It’s a beautiful fall day in September, the weather is in the 70’s, a
slight wind, and you decide to go to lunch with some fellow workers, and look at
new cars. The ads have promised new and more power, affordable payments, and
just looking makes your three year old model look old, which is was, for this is
the fall of 1966, and people would trade every two years, and better yet, you
are in Detroit, the automotive capital of the world-MOTOWN! Bright new Chevies,
Fords, Pontiacs, Plymouths, and Cadillacs are out cruising the streets, top down
if possible, and all is well in Detroit. General Motors continues to be the
largest manufacturer in the world, and is still under threat from the US
government to be broken up as it has over 50% of the market. Ford and Chrysler
make up another 35%, and foreign means small, uncomfortable, and cheap. With
the exception Mercedes Benz, still not a luxury car here, and BMW, so exclusive
most think the B stands for British. MG sells more, and only VW is close,
selling less than Mercury, Pontiac, Oldsmobile, and even Buick. This is
Detroit, this is America, and no one will ever change that...and then nine
months later riots take over the town, and it is never the same again. Soon
shuttered plants of the Hudson and Packard, once respectable cars, are empty,
now for over 15 years, as no one wants them, soon to be joined by GM, Ford,
Dodge, and Plymouth. Even the mighty GM is looking to build cars in foreign
countries, adding to the woes of Detroit. And while Chevrolet still desires you
to see the USA in a Chevrolet, many are looking past Detroit, and as the
factories close, the population dwindles. Once proud neighborhoods of factory
workers are being found empty, as no work, means no paychecks, and they look
elsewhere, if there is an elsewhere. And suddenly that fall day in 1966 is part
of a dream, as you look around at the burned out neighborhoods, now ghettos, and
cars on blocks instead of on the street, how could anyone knew this would or
could ever happen.
It is another fall day in Detroit, 1973, and OPEC has pushed oil prices
high, so high that the little cars that Detroit wouldn’t build, but Japan does,
are in demand, and MPG sells. No one wants a Cadillac at 10mpg, but brags about
almost fitting into their Datsun at 20mpg. And as more new American cars don’t
sell, the factories shut down, businesses around them close, and soon
neighborhoods become the hood, and the city is in turmoil. Now fast forward to
the future, 2013, and another fall day full of color, but no one in Detroit is
cruising. In just 45 years, it has gone from a city of 2 million, to only
700,000. Unemployment is still almost 20%, down from 25% a few years earlier,
only the mass exodus of people bringing the rate down. And finally the city,
home of MOTOWN, home of General Motors, Ford, and Chrysler, home of the Lions,
Tigers, and Red Wings, once a proud, growing, and productive city, is declaring
bankruptcy. It has lost over 70% of its manufacturing jobs in one generation,
and no one wants Detroit. Homes can be bought for les than $1000, just pay the
back taxes, and entire city blocks are now reduced to vacant lots, as vandalism,
crime, and poverty rule the day, and cars made in Korea, Japan, and Mexico are
in driveways. Even down the road in Dearborn where Henry Ford built housing
developments for his workers, you find few Ford cars like before when you wanted
to own what you made, now can’t afford to. Just a generation ago, the fathers
tell their kids, this place was booming, and prosperous. We were living the
American dream, and look at us now...a nightmare. If it could happen here, it
could happen anywhere...
And travelling throughout the US of A, it is happening everyday. NO jobs
equals no money, equals no homes. Equals no hopes. And soon a people without
hope give up. At first they are angry, then begin to lose hope, and then
finally just don’t care, just before they give up altogether. You find them on
street corners, hanging out when they used to go to work. They may have
complained about taxes, but had an income to pay them from, and with taxes
falling due to no work, cities cannot maintain roads, cannot respond to crime,
to fires, and soon urban decay and ruin takes over. All in a few short years,
or as long as a generation. And we deny it can ever happen here, to us, we are
the US of A, God shed His grace on us, says so in the song. We sing God Bless
America, but we have forgotten to bless God. And it shows.
Joseph Stalin, heathen, dictator, and nogoodnick, once bragged “give me a
generation, and I will change the world.” Which he did, we just didn’t think it
would happen here. And as I see teachers packing, guards in schools, police not
responding, crack houses everywhere, and we still look at the news and say “it
can never happen to me,” we are overcome by a great delusion, called Normalcy
Bias. The it could never happen to me, because I have never seen it happen
syndrome. And as the poor seek refuge in politicians promises, they lose even
more hope. Where is God in all this, has He abandoned us? Why hasn’t He heard
our cry?
The answers are simple-God never left, we have left Hiim, He has heard our
cries, and He is even answering, as He has for 2000 years, the answer is Jesus.
Money doesn’t buy jobs, or change neighborhoods, but turning to God does. Any
place a change of heart occurs, a change in life follows. God’s people prosper,
and do not give up. We do no lose hope, although at times it appears hopeless,
and life can be like buckwheats-slow beatings. But God takes us through it,
maybe not unscathed, but victorious. So why aren’t you choosing Him today? Why
aren’t you looking to God? One of the first scriptures I learned was in 2
Corinthians 4:8. We are hard pressed on every side, yet not crushed. We are
perplexed, not in despair, persecuted but not forsaken, struck down, but not
destroyed....sound like you? It was written by Paul from prison, trusting Jesus
all the way. If he can do it from a cell, can you do it from wherever you are?
Look around, is your life becoming a Detroit, bankrupt and broke, only an image
of its former self, or are you seeking God, and watching as Jesus Christ changes
lives, and neighborhoods, and cities? When General Mac Arthur was asked what
Japan needed after WWII, he told them they were a broken and faithless nation,
send Bibles and missionaries. We sent...none of the above. And soon Detroit
became a war zone. Are we next?
What will you look back at in 45 years? KIA, Hyundai, Nissan, and even
Honda cars were unheard of in 1966. Ask a kid under 25 what is a Plymouth,
Oldsmobile, or Pontiac? Over 45, ask about Hudson, Nash, and Rambler. Those
living in Detroit thought it could never happen to them. All great
civilizations have rotted from within, turning from God. Broke or broken, and
your answer is...
love with compassion,
Mike
matthew25biker.blogspot.com