk food, watching horror movies, or soul train, and sitcom comedies on TV while eating burnt popcorn. 

Then there are those times when friends'll just they sit quietly with you, designing and/or building and making things by hand, together! 

Some people make friends, and along the way discover that God has given the both of you an extended family in the process of living life! 

When you're young, and even many times when you're older. there'll be no need for you to go looking for good friends. 

Life and God will weed out the people around you who really don't care for you; leaving only those frank and honest enough to bust you upside your head with a water balloon. Laugh about it, and take off running! Now that's friendship!  

You'd be surprised at the people you knew growing up who still live in the same neighborhood you both grew up in! Actually that's a good thing!... Its grounding! 

Yet there are people who'll sometimes see you quite often when you go back and visit your old neighborhood, who'll rarely speak to you, for whatever reasons! 

You'll find as you get older, past your middle years, that old girlfriends (and boy friends) who once dumped you back in the day will look all worn out and un-pretty! 

You'll also find that you'll be totally grateful for that teenage Unrequited Crush you had on that girl you thought was so fine! 

You'll be glad that your clamoring heart, and dissed love had remained unrequited once you've seen how "he or she" turned out in their middle years......... With all them darn loud ass, ill mannered grand babies!

I feel that God gives us friends and confidants along the way in life, because as human beings, we need companionship! In our youth, we need peer interaction as children and teenagers, and even as young adults! In other words, As we grow, "We need a CREW!" 

Coming along, all of us needed social interaction as young adults to learn how to get along with all kinds of people! How to work with people, etc! 

But as life moves its mortal timeline along with us, we begin to change! Some of us marry, some of us become hermits. And some of us spend our lives swinging from one relationship to the next. Remember, Life is Our's to Choose! 

As we get older, our immediate friends list tends to become smaller and smaller! It's nothing personal! It's mostly drudged out of availability, time factors! We're not kids anymore! There's work to be done, meetings to attend! You have family; and again, life's many personal changes will come into play! 

As an adult sharing a life, with a spouse or partner. You've began to mold that life for yourself, along with your significant other and your children! 

One thing I have to say, and it is this!..... Remember, if you live long enough. You will be older in life a lot longer than you will be a young person, physically and mentally in this life! 

I've found that one of the keys to living a happier life in our golden years is to learn how to enjoy one's self, every minute of the day! A big ingredient to this formula is laughter! Laughter is Key!

Laughter is Medicine! 

Never be ashamed to be silly; or to be a big kid at heart! Getting older means you have to learn how to work harder at playing harder! You have to work harder at feeling good! And I know I have to work hard as heck to look sharp and stay halfway youthful in appearance, in my AARP years! 

Hey, if something makes you look and feel younger, and makes you feel good, and doesn't hurt anybody including yourself. I say, DO IT! 

Still the fact of our not needing a whole slew of people surrounding us as friends as we get on in years proves one thing. And that is, as surly as you've entered this world alone as an infant. When we leave this world in our twilight years, we will surly exit it the same way in which we all arrived! 
                                            
So learn to enjoy the best friend you'll ever have in this whole wide world today! And that best friend is YOU!

Glenn Peppers