Seeing Detroit with New Eyes

by Mary Hanna/MPT Operations Manager

I left to participate in the USSF with a mixture of nostalgia and trepidation.

I grew up in Detroit. I mean "DETROIT-Detroit"...not a suburb. I'm old enough to remember the '67 race riots, with tanks rolling down the street in front of my house, and snipers on the roof of my school; the glow of burning buildings behind us as my dad sat on the front porch with a shotgun on his lap "just in case." The summer heat held the tensions of the first attempts to desegregate schools, neighborhoods beginning to become integrated, and the pervasive prejudice that kept many people locked into poor housing, inadequate schools, and underpaying jobs. Spotlights from helicopters would scan my backyard as they searched for "escaped criminals." At night, the television newscasts would first recount horrific tales of the war in Viet Nam, and then segue into Detroit's daily crime tally. My city was deemed the "murder capital of the world", even as that bloody war raged abroad. Unfortunately, until this week, I have to admit that this was gist of my memories of Detroit-The-City-I-Grew-Up-In. And I found myself wondering what influence this impression had had on my pursuing a career dedicated to nonviolent conflict resolution.

I had moved to East Lansing when I started undergrad at Michigan State University in 1979, and for the most part have lived in the Lansing area ever since. Most of my extended family still lives in the suburban Detroit area, and although I visit them fairly often, it wasn't until I spent the concerted time that this week's USSF afforded me in downtown Detroit that I suddenly remembered all the beautiful, amazing, wonderful things about the city of my childhood.

For example, I had remembered the Cass Corridor as a place to be avoided at all costs, especially at night. As a kid, I may not have been able to describe the boogie man, but certainly this is where he lived - - in the hub of all that is dangerous. But this week, I saw it as the host site for the U.S. Assembly of Jews conference, and as the home-base for the USSF's Tent City, where people from all over the United States mingled with, and lived along side of, the struggling people of the inner city.

Travelling up and down Woodward Avenue, I could see the incredible diversity of people who live and work here day in and day out, and I remembered that there had always been a diversity of people here, even as they struggled to figure out how to live along side of each other. The beautiful blue sky that was reflected off the Detroit River was the canopy for a myriad of ethnicities peopling Hart Plaza. How could I have forgotten? It was always like this! There had always been music in the background, and someone willing to dance to it (even in public!) It had always been peopled with folks from every walk of life: rich & poor, young & old, black& white & Hispanic & middle-eastern. Even as the city had struggled, it had consistently tried to celebrate whatever it could find to celebrate. It literally pulsed with the idea that sometimes it was down, but it would never be counted as out.

And perhaps the most exciting thing I saw were the scores of people - both Detroiters and those from around the nation - that were dedicated to fortifying this city as the strong, integral, complex and beautiful place that it was always meant to be; people that plan to be in it for the long-haul.

Detroit's microcosm mirrored what I believe the U.S. Social Forum to be all about: Building, creating, and renewing the world together for the benefit of all; being strategic and creative and collaborative in finding a way that all can live together peaceably and with the level of affluence that is afforded those who willingly share the good times and bad, the sickness and health of a family, a city, a nation...

I'm proud to say I'm from Detroit, and I hope that the dedication to renewal that I've witnessed there this week is infectious and will be carried to every corner of our country. Together, we really can make a new world....and I'm so very glad to be a part of it.