Detroit is an interesting city. I used to live there as a child and it’s changed very much. I remember it as a place that had amusement parks in the city and on an Island.
http://apps.detnews.com/apps/history/index.php?id=104
http://boblosteamers.com/amusement.html.
The Hudson store downtown, the auto show, going down the street to the corner store to buy a snickers bar for a quarter.
I also remember it as a place that had gangs, having my home broken into three times. I remember growing up on a block that had white and black people living on the block. And someone being stabbed in my driveway. A place where we played baseball on the corner, tag football in the street. Seeing Jaws at the Norwest Theatre. Having a nice brick home with a nice size backyard and big attic that was my own room.
Detroit is going through some challenges financially, and they are all documented for the world to see. The governance of Detroit has left a lot to be desired. I’ve heard such comments about the Democrats ruining Detroit. Black people not knowing how to run a city; what a crazy comment for so many reasons. (Ugh has anyone heard of Atlanta! It’s predominately African American.)
But the bottom line, I think it’s simply more sensational to talk about a city that was once one the nation’s largest to being on the border of bankruptcy, and barely able to stay in the top 20 in terms of population.
I hate unbalanced talk about Detroit. I see so much negative images and Detroit. But to me the real story is that despite such devastation to this municipality there are also images of growth, and rebirth and signs that the city is far from dead.
So for the next 7 days. I am going to celebrate Detroit. Yep I’m going to post images, spread the word, do anything I can to help for the next 7 days stem the tide of all the negative images and press we here about this city.
I don’t live in Detroit at the moment. Haven’t in many years. But as far as I’m concerned now. I’m adopting it. It’s my city. Warts and all, good and bad. It’s got some major issues. MAJOR. But you can’t tell me you also can’t see the good that’s being done within it as well. I personally think that what happens to Detroit in some ways says more about us who watch on the side lines. Many of us were so shocked to hear of a woman who failed to render aid, at a nursing facility and presumably the lack of aid contributed to her dying. For those that criticize her, I think we have to ask ourselves are we any better? Are we watching a whole municipality sink into ruin, and we shroud ourselves in the cloak of that’s not my responsibility, I’m doing my job. We can’t all do something. But we can all be fair. I once heard someone say you are either part of the problem, or part of the solution. What problem are YOU solving by bashing Detroit?
Talk is cheap.
There is no way I can correct all of the challenges that Detroit has. It takes much smarter people than me to do that. But I like what Governor Snyder has said, about positive relentless action. I can be positive. I can pay it forward. That I can do. Many of us parents teach our kids that if you can’t say something positive don’t say anything at all. It’s amazing how we can say something like that to our kids and still bash a whole city out of the same mouth. So here’s my challenge to you.
Tell me something good.
Glen beck once compared Detroit to Hiroshima. People like to post images of a Detroit that’s a ruined gutted shell of itself.
Detroit is not Hiroshima.