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Commentary on Flint’s water: Is the glass half full or half empty?
Oh, what’ll you do now, my blue-eyed son? Oh, what’ll you do now, my darling young one? … I’ll walk to the depths of the deepest black forest… Where the pellets of poison are flooding their waters… And it’s a hard, it’s a hard, it’s a hard, it’s a hard It’s a hard rain’s a-gonna fall. -Bob Dylan By Paul Rozycki It may be an omen that the most recent town hall meeting on Flint’s water crisis, held at the House of Prayer Missionary Baptist Church, began in the midst of a torrential downpour, where many of those attending either dashed...
read moreThree poems
Editor’s note: Here is something a bit different from EVM — a sampling of thoughtful poems from one of our young neighbors. By Ruby Spademan Pretty Girls Eat Flowers She’s standing behind me. My neck in her hands and her mouth to my ear she whispers to me. She says I should only eat flowers. Pretty girls eat flowers. But counting calories means that flowers are not acceptable things and yet she tells me that they’ll make me weak but keep my stomach clean. My collar bones are staring to collect the rain again. And...
read moreTrees are good, everybody agrees, but money is scarce
By Jan Worth-Nelson One thing everybody agreed on last night at the Flint Area Public Affairs Forum at the Flint Public Library: trees are good. That was easy. But in matters of how to maintain them, how to assess them when they’re in aging decline, how to communicate with residents about removals, and especially how to replace them, the discussion hit some walls. The event, “City Trees: Pleasure or Peril?” featured panelists Angela Warren, administrator of the Genesee Conservation District; Adam Moore, a planner for the...
read moreMichigan Radio comes to Flint: good, bad, hopeful and angry narratives emerge
By Jan Worth-Nelson Is Flint a city rich with art, a beautiful recuperating river and a school district offering first-rate primary school education, or is it a traumatized community rife with fear, anger and damage, where nobody drinks the water? It turns out it’s both, according to presenters at a taping in front of a live audience for Michigan Radio at the Flint Institute of Arts Saturday night. The schizophrenia of that poignant dichotomy — a set of exasperations and hopeful omens familiar to anyone who’s lived in...
read moreCalling town hall arrests “unfortunate,” Mayor disputes “separation of church and state” criticism
By Jan Worth-Nelson Responding to the discord and six arrests at a town hall last night at the House of Prayer Missionary Baptist Church, Mayor Karen Weaver said she found the events of the evening “unfortunate” but that assuring orderly process was necessary. Speaking today through her public information officer Kristin Moore, she said she did not know about the arrests until after the meeting was over. In a statement provided by Moore, Weaver said, “The whole purpose of the town hall was for people to ask questions, get...
read moreCommentary: Woodside pastor weighs in on town hall, separation of church and state
By Jan Worth-Nelson Following last night’s town hall in a North End sanctuary, one who responded was Deb Conrad, pastor of Woodside Church. In a personal blog post shared with East Village Magazine today, Conrad said, “the building isn’t the problem — city leadership is the problem.” At the end of the tumultuous meeting, six were ejected from the church and arrested for disruptive behavior, assaulting an officer and interfering with police. Conrad did not attend the town hall but reflected on the reports based...
read moreVolatile town hall erupts with old wounds as officials try to explain water source decision
By Jan Worth-Nelson Near the end of the two-hour-long town hall Thursday night at the House of Prayer Missionary Baptist Church, a teenage girl, Tiara Lee Darisaw, stepped up to the mic. “I realized that the more and more we speak about Flint, the less and less you guys speak,” she said. “I want to know what’s gonna happen in September when you all stop the water pods, and in 2019 when you’re all supposed have fixed the pipes, and what’s going to happen to our families that we care about?”...
read moreBees, water, herbs, healthy food star at Farmers’ Market Earth Day event
By Jan Worth-Nelson The stars of the show today in the Ramsdell Room at the Flint Farmers’ Market were healthy water, organic food, endangered bees, essential oils, recycling and more — with the biggest honoree being Mother Earth herself. Kettering University, Mott Community College, and the University of Michigan – Flint collaborated to stage the celebration of Earth Day today. The event featured information tables from the environmental science departments of each institution along with representatives of the Sierra Club,...
