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..........37 posters in front of me as I type and not one, including mine, outright states the true reason for the demise of Detroit. Reason: “We’re all scared to!” A story in my youth may tell it without setting the world on fire. The story is about a huge black man named “Thomas”. That’s his real name or what we (a bunch of 16 year old white boys) called him. I can’t remember his first name. Anyway, rumor had it that Thomas was so strong that after unbolting a motor block he could just reach in and pick it up, didn’t need a motor lift. Despite this, he was a gentle and tolerant man. All us 16 year old white boys brought our cars over to Thomas to fix because he was good and cheap but he would also just let us hang around. And, when we had just ten bucks and needed a carburaetor part or something and it was Friday afternoon and we had a date.............well, Thomas would “carry” us till we got the money and fix it anyway. And that exact nut, bolt or part to “get you going”.....as Thomas so often put it.

And,Thomas always seemed to be able to find it “somewhere”. We all just absolutely loved Thomas! Some of us practically grew up....”at Thomas’s house”.

But, I digress, Thomas also had a large family and they were poor but not dirt poor. And, I remember that on Sunday we didn’t go over and bother Thomas because he had his 7 sons and 2 daughter’s all dressed up in Sunday best and headed for his car to go to church. And, on Sunday afternoon, he didn’t work in his garage. Those 9 kids ALL had good grades! They all said “yes sir” to Thomas and “yes maam” to “Momma” and even to us 16 year old boys. I lost track of Thomas in later years but heard from an old buddy that lived close to him on into his adulthood who reported to me that every one of Thomas and Momma’s kids grew up to be good, responsible people. No doubt in my mind!

The problem with Detroit and the central core cause of it’s demise over recent decades was that there simply were no Thomas’s, or damn few! If you want just one word for Detroit’s failure, in my opinion, it would be “fathers”.......or lack thereof.