VivirLatino

As la Mala pointed out, Michigan was just the target of a terrorist attack. Thank god the attempt failed. But it’s weird, because all hell has broken loose since the attempt. Joe Lieberman wants to attack Yemen. Republicans are sure it is all Obama’s fault. A white man is selling his heroic photos. And my eyes have been subjected to the ripped up underwear of the man who attempted to blow up the plain.

But let me tell you something. As a Michigander and as a Detroiter–let me just say. I promise you–the politics that are swirling around this attempted attack are much more horrific to Michiganders than the actual attempt was.

A little history about Michigan. We are the state with the worst unemployment rate in the U.S. People are leaving Michigan right and left. In many areas of the state (including Detroit, Flint, Saginaw and countless rural areas), unemployment is over 50%. Yes, you read that correctly–50% of the population in many cities throughout the state are simply out of work.

And things only seem to be getting worse. Our state government can’t get its shit together. We have a governor who knows what she’s doing but is constantly hindered by a legislature caught up in grandstanding and buy offs (on both sides). Pundits are saying it’s time to let “Detroit die” even as they refuse to invest in alternative economic structures that would transition millions of people out of dependency on the auto industry.

Everybody is out of work, and those who aren’t are holding on for dear life. Which means that Michigan conservatives and libertarians are in the odd position of being “under attack” but advocating for things they aren’t used to. That is, instead of screaming about “increase police” and “attack attack” etc–there has been a tremendous amount of worry about the government becoming too involved. The government increasing regulations and rules will more than likely have a deleterious effect on the Detroit airline industry.

And nobody knows if Michigan can survive one more industry collapsing. Attacking Yemen doesn’t seem so logical, practical or exciting when you may be out of a job soon.

But the impossibility of increased government interventions on the economy of Michigan has led to an alarming advocacy for profiling. If government control is going to destroy us, we might as well put particular bodies out to be destroyed first. Focus on the brown bodies so that the white ones are left alone. And it’s doubly convenient that the brown folk we’re all watching so closely now are some of the hardest hit by the economic recession, and as such, can’t leave Michigan!

Outside of the increased profiling, my biggest problem is that I just can’t keep up with the people who are putting out all these ‘solutions.’ Within a couple of hours of the news breaking, pundits, activists on the right (from outside of Michigan) and others were already filling the airwaves with militaristic and violent “solutions” that largely center on the control and/or annihilation of brown bodies.

The rest of us (including the conservatives in Michigan) were spending that time reflecting on the glory of being alive and making bad coping jokes about Team Terrorism.

I really don’t know how people who actually lived through a successful attack handled it all. I understand Suheir in way I never have before–can I just have a minute? Just a minute?

I have no answers on what would be the more appropriate response to this attempt. Except the really big solutions like: get out of Iraq, Afghanistan, and stop threatening Yemen, Iran, North Korea, etc. Fix all the areas we’ve blown up. Help those who were bombed recover some sort of life and livelihood.

And then maybe head to Detroit and do the same for us.

I guess I’ll just keep making bad Team Terrorism jokes for now, though, because I don’t see any of that happening any time soon–and if you don’t have an alternative outside of “just stop” to racial profiling, nobody really wants to hear from you.

God Bless the U.S.A.