Cross-posted from michiganliberal.com and My Left Wing
I've written a number of posts and cross-posts now about the troubles in the auto industry and how they're affecting us here in Michigan. Each time I put them online, I'm amazed at the personal stories that emerge in the comments. These stories get us past the numbers, past labels like "autoworkers" or "UAW members." These are people. People just like you and me. People with mothers, fathers, sons, daughters, brothers and sisters spread across this great land. They're people with mortgage payments, people who go to the grocery store, people who coach high school sports, people who go to church. And America is failing them.
So here goes. Today, we unveil a special section of Michliberal.com:
"Faces of the Auto Industry." In the comments section, tell us about your friend, your mom, dad, sister, brother, uncle, aunt - whoever it is - who works in the auto industry.
Tell us about how they're coping, about how they're planning for the future. Link to a picture if you have one (unfortunately, the function on this site for uploading pictures isn't working. You'll have to host it on an external site.)
Honestly, I may not be the best person to put this together. I am, perhaps, the one person in Michigan who doesn't have any relatives employeed by the Big 3. But I live in Lansing - a GM town. This past week, the company announced that the just-closed Lansing Car Assembly plant, where Ransom Olds cranked out the first curved dash Oldsmobiles 100 years ago,
will be torn down. GM did build a brand new Cadillac plant next door. And there's another new factory on the rise west of town. We should be in better shape than most towns - if the company survives.
But I'll start by reposting some of the comments that have came up in response to my posts on DKos.
Maybe by showing the human faces it will become just a little bit clearer to us exactly what it is that's slipping away.