Transcripts For CSPAN3 Book Discussion On Nothin But Blue Sk

Week. Xt people would just walk right across the street, two weeks theydraduation, and have a job. And when i was going to school, fumesmber inhaling paint as i ran on the track. There was there was just this sweetish chemical order. Seeing workers standing on the balconies, during friday night football games, watching from across the street. Of course, there was a bar from every entrance. Introduction to the immigrant,ut an because an american consul told him the most jobs were in figured that was the most promising place. By the time i started high school, the Unemployment Rate in 14 . Gan was and one of our chemistry hishers used to begin classes by telling us, it used to be that you didnt have to study here, because you could just walk across the street and get a good job. But those days are over. To you guys are gonna have study hard and go to college. So i studied hard and i went to college. Get after that, i didnt good job. I got out of college in the early 90s when there was another recession going on. I remember being fascinated by boom autoom baby workers about how easy theyd had it finding work. Detroit story in the free press about a young guy who as pumping gas in flint, when g. M. Personnel officer rolled in and asked, why arent you the shop . The jockey shrugged. Took his name and number. A week later, he got a call work. Him to report to they had a name called generous motors. The early 70s. At that point, the workers had a deal where they could work for on full and retire benefits, no matter what age they were. And they had health care for the rest of their lives. Thats over too, which well get to later. My friend larry had to tell his bad that kids these days dont have it as easy as you did, dad. It was just a reversal of the usual fatherson conversation about how tough it had been when he was growing up. And larry said, i think that you know, if everyone had the same opportunity you did, to just walk into a personnel office, fill out a piece of paper, go to work the same day, wed all be there. You just cant walk into general today. Larry eventually made it to General Motors. But i think it took him about 10 years. And he had to work in several other smaller manufacturing concerns. Hes still not an actual employee. Hes a firearm and he works for workses a fireman and he for a subcontractor. So he didnt quite make it as is. As his dad another guy profiled was john cooper who runs a classic car show. School ined from high 1965 and his job search consisted of cutting classes one to apply at all the auto plants in town. He hired in on september 13, 1965, which was g. M. s largest hiring date since world war ii. Because no coincidence, it was just as the vietnam war was cranking up. Vietnam was the Perfect Little for General Motors, because it was big enough to provide 750 defensea year in contracts. But it wasnt so big that the company couldnt build cars too, they had done in world war ii. It wasnt a total war. Was not5 to 1969, there a single month when the Unemployment Rate was higher than 4 in the united states. You couldnt be a slacker in the 1960s. An atppies had to create entire alternative reality to indoll lens. Years went on to work 37 at General Motors. His whole life course was basically set, right out of high school. Me was that told the baby boomers, he believes, will be the last generation to than their parents did. Part of this is a generational story. Then in 2006, fisher body was torn down. While the work was going on, i a sign that said demolition means progress. Kind ofthought was orwellian. Now that piece of land looks between nagasaki and badlands. Nothing there but wild flowers. Gus, who had done so much business for 20some years actually, it would have been almost 40 years, from General Motors workers, had to lay off all 14 of his waitresses the week after his plant closed, because he wasnt from guys serving money across the bar, to customers being the retired auto workers who lived in the rooms above the bar. The book was also an attempt for me to find out what happened to that defined our communities in the midwest. I realized it was also a american middle class. And thats mostly what i want to talk about today, because one of to make isi tried while the nations cultural and trends originate on the east and west coast, the Economic Trends originate here in the midwest. Was the birth place and is becoming the graveyard of the middle class. Where henry ford started paying his workers 5 a day so afford to buy the cars they were building. The united auto workers, which obviously played a big role in maintaining the suree class by making workers got a fair share of the wealth they were producing. Uaw always set the standard, because no product adds more value during production than the automobile. The first excerpt im going to read is about everett, a family friend, 98 years old, one of the last if not the last veterans of the flint sitdown strike. And im going to talk about