Why are we fighting over small beans? Or: Our money is in Afghanistan.

[socks_mahoney]

It seems to me like this forum has presented a lot of false choices in the past few days.

Paint a decrepit building or rehab it. Build a statue of Robocop or spend the money on schools and neighborhoods.

These are not the only choices we have. This nation has a lot of money, its just a matter of priorities. We can keep Robocop and start funding schools with all the money we send to Iraq/Afghanistan/Pakistan/Yemen that just goes BOOM.

Furthermore, if all these creative young people [[who mind you, really can't always get traditional jobs if they want to stay here) were given some of this money to work with instead of some mullahs in Pakistan.

When are Detroiters going to raise this question? "Theres no money for the schools" "Theres no money for viable mass transit" "Theres no money for a proper police force". Bullshit. The powers that be just don't want to give money to the groups that control this city. This is, in part, racism yes. But there are deeper forces at play. There's enough money to fix Detroit, if this nation's priorties were straight and it was given to the folks who have the energy passion and desire to remake this place. And lets face it, it needs remaking.

We need to move past this narrow focus of fighting over small pots of money. There's a lot of money out there, we just aren't getting it. We need to make these choices that policy makers and politicians have before them more clear. This community needs help, I'd say more than Afghanistan or Iraq ever did. Whats it gonna take?