DETROIT NEWS STORY ON COSBY
Saturday, November 10, 2007
Cosby to Detroit: Speak up against crime
Santiago Esparza / The Detroit News
DETROIT -- Virginia Park residents know Lilley Mae Wiley as Mrs. Virginia Park for her volunteerism in the neighborhood.
On Saturday afternoon Bill Cosby made a brief stop from a neighborhood march against violence to pay his respects to Wiley.
The pair exchanged a hug and Cosby thanked her for her activism. Wiley has served on several neighborhood groups and helped to start the nearby Joseph Walker Williams Recreation Center. She has lived in the area since 1960.
"That's an honor," she said after Cosby left her lawn and rejoined the march. "I hope it has an impact. It is not the community that makes a community. It is the people that make a community."
Cosby's visit was part of efforts by Arise Detroit! to revitalize the city. The nonprofit this summer organized a citywide block party and has plans for similar events in the future, officials said.
Cosby arrived as the Cooley High School II Tyght Drumline played in the parking lot of a commercial plaza on Rosa Parks Boulevard. The students played throughout the march, which snaked through the Virginia Park neighborhood before ending in a vacant lot near Woodrow Wilson and Taylor.
The marchers slowly picked up steam and people as it visited streets and neighbors saw Cosby. People began leaving their homes, porches and even cars to participate. By the time they made it from a shopping plaza -- the starting point, near the recreation center -- to the empty lot, roughly 150 people had participated.
At one point Cosby stopped the march when he heard Rukiya Shabazz wailing about her nephew, who had been killed two weeks ago near Pingree Street. The cousin of former NBA star Derrick Coleman also was shot in the incident, but did not die, said Terrance Wheeler, a member of Coleman's foundation, which is active in the Virginia Park area.
"I am tired of seeing our young people die," Shabazz said as she trembled. "We are the mothers who carry you in our wombs. I am tired of going to funerals. It's about living. I'm tired of dying."
Cosby asked for Shabazz to be brought to him "with comfort" and he finished the march walking with her.
"What is the value of any life in this neighborhood regardless of the amount of money a person makes priceless," Cosby said. "Yet we tend to treat each other as if we are nothing."
Cosby told the marchers to call police if they see a crime happen and to take a stand against crime. Detroit Police often complain that residents are afraid or refuse to speak up when they witness crime.
Sherri Harris liked that message. The 40-year-old Detroiter who lives in the city's Brightmoore neighborhood on Saturday marched with her two sons.
"I don't know if it can have an effect," she said of Cosby's visit. "They can't just walk. They have to take action."
Phoenicia Jackson, a 41-year-old Detroiter, marched with her two youngest children. She said the march is important because she wants to leave a better world for her children.
"I don't want them to grow up in a society worse than this," she said. "That is where it is headed."
Shabazz said she will not leave the Virginia Park area because she loves the neighborhood.
"I've seen it when it was at its best and I have seen it at its worst," she said. "I'm not going to give up. I want y'all to participate in life."
At 7 p.m. Saturday, the Save our Sons nonprofit organization was to hold a meeting aimed at linking adult mentors with young men at Tried Stone Baptist Church, 1550 Taylor.
You can reach Santiago Esparza at (313) 222-2127 or sesparza@detnews.com
Bill Cosby's visit, sponsored by the Neighborhood Service Organization and Pioneers for Peace, was part of efforts by Arise Detroit! to revitalize the city. (Velvet S. McNeil / The Detroit News)