Friday, September 11, 2020

A friend from the UK wrote and asked me what happened to that once magnificent city of Detroit. I gave his a short response which may sound harsh to politically correct ears but I never claimed to be politically correct choosing rather to be honest and speak my mind. Here was my answer:

This was once a glorious city. My Catholic ancestors from my mother’s side immigrated to Detroit where they built businesses and thrived when Detroit something to behold. I was born in Detroit and my dad worked his whole life at Ford Motor Company. We moved out before the big collapse. The popular saying was, “The last one to leave, turn off the lights.”

What happened to Detroit is easy to explain. 75% of children live without a father, there is almost a 50% illiteracy rate. The Black people who make up the majority in downtown have leaders that teach them to be victims. The welfare state replaced the need for a father. The State becomes the father with promises to provide everything.The Rev. Jesse Jackson’s and Al Sharpton’s of the world lie to their people and keep them on the modern day plantation.

Young men without dads look up to pimps and drug lords. They join gangs as “substitute families.” Girls give away sex without commitment. They have no fathers so they fall for the first man who says they love them. They have babies and get money from the government. Their babies are doomed to repeat the same cycle of poverty and despair. Abortion is rampant.

God and discipline were taken from the schools and replaced with chaos. No one can discipline unruly students who have never been taught discipline or the value of an education. They have no idea or interest in the meaning and responsibilities of a democratic republic or civic duty. They have no idea what the Declaration of Independence or Constitution are. The school dropout rate is unbelievable and the arrest rate reflects it. People are afraid to walk in the streets.

And the Black youth unemployment? Businesses are not likely to hire a young man with no education or discipline, who won’t speak understandable English and who applies for a job slouched over, wearing a hoodie, pants hanging off his butt and sporting a bad attitude. When I was running my business a decade ago more than half of the people from Detroit that applied for employment had a criminal record, could not read, or could not pass a drug test.

Christian morality and the family, enterprise and hard work were replaced with single-parent families and fatherless children, with secularism and socialism, with a culture that knows nothing of work but only food stamps, welfare and government dependence. My heart goes out to those stuck in this culture of death and despair. 

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