read moreFlint mayor turns away from KWA pipeline, opts to keep water from Detroit
By Jan Worth-Nelson The City of Flint’s twisted path to the Karegnondi Water Authority pipeline appears to have changed today, with Mayor Karen Weaver announcing the recommendation that the city stay with water from the Great Lakes Water Authority — what has been called “Detroit water” — as its primary source of water instead. In what struck many in the City Council chambers as a surprising development — including, it seems, members of the City Council — the mayor seemed to be making a drastic turn...
read moreCoal tar coming out of Flint River as Consumers’ remediation, re-naturalization proceeds
By Meghan Christian Remediation and re-naturalization of the Flint River between Fifth Avenue/Robert T. Longway and the Hamilton Dam downtown has begun, with removal of all vegetation on the river banks paving the way for expected extensive summer work. Consumers Energy and Michigan Department of Environmental Quality representatives held an information session followed by a public hearing at the Flint Farmers’ Market on Tuesday, April 11, to inform the public of plans for work on the Flint River along East Boulevard Drive....
read moreReview: Poet/pot activist John Sinclair comes briefly home, still paying dues in “Trumpville’
By Jan Worth-Nelson Of course, the reading at Totem Books was scheduled to start at 4:20, cannabis lovers’ cocktail hour, but traffic out of Detroit on a rainy Thursday held him up. The crowd, many in ponchos, chunky jewelry, braids, flannel shirts and gray beards, looked like they could have been at Woodstock — that is, like me, they were of a certain age. The mellow group hanging out at the counter, sipping lattes and hot chocolates and, it sounded like, remembering the old days — didn’t seem to mind that John...
read moreEast Village Magazine – April 2017
The latest issue of the East Village Magazine is available for download here:
read moreNeighborhood tree replacement plan hits city roadblock: permits to plant denied
By Jan Worth-Nelson Members of the College Cultural Neighborhood Association, many of whom love their venerable green canopies, recently raised $4,000 in a matter of days to buy saplings to replace the 180 trees cut down by the city on parkways in their neighborhood last year. They have a plan in place for volunteers to put in the trees. But so far, the city is denying permits to plant them. Mike Keeler, president of the CCNA, voiced exasperation Friday and said time is running out to order the trees and get them in the ground this spring....
read moreFlint schools chief Bilal Tawwab facing challenging course
by Harold C. Ford The year 2020 is the target date for a new, consolidated Flint high school at the site of the now-abandoned Flint Central High School campus, Flint Community Schools Superintendent Bilal Tawwab said in a wide-ranging recent interview with East Village Magazine. Reflecting upon the close proximity to Flint’s college and cultural center that Flint Central students once enjoyed, Tawwab deemed the possibility an “exciting” one. “We’re looking to be able to provide our kids with that same type of experience,” he said. “We’ve even...
read moreSome young buyers find Flint houses make good homes
By Megan Ockert Andrew Chambers, a 28-year-old studying early elementary education at UM-Flint, has a lot to celebrate. On Oct. 1, 2016, he was finally able to move into his own downtown Flint home he bought in July. Chambers is one of a number of young Flint home buyers combating skepticism from others while finding surprising benefits by taking a chance on the city. Hoping to buy a house at an affordable price from the Genesee County Land Bank, he had taken a short-term six-month lease on an apartment near Kettering last year. Eventually he...
read moreWhen they’d “had enough,” Mott Park Blight Squad stepped up to save their neighborhood
By Teddy Robertson On Father’s Day, Sunday, June 19, NBC-25 aired a local news segment that showed a group of Mott Park residents as they cleared brush, cut dangling branches, boarded up windows, and mowed overgrown grass at a vacant house in the neighborhood. Six volunteers, including an eager three-year-old helper named Jack, worked fast in the bright, increasingly hot, sunlight because one Mott Park resident, Bobbi Wray, had put out a call to friends asking for help to clean up a vacant house next to hers on Marquette street. A crew came...
read more“Beating the Lead Crisis”: Flint forum probes water science, gardens, help for kids
By Nic Custer Experts answered questions about water infrastructure, nutrition, education and donations at a Flint Area Public Affairs Forum panel discussion March 7, titled “Beating the Lead Crisis: Where are we?” Laura Sullivan, Flint’s board member on the Karegnondi Water Authority and Kettering University mechanical engineering professor, explained why it is difficult to predict how water will act in the city’s pipes. Sullivan said it is a complicated water system because the inside of the corroded pipes are no longer smooth and the now...
read moreCommentary: Flint’s taxes 2017–any happy returns?
