To the Editor:
I very much enjoyed your "We're history". One of your themes reminded me of Coleman Young's words in his autobiography _Hard Stuff_ ( page 2 Viking 1994) : "...The real message lies in the fact that since 1914, when Henry Ford's futuristic production system and new-wage workday began to attract the multiracial, ethnic, huddled masses yearning to be gainfully employed, Detroit's special place in urban American history has been as its great indicator, a condensed, microcosmic, accelerated version of Everycity, U.S.A. Tocqueville noticed that about Detroit as far back as th early nineteenth century. In the evolutionary urban order, Detroit today has always been your town tomorrow. Superannuated as it may seem in this late segment of a swirling century, troubled and forsaken as the times have conspired to leave it, Detroit remains a surpassingly purposeful place, as important to the nation right now as it has ever been ---- maybe more so, because right now it is telling us that cities are in trouble. Detroit is the advance warning system - the flashing red light and siren --- for what could be a catastrophic urban meltdown, and the country had damn well better pay attention. " Perhaps academic history is reflecting Mayor Young's thinking here some when it makes Detroit a "model city again " and a " symbol" and "way of exploring urban problems" today. We're History http://www.metrotimes.com/ _______________________________________________ Leninist-International mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] To change your options or unsubscribe go to: http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/listinfo/leninist-international
