SPENCE: Glenn Beck’s Detroit put-downs uncalled for
This may sound crazy considering the countless difficulties Michigan has had in the last few decades, but I love this state.
I have lived in Mount Pleasant my entire life and I hope to one day live either in Detroit or the Detroit area. So when conservative pundit Glenn Beck compared Detroit to Hiroshima after the atomic bombing I got not only confused — but pissed.
On Monday's episode of Beck's show he said even after being nuked Hiroshima is a thriving metropolis because they embraced free-market systems and an entrepreneurial spirit and blamed the Motor City's problems on progressive politics, unions and the Big Three automakers.
I'm mad — not only because his comparisons are ridiculous, but because nothing he said is going to help the image of Detroit and Michigan.
It's easy for someone like Beck, who has possibly never even been there, to depict Detroit as a dangerous and dying city. What Beck has irresponsibly done is ignore the side of Detroit that is strong and on the cusp of a comeback.
I was also once skeptical and critical of the city. That was until my cousins who live there showed me the restaurants, bars and parks they love: Places such as the Sweetwater Tavern and Motor City Brewing Works that I came to love, too.
What was disturbing about his rant was Beck tried to appear sincere about his concern for the city. That couldn't be further from the truth.
What's even worse is people watch his program and believe his tripe.
If he was concerned about Detroit he wouldn't have been so negatively biased and turn the hardships of a city into six minutes of liberal bashing.
How ironic is it that he always talks about the lies the government is telling the American people, yet his audience seems to ignore the lies he spouts on a regular basis?
At the end of Monday's show Beck advised viewers to do their own homework and inform themselves on the issues.
I hope Beck takes his own advice one day and visits the city he so casually put down.