By Paul Rozycki If you drive a car, I’ll tax the street, If you try to sit, I’ll tax your seat. If you get too cold, I’ll tax the heat, If you take a walk, I’ll tax your feet. George Harrison, The Beatles, “Taxman” Like many at this time of the year, I’ve just hit the ‘File’ button on my Turbo Tax, and I’ve stuffed all my W2s, 1040s, 1099s, bank statements, receipts, random papers and memos back into a folder to be ignored until next year. But for all the headaches of filling out our...
read moreVillage Life: Hoop house project seeds rebirth of community ed at Pierce School
By Jan Worth-Nelson Sometimes the news is good. As the country emerges from a bruising winter and Flint struggles out of a three-year water crisis, some of the best neighborhood news this spring, like a little bunch of bright crocuses, is exquisitely quiet, small-scale, and promisingly local. And some of those small blooms are signs of a larger, cumulating bouquet of hopeful developments. Consider, for example, the hoop house at Pierce Creative Arts Elementary School. Vandalized more than once over the past few years, the greenhouse project...
read moreCCNA continues tree campaign, debates pipe replacement bids process, laments Flint Journal “litter”
By Jan Worth-Nelson Editor’s note: this story has been corrected to reflect that the meeting at City Hall about the parkway trees is set for 5 p.m. Thursday, March 23. Residents of the College Cultural Neighborhood Association (CCNA) heard news on a potpourri of local issues at their March meeting, including progress on a campaign to manage the neighborhood’s parkway trees. updates on the real estate market, bids on potential municipal water pipe replacement, objections to Flint Journal “litter,” and statements from...
read moreCalling for “a season of civil disobedience,” Barber says Flint is “the Selma of the 21st Century”
By Jan Worth-Nelson Calling for “a season of civil disobedience,” North Carolina social justice icon and preacher the Rev. Dr. William Barber roused an emotional Flint crowd Monday night, saying the city’s water crisis is another in a centuries-long trail of American “poison.” He called for a surge of righteous indignation from the capacity crowd–diverse by black, white and brown and Christian, Jew and Muslim at Grace Emmanuel Baptist Church. The theme of his talk was “Prophetic Cure for Poisoned...
read moreEast Village Magazine – March 2017
The latest issue of the East Village Magazine is available for download here:
read moreCommentary: Flint Huddle, “nasty women” inspire hope
By Robert R. Thomas Fittingly, revelation occurred in the sanctuary of Woodside Church, where I was photographed grinning like a Michigan loon in the company of 60 or so “nasty women” and men of all ages, persuasions and races. But it was “nasty women” who had convened it. I had seen the light, and it was “nasty women.” The gathering was a Flint Huddle. Organized as an outgrowth of the Women’s March movement, huddles are designed to further organized resistance against Trumplandia. “Such a nasty woman,” is...
read moreCCNA residents stumped by tree campaign; 7th Ward cutting stops, talks go on
By Jan Worth-Nelson A group of College Cultural Neighborhood residents concerned about the recent disappearance of 180 trees from the parkways of their leafy neighborhood have been getting a tutorial on Flint city bureaucracy and politics in a water-crisis-dominated, post-emergency-manager era as they attempt to get answers from the city and the Genesee Conservation District. In the meantime, tree cutting in the CCN has been called to a temporary halt by City Council–though the College Cultural Neighborhood Association representatives...
read moreCharter revision on track for Aug. 8 ballot; public weighs in
by Harold C. Ford A draft of the first Flint city charter revision in 43 years was reviewed by about 100 Flint citizens at a 4 ½–hour community meeting Feb. 25 at Flint’s Bethel United Methodist Church. The draft represented two years of work by the nine-member City of Flint Charter Review Commission. The revised charter would establish a board to enforce ethical standards and set in place a financial overhaul requiring clear budget timelines and a ban on raiding restricting funds. What it would not do is change the city’s existing...
