Quiet Mountain Essays
Copyright© 2009
From Depression to Renewal: Paradigms Shifting
by
Suzanne Sunshower
Special report: Detroit, Michigan...
Well, it’s official. Everyone I know in Detroit who held a job outside the home has lost it: Laid Off.
I remember the pink slips of the 1970s; I asked someone what ‘laid off’ means now. The reply came
with a weak smile, “It’s over.”
This year I made my annual spring trek back to my beloved homeland of Detroit, with hope in my
heart. When I left last year, Michigan was leading the country in housing foreclosures and
unemployment (at about 12%), and I wanted the bad news this year to not be so bad. In short, I
wanted miracles. Instead, the very day of my return, I heard on a radio program that the
unemployment rate in the city of Detroit had reached 22%.
Two days later, upon calling the farmer in South Dakota who was watching my farmstead in my
absence, I found that bad news travels fast and far. My farm neighbor softly teased me, “Doesn’t
Detroit have something like the highest unemployment rate in the country?” In his tone, I heard Why
on earth did she go back there?
“Yeah, yeah. I know,” I said, impatiently, “I’ve heard.” My countering attitude was more like Come
on now, we’re down but not out – not yet. I wanted him to worry about my farm; I’d worry about my
city.
To be sure, Detroit was never a glamour gal. Detroit was goth, before goth was cool. Not as gray as
Pittsburgh or as dirty as New York, nor as shiny as newer big towns like Minneapolis; Detroit was
(and is) a town with magnificent old architecture, lots of single-family homes, tree-lined streets, and
friendly worker-type folks with open hearts. Detroit has always been a place of side-by-side
dichotomies: old and new; rich and poor; ugly and beautiful; pride and prejudice; hope and despair;
safe and dangerous.
I hold many fond memories of introducing strangers to my city. Once, a visitor from Chicago who
was disappointedly staring out my living room window onto a dark and quiet street, demanded to
know, “Where’s the crime, for godsake?” Handing him a mug of cocoa, I laughingly offered, “I can
take you to it, if you’d like, I know where it is.”
A visitor from South Dakota was amazed that none of my friends in our downtown neighborhood
locked their doors. He noted, improbably, “It’s kinda like home,” then added, “except Detroiters are
friendlier.” He returned home to tell tales of remarkably trusting and polite Detroiters, to his
countrymen who had never been to a big city.
I remember, too, a transplanted gay couple from Manhattan in the neighborhood bar who were
genuinely puzzled by a ‘peculiar’ Detroit custom: “Why do people here keep waving at us?” Having
never learned about neighborly overtures, they thought they were doing something wrong every
time they walked down the street. I had to assure them that the only thing they could do wrong, in
their new town, was to not wave back.
I ask you, does this sound like a town that deserves to be suffering? Do any of our hometowns, “Main
Streets” as the politicians now so glibly refer to them, deserve the reversal of fortune they are
presently experiencing? Well, at the risk of sounding like I’m blaming the victims - Yes and No. To
be sure, there was short-sightedness on all sides; also at fault was that oddly American, romantic
attachment to Grand Illusion. Namely, the grand illusions/delusions that all is well, that nothing will
change, and that wealth is owed.
Detroiters have known for many years that our dependence on the auto industry would one day bite
us. We referred to it as putting all our eggs in one basket. I don’t want to over-simplify the situation,
but we built up and relied upon for our sole sustenance, an industry which failed to evolve. By that, I
mean change before it was told to. In boom time, many (if not most) Detroit-area businesses serviced
the auto plants, from making the tools and equipment that went into the plants or making the steel
that went into the cars, to repairing the vehicles that roared off the assembly lines and over our
infamous Michigan potholes. The city, itself, was a cottage industry which for years failed to
properly diversify its interests, skills, and talents. Much too little and too late.
Does that mean that Detroit’s industry and its people don’t need and deserve assistance? Of course
not! More than 100,000 people out of work in a single city (429,000 statewide) isn’t a ripple effect of
an economic downturn, it’s a godamn wave! Moreover, if the domestic auto industry is allowed to
completely fold, this wave will become a tsunami.
Let’s visit Washington, DC...
