Torn Fabric

      By Ed Baranosky 

      How and when did some American cities become like a Third World country?

      It’s there for everyone to see on the Travel Channel. You can see when the 
   narrators go to the cities of Europe. Those cities were devastated in World War II. 

      The people of these cities prospered on what used to be American traits: initiative,
  and hard work. They restored the grandeur of their heritage.   

      The national spotlight has been turned on Baltimore and Detroit, point out 
  deplorable conditions in which the people are living. If people there are waiting
  for someone else to come in and fix them they will be waiting until hell freezes over.

      If Cleveland and Pittsburgh have been rejuvenated, what’s holding back Detroit and Baltimore?
  Common sense would tell you it’s the wrong people in charge. 

      Why aren’t the citizens of these cities asking where the billions of federal aid money went? Instead 
  of Elijah Cummings, the Maryland congressman, using the opportunity to rally the people of
  Baltimore into action to better their conditions, his comment is: “The president is a racist.” 

     Three thousand years ago Moses said to the Israelites: “Mount your asses and camels
  and I will lead you to the promised land.” 

      If the people of Detroit and Baltimore want  their cities to get cleaned up they had better get off their asses, snuff out their Camel cigarettes, pick up a shovel, kill a rat then use the shovel to pick up thrash. 

      If any one of the 20 Pied Pipers that were on TV in Detroit for two days had gone there, put on old clothes and picked up a shovel and started to clean up trash, they would have shown a leadership that might have helped their cause.

    The part that’s lost on Americans today is work is always hard and usually dirty.  

    In the end if they put their backs into it they will find the results are worth it.                                                #