read moreReview: “Where do we go from here?” Art in the era of Trump at MW Gallery
By Harold C. Ford “It is our responsibility to visit studios and to seek out artists who are often overlooked because of their racial and ethnic backgrounds.” …Irena Jurek, visual artist, Huffington Post, Nov. 17, 2016 MW Gallery, located in the heart of downtown Flint at the corner of Saginaw and Court Streets, is the permanent home of the Mott-Warsh Collection (MWC). Promoting “cutting-edge art”, Flint’s newest art venue opened to the public in June of 2016. A new exhibit titled “Where Do We Go From Here?” opened Jan. 13. The Mott-Warsh...
read moreCommentary: Trees, transparency and trust in Flint
By Paul Rozycki “Except during the nine months before he draws his first breath, no man manages his affairs as well as a tree does.” – George Bernard Shaw “A hypocrite is the kind of politician who would cut down a redwood tree, then mount the stump and make a speech for conservation.” -Adlai E. Stevenson “Peace and trust take years to build and seconds to shatter.” ― Mahogany SilverRain The problem with destroying trust is that it’s not limited to one area. Without a doubt trust in government was devastated with the...
read moreCommentary: When it comes to Trump, it may be time for Plan B
By Paul Rozycki We’ve been doing it all wrong. For those of us who have greeted Donald Trump’s election with fear and loathing, we have spent the last year and half pointing out his egomania, his “alternate facts,” his boorish attacks on almost every group under the sun, and his lack of understanding of the basics of American government and history. We have attacked his ties to Russia, his financial conflicts of interest, his chaotic first month in the White House and his psychological temperament to be president. Comedians have...
read moreView from the Coast: “Indivisible” group well underway to resist, combat Trump
By Teddy Robertson It’s Feb. 16 and a big rainstorm is predicted for California tonight. It is also Day 27 of the new administration of the 45th President of the United States. I’ve come out for the first meeting of San Pedro, California, residents interested in a movement to resist the Trump agenda called “Indivisible.” I live in nearby Torrance this time of the year, so I’ve turned up too. Indivisible emerged from the experience of former congressional staffers who saw first-hand the methods of the Tea Party in 2009 that successfully...
read moreCCNA neighbors act to save parkway trees; city council president pledges help
By Jan Worth-Nelson This story has been modified from its original version to include further comment from Angela Warren, administrator of the Genesee Conservation District, and followup comments from CCNA president Mike Keeler — Ed. When Mike Keeler, president of the College Cultural Neighborhood Association, noticed a seeming increase in tree cutting in the Seventh Ward area known for its silver maple canopies last summer, he got on his bike and started counting stumps. In a matter of two afternoons, he documented 180, many of...
read moreTendaji Talks finish season with “Alchemy of the Soul” by “Dr. P,” Joyce Piert
By Robert R. Thomas “Alchemy of the Soul: An African-Centered Education,” the title of the final Tendaji Talk of the current series, is also the title of a 2015 book by Joyce Piert. Dr. P, as she is affectionately called, was the evening’s principal speaker. Donna Ullrich, representing Neighborhoods Without Borders, sponsors of the Tendaji Talks, prefaced her introduction by announcing that that a new series of talks is very much in the works. Piert opened her remarks to 25 attendees in the basement of Flint Public Library by giving her...
read moreMayor welcomes 33 new firefighters-in-training; Station #8 expected to reopen
By Jan Worth-Nelson Thirty-three firefighters-in-training made a surprise stop at City Hall today as Mayor Karen Weaver conducted a press conference in the lobby about water credits. The prospective addition of the firefighters– thirty-one male, two female — whose training is expected to be completed in June, offers good news to the city as the mayor and Governor Rick Snyder continue to wrangle over the potential end of water credits and other disputed state assistance. Funding for the positions comes from a $3.8 million grant...
read moreFlint Charter Revision proposes ethics, finance changes: Feb. 25 public meeting set
by Harold C. Ford A draft of the first Flint city charter revision in 43 years is ready for public scrutiny after two years of work, according to Charter Commission member Jim Richardson. The revised charter, produced by a nine-member Charter Review Commission, would establish a board to enforce ethical standards and set in place a financial overhaul requiring clear budget timelines and a ban on raiding restricting funds, he said. What it would not do, he added, is change the city’s existing strong mayor-council structure. After a...
