Illness

I've been under the weather for the better part of a week now and I'm sick of being sick.

During my illness, Egypt has been all over the news, our country has drawn ever closer to an economic cliff, and John Conyers has announced he wants to seek reelection because, I suppose, he feels no one else in Detroit or the greater downriver area is better capable of representing the district than a fossilizing communist whose head is lodged solidly within his own large intestine.

Not surprisingly, Conyers is neither the oldest nor longest serving Democrat in Michigan's delegation to Washington to announce that he will seek another term of hobbling the American economy. Last week, John Dingell (even older and having served longer) announced that he too is better than any other candidate the democrats might be able to conjure up within his representative kingdom.

Southeast Michigan is the poster child for malfeasance in both government and electorate. While I don't equate the two situations, I do find it somewhat ironic that half way around the world thousands of people brave guns and tanks and fill the streets to demonstrate against a dictator who has served only a bit more than half as long as either Mr. Conyers or Mr. Dingell have. If Mubarak lived in Dearborn or Detroit his government job would be safer than it is today in Cairo.

It is being said by many today that the Arab and Muslim worlds demand strong central leadership; that while the protests in Egypt might very well lead to elections down the road, most likely the ultimate government will be every bit as oppressive toward its people as the current one is. (Iran? Gaza?) The fact is, as far as this relates to Egypt at least, we do not know for sure.

That same theory might also be applicable enough in Detroit, but Detroiters don't seem brave enough to even explore the point.

Now if you'll excuse me my head is swollen and my ears are plugged up--something, come to think of it, that both John Conyers and John Dingell would consider positive qualifications for office.