First of all, full disclosure; I have been friends with Judge Terrance Keith for close to 20 years. I have been friends with his brother Luther Keith for much longer than that. I played in Luther ‘Bad Man’ Keith’s blues band for five years. I was hired by Terrance (before he became a judge) as the Director of Communications for the Office of the Wayne County Treasurer for five years from 2006-2011.
I say this up front because I don’t want my close ties to the Keith family coming up later after I say what I have to say about all this much ado about nothing fake firestorm swirling around Judge Keith’s trademark applications for the usage of two names: “RiverWalk Detroit” and “The Detroit RiverWalk.” If it had gotten that far (Keith reached an amicable settlement with the Conservancy this morning and has agreed to withdraw his trademark application), Keith could have sold T-Shirts and whatever other sort of paraphernalia he chose with either of those names attached and profit from the sale.
Anyway, yes, I do know Terrance. I know Terrance real well, in fact. And I don’t mind saying that I am quite proud to know the man. And anyone else who knows Terrance – I mean, who actually knows Terrance – will readily say the same thing. And please believe me when I tell you there are quite a few people who know and respect Terrance Keith. Not because he is the nephew of revered Judge Damon Keith, but because of all that he has accomplished and contributed to the Detroit community under his own name. I have seen first hand, up close and personal, what the man is about, so I don’t need to guess.
I have been following this story since it first broke in Crain’s Detroit Business, and I was fairly certain I was going to stay out of the fray because, well, Terrance is a friend of mine. I usually try not to mix business with the personal and, quite frankly, now that I’m the editor of the Michigan Chronicle I do realize I need to be careful when it comes to rushing to any one person’s defense. Especially when that person is a friend. Plus, Terrance is a grown man and quite capable of defending himself. He’s a judge, for crying out loud.
So, as upset as I was by what I was reading, concerned that his actions were being grossly mischaracterized as some sort of scandal where none existed, I kept my mouth shut. But then I read Nolan Finley’s column in the January 5 edition of the Detroit News. Finley, of course, is the editorial page editor for the News. Finley is no stranger to controversy or to saying occasionally inflammatory things, but that’s fine. That’s his business. But this is one time where he didn’t just step across the line, he sprinted across like his pants were on fire.
Here. Read it for yourself:
“Terrance Keith is a greedy opportunist. He’s also a Wayne County probate judge. That’s a bad combination in a public servant.”
And then there’s this:
“The RiverWalk is one of Detroit’s most alluring assets, giving Detroiters access to the river. It takes a lot of money to keep it operating, and Keith’s greed makes the job much harder.”
“This is a lesson to other organizations in Detroit. Protect your brands, lest parasites like Terrance Keith attempt to hijack them for their own profit.”
But then there’s this…
“Admittedly, the conservancy should have thought to copyright all variations of its brand.”
Well duh. Because that right there is the actual story. The Conservancy has had all this time to copyright its brand, but it didn’t. So Terrance saw the opening and went for it. That kind of thing tends to happen in business. You snooze you lose, and somebody over there was snoozing for quite awhile. Be glad it wasn’t someone other than Terrance who could have really hung the Conservancy out to dry. And for the record, no, I don’t have a problem with what Terrance did. But I do understand the argument of those who think maybe it wasn’t proper.
That’s fine. Grown folks can disagree like grown folks.
But to stoop to the sort of name-calling engaged in by Finley is juvenile and unacceptable. The tone of most of the other articles leaned toward highly critical, and I was told that camera crews at one point parked out in front of Keith’s Palmer Woods home utilizing the tried-and-true ambush technique. I wasn’t there, so I don’t know. But if that’s what went down then I’d say that’s more than a tad over the top as well.
But TV news crews do what they do, and that’s their business. And as I said, I don’t agree with the critical viewpoint expressed by much of the local media on this issue because Terrance did nothing wrong, immoral, or illegal from what I can see. But people have a right to disagree.
But to call the man a parasite…? There is simply no excuse for that. None. Mr. Finley owes Judge Keith an apology, plain and simple.
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