Jack Lessenberry Essays and Interviews

Essay: At the Zoo - 7/31/2008

If you haven’t visited the Detroit Zoo in the last ten years or so, you owe it to yourself to visit, no matter where in the state you live.

You are likely to be startled by how drastically it has improved, both from the standpoint of the animals and the visitors.

Some of the exhibits, such as the Arctic Ring of Life, and the new Amphibian facility, are absolutely unique. Chimpanzees are no longer cruelly forced to perform for crowds, but live in what is at least an approximation of their natural habitat.

The lion’s share of the credit for this belongs to Ron Kagan, who took over a somewhat rundown and scandal-plagued institution sixteen years ago. Kagan is a rare combination; a trained academic zoologist who is also skilled at marketing and facility management.

However, he is also somewhat shy, doesn’t like the limelight, or the media spotlight, and courts it only when he has to.

Right now, he has to. The zoo, which no longer gets any money from the city of Detroit, needs a small millage levy to continue to prosper. Voters in Wayne, Oakland and Macomb counties are going to be asked to approve one-tenth of a mill for the zoo.

If approved, that would mean the owner of a house worth about $200,000 would pay about ten dollars a year. If you are renting, you won’t pay anything. That is less than one-eighteenth the amount that residents of Toledo, Ohio are assessed for their much smaller zoo.

The role of zoos has also drastically expanded since the era when they were mostly collections of animals behind bars. The last time I was in Kagan’s office a few years ago, he had a snapshot on his desk of a polar bear in a barren cage that looked like a jail cell.

“Why do you have that here?” I wondered. “To remind myself what a zoo should never be like,” he said. Not everybody is a fan of zoos.

I know a radical animal rights activist who hates them. “These animals don’t belong in captivity, but in the wild,” he said. That argument might have had some validity in 1908. But today’s zoos are critically essential to the actual survival of some species in the wild.

Plus, they are home to an increasing number of species who have essentially no primeval habitat to which to return. Most zoos today take part in a highly sophisticated international species survival plan that involves carefully breeding animals based on their genetic code, to make sure the next generation is adequately diverse.

Zoos today also play a vast and growing role in conservation and education, perhaps especially in Detroit. Where else can an inner-city child have her assumptions challenged and her interest in wildlife stirred? There’s a book called The Biophilia Hypothesis.

That’s the idea that human beings are naturally drawn to other living things, and enriched by them. If you look into your heart, I suspect you’ll know that’s true.

Hear Audio Story   

Interview: Ron Kagain - 7/31/2008

The Detroit Zoo celebrates its 80th anniversary tomorrow… but it is an anniversary with some anxiety. Two years ago, the City of Detroit turned the zoo over to a support group, and stopped funding it. As a result, the zoo needs money. On Tuesday, voters in Wayne, Oakland and Macomb counties will be asked to vote for a small new tax to fund half the zoo’s annual budget. Ron Kagan is Director of the Detroit Zoo. Michigan Radio’s Jack Lessenberry spoke with him about the proposed zoo millage.

Hear Audio Story   

Essay: Judicial Elections - 7/30/2008

We sometimes forget how monumentally important a job judges have. Whether they like it or not, they end up essentially playing god a lot of the time. They decide whether somebody faces trial or not.

In some cases, they decide guilt or innocence from the bench. Even when that is left up to a jury, the trial judge is the one who decides what happens to you after you are convicted.

If you don’t like a judge’s ruling, it can only be changed by other judges. And though we elect our judges, after the first time, they are, for all practical purposes, elected for life.

Over the last twenty years, I can only recall one incumbent Michigan judge ever defeated for reelection, a district judge in Montcalm County. He was a truly bizarre character. He would frequently sentence those convicted to memorize Bible verses. During a stalking trial he said in the courtroom he thought the defendant was guilty, “because if I saw breasts like that I would go after them too.” The word he actually used wasn’t breasts.

Eventually, he sentenced a man convicted of domestic violence to one light slap on the wrist, which he administered himself. After that he was in fact defeated, although narrowly.

But there are other judges whose behavior is less flamboyantly bizarre who get reelected time and again. That’s largely because the ballot indicates they are already a judge, and voters still tend to respect judges, and not see them as politicians.

Years ago, there was one Oakland County judge who was largely incompetent and possibly senile, and the newspapers called for his ouster time and again. He was always reelected easily.

Part of the reason for that was that he had a good Irish name. For whatever reason, voters in our state’s two largest counties prefer judges with Irish-sounding names. You can get around this.

A few years ago, I had a friend who was a young and very talented prosecutor who wanted to be a judge. But she ended up with an opponent with an Irish name. “”I’m afraid it’s hopeless.” she said.

