NYTimes columnist: ''You can do it, Detroit'

[RealityCheck]

On a day when our "beleaguered city will shed yet more sorrow into its ever-expanding pool of tears," former DetNews graphic artist Charles Blow tells today how two years here showed him the city is "filled with indomitable spirits of gritty, determined Americans. They're fierce, proud and unbreakable. They believe in that city."

The combination of personal insecurity and financial insecurity has led many to give up on Detroit. Not me.

No, Detroit will never be the city it once was. It will forever be haunted by the ghosts of lost grandeur. But it needn’t slip into the chasm of lawlessness and despair.

. . . The January poll found that despite all of its problems, 63 percent of people felt optimistic about the future of the Detroit area. Call me silly, but I agree, as soon as they stanch the violence and raise a new civic identity from the ashes of the old one.


You can do it, Detroit. Let the sad end of Aiyana’s life spark a new beginning of the city’s life.

Full op-ed column here.

[Ravine]

"But it needn’t slip into the chasm of lawlessness and despair."

When was that column written?

[English]

"Those who have ceased to love
Have not ceased to need,
Those who have ceased to care
Have not ceased to bleed;
Do not weigh the words that
Never ask, the minds that never
Seek, nor mark the averted faces,
But see the heart."

-Jean Toomer