Written on 12 Feb 2005.

The entire state feels like it’s in its death throes. In most of Flint, getting shot is a daily concern. In Detroit, this is no longer much of a worry, because the city stands practically abandoned, conjuring up images of an old western ghost town. Saginaw is hanging on by the skin of its teeth. Racially and economically divided by a river, the weather is the only thing preventing the city from boiling over. Lansing lives by the whim of General Motors and the debt-ridden state government.

What about the suburbs of Detroit, you ask. They’re extremely prosperous. Yes, this place has plenty of money. Likely as not, that will only last for another generation or two. Constant Urban Sprawl (white rich people fleeing black people who are trying to live a better life) eats the land and the trees. Housing and strip malls stand empty from time of construction and into the flight of the money intended to fill them. The young intelligencia leave, sick and tired of a car-based and basically flawed system of transportation. One can sit on I-696 stopped for only so many times. Soon, suburbia will stand as abandoned as Detroit now sits.

What about the rural areas of the state, you ask. There are several pristine small towns and rural expanses that seem immune to the collapse. These towns do not succumb to the Urban Sprawl (no Wal-Mart) and are not home to the infamous rednecks that populate the Michigan Militia and the KKK. However, the whole state cannot be supported by these small and rare utopias.

What about the western side of the state? Ok, you got me. I know very little about places like Grand Rapids, Kalamazoo, and Traverse City. It is possible, though unlikely, that the west side of the state has the magical wand that will be waved, and we will all be saved, to live happily ever after. But I doubt it.

The nation’s birth vs. death ratio is negative. More people die than are born, and the gap is increasing every year. With our recent foul mood toward foreigners, not to mention failing economy, we are less and less an attractive place for immigrants to make their home. All of these parallel state trends and attitudes.

How many homes for sale do you see in a day? How many for rent signs do you see in a day? How many more than five years ago? And yet, the construction and waste continue. Michigan can be saved from death. How many of us are willing to put in the hard work? How many of us are willing to open our minds and learn better ways of doing things? I fear that there are too few.