Kwame Kilpatrick Takes No Stuff (While Detroit Needs a Lot of It)

Though Mr. Kilpatrick will tell you differently, the mayor of Detroit has ceased to make decisions concerning the fate of his once great city for any other reason than how it might affect Kwame Kilpatrick. This is a great way to choose socks in the morning, it is not a great way to serve as mayor.

Kwame will posture and he will obfuscate. He will dodge, dismiss and dispel. He will get indignant and he will defend. What he will not do is take ownership for his actions, nor will he pursue any outcomes that he thinks are not in the best personal interests of one Kwame M. Kilpatrick.

The City of Detroit be damned.

Now, I don't begrudge any man a healthy disinterest in trudging off to prison. But, seriously, this is not about guilt or innocence anymore. That issue will be decided in court whether Mr. Kilpatrick is in office or not. Rather, this is about whether or not the Mayor of Detroit is able to execute the responsibilities of his office in an efficient manner, and in a way that benefits the city of Detroit. Kwame has long ago decided it is in his bests interests to cling to his city job by well manicured fingernails, unfortunately, he has not seriously considered the needs of the city to which he clings.

If he leaves, his city will be filled with chaos, he says. Are you kidding me? If Kwame hasn't already recognized the chaos in Detroit these days he wouldn't recognize it if it did a topless spiked-heels table dance on the granite liquor bar at the Manoogian Mansion.

He loves his city, he says, because "it is a community that doesn't take no stuff."

That, I think, could also be a personal motto for Kwame Kilpatrick. (Well, that and maybe, "where are the strippers?") He is a man that doesn't take no stuff. This is not, however, a mentality that should be thrown onto the back of a community in dire need of a lot of stuff, stuff that it requires to be able to meet the basic needs of its existing citizens, let alone stuff that it needs to attract the businesses and jobs necessary for better times.

"Taking no stuff" of course, refers to disrespect and criticism. Unfortunately for most of the mortal men I've encountered in my life, taking stuff, though seldom pleasant and often humbling, is sometimes absolutely necessary. When a person decides to take no stuff, he defensively ignores necessary criticisms and advice. When a mortal man projects his "take no stuff" attitude onto a foundering city that desperately needs all the help it can get, that city suffers for one man's stubborn pride.

I've known a lot of people that wouldn't take no stuff. Fortunately, for their own sake, most of those people changed their attitude before they reached a cruelly candid adult life.

Kwame did not change his. Because of this, and because Detroit is solidly strapped to Kwame's back, the city cannot.