How can you not be proud to be a Detroiter? We have a mayor who believes he’s dictator for life, and a near majority on the City Council who believe that their votes for the awarding of a city contract are worth all of four figures. That’s nowhere near creative influence peddling; it’s really not even laughable. It’s merely pathetic, but that’s what passes for politics in Detroit these days. I have always been proud to be a lifelong Detroiter, but holy cow, it can be hard to hold your head high under the current onslaught of hubris.
Well, you get what you pay for. Kwame Kilpatrick must be loving it, for it surely will take some of the heat off what he made the taxpayers ante up for his escapades. Indeed I expect he’ll make hay over it: how can you possibly compare his dalliances with outright bribery? And here so many of us thought Kwame’s scandal was as bad as it could be. I supposed there really is no such thing: it can always get worse, and this certainly promises to.
We used to be known as the murder capital. We used to be feared rather than mocked. And while murder is surely worse than incompetence, there’s something more embarrassing about the latter. Murder can typically be attributed to the shortsightedness, stupidity, and emotion of individuals in scant moments. Often it’s already crime related, as in drug wars. Graft is, generally, planned, crafted; it’s thought out and has to be acted out over time, time which could offer the opportunity to step back and examine just exactly what the hell is happening. It usually involves people better able to know better.
Or can they? Maybe it’s only politics as usual in this Michigan urban backwater.
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