The Courage of Detroit
If you want to glimpse the soul of America’s cities, study our sports teams. Or, to be more specific, our relationship to those teams, which are (for better or worse) inextricably linked to our civic identity.
These days, nowhere is that more true than Detroit, where it’s hard to say who had a worse year—the automakers or the Lions, the first 0-16 team in NFL history.
But to cast Detroit strictly as a tale of woe would be incomplete and unfair. In a wonderfully written article for Sports Illustrated, author/sportswriter Mitch Albom shows us a city defined as much by hope as despair, a city of “the most downtrodden optimists you will ever meet.”
It’s easy to denounce the Big Three, link Detroit’s fate to theirs, and conclude they made their own destiny. But as Albom points out…You think this couldn’t happen to your city?
Sports fan or not, the article is well worth reading.
Photo by mashget
January 16th, 2009
11:55 am
I grew up in Michigan and now my siblings, their families and my parents are all still live in the Detroit/Ann Arbor area. I left the state in 1986, after college graduation, but have not been able to believe how bad it has gotten. The stories my family have told me – very sad. This article was wonderful in covering the community in all its ups and downs, but really ending with hope. Thanks for bringing it to our attention, Greg!