If Obama had a city, it would look like Detroit!

(This just in: Bill Nojay writes in today's Wall Street Journal about his 8-mo. stint at the chief operating officer of the Detroit Dept. of Transportation. Almost daily, he found problems arising along with solutions but implementing them in Detroit was IMPOSSIBLE. You must read this first hand account of how this dysfunctional city is being run.)
Obama has said, “If I had a son, he would look like Trayvon Martin.” And, if Obama had a city, it would look like Detroit. In fact, Detroit is the poster-child and metaphor for what thieves and parasites can do to destroy a great American city. Detroit is our modern day "Mad Max"-- a reflection of where Obama and the Democrat party want to take America

In 1961, the last Republican mayor left office. Detroit has been run by Democrats on an unbroken streak for the past 52 yrs. In 2009 Detroit Public School students had the lowest scores ever recorded in the national math proficiency test over a 21-year history. Only 1.8 percent of students were considered capable of doing college level work. Corruption is rampant, Detroit has been voted the most dangerous city in America. 34.5 percent are on food stamps. Out-of-wedlock birthrate is 75 percent. Yet the city doubles down on Democrat policies and politicians. In a city of 700,000, only 6000 voted for the Republican presidential candidate! 98% voted Democrat! Detroit is a prime example of “getting the government you vote for.”

According to Zev Chafet's book, "Devil's Night: and Other True Tales of Detroit" (this book is about to be re-published thanks to overwhelming demand in recent days)--it's not just liberalism that reduced Detroit to rubble; it was race and racism.

In the early 1960s, the city was segregated along racial lines with blacks squeezed into small neighborhoods. Racial tensions mounted erupting into the Detroit Riots of 1967 which prompted a mass exodus of whites from Detroit, abandoning Detroit for the suburbs and moving into homes that were unfinished with no electricity or water. They couldn’t get out of “Motor City: fast enough.

Coleman Young, mayor of Detroit for 20 yrs.

In 1973, the majority black population elected Coleman Young, a black, radical leftist who did not believe in turning the other cheek. He accused whites of trying to control Detroit from outside the city. During his 20-year reign, Mr. Coleman ignored crime, inflamed racial tensions and built a patronage machine" He went to war with the city’s major institutions and then sought help from the government in the form of subsidies. As Detroit’s government became less and less effective, even middle-class blacks fled the city.

Mayor Young divided Detroit according to race, creating separate layoff lists for white and black officers. He and his handpicked police chief made it clear to the officers that too many tickets and too many arrests were being made in the black community (much as Obama is charging today). One black officer confided to a journalist, “I wouldn’t write tickets for black kids.”

Detroit--once, a shining jewel of a city

Meanwhile, the increasingly distressed city became a fiscal ward of the state and federal governments. As Ms. Jacoby wrote, by the late 1970s federal grants paid the salaries of up to one-third of Detroit's workforce.

As history shows, sending more cash to Detroit won't fix its breakdown in self-government. Another bailout would merely support its toxic political culture of neglect and corruption.

In closing, there are some wonderful, dedicated Christian groups working to bring hope and restoration to Detroit. In various parts of the city, there are some encouraging signs of renewal, thanks to the prayers and tireless efforts of a number of faithful Christian believers. 

However, here’s my parting thought: Detroit needs more than just a handout, or even an urban renewal campaign. Detroit needs an honest-to-goodness REVIVAL that starts with repentance (a change in thinking, behavior, a radical 180-degree turn in another direction). It would be awesome if some esteemed black evangelist (are there any?) who truly preaches the Word of God would come to Detroit and have a month-long campaign, nightly calling the people of Detroit to repent and get right with God and their fellow man. The black residents of Detroit need to repent for the racist attitudes toward the white man, and especially their hatred for those who are white, conservative Republicans. The black community needs to repent of their victimization mindset and start taking responsibility for themselves and their families. I would also hope that the evangelistic campaign in the heart of Detroit would also draw whites from the surrounding communities who repent as well for their racist attitudes and bigotry and lack of love or concern for their black neighbor.

If there is true repentance, maybe then, there can be hope for change (sounds like an Obama campaign slogan) along with solid teaching from the Word of God on loving God, loving your neighbor, on the Good Samaritan, righteousness and walking uprightly, hating evil and loving that which is good—then maybe, Detroit can be reborn from the ashes of hopelessness and despair

Book Review: "The Secret Knowledge: On the Dismantling of American Culture" by David Mamet

It's time for a book review. I've been reading lots of books and this is my political pick (at least for this month).  I'm always attracted to books where the author has experienced a change of mind or some epiphany. Here, David Mamet writes about his change of mind and heart regarding liberalism.  

David Mamet, the acclaimed playwright, screenwriter, film director and essayist, famous for such films as The Untouchables, The Verdict and Wag the Dog, has written a book which is irritating the Left. Mamet, a former leftist,  pulls no punches as he describes his daring escape from the “liberal plantation.” If some had their way, he’d be lynched for this delicious expose of the Left.

Mamet writes: ”For the Left, Government is the water in which they swim, the underlying belief of their lives. Government is not merely one of the ways in which humanity may be convened to order its various affairs (the others being Religion and the Free Market), but the only way. Liberalism is that religion, which for the Left, replaced Religion, for which the prime purpose of Government is to expand Equality, which may also be stated thus: to expand its own powers. For if Government is not only good, but the only source of good, why should it not be elaborated and empowered to address any and all issues?”

I found this book fascinating. Why would a Hollywood and Broadway icon risk his career and livelihood by writing this book which methodically eviscerates liberal beliefs? It's career suicide. He's risking his future livelihood with the publication of this expose and that gets my attention. I'm always interested in those who are willing to put everything on the line, to risk it all for what they truly believe.

He writes about how we go to college to be brainwashed by liberal and Marxist professors, and we are trained to parrot the right responses so we will get the right grade. Then, upon graduation, we realize that the only way to recapture the security that we felt in the university setting is by being part of the “accepted group.” That accepted group which gives you identity is liberalism, and as long as you buy what the Left is selling, they love you, but the minute that you start to think independently and question some of their beliefs and arguments, you are shunned and treated as a “non-person.”

Regarding liberalism, Mamet writes: “The great wickedness of Liberalism, I saw, was that those who devise the every new State Utopias, whether crooks or fools, set out to bankrupt and restrict NOT themselves, but others.
 For example, President Obama said, “The individual at some point, must be able to say, 'I have enough money." But will Mr. Obama, when he is out of office, say this of himself, and of the vast riches he will enjoy? One must doubt it.”

The sad irony is that very few liberals will read this book and even in that, Mamet is vindicated because he argues that liberalism doesn’t endorse independent thought. The Left is nothing more than a herd mentality handing out “gold stars,” “Academy Awards,” “Emmys”, “Pulitzer Prizes” and even “Nobel Prizes” to honor those who keep the faith, liberal-style.

Next post: Another book review about a man who risked it all, including going to the gallows, hung by the Nazis because of his writings, beliefs and actions.