I went to Detroit yesterday by way of a tour bus to see a football game. My Girlfriends son attends Lake Erie Collage on a football scholership and for a mere thirty five dollars ticket price included and snacks we went. In my heart I secretly longed to be heading for New York to participate in the protests but with a cooler full of Warsteiner beer I knew in time I would get in the spirit of the day.


The bus trip was a good idea as we drove four hours towards Detroit I was looking forward to seeing moter city being Wayne State Collage was right in the middle of it. The down time on the bus gave me some time to reflect on my own situation in this economy. There I was surrounded by reasonably succsesfull middle aged parents who have managed to survive so far the worst economic crisis in our lifetime. Drinking bloody Marys and passing around snacks one could allmost forget that the country is at a crossroads with a looming police state and economic crissis just around the corner.


We passed a huge old landfill the type that is layerd and vented to release methane it looked like a huge earthmound in a pyramid shape and was about a mile long. My girlfriend asked me what is that?

I told her that is the landfill were they burried the american dream. She Laughed.

We drove past many old and new auto plants and steel mills some still actualy in use but all of them looked run down and gasping for their last breath or just hanging on in hopes of better times ahead.


When we arrived in Detroit it was rather depressing lots of gang graffiti and many abandoned houses and bussiness. I was glad we took a bus and didnt drive ourselves.

When we arrived to Wayne state the imediate area around the campus was well kept and one could allmost forget the blight that surrounded it, a small oasis of civilization.

It was pooch day at the stadium, bring your dog to the game day. So there were many dogs wearing team colors and a few tents selling doggy treats for the humane society and donation booths for them. All maned by pretty young collage girls. A real contrast could be made as in the background of the marching bands and drunken fans ,lurked a sub culter trying to blend in.

Every twenty yards or so one would see a homeless person digging in the garbage cans for aluminum and plastic, we deduced that plastic bottles have a refund in Michigan due to all the people carrying around bags of them pilfered from the rubbish.

I expected at any moment for a homeless person to ask the society for the human treatment of animals "What about people"?

It was game time and time for the flag and national anthem. the crowd lacked enthusiasm the color guard was out of step and seemed to sence that we were hardly the land of the free and home of the brave but for this one day we all pretended it to be so as we let the alcohol take over and we enjoyed the perfect weather.