The Courage of Detroit

My boss, a bit of a sports nut, stopped by my desk this morning and asked me if I heard about the piece Mitch Albom wrote about the city of Detroit that appeared in Sports Illustrated. This is the same very cool boss who didn't laugh at me as I suffered and swooned and ached and stressed my way through last year's Stanley Cup playoff, eating, sleeping and breathing my beloved Red Wings' every step of the very difficult and rewarding road that is winning Lord Stanley's cup. He's from Cleveland which is a cool town but has no hockey culture and, no, you can't count the Columbus Blue Jackets. But still, he understood what I was going through and was very supportive, keeping track of the scores and stopping by to comment. He mentioned the Albom piece and said it's being discussed on all the sports shows; Albom defends the city of Detroit and sorta tells the rest of the country to back off. I said I hadn't seen it but I get it - there's been an unseemly piling on for a lot of reasons. I thanked him and told him I'd check it out tonight.

I read Albom's piece this evening and I have to say he's spot-on. The piece is a bittersweet mixture of praise and mourning; praising the city that once was, the unequaled sports city that is and mourning the losses and acknowledging the foibles. A lot of people are dissing Detroit and the state of Michigan, as if we Michiganders don't know things have been difficult, as we've watched the Big 3 struggle, seen our economy flounder since 2000, seen friends and family leave seeking greener pastures. Hell, I left myself seeking same. But I return whenever I can and wasn't really happy until I was able to move back to the Midwest to be near enough to drive where my friends and family are and feel that familiar. The domestic automakers are hurting and a lot of people are counting Detroit out yet I feel a twinge of pride as I go out and get into my American-made car every day, a car with great gas mileage I've decided to hold on to for a while. No one knows how it's all going to play out but I have faith things will improve and the automakers will figure it out. I can't imagine a world where you can't buy a Chevy and I don't want to.

I highly recommend the piece and challenge any Michigander to keep a dry eye reading about the Red Wings' 1997 Stanley Cup run and the terrible accident that prematurely dampened the celebration. I lived that worrisome time and Albom describes it eloquently.

Eloquence. That's not something people usually associate with Detroit. But it's there, you just need a really talented writer to point it out.

Here's a link:

The Courage of Detroit