read moreLongstanding “systemic racism” implicated in Flint water crisis, Civil Rights Commission asserts
By Jan Worth-Nelson While asserting that there were no “overt racist actions” that created the Flint water crisis, the Michigan Civil Rights Commission stated Friday that if the question is “Was race a factor in the Flint Water Crisis,” the answer would be “an unreserved and undeniable – yes.” Would it have happened in Birmingham, Ann Arbor, or Grand Rapids — relatively wealthy cities with primarily majority populations? No, they also stated. Yet the sources of that racism were not attached so...
read moreGovernor’s spokesman Baird defends end of water credits, highlights ongoing state assistance
By Jan Worth-Nelson Water credits for Flint residents may be ending Feb. 28, but several other key elements of the state’s response will continue, according to Richard Baird, senior advisor to Governor Rick Snyder. Services which will not end, he affirmed, include bottled water availability, operation of the water distribution sites called PODS, lead line replacement, and a program to replace in-house faucets damaged by the water debacle. Baird delivered comments to about 80 Flint Recovery Group community partners Thursday under the...
read moreState won’t bend on end to water credits, Weaver says, adding tap water still not safe
By Jan Worth-Nelson Note: This story has been corrected to clarify that the proposal to hire Aonie Gilcreast has not yet come before the Flint City Council–Ed. A disagreement on what constitutes acceptable water quality between city officials and Governor Rick Snyder is at the heart of Mayor Karen Weaver’s unsuccessful effort to forestall the end of water credits for Flint residents. And in another piece of bad news, city officials predicted that for the water to be reliably safe, all residential inside plumbing fixtures might...
read moreMichigan Civil Rights Commission to deliver water crisis report Friday
The Michigan Civil Rights Commission will adopt and release their final report on the Flint water crisis at 2 p.m. Friday, Feb. 17 at the Northbank Center in Flint, according to Lee Gonzales, legislative liaison for the Michigan Department of Civil Rights. The presentation will be repeated at 6 p.m. for community members unable to attend the daytime event. The full report, executive summary and list of recommendations for action will all be available on the MDCR website as soon as the Commission makes the announcement, Gonzales said. More...
read moreWeaver objects to state’s sudden water credit cutoff, asks “why now?”
By Robert. R. Thomas Mayor Karen Weaver held a press conference this morning in City Hall to address issues surrounding the suspension of state water credits for Flint residents. Referencing a letter she received from Governor Rick Snyder’s office last week, the mayor said she made contact with the governor to set up a meeting with him at the end of this week or early next week to voice concerns caused by the letter. The mayor opened her remarks by passing out copies of the letter and reiterating her chagrin at the short notice of the...
read moreEast Village Magazine – February 2017
The latest issue of the East Village Magazine is available for download here:
read moreEssay: Protests carry forward spirits of two mothers and an old friend, still on the march
By Teddy Robertson I haven’t seen Judy for fifty years, but here she is on Facebook, standing next to a sign that reads: “I can’t believe I’m still protesting this shit.” Her face is not really familiar to me but it triggers the memory of another face—her mother. Of course, I might not recognize Judy herself after so many decades and never seeing her as a grown up. But when we were kids our mothers were in their prime. I remember their adult faces very well, those female models in our child lives, sometimes adversaries or rivals,...
read moreResidents air concerns about Central High School demolition, replacement
By Nic Custer and Jan Worth-Nelson Although an expected discussion on demolishing Flint Central High School and Whittier Middle School did not appear on the Flint Board of Education agenda Feb. 1, residents shared their concerns about the plan during public comment. Last year the board released renderings by THA Architects Engineers for constructing a new $78.5 million building proposed as the district’s only remaining high school, at the site on Crapo Street. Questions about security, cost The proposal has drawn questions, concerns and...
read moreFlint rally, march call out “You are welcome here” and “This is what democracy looks like”
By Jan Worth-Nelson About 400 marchers assembled at Flint’s City Hall Saturday, brandishing homemade signs declaring “You Are Welcome Here!” “Love Trumps Hate,” “No Ban, No Wall,” “This is what democracy looks like” and many other calls for equality, justice and kindness. The “March for Justice, Inclusion and Unity” was sponsored by the Equality Caucus of Genesee County. After speeches on the city hall lawn, the group moved off in the crisp sun to the University Pavilion,...
