Make Your Parents Proud

I ran across this on one of the many Detroit booster sites that I lurk around and it made me laugh out loud. I'm sure my parents never expected that I would live in Detroit when they moved me to Michigan in 1962--they selected Beverly Hills, a bucolic suburb with the blandness of vanilla pudding. As soon as I was old enough to talk my friends into driving me, we would skip school and venture into the city--to Belle Isle, the Detroit Public Library, the Lafayette Coney Island. We regularly attended the Fox Theater holiday Motown shows--in fact, we were often the only white girls there...utterly devoted to Smoky Robinson, Marvin Gaye, "Little" Stevie Wonder and the rest. One summer, we met the Supremes outside their trailer at the State Fair grounds and got autographs. They were so skinny and small under those huge bouffant hairdos.

That same year, we saw the Beatles at Olympia stadium--not once but twice. We hid in a suite for the time between the 2 p.m. show and the 6 p.m. The tickets looked the same! The Stones came next--but only 300 people were at that first show.

Each time we ventured into the city, we became more and more comfortable, convinced that all the fear other people expressed was just stupid. Now, having lived here over 10 years, I can honestly say we have had fewer brushes with crime than our country living counterparts. My friends who have been burglarized live in the country. Cars that have been broken into were parked in the suburbs. Yet, the fear remains.

This week I hope that SuperBowl XL makes our parents proud--this city has so much to offer--such a creative place with so much talent.

An Economics Lesson

This is just in from my friends at the Michigan Democratic Party. First these creeps steal the election, now they are lying about our governor.

"The DeVos for Governor Campaign and the MI GOP are trying to mislead people about the jobs numbers in Michigan. Why? Because the Bush economic and trade policies that DeVos supports have helped cause the economic problems in Michigan. DeVos himself, while head of Amway, laid off 1,400 Michigan employees and created tens of thousands of jobs in China.

The Republicans have put out three different numbers on Michigan jobs statistics in two days. What they haven't disclosed is the number of Michigan jobs lost due to their outsourcing policies, nor have they mentioned the number of jobs created or retained under Governor Granholm.

Here are the facts:
FACT 1: Republican trade and tax policies encouraging outsourcing devastate Michigan.
Since President Bush took office in 2001, Michigan has lost 203,287 jobs due to outsourcing.
Over: 1826 days
That's: 111 jobs per day
4.62 jobs an hour
1 job every 13 minutes
Source - http://www.techsunite.org/offshore/index.cfm

FACT 2: Republicans are arguing among themselves about the jobs numbers.
In the last couple of days they've put out numbers that don’t add up, and aren’t consistent.

FACT 3: More people are working today than when Governor Granholm took office in 2003
During the first three years of the Granholm Administration, total employment in Michigan increased by 99,000 (with employment increasing by 87,000 in 2005, alone)
Month Employment
2005 (Dec) 4,795,000 2003 (Jan) 4,696,000
Employment growth + 99,000
Source: Michigan Department of Labor & Economic Development http://www.michlmi.org/LMI/lmadata/laus/2005/misa78-05.htm

Fact 4: Governor Granholm has a plan to secure Michigan's Future. The contrasts are very clear. Last night Governor Granholm clearly showed that she has a plan for Michigan's economy and that it is beginning to work. Don't let the Republicans play politics with our jobs. They caused our economic problems and she's working to move Michigan forward."

She's been busy trying to overcome THREE terms of Republican Gov. Engler who all but destroyed the state. Sometimes I wish WE had a Karl Rove--

SuperBowl Countdown

I'll be rooting for the Steelers in SuperBowl XL because Jerome Bettis is our hometown boy. Football is only interesting if you know someone who is playing--I found that out when my son began to play in 9th grade. Before that time, football looked like chaos to me--I could not distinguish between the offense and the defense, couldn't spot an offsides, or a holding on the offense. Now, I sometimes make the call before the officials do.

There are a lot of things in life that people dismiss as boring. On the other hand, I always wonder what is it that makes something interesting to someone else. If someone finds stamp collecting fascinating, I want to know why! How is it that people can watch golf on TV? Why would anyone do crossword puzzles? What are they seeing that I'm not?

