Just when we were starting to forget about our confusion over the City of Lansing declaring themselves a “sanctuary city”, but not really defining what that meant, the City of Lansing goes and throws a monkey wrench into the debate.

As William Shakespeare famously wrote: To be, or not to be: that is the question.

The Lansing State Journal is reporting that two council members, Judi Brown Clarke and Carol Wood, have scheduled a special meeting tonight in which they would like to discuss replacing the current council’s resolution declaring Lansing a “sanctuary city” with a less controversial term.

The other day I informed my listeners that the Lansing State Journal reported that the Michigan and Lansing chambers of commerce want the council to reverse their “sanctuary city” declaration, the business chambers wrote a letter to the council stating:

As our city’s elected leaders, you play an important role in maintaining and creating a climate that attracts businesses, residents and investment - or doesn’t.  Let’s maintain an approach that makes investing and doing business in Lansing just as attractive as Detroit, Grand Rapids, Traverse City and other growing and thriving cities.

I also wrote a piece last week discussing the Mayor of Lansing’s appearance on the Fox News Show Tucker Carlson Tonight in which he seemed to confuse the declaration even further.  The reason of my article was to point out some of the confusion around Lansing’s declaration of calling themselves a “sanctuary city”.  If they want to call themselves a “sanctuary city” but still follow federal law, that is fine with me.  I would not want to live in a city that declared themselves a “sanctuary city” due to all the negative attention to the city that would bring.

In the most recent Lansing State Journal article which described the special meeting called for tonight council member Judi Brown Clarke was quoted saying about the declaration that it was becoming:

A trigger and negative distraction. This was not a change in our belief in positing Lansing as a welcoming city. Rather, this resolves a challenge from outside requests.

Council member Judi Brown Clarke was also quoted the article stating that the term “sanctuary city”:

Undermined our ability to state how we embrace our community and remain fiscally diligent.

And she described the meeting Wednesday as:

An effort to provide clarification.

I certainly understand her concern and believe that calling for this special meeting to either define what they mean by declaring themselves a “sanctuary city” or remove the declaration, is the right thing to do.

The pro-sanctuary city group, By Any Means Necessary, was quoted in the Lansing State Journal article accusing council members Judi Brown Clarke and Carol Wood of:

Being more concerned with money than their constituents.

My question to the By Any Means Necessary group would be: how is an illegal immigrant a constituent of any politician?  In the context of a politician representing people we would define those who have the ability to vote for a politician as their constituent.

Maybe tonight’s meeting will bring clarity to the citizens of Lansing and Michigan, we shall see.

The Live with Renk show airs Monday through Friday 9 a.m. to noon, to let me know your thoughts call (269) 441-9595

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