It is an unforgivable offense that this country’s infrastructure and cities were virtually ignored for
decades, as if what was breaking would mend itself. One administration after another failed to
construct and promote a comprehensive, aggressively forward-thinking domestic policy. This failure
of foresight was exacerbated by the persistent, gross misdirection of funds during the Bush years,
leading to an ongoing struggle for life within many urban and rural communities. Oh, there were
federally backed programs here and there, like the Empowerment Zone theory that relied upon
trickle-down economics to truly work, but these were merely sweet snacks that lacked substantive
nutrition. The Land of Plenty’s belly was bloating from starvation, and no one cared.
Just as there was no interest in our cities and the importance of their survival, there was equally little
interest in oversight of other kinds. A case of too many people in high places with friends in high
places; and all of them out to lunch at the Garden Party. Remember the Garden Party? In the ‘60s,
that was the genteel expression for the small cadre of people who controlled the country with their
corrupted wealth and power. Popular graffiti at the time often directed readers to “Crash the Garden
Party!”
Well, it’s all changed now. Whether we like or not, we’ve shifted. From the top, across, and down,
the country has shifted. Some folks say we needed the Bush administrations (yes, all eight years) to
truly hit rock bottom, and like drunks, we must now work our way back to a sober functioning. Like
drunks who sober up to the reality that they have lost everything, many of our countrymen find
themselves starting again from scratch.
However, the difference is we were not drunks. Many of us were not irresponsible in our behavior and
need make amends to no one; in fact, it is we who are owed an apology. Alright, maybe some folks
didn’t plan well but how could they, if they didn’t realize there were problems. When people in
positions of leadership pretend all is well, saying Go-Go-Go!, followers tend to pretend the same – and
Go! It’s not like anyone from that exclusive Garden Party was phoning out with econo-warnings.
Yet, there were all those strategically-timed alerts they managed to get out, saying we could all be
killed at any moment, to keep us looking for attack from offshore. Effective sleight of hand. Funny,
how we never expect evil to operate within the magically pure glow of our own country.
Even when other countries have erupted in mass protest, what has kept most Americans in line are
two things: 1) The persistent and lazily naive belief that leadership (no matter how greedy or
misbehaved) has the country’s best interests at heart and will steer it well without the People’s
intervention; and 2) The subconscious desire of every American to have his cake and eat it too (in
other words, join the Garden Party, not crash it!).
But enough of that. We’re here now, at the crux of Change.
It’s been reported recently that the current economic depression is having some effects on American
behavior and attitudes that I would call positive. In some ways, this Depression is turning us into
better human beings. For example, without those pesky jobs to go to, more Americans are doing
volunteer work, and are applying to programs such as AmeriCorps and Vista in droves. Similar in
ideal to the Peace Corps, these programs dispatch applicants to struggling areas within the United
States to work on projects designed to strengthen those communities. Some projects focus on anti-
poverty efforts and address community self-sufficiency, others aid youth, or elders living in isolation.
It seems that while Americans feel the ground shifting beneath their own feet, they are also feeling a
desire to help other Americans who are in even greater need.
Something else I’ve read is that more Americans who have lost their jobs are deciding now, of all
times, to finally open their own business and try working for themselves. Along those same lines,
many of the newly unemployed are actively seeking new careers in fields more suited to their tastes.
The shackles of one job – or, one known life – have now been broken and so, no longer bound, they
are going for the jobs that they really wanted before life got in the way. Of course, this is not
surprising when you think of how many people took (and stayed in) jobs they didn’t want for
decades, simply for health insurance or other necessary benefits. Like being dumped by an untrue
lover who was only so-so anyway, people are moving on and looking for a better relationship to
work, one that will bring meaning and fulfillment to the brand new life they are making.
A couple weeks ago, I met “L” at a party. I’d say she was around 40. “L” had just lost her job in the
Information Technology field. Yep, even IT isn’t safe. Since her daughter lives at college, she said
she’s thinking of ditching the expensive northern suburbs to move back in with her mother in Detroit.
She stressed that, in doing so, she can provide more assistance to her mother than she was previously
able to. I gleaned that the assistance was, in part, financial. However, I wondered if she was stressing
her wish to help her mother, so I wouldn’t think she was moving because she was financially unable
to maintain her expensive suburban lifestyle. At any rate, she said she wasn’t going to jump right
into any new job, she was going to take her time and find the “right” next thing. She added that the
“right” next thing might just take her away from Michigan.