read moreReview: Flint’s “Women of a New Tribe” show shines at FIA
By Harold C. Ford I’m a woman Phenomenally. Phenomenal woman, That’s me. Just like moons and like suns, With the certainty of tides, Just like hopes springing high, Still I’ll rise. …from “Phenomenal Woman” and “Still I Rise,” Maya Angelou, 1978 American literary giant Angelou, who died in 2014, last graced Flint in 2002 during a spoken word performance to a standing-room-only audience at Whiting Auditorium. Fifteen years later, the spirit from her two most identifiable poems has crossed Kearsley Street in the Flint Cultural...
read moreMasonic Temple future uncertain as membership, income decline
By Jan Worth-Nelson Downtown Flint’s Masonic Temple is not for sale, according to Judy Jones, the Temple manager. “We’d like to squelch those rumors,” she said in late January. But John Porritt, president of the Flint Masonic Temple Association board, said while the longtime downtown landmark is not for sale “at this time,” the matter has been under consideration because “our income is less than our expenses.” And sources who asked not to be named said at least one realtor had turned down a chance to represent the building, and several...
read moreVillage Life: We all need a “madness-free” zone
By The Rev. Dan Scheid Closing St. Paul’s every-Tuesday lunch ministry for the end of November and all of December last year was one of the more frustrating calls I’ve had to make as parish priest. I had been noticing, along with volunteers and lunch guests, that tension and tempers in the parish hall were rising all year, and on consecutive weeks in November, scuffles broke out. The first was over an accusation of a stolen cell phone and the second was a lovers’ triangle gone predictably wrong. I was away both times, and after the second...
read moreCommentary: Goodbye, Barnum and Bailey, welcome circus politics
By Paul Rozycki It’s probably just a coincidence that in the same week that the Ringling Brothers, Barnum & Bailey Circus announced they were folding up their tent after 146 years, Donald Trump was sworn in as our next president. But in light of last year’s events, it’s understandable that the distinction between the circus and real life has become entirely too blurred and the competition too intense for heirs of P.T. Barnum. In an age of “alternative facts,” fake news, and bombastic blowhards, the average high-wire walker, lion tamer or...
read moreLead-abating nutritious food for Flint families available free at mobile pantry: February schedule set
Nutritious food that can limit the effects of lead exposure will be available free for Flint families on 13 dates in February via mobile food pantry stops at locations throughout the city, according to an announcement from the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services. The Food Bank of Eastern Michigan and the MDHHS are coordinating the program, providing foods rich in calcium, vitamin C and iron, according to Bob Wheaton, MDHSS communications manager and public information officer. Each family will receive nutritional food such as...
read moreMTA plan envisions expanded routes, accessibility, cleaner rides
By Nic Custer The Flint Mass Transportation Authority is working to increase routes, make bus stops more accessible, integrate scheduling apps and electronic payment and replace 160 of its 280 vehicles over the next decade. These are essential priorities offered in MTA’s recently released 2016-2026 Strategic Plan. The new plan was informed by community feedback from rider surveys and advisory councils made up of riders and stakeholders. MTA officials report the system provides 5.5 million rides a year using 145 buses and 138 YOUR Ride...
read moreLibrary Black History Month brunch to feature R&B, honor four
By Megan Ockert Detroit Motown cover band Serieux will headline the Genesee District Library’s 16th Annual Black History Month Brunch scheduled for 10 a.m. Saturday, Feb. 11 at the Genesys Conference and Banquet Center in Grand Blanc. The event also will honor four community leaders noted for their achievements, contributions, and service. Those to be recognized are Sheila Graham (Flint Community Schools), Yvonne Penton (House of Esther), Reggie Smith (UAW Local 659), and Charles Winfrey (The New McCree Theater), according to Kelly Flynn,...
read moreAnalysis: Packed Water Town Hall evokes spirit of ’76, ’36 as data pours in
by Harold C. Ford “…When you have a great violation of the people and there’s a great sense of injury…you have to give people an honorable means and context in which to express and eliminate that grief and speak decisively and succinctly back to the issue. Otherwise your movement will break down into chaos and violence.” James Bevel; Episode 6, “Bridge to Freedom (1965),” Eyes on the Prize, 1987. A simple two-sentence summary of the Flint Water Town Hall on Jan. 11 at the University of Michigan-Flint’s North Bank Center might read:...
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