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Zulu_warrior
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Username: Zulu_warrior

Post Number: 1233
Registered: 10-2003
Posted on Monday, December 15, 2008 - 9:56 am:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

Monday, December 15, 2008
Amber Arellano
Commentary: Southeastern Michigan braces for safety net to break
Will Washington fund jobs or welfare?

The social levies are breaking in my city, my metropolitan region, my home, my heart.

An economic Katrina is hitting metro Detroit, devastating dozens of square miles and tens of thousands of families.

As Washington ideologues banter about Detroit Three automaker loans, they should heed a warning: The small-minded Senate Republicans from the South -- one of the most bailed-out, subsidized regions for decades -- who argue government shouldn't help the Detroit Three automakers should heed a warning: either you invest in jobs, or you invest in welfare, pension guarantees and the reconstruction of a regional economy not unlike that of New Orleans and the American South.

That is exactly the kind of scenario which we are facing here in Southeastern Michigan, ground zero of an economic Katrina that began in 2001. Already we have lost more than 350,000 jobs. In 2009 we anticipate we will lose at least another 100,000. By 2010 add at least another 60,000 jobs, wrecked and gone.

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And that's if the automakers actually survive.

Other states are just beginning to feel the wrenching losses -- and its impact to families and social networks -- that we have for seven straight years. And the worst hasn't hit yet.

Unlike New Orleans' Hurricane Katrina, there is no stinking Superdome providing refuge for the newly displaced here. No federal swat teams are coming to help. No helicopters are swooping in to rescue the sick and suddenly-homeless.

Unlike New Orleans, our story lacks a dramatic one-month narrative arc of death and survival. Our Katrina is ravaging families more slowly, as a kettle of water warms and turns to a boil, gradually killing its lobster.

But our region is being devastated, nonetheless.

Rising need

Our equivalent of New Orleans' levies is our tattered safety net, which local leaders wonder how long it will hold.

Tent cities are sprouting up like winter grass in public parks here. Suburbanites in Oakland County flock to shelters overwhelmed by the influx of new refugees.

Doctors say they're seeing suicide and depression skyrocket.Local food banks are going dry for the first time in history. Gleaners Community Food Bank of Southeastern Michigan reports a 70 percent increase in need this fall compared to fall 2007.

"The suburbs are really where you're seeing the need grow, as jobs disappear," says Gerry Brisson, Gleaners' senior vice president.

In Plymouth recently, Trinity Evangelical Presbyterian Church heard of growing hunger in its community and recently hosted an event with Gleaners.

They prepared for 250 families to come for food donations, and 700 families showed up. "And that's in Plymouth! Plymouth!" Brisson said of the upscale suburb. "That is far removed from the really poor folks in the city and older suburbs."

Days later, a Warren church invited Gleaners to come and distribute food to 150 families -- and 1,700 families showed up.

"Our driver arrived at 8 am and hundreds of people were waiting," Brisson said. "What does that say about the safety net?"

What is so worrisome is how much darker the landscape is expected to grow over the next two years. Thousands of people who took forced buy-outs over the last two years will see their buy-out money run out. Last week Governor Jennifer Granholm, facing yet another of state deficit, passed an executive order to cut another $23 million in assistance for the struggling.

By next year, Gleaners anticipates local emergency food needs will rise as much as 50 percent -- threatening to crash our social levies altogether.

"It's going to take much more than just food banks," Brisson says. "The food bank network was designed to be a short-term stop gap. It's going to take good government to really help families who are really going to need the help in the mid-term."

"One in 8 people in Michigan relies on food assistance, and the trend line shows no sign of abating," says Sharon Parks, President of the Michigan League for Human Services.

My once thriving auto hometown of Pontiac resembles war-torn Baghdad. Recently its unemployment rate hit the Great Depression-level of 20 percent. General Motors is its only large-scale employer left. The city is too broke to pay for adequate police staffing. Vigilantes have begun patrolling neighborhoods to counter the community's rising murder rate. On a recent evening as my husband and brother walked along Pontiac's Main Street, a truckload of four 30-something men, two armed with guns, drove up and asked if he had seen a man they were looking for. My startled husband answered no before the men drove off into the barren nightBroken covenant?

When Hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans, Americans watched, often in passionate protest, as our federal government failed to protect and help our fellow citizens in their time of greatest need.

For many people, it was if we watched a covenant being broken, a social contract between neighbors, between our civic institutions and our government, which has been the glue which has held us together despite our diversity and differences: do unto to others as you would have them do unto you.

What should be so disturbing to all Americans is that Michigan's growing crisis demonstrates that New Orleans was no anomaly. We are watching our social covenant be broken yet again.

Where are the national reporters, the television cameras, and the outrage? Where are the national advocacy organizations? Where are the Americans of good hearts and good intentions?

