A Detroit community activist leader remembers Detroit, contemplates its future.
Excerpt:
My theory about the Detroit gene pool is this: Everywhere in the
country and in the world, people left their beloved homelands to try
their luck in this cold, faraway place where all you had to do was be
willing to work. Whether one came from the segregated South,
post-revolutionary Mexico, Europe, Kentucky or the Virginia mines,
everyone who came here was ready to work. And there was plenty of work
to go around.
This was an amazing place, a Promised Land, where with nothing but hard
work — not political connections, not silver-spoon wealth — one could
buy a house, a car, even two, raise a family and take vacations. Anyone
could earn an honest day’s pay. The union contract protected every
worker from the tyranny of nepotism, favoritism, racism, sexism, and
every other evil -ism that has ravaged society since the beginning of
time. Of course it was not perfect, but it was a lot better than it
would have been without the Battle of the Overpass, the Flint Sit Down,
the Ford Hunger March, and countless other battles our parents and
grandparents told us as bedtime stories.
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