Dear Mr. President: No Pardon for Kwame

Yes, for those of you who follow my blog, I am still alive and kicking, and have finally found a topic that has my dander up enough to fire up the computer and write about it.

I nearly choked on my morning peanut butter sandwich when I read in The Detroit News that Kwame Kilpatrick, former Detroit mayor and current federal inmate, has appealed to President Trump to commute his sentence for swindling the taxpayers of Detroit, Wayne County, and the State of Michigan out of millions of dollars during his term of office.  To say nothing of the excruciating process and more millions of dollars it took to drag Detroit through the bankruptcy that got it back on the right track. 

It is not known if he has filed a new request or if this is a holdover from his prior appeal to the now ex-President Obama.  The article goes on to detail Kilpatrick's conversion to Christianity, his earning a Culinary Arts certificate, and all the mentoring he does in the prison as reasons for the pardon.  Additionally (and incredibly, in my mind) Kilpatrick actually has supporters out there who have given statements in the article and have set up a website to garner support for him.

So, since I know he reads my blog whenever I post (although probably at 3 am while he is Tweeting!), here are my thoughts, Mr. President:  DON'T YOU DARE!

Now, if Kilpatrick's prison conversion and subsequent good work with young prisoners are all true, no one will be happier about it than me.  God rejoices when anyone finds his way back to him, and all Christians should do the same.  So God bless and keep you Kwame, and guide you in all his ways.

However - none of this really releases you from the consequences of your prior actions that led to your conviction and incarceration.  You still have to bear the consequences of that, and that means a long prison term for you to serve.  Billy Graham would still have to pay his speeding ticket if he had been caught speeding.  His relationship to Christ would have no bearing on that infraction or it's consequences and he couldn't expect to get off because he was a really godly man who made a mistake.

So Mr. President, as a citizen of Michigan whose tax dollars have gone to recover from the mess this guy made in our state, I implore you NOT to pardon Kwame Kilpatrick.  It would be a slap in the face to all of us here in Michigan who still suffer from his past corruption.