My cousin Cathy, a college grad who I’ll say is around 60, lost her administrative job at the Detroit
Visitors Bureau last summer - right after she returned from an expensive trip abroad. She went from
the highs of fabulous France to the lows of laid-off. I privately joked that I guessed Detroit wasn’t
expecting any more visitors, the city was closing until further notice. Anyway, months later, she told
me that she didn’t miss going to her job at all. In fact, she said that thrice. She noted that other
people, those in a different stage of life than her, with less experience and savings accrued to fall back
on, had it a lot worse. She was sure that there were people who were suffering now, due to the loss of
their job.
Like “L”, Cathy isn’t interested in rushing into another job. She, too, is looking for something
“right”, maybe something very different from what she had been doing. She mentioned taking some
classes in a new field, and then rattled off several career choices that I had no idea she’d ever been
interested in pursuing. At age 60, no less! She agreed that the country, in many ways, has shifted. “I
don’t think it’s ever going back,” she said.
The other day, I forwarded a friend’s sister an email about planning for retirement in these trying
times. A suburban Detroiter, “M” was laid off within a week of my return to town, after voluntarily
cutting back her hours in order to try and keep her job. In her late 50’s and a college grad, “M”
worked as a research librarian for an architectural design firm. I figured she might be reconsidering
her retirement options. She thanked me for thinking of her, and agreed that she and her husband’s
financial future and retirement would indeed require some re-thinking. She said she was glad they’d
been able to pay off their mortgage and didn’t have to worry about their home, but that the
receptionist at her firm, who was laid off over 6 months before, still had not found a job and was now
losing her home to foreclosure.
I have other friends and relatives in Detroit who lost well-paying jobs over the last few years; it started
with jobs that were directly related to the auto industry and then branched outward, like tumbling
dice. My point is that there are well over 100,000 stories like these in Detroit and its suburbs, and
many of the other stories don’t end as well. Generally speaking, my friends and relatives (even
strangers I meet at parties) are well-educated and well-connected. Yet, they have all been affected by
the economic upheaval of local auto plant stoppages, as well as by the larger messes that others who
were far more well-connected and far wealthier caused SOMEWHERE ELSE.
This time it’s not just the ‘little people’ who are adjusting to a shift, and that’s one reason why we are
seeing changes across a wide range of values and attitudes. According to a new Pew Research Center
poll, Americans are changing their thinking, for the first time in years, about which household items
they believe they can’t live without. People who used to think their microwave oven was an absolute
necessity are re-thinking that value; the same for televisions, dish washers, air conditioners, dryers,
and so on.
Some of that has to do with shifts in technology use (say, computers vs. television); and, I would like
to think it also has to do with a growing interest in greener, more energy-efficient living. However, I
am sure this shift in values (as expressed through material interests) certainly has something to do
with folks looking at what they have and thinking more deeply about what they need; as well as
deciding what they could let go. Even folks who haven’t lost their jobs or homes, yet, are just nervous
enough to be re-thinking all of these things. And seeing with new eyes.
Which is not entirely a bad thing.
It seems to me that Americans, on the whole, are making the best of the imposed shift we are
experiencing – of life, money, values – by attempting to shake off the horror of it all and create a new
reality for themselves. Some, because they are finally thinking ahead (and anticipating the worst);
and others, because they must – they feel the worst has already happened. As for Detroiters, hurting
though they are on so many levels, they are enduring. Thousands of workers have already taken
what was offered to retire early from the auto plants, many doing so after generations of service. Still,
other workers are hanging on until the last dribbled-out paycheck (never say it’s over until it’s over)
and the last plant door has closed for good.
Meanwhile, the governor is insisting that Michigan will become the ‘electric-car battery capitol of the
world’, even as experts theorize that Michigan’s only chance of surviving this Depression is for it to
leave behind its greatest legacy of ‘making things’, to put a plug in its “brain drain”, and to reinvent
itself as a left-brained-only Mecca. At any rate, batteries are a start – and, whatever Detroit, no, all of
Michigan, will do for a future, it will be new.
All the same, the reigning era of the once-revolutionary industry that ushered in the concept that an
average American with a high school education could earn enough money through honest, hard
work to buy or build a home (thus creating a booming suburbs) and achieve his or her vision of the
American dream, which included children expecting to be better educated and better-off than their
parents, has officially concluded. If America didn’t understand that before, it only has to look at
Detroit to understand it now.
