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December 29, 2008
The Ruins Of Detroit
As the night wears on, Charlie grows defensive, and almost defiant, about Detroit. He recounts everything it's done for the country, insists the city still matters and won't disappear, speculates about the potential for it to become a major port since "water is the new oil," and insists that Henry Ford is more important to history than Jesus Christ since "even Muslims drive Toyotas." At this, Patterson, a good Catholic boy, leans into my tape recorder, "That was Charlie...... When I go home tonight, I will make the sign of the cross and pray to Henry Ford."And then I got a heads up from a site I had posted at a couple of years ago which reminded me of a pictorial essay The Fabulous Ruins of Detroit. Now all this is too fresh to be just an interesting ruin. It still hurts to see wealth turn into decay. Give it another 100 or 200 years and it will be an archaeological site and not the screaming pain of a city in its death throes. Civilization has moved on. Water ways are not so important for transporting industrial goods. The graft and political encrustations of Detroit are no longer supportable. Factories that were once state of the art are now too much overhead for changed technology. The layouts are wrong. The attitudes of the people are too hardened. Too much "this is the way it has always been done". So the last of the life is being sucked out of Detroit. It is sad. But we are too close. In a hundred years it will just be "interesting". Cross Posted at Power and ControlAnd on the pedestal these words appear:
posted by Simon on 12.29.08 at 06:01 PM
Comments
how come democrats don't come through on same-sex marriage? we let it happen Bill · December 29, 2008 07:22 PM Thank you, UAW. RM · December 30, 2008 04:24 AM The UAW had help from every level of government to make this collapse happen. I used to laugh out loud when those Michigan business adds came on the radio. No manager in his right mind would locate a business in Michigan. Bram · December 30, 2008 09:31 AM I went to Grad school in the early '70's in Detroit - We lived downtown to be near the University- and you could not overstate the grimness of the territory as a result of the riots in the late 60's. One day, the burned out buiding behind our apartment began to be torn down. We were sure the new view out our windows would be better- until the task was completed- and we had a view of another burned out building behind the first. I remember those two years as the most depressing in my life... Susan Lee Susan Lee · December 31, 2008 10:17 AM Googling Detroit and abandoned brings up a number of similar sites. Bleepless · December 31, 2008 09:37 PM Post a comment
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how come democrats don't come through on same-sex marriage? we let it happen
http://onemillionlettersformarriageequality.blogspot.com/