Kwame Must Go--Detroit is Too Important to Itself and the State of Michigan

The murk clouding the skies over Detroit is no longer provided solely by a huge industrial complex forging out tomorrow's automobiles, for many of the factories, iconic to a city that prided itself on the oft fiery marriage of innovation and brute-force labor, have simply boarded up and moved south while a symbolic few of those remaining are surrounded by picketers that seem intent upon driving the holdovers either just across the border or all the way into the land of Dixie.

No, a large portion of today's dark clouds over Motown are emanating directly from city hall where the current generation of corrupt puppeteers has dug in its heels, circled the wagons, battened down the hatches and reached for city provided cell phones to do some serious texting.

It is as if the city itself is located on a giant sinkhole that has started to swallow up ever larger bites of its infrastructure, pride and spirit.

History will be bitterly disappointed in Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick.

He had all that was necessary to continue the change of the city's course that was started under the mayorship of Dennis Archer who preceded him. An older and wiser Archer had already done much of the dirty work by taking on the riffraff remains of Coleman Young's dirty political machine. Kilpatrick was only 31 when elected, handsome, smart and filled with city-born charisma. He was educated and able to communicate. He could have been exactly what the city needed--a vibrant young man capable of slamming the door on previous generations of abuse, neglect and pettiness. He was young and inexperienced, sure, but he appeared to have "it", however hard it sometimes is to define "it."

Kilpatrick's first term was repeatedly attacked with charges of womanizing, partying, inappropriate expenditures and cronyism. He narrowly won a second term. But rather than taking that slim victory as warning that a change in tactics and practice was warranted, Kilpatrick continued along his own questionable path, hopscotching over the head of Archer and firmly into the corrupt corridors that still echo the whispers of Coleman Young.

Kilpatrick, now solidly within that second term, not only has not delivered on any of his potential, but he has stolen much of what he rode to political office on--the hope of the citizens of Detroit that the city could, once again, become a city that mattered because of its immense productivity and not because of its immense need.

The Democrat mantra of the government providing for the people is well known. Kilpatrick has always said that it is his desire to continue on with the business of helping the city of Detroit and its people. If he is sincere at all about this it is time for the man to step down.

Where have you gone Dennis Archer?