Does Detroit Need Emergency Surgery?

The City of Detroit, after a couple of years of relative political peace and a re-invigoration of excitement and business infusions, is sick again.

As of this writing, both the Mayor and some members of staff the City Council are under investigation; and in the Mayor's case, actual indictment. Meanwhile, the Detroit Public School District is barely hanging on and very close to another state takeover; the new budget filed just under the wire on June 30 contains cuts, cuts, and more cuts.

Why is this happening AGAIN? What can we do about this "illness" that periodically recurs?

Last Monday, while listening to the Detroit Today program on Detroit's NPR station, WDET, I heard yet another suburbanite deride Detroit and Detroiters and suggest that "we just forget about Detroit--get rid of it"...(paraphrased). This caller to the program actually believed that the remainder of the State of Michigan could "do without" Detroit all together.

It has been said that Detroit and Detroiters suffer from an "inferiority complex". It is true that for years and years, when you said you were from Detroit, two things usually happened: 1) you hung your head as you quietly answered that question; and 2) then you started rationalizing to your questioner WHY you lived in Detroit.

Based on the aforementioned caller's comments, and many more like his, a thought came to me: if someone has a tumor, does the doctor operate to remove the tumor, or just kill the whole person and get rid of the tumor that way?

I think I'll pick Door #1 and think of ways we Detroiters can heal ourselves from the sickness of corrupt and self-indulgent politicians and government leaders, as well as our own psychological malaise.

On this space, I will be initiating my own "Detroit 12-step Program" in a secular and totally pro-active series of Wednesday posts. Stay tuned...

I look forward to your comments!