I held back my judgment until I heard from the Mayor, because I believe in letting someone have their say, however he didn’t sway me and I think he has to go.
We had a President who drug us through a year’s hoopla over a sex scandal, that time we had a blue dress, this time we have lewd text messages. At the time the country was experiencing an economic boom and was in the middle of a break from history, a time of no troubles, so we saw this as an amusing soap opera with fun characters and an anti-climactic ending. This time, Detroit is in the middle of an attempt to come back by redeveloping the downtown, but has a long way to go. We don’t have the time to waste on this kind of scandal when Detroit is choking on itself.
In his speech Kwame did more than Bill Clinton ever did, he publicly apologized to the city and to his wife, who was sitting next to him. His wife then made a speech begging people to let them settle this matter privately. Whoever wrote this speech apparently is reading out of a book, when your husband is the mayor, and is sleeping with his Chief of Staff, then lies about it under oath, it is going to be a public scandal.
Like the Clinton matter I personally don’t care about his affair, or his marriage, I don’t waste my time on those concerns. I am concerned that the Mayor committed a felony when he lied under oath about the affair. This time we don’t have to worry about is this or is this not a “high crime or misdemeanor”, we have both the Wayne County Prosecutor and the Attorney General of Michigan who can determine that and prosecute Kwame. I would hope that a jury of his peers won’t be swayed by politics like the Senate was with Bill Clinton and convict him if the evidence is there.
In his speech tonight Kwame said that there is no chance of his resigning, saying he wouldn’t do that to the city. I implore him to look beyond himself and his selfish ambition. He is done; by staying he will only hurt the city with the continued distraction and with his inability to do his job effectively. He should resign, and let someone else take over the city. The city needs new leadership, for this is the last straw with Kwame, from sex scandals to SUV’s he can’t keep himself out of trouble. If he does not resign he will probably run for reelection, and if he wins next year, then Detroit will show that it is not serious about coming back from its current disastrous state, and just wants to keep the Hip-Hop Mayor around.
Resign Mr. Mayor, save us all the shame and distraction of your selfish and destructive behavior, this city has real problems, and we need serious people to solve them. You are no longer a viable person to solve the problems, and if you truly care about your city, and the metro area and state it anchors, you will resign.
Wednesday, January 30, 2008
Wednesday, January 2, 2008
The Great American Road Trip
Being in politics I hear a lot about “flyover” country, and about red and blue states. From my perch in Macomb County, Michigan I occasionally buy into the concept. That we are a country deeply divided and a country that is incredibly different, so much so that we risk a cultural civil war if it isn’t solved.
It is easy to buy into that when one doesn’t experience the country, however over the course of the last week I have done something I haven’t done since 1998, I took a trip across the country in a car, not in a plane.
First let me say, as someone who calls himself a small-government conservative, the Interstate Freeway System is at the same time one of the best and one of the worst things that the federal government ever did. Good because I was able to drive from Detroit, MI to Los Angeles, CA in three 14 hour days. It was bad because, in the words of Charles Kuralt, “You are able to go across the entire country without seeing anything.”
To avoid cold weather and snow, so I thought, I took a more Southerly route to get there, following roughly the old US 66, or Route 66 as it is more popularly known. Particularly along I-40 Route 66 is still a big part of the country’s heritage, even though it was decommissioned in the 80’s. I took the trip because my friend of 15 years Charles Dewandeler decided to move to Hollywood to pursue his dream of being a director, and he wanted someone to go with him.
Now don’t get me wrong, Charles is one of my best friends, but the idea of him on the road was an odd one to me, because it is not an environment he is accustomed to. Eating at random places, meeting random people along the way, and staying at random places along the way. However he took to it well, until the last day, which I will get to later.
