I hear on the news day after day about my home, they talk about her like some distant land that our country cares nothing about, because there is nothing in it for them... They forget that the progress of our country was literally "Forged" on her beautiful back. From industry, cars, music, sports, arts, and my heart...
Hollywood has always to my disgust, portrayed Detroit as a city you go to war to be on vacation from(Three Kings)...or fire and mayhem(Mars Attacks)... and on and on. I am a Detroiter, and I'm damned proud of it! I was born in Detroit and lived the majority of my adult life in her arms. I went to College at CCS behind the breathtakingly beautiful Detroit Institute of Arts, all my childhood, every Christmas, my pictures with Santa at Hudson's. I spent my middle school years downtown at Trapper's Alley, Greektown, and the Renaissance Center in awe of the beautifully crafted two person paper dragon kites.
I went to her Dally in the Alleys...her Taste Fests...her Brew Ha-Has...her Blues Festivals in Heart Plaza, and George Clinton's free concerts at Cheyenne Park. I spent the boat races on blankets on Belle Isle and wandered her beautiful Arboretum, and drove slowly through the night while the deer walked up to your car.
I spent many nights at Rock 'n Bowl at the Magic Stick and saw Fred Wesley and Maceo Parker at the Majestic...home grown bands at the Old Miami. I wandered her streets and marveled at her exquisite architecture, from the Book Tower Building's fresco ceiling to the Incredible Courthouse...and yes, I walked!
From child to young adulthood, I hardly ever missed a home game at TIGER STADIUM, where in 1984 we won the World Series(one of my good friend's step-father was Kirk Gibson). Going to the Red Wings games at the Joe Louis Arena, my cousin being a HUGE fan got a signed stick from my "Uncle Vic" who was a bartender at the Olympia Room forever...I remember our back to back Stanley's and the HUGE Parade on our 1st win, every street was full of people walking with our kids, friends, and families, the Pistons "Dream Team" or "Bad Boys" whichever you chose(Isiah Thomas, John Salley, Dennis "The Worm" Rodman and Adrian Dantley).
She still lives, she still breathes, she still has Detroiter's, she still has us! Families who built futures from the sweat, work, and resilience that was her. I am the granddaughter of a Polish immigrant who was raised in a Catholic orphanage during the depression to become one of the catalysts behind the birth of the UAW(representation for worker's safety, for wages worked, health care and security for a family if the husband was injured on the job) and voted in to be Chief Union Steward of the Chrysler Mound Plant, worked as the Tool Room Supervisor and eventually one of the Plant Electricians. This great man, who came with nothing, had nothing, became the model of the American dream. He build his own home for his wife and two daughters and sent them both to college. In Detroit, the city he loved...in America, the greatest country in the world, he felt...where anything is possible. For both of those reasons, I'm glad he's gone and not here to see his city, his hard work and livelihood crushed...and his city, my city, our city...used as a synonym for CRAP.
With just what I have listed here, which is nothing compared to what she has contributed to this country, I ask...Oh why have we forsaken her?
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