“Not quite,“ I said. My friend’s qualifications far exceeded her opponent’s. “Meet with every editorial board in the county, charm them and impress them with your credentials,“ I advised

That worked. Every newspaper endorsed her. Nobody reads a newspaper editorial to see who to support for President.

But scads of people cut out their judicial recommendations and take them to the polls. My friend won in a very close race.

It seems to me there has to be a better way. My preference would be to have a non-partisan bar association committee recommend four names every time there is a judicial opening.

Then the governor would choose one, who would immediately begin serving. The voters would then get to ratify or reject that choice at the next election. If they said no, the process would start over.

That might not be a perfect method, but I think it would be better than we have now.

Hear Audio Story   

Interview: Jocelyn Benson - 7/30/3008

On Tuesday, primary voters across Michigan will not only nominate candidates for partisan office… they’ll also be choosing among a number of judicial candidates as well. And, with so many choices it can seem hard to decide which judge to vote for. Jocelyn Benson is an assistant professor of law at Wayne State University. Michigan Radio’s Jack Lessenberry spoke with her about how to determine who’s the best judicial candidate for you.

Hear Audio Story   

Essay: Left Out - 7/29/2008

Detroiters, most of whom now really live in the suburbs, have a great fondness for trying to save old buildings whose names evoke the days when the central city really was a bustling, vibrant city.

They have usually failed, most notably with the landmark downtown Hudson’s Building, which was dynamited a decade ago.

But the preservationists are succeeding, to my surprise and delight, with the long-vacant Book-Cadillac hotel. It was the tallest hotel in the world when it opened in 1924. Frank Capra filmed parts of his movie, State of the Union, in the Book.

Dignitaries and prices and presidents stayed there, as did visiting major league teams. And it was in the Book, by the way, that a minor moment in baseball history was made. Lou Gehrig dragged himself to his manager’s room on May 2, 1939, and told him he thought he better take himself out of the lineup.

He hadn’t missed a game in fourteen years, and so ended what was then the longest consecutive streak of games ever played. Within two years he was dead, of what we now call Lou Gehrig’s disease. But while a private developer is spending $175 million to renovate the hotel where Gehrig slept, the wrecking ball is tearing apart the stadium where he played so many games.

Fans have been struggling to save it, or part of it, ever since the last game was played here nine years ago. Now, even as the ninety-six year old ballpark is actually being torn apart, they are still trying. Ernie Harwell, the Hall of Fame broadcaster, has been leading a charge to preserve the playing field and about three thousand seats, for a museum and youth baseball.

Harwell and his attorney say they have $400,000 on hand and are confident that they can patch together the rest of the estimated $15 million needed to renovate the place. They think they can do that with private donations, foundation grants, tax credits and, thanks to Senator Carl Levin, $4 million in federal money.

That sounds nice, but is all very iffy. The mayor’s office isn’t buying the preservationists’ claims. They say they want to see $15 million cash on hand or in the bank, and soon.

You can expect City Council to keep debating this, even after it seems to be officially settled. Here’s what I wonder about. Let’s suppose the preservationists do get that money.

Who is going to maintain the field? And guard it against vandals and burglars, pay to keep the ancient plumbing in order? This is not a neighborhood where I would want to wander around at night. The bars and restaurants that were here when the Tigers were are mostly gone. I’m not sure all this will work.

I never wanted Tiger Stadium to be torn down. If they can really make the museum concept work, it would be great. But I wonder if having the house that Ty Cobb built vanish completely might be better than hanging on to a ghastly parody of what it once was.

Hear Audio Story   

Interview: William Anderson - 7/29/2008

It seems that baseball, more so than any other sport, is a game of nostalgia. That is especially true in Michigan this year. The wrecking ball is at work at historic Tiger Stadium, and preservers of the park are still fighting to save a portion of it. William Anderson is Director of the Michigan Department of History, Arts and Libraries. He has just published a new edition of his book “The Detroit Tigers: A Pictorial Celebration of the Greatest Players and Moments in Tiger History.” Michigan Radio’s Jack Lessenberry spoke with him.

Hear Audio Story   

Essay: Cars and Candidates - 7/28/08

Nearly two years ago, right after the midterm elections, President Bush finally had a much-delayed meeting with the heads of the domestic auto industry. It wasn’t much of a meeting, really.

Everybody made nice noises. Then, the President, mindful of where the nation’s real economic interests lay, got on a plane for Vietnam, to meet with our Asian trading partners.

What struck me was the reaction from people in the metropolitan Detroit area.  I was giving some lectures about the economic condition of Michigan, and people would come up to me and say, “does this mean good things?”

“Will Washington finally do something to help the domestic auto industry?” One man, who seemed to be an educated professional, wanted to know “if things would get back to the way they used to be?“ I couldn’t believe it. Today, no economist thinks the American auto industry will ever again be what it was when I was growing up, when General Motors had more than half the market.

