I've often said that my wish for journalism would be for all areas to display the same level of writing and subject expertise we get from sports writers. Mitch "Tuesdays With Morrie" Albom grew up as a sportswriter, and he's he could have been a pretty good advert for the profession (see comments). Still....
Love letters to Detroit aren't exactly common these days. Not when their NFL Lions have just wrapped up a perfect 0-16 season. Not when its industrial team appears to be gunning for a similar record. And did we mention the Mayor's [Dem.] recent indictment and resignation?
But Mitch Albom pens one. It has more than its share of heartbreak and failure, but also hope. And it deserves to be read, widely. Outside Detroit, as well as in:
"We are downtrodden, perhaps, but the most downtrodden optimists you will ever meet. We cling to our ways, no matter how provincial they seem on the coasts. We get excited about the Auto Show. We celebrate Sweetest Day. We eat Coney dogs all year and we cruise classic cars down Woodward Avenue every August and we bake punchki donuts the week before Lent. We don't talk about whether Detroit will be fixed but when Detroit will be fixed.
And we are modest. In truth, we battle an inferiority complex. We gave the world the automobile. Now the world wants to scold us for it. We gave the world Motown music. Motown moved its offices to L.A. When I arrived 24 years ago, to be a sports columnist at the Detroit Free Press, I discovered several letters waiting for me at the office. Mind you, I had not written a word. My hiring had been announced, that's all. But there were already letters. Handwritten. And they all said, in effect, "Welcome to Detroit. We know you won't stay long, because nobody good stays for long, but we hope you like it while you're here."
Nobody good stays for long.
We hope you like it while you're here.
How could you not stay in a city like that?"
Read it all. And read the comments below, too. I wish I could believe 100% in every word Albom wrote here. It would have made the piece so much better.
We argue about the policy stuff, because it matters. Detroit's current condition is a direct result of a long history of bad policy choices, in government/ union sectors, and in industry. Poor policy produces poverty. No doubt about it.
Beyond that policy debate, among our fellow citizens, there is also a human domain. Bad choices often live there, too, but so do things like hope, spirit, and the daily virtues that are needed to sustain a city, a country, a civilization. We should never forget it.
We're talking the same Mitch Albom who wrote in advance a story about how he'd been to some event, wound up not going, ran it anyway, and got caught because one of the guys he talked about meeting there wasn't there?
And who to this day can't admit he did anything wrong?
Oh, yeah, they're already working to that standard.
Thanks fr that, Brett. I hadn't been aware. is this section of the Wikipedia entry wrong, to your knowledge, or does it leave anything out?
He published something which he and the paper labeled an "apology". But it wasn't particularly apologetic; He was essentially apologizing for assuming that events would go as he expected, NOT for writing a story in advance of events as though he'd been there.
And since he's been quite open about thinking that anybody who believes he did anything wrong is an obsessive nit-picker who needs to get a life.
I think this will clear things up.
“*I think I’d be a liar* if I said it was easy to have people checking on everything you’ve done“
Mitch doesn't have to worry about thinking he'd be a liar.
He is a liar, pure and simple.
“*It hurts to have your integrity questioned*"
Just exactly what integrity is he referring to here.
I really despise guys like this. What a jerk.
Brett,
It does. That's why I asked. And this take is, indeed, correct.
It's almost like we need to add a school course somewhere re: what a proper, acceptable apology means, and how to do it. Nobody seems to know any more.
Mitch's column re: Detroit is still very well written, and illustrates a number of important things. It would be better still if I could have 100% confidence in every word written.
As touching as Albom's article was, I couldn't help but think that he was trying to portray Detroit as a kind of noble victim, shouting out loud, "I am somebody!" while the rest of the country points and laughs. While Detroit is a city of hard knocks, but a large number of the bruises and black eyes were self inflicted. The '84 Tiger's riots, the Devil's Night fires, Being the murder capitol of the country in the 80's, they all happened and we can't pretend that they're no big deal...they are a big deal and we ought to be ashamed of them to this day. Don't even get me started with the Lions, but I will say when Sharpe put the bag over his head, it might have hurt as Albom said, but Lions deserved it...we deserved it.
And yet...
The city of Detroit is hardly a born loser. It's had its high points as well as its low; show the world its worst side as well as its best, which is what Albom's article is trying to show as well. Last, but not least, this is a place that some of us still call home. We're in some hard times now, but we've been here before and we'll make it through this one too. And who knows, some good may come from this recession. And...even though we have the Lions and Tigers, we also have the Red Wings and Pistons to cheer.
Then of course, there's this....