It didn't take long for Detroiters to react to NBC's Dateline special on Detroit, America Now: Detroit. And surprise surprise, their reaction was the same company reaction that they have given to any inquiry into the state of the city, be it media or government. Denial, mixed heavily with anger and outrage. As a Metro Detroiter (someone who lives outside Detroit but has a vested interest in Detroit thanks to, among other things, taxes) who knows the deal, just once I'd like to see acceptance or ownership from Detroit community leaders. Robert Bobb (DPS emergency financial manager) who is trying to salvage what is left of DPS (Detroit Public Schools) after the wolves have nearly picked its carcass clean and Dave Bing (current mayor of Detroit) have taken more than the lion's share of ownership for past gluttony that they had no part in. But where are the community leaders who were keeping watch over the city for decades now? Where is their ownership in the failure that is Detroit?
I have never thought NBC reflects fair and unbiased journalism. But everything that was captured in Dateline's special by hometown kid who made good, Chris Hansen, was the truth. It was ugly but it was the truth. Yes, it's hard to hear seasoned Detroiters (read: the elderly of the community) say that the best is all gone in Detroit. Statements like that make you want to cry. But it's what we see every night on our local news folks. There were no exaggerations. War zone violence and chaos. Government corruption. So many money grabs that we've lost count. Every abomination known to mankind. It was the Cliff Notes version of Detroit's humiliations and that is an awful bitter pill to swallow. For weeks before its premiere, Detroit was abuzz about Chris Hansen's presence in the city. Detroiters have always been under the perverse notion that any publicity is good publicity. It's rather embarrassing to those of us who know better. Maybe it was annoyance at the fact that a white kid from a suburban Catholic prep school who is now a big city journalist had caught the city with its pants down and its hand in the cookie jar, and was now sharing the footage with the world. Or maybe it was that the city of Detroit believes that truth is a subjective thing. In the same vein as the saying "beauty is in the eye of the beholder". But everyone from religious leaders to Mitch Albom were decrying the special and claiming NBC was out to slander Detroit. Some went as far to say that there were many well-to-do Detroiters, that the poverty in Detroit was exaggerated and that NBC purposely ignored all of the positive things happening in Detroit. Like what? Like trash not being collected, like kids being mowed down by gunfire as they stood at a bus stop on their way home from summer school or like water main breaks that resemble geysers, creating impassible lakes in the streets that aren't shut off unless a news channel with a video camera gets involved?
If you live in Southeast Michigan, you're way past the point of 'Huh?' The fact that at least two people (on record) in leadership positions are so in denial of the devastation that people are experiencing within the city is nothing short of disgusting. And the latest scapegoat is Chris Hansen and NBC. Own your mistakes Detroit. Move past your obsession with public and national perception. You can't spin Detroit's PR any longer. You can sweep the city's transgressions under the rug for only so long. The rug's not big enough to conceal all of the mistakes, wrong doings and evils that were committed against the city anymore. I am reminded of the scene from the Wizard of Oz where the band of merry social outcasts come to see the great and powerful Oz to seek assistance with their situations. When he is unmasked by Toto as being nothing more than a simple man with a megaphone and access to pyrotechnics, he frantically shouts into the mic "Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain!" and tries to direct their attention back to the imposing image on the wall. No one buys it for a second and his pitiful attempts go on for a short while until finally he gives up. Parlor games and Jedi mind tricks aside, Detroit has to realize that Dateline was only holding up a mirror and making their special out to be an exaggerated dig at Detroit is hurting no one but themselves.
Showing posts with label Detroit. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Detroit. Show all posts
Tuesday, April 27, 2010
Friday, March 16, 2007
An Open Letter to William C. Ford (and for good measure, Alan Mulally)
Dear Mr. Ford (and to a lesser extent, Mr. Mulally),
You have cost my generation quite a bit. You have cost my neighbors a lot as well. My friends, my family, my town, my state, my country have paid dearly. And it makes me angry Mr. Ford, it makes me angry because it was completely avoidable. It was unnecessary. It could have been prevented. Sure, you're not the only car company down in the hole digging away fruitlessly but as long as not all of the companies are down there with you (oh let's say Toyota for one), you can't put the blame on the outside world. There were countless exit ramps, you were just too greedy. Flush from the SUV boom of the 90s. The trucks and SUVs were your cash cows. And the hometown crowd bought into it. My neighbors drove heavy duty trucks to their office jobs, teens drove full sized SUVs to school. I remember the gas per gallon price in 1999 too Mr. Ford. 99 cents a gallon. Times were good. Hybrids were purely hobby then. Every kid of every Ford employee at my school had a shiny new Cougar in the school parking lot, never mind that your company was just looking to quickly unload a supply of flashy coffee cans. The common man was still going gaga over Mustangs. Every hometown kid in high school and college was looking to a Ford horizon. We all wanted to work there, even me.