Nobody had ever heard of Toyota then, and the arrival of the new models in dealer showrooms in September was one of the most exciting rites of autumn in the automobile state.

These days, General Motors sells less than a quarter of the cars we buy. Rick Wagoner, the current chairman, has to go around denying that what was once the world’s biggest corporation plans to declare bankruptcy. Chrysler, spat out by the Germans and now owned by a private equity firm, is being written off as hopeless, unless it can find another partner to merge with, and  soon.

The Ford Motor Company wanted to spend this year celebrating the 100th birthday of the Model T, the first mass-produced car for the masses. Instead, they are drowning in red ink.

Ford lost $8.7 billion in the last quarter. Naturally, they say most of that was accounting adjustments. But according to my calculator, the net worth of Henry Ford’s company fell by a million dollars about every fifteen minutes during those three months.

Nevertheless, we don’t quite believe it, and so we are looking to John McCain and Barack Obama for a magic pill to bail us out. There isn’t any. They have programs, yes. But they are likely at best to be only marginally helpful, and then only in the long term. They are courting us now because they need our seventeen electoral votes.

They won’t have time to care as much when they are in the Oval Office. Everybody wants to blame someone else for their own misfortune. But the auto industry is largely responsible for the shape it’s in, thanks to a lack of vision and a culture hostile to change.

Our automakers badly need to reinvent themselves. They could start by looking at cranky old Henry Ford. He never paid any attention to the experts. He periodically used to fire all his accountants. Today’s not-so-big three listen to their experts all the time.  And if you haven’t noticed, the companies they inherited are dying.

Hear Audio Story   

Interview: David Cole - 7/28/08

Michigan could be the key state deciding the presidential election -- and our key industry is in major crisis. Both presidential candidates are heavily courting Michigan -- but do either of them have a prescription to save the domestic auto industry?   David Cole is chairman of the Ann Arbor-based Center for Automotive Research. Michigan Radio’s Jack Lessenberry spoke with him.

Hear Audio Story   

Essay: Taking Responsibility - 7/24/2008

I’ve known David Littman for a long time, and I always have a great deal of respect for what he believes, even when we disagree.

That’s because he is an intelligent, highly educated man who is a rational thinker, and not a political partisan. Once, years ago, I was talking to him about the New Deal. As I expected, Littman didn’t think much of using the government to put people back to work.

But he didn’t have anything good to say about the Herbert Hoover Republicans, either. “They didn’t have a clue, and mainly made things worse through protectionist trade policies,” he said.

So here’s something to remember, regardless of whether you are a liberal or a conservative: If you think your team has all the answers, and the other side is a band of devils, you are not a grownup. Liberals need to admit that yes, government can be ineffective. Some people are lazy and irresponsible and take advantage of government benefits. Some of these spongers, by the way, happen to be big businessmen raking in agricultural subsidies.

Not all of the poor are noble, and a lot of them have brought a lot of trouble on themselves. On the other hand, the increased free-wheeling unregulated business climate of recent years gave us Enron, World Com Michael Milken, and a lot of new crooks whom I suspect will be going to jail in the foreclosure crisis.

These days, liberal has become an unpopular word, and even those who are true liberals often prefer to call themselves progressives. I still think of myself as a liberal, except about baseball, where I want to roll back the clock to 1975 and get rid of this designated hitter nonsense and all these playoffs, thank you. However, I think you can’t defend liberalism without agreeing that our society needs to do more to punish reckless behavior.

Anyone who is responsible has to find a lot attractive in Dave Littman’s brand of libertarianism. Take me, for example. Even my enemies would concede that I work hard. I have never missed a house payment and never defaulted on any loan.

Nor have I ever bought more house than my family reasonably could afford. I am probably paying for other people’s bad behavior.

However, I have been fairly lucky in the lottery of life. I wasn’t in the housing market at the time it turned into some sort of crazy casino. We need to do something to try and provide a soft landing for people who got swept away by honest mistakes.

We’re all human, after all. I’ve known a lot of Social Darwinists who believed in survival of the fittest. I have yet to meet one who didn’t want antibiotics when her baby got sick.

Our goal should be to craft policies that marry both personal and corporate responsibility – and common sense.

Matter of fact, if you can find a person who embodies both those qualities, I’ll vote for them.

Hear Audio Story   

Interview: David Littman - 7/24/2008

All this week Michigan Radio is taking a look at the foreclosure crisis and how it is affecting the people and communities in our state. David Littman is a senior economist at the Mackinac Center for Public Policy. He has a somewhat libertarian viewpoint of the foreclosure crisis. Michigan Radio’s Jack Lessenberry spoke with him.

Hear Audio Story