Thousands of people in my region cry out to Washington for help. One woman I spoke with last week began weeping when I asked her what impact this economic crisis is having in her life. She described neighbors on the verge of foreclosure; a friend who lost his job just two weeks before he would become eligible for a full pension; families split up this Christmas as one spouse works hundreds of miles away to send money back home.

Perhaps most importantly, she has lost faith in her government and her country.

"We all bought into a lie, that the value of everything was going to go up, that our mortgages and our jobs were somewhat secure," said Donna Laing of Plymouth, whose husband has seen his company shrink from about 300 to 5 people nationwide.

I don't believe all of America doesn't care. I believe it does not know how truly awful our situation is becoming here.

But Washington knows, and for seven straight years, it has turned away.

A nation's people define itself by how it responds to the needs of the hungry and vulnerable, especially during a time of crisis.

Washington can choose to support Michigan and the rest of the Rustbelt through this perilous time by investing in jobs or in welfare, or neither.

What will it be, America? What is this country made of? Are we who we say we are?

The people of southeastern Michigan call out and ask, as our levies give away.

http://www.detnews.com/apps/pb cs.dll/article?AID=/20081215/O PINION03/812150301
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Eric_c
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Username: Eric_c

Post Number: 684
Registered: 11-2003
Posted on Monday, December 15, 2008 - 10:57 am:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

BUMP - READ IT TWICE, COPY AND PASTE IT AND SEND IT TO EVERYONE IN YOUR E-MAIL CONTACTS LIST.
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Lowell
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Username: Lowell

Post Number: 5109
Registered: 09-2003
Posted on Monday, December 15, 2008 - 11:25 am:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

I have often noted how our disaster has been greater than 9/11 or Katrina, both in terms of lives lost, properties destroyed and more.

But since ours has been a slow motion disaster, spread across the decades, instead of getting sympathy and aid we get scorn and are despised.

No presidents or politicians will be found grandstanding atop the ruins of the Packard Plant declaring how this will not be allowed to happen, how American stands by us and declaring how we will be rebuilt better than before to show the forces that brought us down wont' be allowed to win.

Our fight is alone, left to us.
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Bigb23
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Username: Bigb23

Post Number: 2822
Registered: 11-2007
Posted on Monday, December 15, 2008 - 11:43 am:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

You're doing a heck of a job Bushie.




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Mopardan
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Username: Mopardan

Post Number: 44
Registered: 11-2008
Posted on Monday, December 15, 2008 - 11:53 am:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

I was called up for Katrina & saw the devastation of neighborhoods first hand. Nasty, smelly, disgusting, you name it. You think to yourself about what those people went through, how they lost everything & grateful it didn't happen to you. My oldest girl was in HS marching band & upset I was going to miss their first performance of the season; I told her I was disappointed too, but summed it up that fellow Americans needed help.
I think most of the country had no problem with sending aid in any form because of the conditions & destruction. Despite the foulups & delays, I still see the outpouring of support as a bright spot.
I don't think anyone was saying "Yeah, I'll help out provided the people of New Orleans do this or that first...then we'll think about it some more." Since that time I've heard lots of criticism about how it's below sea-level, that it's a dump & how the people living there deserved what they got. My response is that it doesn't matter where you live, you are never 100% safe from disaster or catastrophe. Also, you will move to where there is employment, affordable housing, decent schools, etc.
I would be curious to know what percentage of federal dollars came from the Midwest & the number of people deployed. Can you imagine a Gulf Coast state getting hammered by a Cat-3+ Hurricane & several other states filibustered to withold funds or refused to send any of their Guardsman to assist?
What goes around comes around; you can bet these yokels who got on their high horse about how they wouldn't vote for the loan will be back with hat in hand for federal dollars.
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_sj_
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Username: _sj_

Post Number: 1621
Registered: 12-2003
Posted on Monday, December 15, 2008 - 11:54 am:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

quote:

I have often noted how our disaster has been greater than 9/11 or Katrina, both in terms of lives lost, properties destroyed and more.



I disagree, the other two took the lives of people. How is this comparable?
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Lilpup
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Username: Lilpup

Post Number: 5030
Registered: 06-2004
Posted on Monday, December 15, 2008 - 12:01 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

but the brutal reality is...a lot of it is self-inflicted

I've been thinking about this a lot - it goes along with the plight of the engineers (engineers never get reward or even recognition for what they do right and well - only when what they do fails). It's a shame, but when mass producers do what they do really, really well they put themselves out of work. The driving down of unit price is done via efficiency - tweaking design, tweaking process - e.g. Willow Run going from days to build a single plane at start up to less than an hour at peak. That is what Detroit really does (even when companies like Ford do it in Brazil).
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Turkeycall
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Username: Turkeycall

Post Number: 106
Registered: 09-2008
Posted on Monday, December 15, 2008 - 12:08 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

sj quote: "I disagree, the other two took the lives of people. How is this comparable?"

The human toll cannot be counted only by the standard of death. Death is final and we can live to accept it as it is.