Working at a place like Ford use to mean something to people. It was like a social hierarchy, the golden ticket to a successful career. It use to mean something special to my family. I've had uncles, cousins and countless other relatives root their careers firmly in Ford. My great grandfather worked there, devoted most of his life to it, with someone who may be vaguely familiar to you--Henry Ford? Maybe I shouldn't blame you so much Mr. Ford---after all, decisions are made by many different people on many different levels and power is portioned out. But you have a vested interest that sets you apart from all the other decision makers because at the end of the day, you still end your signature with Ford.
The world is not what it once was. Gasoline, politics, OPEC--they're ego chess games. They are games of chicken, of Stratego power plays. But SUVs stopped being the golden calf a long time ago. People didn't want to pay for heavy duty trucks when all they hauled around suburbia were themselves. You had time to slow down, turn the ship, at the very least see the writing on the wall. But Ford was filled with middle aged Baby Boomer men who refused to give into the times, even though they were a-changing. They had a good formula going--they were so sure they could convince the American people, the hometown crowd, that they still needed SUVs. That, to complete their lives, suburbanites needed full sized trucks. Of course, the people who actually needed them to drag their boats to the lake had already seen the writing and were trying to unload not only their gas guzzling vehicles but their boats as well.
Factories manned by unionized linemen, who made more money with overtime and benefits than most college grads, kept churning out vehicles who were putting down roots in dealership lots. If you really need to point the finger at someone other than yourself, Mr. Ford, pointing to the unions would be understating their role by leaps and bounds. Unions are the noose that Ford has hanged itself with. For years, you let the unions call the shots, pilfering what they could. Union members have a well earned reputation of being untouchable, Mr. Ford, and they know it. With health care costs soaring, how did you expect to square benefit costs with a growing crop of unsold vehicles? How did you expect to kick start a new chapter where Ford is synonymous with quality when union workers get paid either way, regardless of whether the work gets done right or at all? With that disastrous recipe Mr. Ford, I wasn't surprised in the least when the layoffs began. Nor was I surprised when you announced your expansion south of the border. After all the unions had to know it too. They were the proverbial straw. They caused their own layoffs. Former employees should demand their union dues back. I've seen the union hierarchy on the news, swaggering around like they were knee deep in gold bargaining chips. You let it come to this Mr. Ford, the American auto industry becoming an utter joke. People like myself, who were raised die hard domestic consumers, are tired of the incessant recalls, the shoddy parts, and non existent durability. Someone should clue in your marketing and design teams, who seem to be trapped in a 90s time warp, cars are no longer extensions of our personalities. We are not going to pay through the nose for flash and flash alone. Especially the hometown crowd. People who are chronically out of work, Mr. Ford, are more worried about paying their heating bills than plastic flash.
As a side note to Mr. Mulally, how do you square away, how do you reconcile in your mind, the fact that your company had a thirteen percent decline for the month of February and yet, those results somehow warrant bonuses for all employees and might I add, hefty ones at that for senior management. Million dollar stock options and large cash bonuses that use to be someone's paycheck, someone's salary. Someone's money for groceries. Nauseating, Mr. Mulally, disgusting and at the very least, tacky.
I'm sure none of this is news but it needs to be reiterated, as many times as necessary, until you get it. In a post Enron world, accountability, honesty and sacrifice are held in the highest esteem with the American consumer. Gone are the days when CEOs were viewed as benevolent Father Knows Best figures. Ford's reputation and its products have vandalized the history of the classic American company. A history filled with ironic wistful slogans of yesteryear. Built Ford tough. Ford has a better idea. Think Ford first.