I am reminded of a quotation that my favorite Humanities teacher put on the board one day: "A book is like a mirror; if an ass peers in, don't expect an angel to peer out." Perhaps this could be applied to a lot of things. If I'm bored by something, maybe I just don't know enough about it yet. On the other hand, maybe it's really just mind-numbingly boring.

Camille Claudel and Rodin

A little affirmative action back in Rodin's day might have kept his protege, Camille Claudel, out of the asylum where she spent the last 30 years of her life. Frustrated by her own creativity and "demons" (according to the narrative on the audio tour of the exhibition), she became paranoid and increasingly unable to function. Demons! What a quaint way to describe rampant and unrelenting sexism in 19th century French society.

Anyone who sees the current exhibition at the Detroit Institute of Arts cannot help but notice that her sculptures are as powerful and evocative as his. But Rodin was considered a genius and praised and courted by French society, while Camille worked behind the scenes mostly unnoticed. Women were not considered creative, nor artistic and certainly not capable of genius.

I'll bet that asylum was filled with some of the most intelligent, talented women French society had ever produced. We'll never know.

Scraping by on a $20 Lunch

What will it take to wake up the sleeping masses of sheep? Perhaps Trent Lott's comment yesterday will incite a few people to riot or even better--to vote the bums out of office. He was complaining about the possible lobbying restrictions in an interview and commented that a$20 limit was ridiculous--"Where ya gonna go? McDonalds?"

I wonder how many families have to live on $20 a day in groceries. The federal government budget for school lunches also comes to mind as a fruitful (pun intended) comparison--remember Ronald Regan's "ketchup as a vegetable" pronouncement?

Pat Robertson expressed sympathy for these poor members of congress who have to maintain two houses--no wonder they have to eat lunch with lobbyists!

I have a better solution! Put them all in Public Housing! Let them travel coach! Let them pay for their own health insurance, prescription drugs, lunches and vacations! They might start seeing the wisdom of rethinking an economic system that is totally market driven and look to any other progressive country for solutions to social problems.

There are too many hands in the pockets of the military/industrial/evangelical complex. This unholy alliance has a stranglehold on our country and has all but killed the American dream. We elect these people to make thoughtful, reflective, informed and critical decisions about what kind of country we will be. But they are for sale--and their decisions are tainted by corruption. What's it going to take to make us fight back?

In Praise of Rit Dye

I'm sure the housewives of the 1950's could tell a better tale than this, but I just have to share. It's messy, but I have spent the last few days dying old white and dingy grey towels and a few old throw rugs to use in our cabin up north. Rather than toss them or tear them into rags, I bought several boxes (and it now comes in bottles, too) of Rit dye and followed the directions. Ever the artist, I mixed a denim blue and forest green dye and threw in a dozen or so towels. A few hours later, the most lovely shade of dusty teal had replaced dingy. Positively energized and feeling self-righteous about the sheer thriftiness of such activity, I began to hunt for other things I could dye--Today two ugly tan throw rugs will succumb to the hot Rit bath and emerge newly teal. There should be some kind of metaphor here, but I'll leave that to the English teachers of the world.

Brown Sticks and Mud

This is the time of year I wonder how anyone can live here--it's cold, gray and there is only a dusting of dirty snow to cover the trash that has blown up against the fences and bushes. My daughter lives in the perpetual sunshine of L.A., near the ocean--but as she points out--since it is always there, you rarely decide to go swimming--you can always go another day.

I think this is how being young felt...there was always another day--another month--another year. The sense of urgency just wasn't there. We'll go to Greece one day--I'll get an MFA. We'll build our own house--visit Singapore, rent a small farm in Italy for the summer.

So, Detroit winters are a great time to get out the world atlas, the travel brochures, collect house plans from the Internet, read the seed catalogs. Forced indoors, we are also forced a bit inside ourselves. This isn't the worst thing that can happen--The worst thing is have no plans ready for when those brown sticks start to bud and that mud begins to sprout green.

Where the rain never falls, and the sun never shines...

I wonder how the mine owners and the industry insiders that Bush appointed to "oversee" mine safety sleep at night. What do you do if you suddenly realize that your whole career is built on a carefully constructed house of cards, one that has recently destroyed a dozen or so families? Accidents don't just happen--they are usually the result of cutting corners. It takes a lot of corner cutting to pay for all those golf outings, second homes, first-class tickets, and courtside seats.

Happy New Year

Things better get better or else I'm leaving!