Hey Al, and anyone else who cares to listen, John Engler did not run against Detroit. John Engler learned early in his career, in fact he wrote a paper about this while at MSU, that if you want to get elected you have to talk to people who vote.

If you are going to talk to voters, don't waste your time talking to those who won't vote for you. This is not new news, but it bears directly on almost every conversation about Detroit.

Detroit is ignored, because it is ignorable. Detroiters don't vote. And when they do vote they only vote for one party and it is not the Republican party.That's is the issue.

If you are a politician who wants to be elected, you talk to people who will talk to you. You don't waste resources talking to people who have zero interest in voting for you.

Now, maybe that is chicken-and-egg. But regardless the reality is that the single Governor who has expressed more than passing interest in Detroit is a Republican. Ms. Granholm did not even broach the subject of Kwame's three-card-monty financial chicanery. Detroit has not had a balanced budget since 2004.

2004. Seven plus years of can kicking. Seven plus years of 10,000 people a year reading the tea leaves and calling Uhaul. Those are the votes that matter, the feet vote, and the feet vote sez Detroit is not right.

The thing about this so-called outrage is that it comes from an emotional place deep inside that says you matter.

You don't matter.

You don't matter to the folks in the Marquette, Traverse City, Houghton, Kalamazoo, Grand Rapids, et al. You are boring in your indignation. Petulant foot dragging, theatrics and outrage.

Please.

Dear reader, you may take this as an attack on Detroit. It isn't. What it is is an invitation to see yourself as others see you. This is especially important when it is those others who you beg for rescue.

You are like a drowning man who fights against the lifeguard. You scream and flail in impotent displays of your importance. But no one cares.

No cares about the $5 dollar day, the Battle of the Bridge, the Arsenal of Democracy, the Sit-down, the this/the that. That was yesterday and yesterday doesn't mean anything in America except to museums.

We all here, may take a different angle at history and point to all the joys we get in learning about old factories, long-gone fights or any of the number of historical threads. We love those things, many here joined because of them; but that is entertainment. Fun? Yes. Interesting? Absolutely. But to most people in the State, boring.

You want to be less boring? Don't think you're so important, or that you are still hot. You stopped being hot a lifetime ago. Your ass is sagging, the man-boobs have sprouted and that hairline has turned to forehead.

When Lowell laughingly suggested that Lansing is Ascared, I thought he meant that Lansing was afraid of disposing of the dirty diapers which are Detroit finances. But that is not the case at all, Lowell explains,

Taking over Detroit will rouse a fierce opposition from a very sizeable population whose activation will energize it into a large voter turn-out in what is shaping up to be a very close election year.
Really? A city that is losing voters by the thousands, who could barely bring out 50% to vote for Mr. Obama in 2008, a City that is a toothless cur is not to be feared.

But pitied.

Pitied like a 3rd world nation that demands respect without being respectful. A City that can't spend grant money, can't run a health department, a lighting department, a police or fire. A City with a murder rate higher than Kabul and you get someone actually talking smack that Lansing is too afraid. Too chicken. That Lansing [[read Republicans) don't have the man berries to clean up your mess?

Is that what I'm reading here? Really? That is the best smack talk you can come up with?

No wonder certain people can call for civil unrest and it is dismissed as so much nothing. He didn't mean it.

That is just an example of how much worthless talk you do. How many worthless marches take place, sit-ins, peace outs ... after a while no one cares. No one cares because there is no there, there. Insurrection talk is dismissed because it is just talk.

You want to matter? Do something to matter. Do anything. First off do the right thing and be respectful to those who want to help.