The economically devastated enter into a "living death" which is an ongoing loss upon loss. In other words, in our current auto related crisis, we will die by the inch - physically, mentally, and spiritually.
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6nois
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Username: 6nois

Post Number: 759
Registered: 11-2006
Posted on Monday, December 15, 2008 - 12:27 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

There is a physical death, I don't know the numbers but if depression spikes because of the human toll of loss after loss, so too will suicide.
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Goat
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Username: Goat

Post Number: 2917
Registered: 10-2003
Posted on Monday, December 15, 2008 - 6:40 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

Detroiters need to help themselves first. Killing and shooting each other isn't going to make the economy any easier to swallow.
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Dabirch
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Username: Dabirch

Post Number: 1241
Registered: 06-2004
Posted on Monday, December 15, 2008 - 7:06 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

quote:

Detroiters need to help themselves first. Killing and shooting each other isn't going to make the economy any easier to swallow.



But there will be a lot less unemployment...
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Bobl
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Username: Bobl

Post Number: 275
Registered: 07-2008
Posted on Monday, December 15, 2008 - 7:12 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

Piling On: South Carolina Governor Mark Sanford has given another speech, urging Bush to let the US auto manufacturers go bankrupt. He says the government has no role in propping up business.
Noble talk from the governor, whose State that has given BMW over 200 million dollars to locate there.
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Glowblue
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Username: Glowblue

Post Number: 67
Registered: 09-2008
Posted on Monday, December 15, 2008 - 7:49 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

quote:

I disagree, the other two took the lives of people. How is this comparable?



You don't think people die of starvation, or of cold because they have no shelter? You don't think economic destitution drives up the murder rate?
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Lefty2
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Username: Lefty2

Post Number: 2934
Registered: 07-2007
Posted on Monday, December 15, 2008 - 8:45 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

an auto katrina swamping the midwest eh.
We are all doomed.
the foreign companies will be hit big time too.

The best thing that can happen is if we all get out of this crises without government help. Take the power from the scumbags in office.
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Sumas
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Username: Sumas

Post Number: 436
Registered: 01-2008
Posted on Monday, December 15, 2008 - 10:49 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

Zulu, Thank you for sharing. I didn't quite get if the words were your's or anothers. It makes no difference. The words and sentiments are eloquent and correct in nature. If the government chooses to turn its back on us then we need to work harder to help each other. This community gets a bad rap all the time. We really put out for each other. I have received charity and have given it. To see the south, treat us so poorly certainly undermines that concept of southern hospitality. I have a very long memory when treated poorly. Our union workers certainly deserve more respect than they have been currently accorded. Thanks again for your post.

Sumas
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Mackinaw
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Username: Mackinaw

Post Number: 4380
Registered: 02-2005
Posted on Monday, December 15, 2008 - 11:40 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

This is like Katrina? Give me a break.

So people have lost their jobs. They can get new jobs. They can fall into the aforementioned safety net. Yeah, it's stressful and pretty much sucks, but it's not the same as dying or having your home washed away. Plus, we can see this coming at us; rather than having a couple days to take steps to avert death, people in this area have had years to do things like
a) get a new job
b) start their own business
c) buy less and save more
d) invest, or downsize their mortgage
e) take a retirement package
f) get an education
g) move

...all of that sounds a lot better than "move or die."

But instead people have stood their ground while the economic storm approached. And not only that, they've fought against the tide, telling their legislatures that they are entitled to have their jobs "saved" and that we need to bring more manufacturing jobs to the area. That's the marker of an region that lags, and clings to the past in irrational ways. It's the marker of a region that is a loser in the grand scheme
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Det313grrl
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Username: Det313grrl

Post Number: 238
Registered: 01-2005
Posted on Monday, December 15, 2008 - 11:45 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

I wouldn't want FEMA in my town, after they did such a GREAT job in New Orleans.
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Bobl
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Username: Bobl

Post Number: 276
Registered: 07-2008
Posted on Tuesday, December 16, 2008 - 6:08 am:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

I'm thinking of the stunt where W had a press conference a week after Katrina hit, in downtown New Orleans. Several trucks arrived across from City Hall, unloading generators and lights. A crowd gathered, excited that the government was beginning to help restore power. Bush gave his speech, promising to help and predicting a stronger, better New Orleans in the future. The onlookers were incredulous when he was whisked away, the lights dowsed, and the generators put back on the trucks, which were gone within half an hour!
Makes one wary of the promised announcement concerning help for the auto manufacturers.
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Lilpup
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Username: Lilpup

Post Number: 5035
Registered: 06-2004
Posted on Tuesday, December 16, 2008 - 6:11 am:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

So what happens to us when technology has replaced so many paying jobs that many, if not most, of us are no longer needed?
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Bobl
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Username: Bobl

Post Number: 277
Registered: 07-2008
Posted on Tuesday, December 16, 2008 - 6:13 am:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

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