I wanted my friend to have a true road experience, so we made no hotel reservations, I had a route in mind, and we drove until we ran out of gas, ate, and kept going until around 10 PM each night, local time. We crossed a time zone a day this way, so we drove from 9AM-10PM on the clock, but more like 9AM-11PM, not a short day in a car, especially for me being 6’4”. The first day we made it halfway though Missouri, the second day halfway through New Mexico, and the last day all the way to LA. We stayed at the same hotel chain both nights, but only because I was so impressed with them the first night, when we randomly found it, I got lucky that it was also in the town where we made our second stop.
The route I planned took us down I-94, to I-69, to I-70, to I-44, to I-40, to I-15 into LA. From 44 to 15 we paralleled Route 66. This meant that we had an interesting variety of things to see and non-standard places to eat along the way. When the purpose of a road trip is to get somewhere fast, the places you stop to eat are the most important, for it is the only way to see anything.
The first day Charles ate before we left, and I grabbed Krispy Kremes from the gas station we stopped at to fill up before we left, but I insisted that we not stop at any fast food places, and places that I thought you needed to go on the road. The first day we ate at Huddle House for lunch, which to me looked like an old Waffle House with its name changed. It amused me because it had a big plastic horse outside of it. That night we ate at a local diner in Illinois, which to the best of my memory was called “Restaurant” on the outside, and I don’t remember if it had another name inside. It was at the Huddle House I first had Sweet Potato Fries, which were excellent.
The second day we ate at a truck stop Country Kitchen for lunch, and at a local Texas joint for dinner whose name escapes me, but we got the name on video. What made this place phenomenal was that it was done up to look like an old brothel turned restaurant and the waitresses were dressed, as Charles put it, in “Miss Kitty” outfits. For those who don’t get the reference he meant the Miss Kitty on the old western TV show Gunsmoke. They had the lace outfits with the frills, and cowboy boots, my particular favorite being the greeter who had spurs on her boots.
The last day we ate at a Cracker Barrel for lunch, in my opinion an essential on a road trip and at the Coffee Shop in Ludlow, CA for dinner, which we had a waiter that I swear to God looked like he was pregnant. It also had the greasiest food I have ever seen, my tuna salad sandwich tasted like it wasn’t on toasted bread, but bread dredged in oil. Charles had a grilled cheese sandwich, which I don’t think agreed with him all too well.
For breakfast each day we ate at our hotel, the Drury Inn and Suites, which is now my new favorite hotel chain, for not only does it have free internet, but a free hot breakfast, featuring eggs, sausage patties, biscuits and gravy, and in the one in Springfield, MO, a do-it-yourself waffle maker. Needless to say this Waffle House fan was placated not going there by making my own waffle for breakfast.
I have always loved the road trip, because it is in my opinion to best way to appreciate the beauty and vastness of the country. Flying doesn’t give you the right perspective, driving does. I hoped to pass that impression onto my friend, however considering he got sick as soon as we got to LA, he probably doesn’t want to do it again. It shows me that I can’t expect everyone to take to things like I do, to have the ability to so dramatically change my normal habits and go on the road. However in the end I think it was a great trip, filled with stories for years to come. Stories like the following:
On the first day we got stuck in traffic in Indiana, and as we sat we kept wondering what the hell was going on, turns out someone had dropped hay on the road and people were slowing down to go around it, and police had arrived to try and deal with the situation. To Charles this was a huge source of amusement.
The second day showed the folly of my idea to go south to avoid snow and cold weather by the fact that in the panhandle of Texas we had to slow to around 45 MPH, from our usual 80-90 MPH, because the road was covered in snow, and I mean covered, in snow. We saw spinouts, we saw a bunch of tracks from the main highway to the surface road, which is old Route 66 along that path.
The noteworthy events of the third day were a coyote running across the road when we were getting underway, and admittedly on my shift of driving, we almost ran out of gas on I-40 in the middle of the desert in California. In fact the gas light pinged on about 5 miles before the next exit, which was fifty miles from the last one. Thankfully we made it, and I took my first steps in California, which I think is my 45th state, but I’m not positive.