You have cost my generation quite a bit. You have cost my neighbors a lot as well. My friends, my family, my town, my state, my country have paid dearly. And it makes me angry Mr. Ford, it makes me angry because it was completely avoidable. It was unnecessary. It could have been prevented. Sure, you're not the only car company down in the hole digging away fruitlessly but as long as not all of the companies are down there with you (oh let's say Toyota for one), you can't put the blame on the outside world. There were countless exit ramps, you were just too greedy. Flush from the SUV boom of the 90s. The trucks and SUVs were your cash cows. And the hometown crowd bought into it. My neighbors drove heavy duty trucks to their office jobs, teens drove full sized SUVs to school. I remember the gas per gallon price in 1999 too Mr. Ford. 99 cents a gallon. Times were good. Hybrids were purely hobby then. Every kid of every Ford employee at my school had a shiny new Cougar in the school parking lot, never mind that your company was just looking to quickly unload a supply of flashy coffee cans. The common man was still going gaga over Mustangs. Every hometown kid in high school and college was looking to a Ford horizon. We all wanted to work there, even me.
Working at a place like Ford use to mean something to people. It was like a social hierarchy, the golden ticket to a successful career. It use to mean something special to my family. I've had uncles, cousins and countless other relatives root their careers firmly in Ford. My great grandfather worked there, devoted most of his life to it, with someone who may be vaguely familiar to you--Henry Ford? Maybe I shouldn't blame you so much Mr. Ford---after all, decisions are made by many different people on many different levels and power is portioned out. But you have a vested interest that sets you apart from all the other decision makers because at the end of the day, you still end your signature with Ford.
The world is not what it once was. Gasoline, politics, OPEC--they're ego chess games. They are games of chicken, of Stratego power plays. But SUVs stopped being the golden calf a long time ago. People didn't want to pay for heavy duty trucks when all they hauled around suburbia were themselves. You had time to slow down, turn the ship, at the very least see the writing on the wall. But Ford was filled with middle aged Baby Boomer men who refused to give into the times, even though they were a-changing. They had a good formula going--they were so sure they could convince the American people, the hometown crowd, that they still needed SUVs. That, to complete their lives, suburbanites needed full sized trucks. Of course, the people who actually needed them to drag their boats to the lake had already seen the writing and were trying to unload not only their gas guzzling vehicles but their boats as well.
Factories manned by unionized linemen, who made more money with overtime and benefits than most college grads, kept churning out vehicles who were putting down roots in dealership lots. If you really need to point the finger at someone other than yourself, Mr. Ford, pointing to the unions would be understating their role by leaps and bounds. Unions are the noose that Ford has hanged itself with. For years, you let the unions call the shots, pilfering what they could. Union members have a well earned reputation of being untouchable, Mr. Ford, and they know it. With health care costs soaring, how did you expect to square benefit costs with a growing crop of unsold vehicles? How did you expect to kick start a new chapter where Ford is synonymous with quality when union workers get paid either way, regardless of whether the work gets done right or at all? With that disastrous recipe Mr. Ford, I wasn't surprised in the least when the layoffs began. Nor was I surprised when you announced your expansion south of the border. After all the unions had to know it too. They were the proverbial straw. They caused their own layoffs. Former employees should demand their union dues back. I've seen the union hierarchy on the news, swaggering around like they were knee deep in gold bargaining chips. You let it come to this Mr. Ford, the American auto industry becoming an utter joke. People like myself, who were raised die hard domestic consumers, are tired of the incessant recalls, the shoddy parts, and non existent durability. Someone should clue in your marketing and design teams, who seem to be trapped in a 90s time warp, cars are no longer extensions of our personalities. We are not going to pay through the nose for flash and flash alone. Especially the hometown crowd. People who are chronically out of work, Mr. Ford, are more worried about paying their heating bills than plastic flash.
As a side note to Mr. Mulally, how do you square away, how do you reconcile in your mind, the fact that your company had a thirteen percent decline for the month of February and yet, those results somehow warrant bonuses for all employees and might I add, hefty ones at that for senior management. Million dollar stock options and large cash bonuses that use to be someone's paycheck, someone's salary. Someone's money for groceries. Nauseating, Mr. Mulally, disgusting and at the very least, tacky.
I'm sure none of this is news but it needs to be reiterated, as many times as necessary, until you get it. In a post Enron world, accountability, honesty and sacrifice are held in the highest esteem with the American consumer. Gone are the days when CEOs were viewed as benevolent Father Knows Best figures. Ford's reputation and its products have vandalized the history of the classic American company. A history filled with ironic wistful slogans of yesteryear. Built Ford tough. Ford has a better idea. Think Ford first.
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