I didn't talk to the mayor, but I know his day was dismal because, once again, Kwame Kilpatrick was back in the news. Last fall Mayor Bing told me that any time the former mayor is in the headlines, it makes his job that much harder.
He let a lot of people down, and we are paying for that,? Bing told me, adding that every time there is any new Kwame development "you have to work just that much harder to change the perception of folks about Detroit."
What we need to remember is that's bad for all of us in Michigan, regardless of where we live. For years, Detroit has been the place people elsewhere in Michigan love to hate. To some extent, this goes back before race was an issue.
Detroit was once big, brawling, arrogant and rich. Almost a third of the state's population lived in the city in Detroit's glory days, and folks on the west side of the state, up north and in the thumb resented that the Motor City got all the attention.
Then, however, Detroit became a place of troubles. Years of population loss and economic decline followed, and many across Michigan blamed this on blacks ruining Detroit. That wasn't the case, but sometimes perceptions are their own reality.
Then nine years ago, Detroit voters elected Kwame Kilpatrick, who was charismatic, superficially brilliant, and a spoiled child in a man's body. His corruption cost the city millions that we know about.
But far worse was the message it sent the nation, which was, literally, "don't even think about coming to or investing in Detroit." There were also fools outstate who took delight in the Motor City's embarrassment. The fact is, when Detroit does badly, it hurts all of us in Michigan, economically and otherwise.
Detroit's current leaders are grappling to find the resources to keep operating, and prevent their city from being taken over by the state, as Pontiac and other places have been.
They hoped Kilpatrick would move to Texas, pay his restitution, and not be seen or heard of again. But he seems constitutionally unable to behave like an adult.
What the media and the courts need to do is sort out what's really important. The rest of us need to keep this all in perspective. Detroit had a corrupt white mayor in the 1930s who went to prison. Michigan had a former governor and supreme court justice who was convicted of perjury and jailed in the 1970s.
We survived all that, and will survive our current problems too, if we remember something. We're all in this together, as far as the rest of the nation is concerned. They never heard of Saugatuck in Silicon Valley. They know about Detroit.
We're living through a crisis that for Michigan is as profound as the Great Depression. Overcoming that is what really matters. So let's work for the day when once again, Michigan unemployment is below the national average. And when that happens, we can give ourselves permission to wallow in a really juicy sex scandal.
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