Flint was once home to thousands of hard working families, prideful businesses, and a General Motors plant- it was a city of tremendous highs. Now Flint is nothing but a shell of its former self, a city as dark as its stone cold namesake.
My hometown is a smudge on the map of the Midwest. It is the result of all that is wrong with America’s autocracy; it is the nuclear wasteland of our country’s power hungry leaders. Flint, Michigan serves as a sullen reminder of what used to be the heartland of American entrepreneurial patriotism. We used to live in a respectable city; a place where you could make a living and raise a family. Now the street corners are occupied by the homeless. Now nearly one out of every four people are without a job. Now the memories of the forgotten children hang visibly over the cityscape, looming over the town in gray clouds of factory smoke, comforting the people in a security blanket of long-deceased dreams. The residents of Flint used to have a future to plan for- they used to have jobs to maintain and a city worthy of respect. Now all they have is hope. Hope for a better tomorrow, hope that one day they get out of this place, hope that somehow food will end up on their toddler’s plate come breakfast in the morning. That hope keeps us alive.
The University of Michigan Flint occupies the one bright spot off of Saginaw street. It is occupied by underprivileged inner-city youths who are only trying to do what is best for themselves, but as a result will receive a watered-down education because they didn’t learn anything in high school except for how to deal dope and steal meals.
We rank third in the nation in total crime. We rank second in the nation in unemployment. Our roads are dilapidated past the point of repair, and when the next cold Michigan winter rolls around, things will only get worse. Flint has been raped to the point of bankruptcy by mayors and city officials. They swirl in through the revolving door of misplaced leadership and stay just long enough to steal from our poor; then they exit and fade back into the broken hull of the city. I hope they can sleep at night, resting assured that they have taken more than we could give, plundering our tomb for any remaining objects of value after all of our riches were already carted away. But they underestimated our resolve. They underestimated our dedication to our city.
You cannot walk more than a square block downtown without being asked for spare change or the use of your cell phone. The homeless population increases every summer, only to take an unavoidable hit in the winter when some unfortunate men, women, and children can’t escape the cold in a shelter. The only surefire income guaranteed for the youth of this city is to sell drugs. There will always be a demand, some of us will squander our entire income just for those few brief moments when you are high and the pain subsides. We know we can’t make the suffering go away this way, but it is so much easier just to forget. Forget the past and blame it on something you could not control- it is this mindset that causes us suffering, it causes us to lose sight of how we can make things better.
But who can we blame? It was Roger B. Smith and GM’s fault- they took 80,000 jobs from Flint. Maybe it was Ronald Reagan’s fault- his economic policies outsourced our jobs to Mexico for cheaper labor. It was probably the mayor’s fault- he stole from the city and didn’t allot enough money to our education system. Surely it is not my fault. Surely it is not your fault. We are innocent. We are bystanders.
Blaming others for our situation will solve nothing- who to scapegoat for our fall from grace is completely irrelevant. The only question worth asking in is whether or not the people of Flint can make things better for themselves. We have to keep working to improve our lives- we have to create jobs, stay away from drugs, and raise our children to be respectful and productive. Our lives depend on it. Flint’s biggest secret is the resolve of its people- the ones that aren’t giving up. We have been through hell in the last 40 years, but nothing is going to keep us from our dreams. Nothing can steal our hope for a better tomorrow. Nothing.