We got to Charles apartment on Bellagio Drive in the Bel Air section of LA about 10 PM Pacific Time, with surprisingly little traffic. We immediately began getting the place ready, by getting the things inside, figuring out parking, which involved me parallel parking the car because he has apparently forgotten how-to, and going to a grocery store. Due to his illness we spent a lot of the next day in the room as he rested, on the floor since he didn’t have a bed. We got a few more essentials and went to bed, and I got us up at 4 AM to catch my flight to Chicago and my New Years party.
Getting home from Chicago was supposed to be a simple thing, just a straight shot up 1-94 and I would be home, but Mother Nature had different plans, we were forced to stop in Michigan City, IN for the night, and we made it home this afternoon.
What has all of this driving across the country shown me, it has shown me that this is a giant country of diverse history and local customs and eccentricities. The great middle of the country is where you discover the true nature of American life, where a lot of the richness of our culture comes from. During the trip in all these local eateries I didn’t hear one mention of primaries and politics, about the things we in this business think is what the world revolves around. It made me stop and think that in the end to most people it doesn’t matter who wins what office, as long as the roads are good and the garbage is picked up. In the end I was reminded of a quote I love, which I still hold to be true…
"There ought to be a law against anybody going to Europe until they have seen the things we have in this country." - Will Rogers
It is easy to buy into that when one doesn’t experience the country, however over the course of the last week I have done something I haven’t done since 1998, I took a trip across the country in a car, not in a plane.
First let me say, as someone who calls himself a small-government conservative, the Interstate Freeway System is at the same time one of the best and one of the worst things that the federal government ever did. Good because I was able to drive from Detroit, MI to Los Angeles, CA in three 14 hour days. It was bad because, in the words of Charles Kuralt, “You are able to go across the entire country without seeing anything.”
To avoid cold weather and snow, so I thought, I took a more Southerly route to get there, following roughly the old US 66, or Route 66 as it is more popularly known. Particularly along I-40 Route 66 is still a big part of the country’s heritage, even though it was decommissioned in the 80’s. I took the trip because my friend of 15 years Charles Dewandeler decided to move to Hollywood to pursue his dream of being a director, and he wanted someone to go with him.
Now don’t get me wrong, Charles is one of my best friends, but the idea of him on the road was an odd one to me, because it is not an environment he is accustomed to. Eating at random places, meeting random people along the way, and staying at random places along the way. However he took to it well, until the last day, which I will get to later.
I wanted my friend to have a true road experience, so we made no hotel reservations, I had a route in mind, and we drove until we ran out of gas, ate, and kept going until around 10 PM each night, local time. We crossed a time zone a day this way, so we drove from 9AM-10PM on the clock, but more like 9AM-11PM, not a short day in a car, especially for me being 6’4”. The first day we made it halfway though Missouri, the second day halfway through New Mexico, and the last day all the way to LA. We stayed at the same hotel chain both nights, but only because I was so impressed with them the first night, when we randomly found it, I got lucky that it was also in the town where we made our second stop.
The route I planned took us down I-94, to I-69, to I-70, to I-44, to I-40, to I-15 into LA. From 44 to 15 we paralleled Route 66. This meant that we had an interesting variety of things to see and non-standard places to eat along the way. When the purpose of a road trip is to get somewhere fast, the places you stop to eat are the most important, for it is the only way to see anything.
The first day Charles ate before we left, and I grabbed Krispy Kremes from the gas station we stopped at to fill up before we left, but I insisted that we not stop at any fast food places, and places that I thought you needed to go on the road. The first day we ate at Huddle House for lunch, which to me looked like an old Waffle House with its name changed. It amused me because it had a big plastic horse outside of it. That night we ate at a local diner in Illinois, which to the best of my memory was called “Restaurant” on the outside, and I don’t remember if it had another name inside. It was at the Huddle House I first had Sweet Potato Fries, which were excellent.
