McNeal is Director of the North Flint Neighborhood Action Council. He works to empower residents to create positive change in the community. B orn and raised in Flint, Pastor Patrick graduated from Northwestern High School, earned a Bachelor's Degree at Davenport University, a Master's Degree in Education Leadership at Eastern Michigan University, and a Master's of Divinity at Regent University in Virginia.
In response to the vital need for greater empowerment of socially and politically vulnerable communities, the North Flint Neighborhood Action Council and Community Roots joined forces in the summer of 2023 to revolutionize community-informed participatory engagement.
The North Flint Neighborhood Action Council is a Non-profit organization with the mission to address issues related to safety, education, communication, housing and beautification of North Flint, Michigan.
The 20 diverse engagement sessions held this summer in Flint and Genesee County, gave a voice to the disenfranchised, fostering collaboration among local entities. The participants included neighborhood associations, faith-based organizations, and city government with the hope of the data being used to bring forth community centered and designed approaches to solve some of the most difficult problems facing Flint.
Proponents of this approach assert that inclusive decision-making and targeted focus on resident-oriented policies not only bridge gaps in social equity but also pave the way for burgeoning community growth and development.
This participatory model of democratic involvement illustrates the power of collaboration of churches, neighborhood associations, senior centers, organizations serving youth, and the city of Flint itself. Far from a superficial act, this grassroots engagement approach strives to enrich the lives of all residents by insisting on their dynamic involvement in decision-making processes.
From these engagement sessions emerged three pivotal themes:
- Intense listening that values the input of residents from all walks of life.
- A commitment to returning to the community with the data that was collected.
- Advocacy, after the engagement sessions to ensure that the resident voice is honored and the recommendations followed.
Resident engagement requires more than a single meeting. Ongoing discussions are the heart of the Community Informed Participatory Engagement process.
By emphasizing education and crafting opportunities for young talent to stay within the community, this campaign acknowledges the importance of cultivating robust family values in Flint.
During conversations around economics and developmental opportunities, residents voiced their apprehension regarding the perceived need for more family consideration in decision-making processes. Moreover, participants accentuated that any strategy to enhance quality of life must prioritize supporting families while retaining valuable regional resources.
Community members also underscored the need to place children at the core of community development efforts. They conveyed that every aspect of local governance should aspire to generate a flourishing environment for young individuals. This unified sentiment speaks volumes to the belief that healthy communities are those where children prosper and thus any strategic plan must include this important tenet.
The spirit of democracy encapsulated by such community outreach initiatives underlines genuine empowerment through participation; particularly among historically marginalized groups. By offering a platform to those most affected by policy decisions, the community-informed participatory program helps communities identify what are the greatest problems and then creates a collaborative process to find solutions.
This phenomenal initiative deserves accolades and replication nationwide, highlighting the critical role it plays in fostering social equity and inclusion among all communities. By using the Community Engagement process of working collaboratively with and through groups of people affiliated by geographic proximity, special interest, or similar situations to address issues affecting the well-being of those people, most impacted communities across the country can create a new paradigm of community problem solving.
We appreciate the Community Foundation of Greater Flint's support of this work. Likewise, we are excited about the encouragement and support of the Bridge Alliance and The Columbus Community Foundation in piloting this work in select communities in 2024.
A golden tray sits on the Resolute Desk as President Donald Trump speaks during an announcement on American nuclear innovation in the Oval Office at the White House on July 24, 2026, in Washington, D.C. Trump is signing multiple executive orders targeting the nuclear energy sector and easing rules for new reactors and nuclear fuel supply chains.
Trump’s hubris rivals the fallen heroes of ancient Greek mythology
In January, the New York Times asked President Donald Trump if there were any limits on his global powers.
“Yeah,” the president responded, “there is one thing. My own morality. My own mind. It’s the only thing that can stop me.”
That was eight months ago, but fortunately Christopher Nolan’s blockbuster adaptation of “The Odyssey” has made ancient Greek literature newly relevant. Before that window closes, I’d like to talk about hubris.
Today, the term mostly means excessive pride or arrogance. That’s part of what the Greeks meant by it too, but the meaning was a bit richer and more specific. Hubris was an insolent or outrageous act that offended the gods, often because the transgressor was claiming abilities or authorities that solely belonged to supreme beings.
Nolan renamed and slightly modified the concept of xenia for the film, calling it “Zeus’ law.” In the director’s telling, mortals should follow the rules laid out by the gods, specifically the requirement to treat strangers with respect lest they be gods in disguise.
In a sense, hubris is the opposite, or at least the rejection, of xenia. The hubris of the suitors, and at times Odysseus himself, invites punishment by the gods and their mortal instruments.
Which brings me back to Donald Trump. His claim that there are no constraints on his personal power to dictate events on the global stage was one of the greatest expressions of hubris ever uttered by a political leader.
Trump’s claim was obviously false when he made it.
He vowed that he could end the Russia-Ukraine war in 24 hours. He’s proved powerless to make that happen. If he had divine powers to work his will, why would he have balked at implementing his tariffs so often that Wall Street adopted the “TACO trade” term for his deals? “TACO” stands for “Trump always chickens out.”
And why would Trump have made so many embarrassing concessions to China — from rescinding tariffs on Chinese goods to allowing them to buy crucial and incredibly valuable computer chips?
But Trump saw his success at capturing Venezuelan strongman Nicolas Maduro as proof of his ability to launch missiles to the same effect as Zeus’ lightning bolts. Trump believed he was the most powerful man who ever lived.
This is no exaggeration. In March, when the Iran invasion seemed successful, Trump gave a document penned by“Presidential Historian David King” to New York Times reporters Maggie Haberman and Jonathan Swan purporting to prove that Trump was “the most powerful person to have EVER walked this planet.” King was, in fact, a businessman and occasional caddy for legendary golfer Gary Player.
King compared Trump favorably to many of history’s most powerful, and often heinous, figures: Alexander the Great, Attila the Hun, William the Conqueror, Napoleon Bonaparte, Joseph Stalin, Genghis Khan, Mao Tse Tung, Adolf Hitler and Vladimir Lenin. Many of these men thought they were the most powerful person in the world, too. And many were defeated precisely because they believed it.
At least Napoleon and Hitler had a string of truly impressive victories before they learned the folly of hubris. The limits on Trump’s power have been exposed by far less august forces than the combined might of the allies in World War II or the fearsome Russian winter.
Iran is a comparatively middling power. But the regime’s ability to absorb punishment while imposing its will on the Strait of Hormuz has proved to be a greater constraint on Trump’s power than his morality or mind. We should note that, at least rhetorically, his morality has not proved much of a constraint. He has repeatedly promised to destroy Iranian “civilization” if the regime refuses to capitulate.
But they haven’t — and won’t anytime soon — because the regime’s tolerance for pain far outstrips Trump’s. The combined fear of skyrocketing oil prices, outrage of Gulf state potentates, diminishing weapon supplies and domestic unpopularity is doing the work that international law, congressional oversight and the collective opinion of foreign policy experts can’t or won’t do.
If I considered Trump more heroic than reason and facts could allow, I would say his Sisyphean predicament has the whiff of Greek tragedy to it. Trump is vexed by the fact that the Iranians won’t honor deals or ratify his countless premature claims of victory — giving new meaning to his vow that his presidency would make people tired of winning. It’s almost like they’re out-Trumping Trump.
Things might have gone better if he’d heeded that great Greek tragedian Sophocles: “For Zeus utterly abhors the boasts of a proud tongue.”
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Jonah Goldberg is editor-in-chief of The Dispatch and the host of The Remnant podcast. His Twitter handle is @JonahDispatch.