The second day we ate at a truck stop Country Kitchen for lunch, and at a local Texas joint for dinner whose name escapes me, but we got the name on video. What made this place phenomenal was that it was done up to look like an old brothel turned restaurant and the waitresses were dressed, as Charles put it, in “Miss Kitty” outfits. For those who don’t get the reference he meant the Miss Kitty on the old western TV show Gunsmoke. They had the lace outfits with the frills, and cowboy boots, my particular favorite being the greeter who had spurs on her boots.
The last day we ate at a Cracker Barrel for lunch, in my opinion an essential on a road trip and at the Coffee Shop in Ludlow, CA for dinner, which we had a waiter that I swear to God looked like he was pregnant. It also had the greasiest food I have ever seen, my tuna salad sandwich tasted like it wasn’t on toasted bread, but bread dredged in oil. Charles had a grilled cheese sandwich, which I don’t think agreed with him all too well.
For breakfast each day we ate at our hotel, the Drury Inn and Suites, which is now my new favorite hotel chain, for not only does it have free internet, but a free hot breakfast, featuring eggs, sausage patties, biscuits and gravy, and in the one in Springfield, MO, a do-it-yourself waffle maker. Needless to say this Waffle House fan was placated not going there by making my own waffle for breakfast.
I have always loved the road trip, because it is in my opinion to best way to appreciate the beauty and vastness of the country. Flying doesn’t give you the right perspective, driving does. I hoped to pass that impression onto my friend, however considering he got sick as soon as we got to LA, he probably doesn’t want to do it again. It shows me that I can’t expect everyone to take to things like I do, to have the ability to so dramatically change my normal habits and go on the road. However in the end I think it was a great trip, filled with stories for years to come. Stories like the following:
On the first day we got stuck in traffic in Indiana, and as we sat we kept wondering what the hell was going on, turns out someone had dropped hay on the road and people were slowing down to go around it, and police had arrived to try and deal with the situation. To Charles this was a huge source of amusement.
The second day showed the folly of my idea to go south to avoid snow and cold weather by the fact that in the panhandle of Texas we had to slow to around 45 MPH, from our usual 80-90 MPH, because the road was covered in snow, and I mean covered, in snow. We saw spinouts, we saw a bunch of tracks from the main highway to the surface road, which is old Route 66 along that path.
The noteworthy events of the third day were a coyote running across the road when we were getting underway, and admittedly on my shift of driving, we almost ran out of gas on I-40 in the middle of the desert in California. In fact the gas light pinged on about 5 miles before the next exit, which was fifty miles from the last one. Thankfully we made it, and I took my first steps in California, which I think is my 45th state, but I’m not positive.
We got to Charles apartment on Bellagio Drive in the Bel Air section of LA about 10 PM Pacific Time, with surprisingly little traffic. We immediately began getting the place ready, by getting the things inside, figuring out parking, which involved me parallel parking the car because he has apparently forgotten how-to, and going to a grocery store. Due to his illness we spent a lot of the next day in the room as he rested, on the floor since he didn’t have a bed. We got a few more essentials and went to bed, and I got us up at 4 AM to catch my flight to Chicago and my New Years party.
Getting home from Chicago was supposed to be a simple thing, just a straight shot up 1-94 and I would be home, but Mother Nature had different plans, we were forced to stop in Michigan City, IN for the night, and we made it home this afternoon.
What has all of this driving across the country shown me, it has shown me that this is a giant country of diverse history and local customs and eccentricities. The great middle of the country is where you discover the true nature of American life, where a lot of the richness of our culture comes from. During the trip in all these local eateries I didn’t hear one mention of primaries and politics, about the things we in this business think is what the world revolves around. It made me stop and think that in the end to most people it doesn’t matter who wins what office, as long as the roads are good and the garbage is picked up. In the end I was reminded of a quote I love, which I still hold to be true…
"There ought to be a law against anybody going to Europe until they have seen the things we have in this country." - Will Rogers
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