how his life reflected the prosperity of the midcentury middle class. Survivingthe last sitdown strikers, everett not only participated in the battle the middle class, he enjoyed all the spoils of the peace that followed. An hour inned 27 the 1970s, more than any of the analysts indget lansings mazes of State Government cubicles. After he retired, he was guaranteed Free Health Care for the rest of his life. 38 years so far, only a year worked in the shop. Wonout the benefits the uaw from General Motors, everett would have lived out his old age uncle, if he were living his old age at all. Bedecided 100 years would enough life. After g. M. Went bankrupt in him that the cause of his consumption of Health Benefits was personally g. M. s financial crisis. Everett cackled. Living know where id be without it, he said. Id be living with one of my nephews. Gone. Sisters are i really dont know where i would be if i had what i have. I i had to buy my insurance, wouldnt be living in this 2,000 a month apartment. But how long are my benefits going to last . All the money i got is interest money i saved through the years. In his own lifetime, which began three months after world war i broke out, everett went from to auto worker to prosperous pensioner. America went from an Agrarian Society to postindustrial nation. Townlint went from a small where building cars was a t Cottage Industry to a depopulated slum with the highest murder rate in the nation. How did all this happen in the span of one mans years . Everetts father wanted to be a farmer but he couldnt make grow. Nd beans so he worked in the family general story, driving a horse and buggy around the country side, trading goods for milk, potato and eggs. Great war,a won the it was join an army or work in a factory. Airplane engines at the buick. It would eventually employ twothirds of the city. By the early 20th century, flint thirdgradeon its industry. In 1865, the saw milligan pineting, slicing the woods and lumber. Once the forests were exhausted, timber to become the nations carriagemaking capital. A scottish tinker formed the company that became General Motors. War meant work. In the teens and twenties, quadrupled totion quad 156,000. Headhunters sought out dirt farmers all over the midwest, handing them oneway tickets to the vehicle city. The newcomers to this boom town tents andhacks, railroad cars. Earls family rented a tiny house. He could afford on his factory pay. After the war, earl tried again, failed again, and returned to flint for good. A city boy with no agricultural ambitions. After graduating from high enlisted in33, he General Motors as an apprentice dye maker at 50 cents an hour. Not only were the wages low, the job could disappear in a day. Wanted to hire his brotherinlaw, he created an opening by handing a worker a slip. Bachelors were laid off while married men kept their jobs. Were laid off because their husbands worked in the plant. The supervision, they had no control either. You could come into work today as a supervisor, have a desk, a yellow slip on there that said youre all done. On november 12, at the fisher plant, three welders conducted a short prounion sitdown demonstration. The foremen called their time cards. Stoppedst, they working. Faced with a shutdown, the plant manager agreed to meet with the who toldsentative, them production would not resume until the welders returned to work. The next day, 500 Auto Workers Union thatith the prevented the firings. The uaw highcommanded the strike for january, whether new model year production would be at its peek governor wouldw be worn in. But the week after christmas, the company forced the unions hand. On december 30, a rumor circulated that g. M. Was about grand rapids and pontiac so it could stamp out day. Uick bodies a flint went on strike. The movement ended up causing to shutdown it was intended prevent. At 10 p. M. , the night shift stopped working and refused to go home. Strike had begun. Everett was working at the known as chevy in the hole, because it was located in a lowlying area. The strike struck chevy in foreman said,e you need it. Mostitdown strike was the important event of everitts career. It made his working mans fortune possible and was the source of his long life. There was never a better time to motors than the 1940s through the 1970s. There was never a better time to laborer period. After g. M. Recognized the uaw, everitt received a pension plan insurance. During world war ii, he stayed out of combat by building chevrolet. Cks for once the war was won, flint was booming. They even bussed people up from the south. Up here to work. Everybody was working, everybody had a job, everybody had one or two cars. And you kept getting bigger homes. Oh, boy centurys greatest 20th invention was not the airplane or the atomic bomb. The middle class. We won the cold war, not because military strength but because we shared our wealth more broadly than the communists and as a result, had more wealth to share. Everitt has the depression boys for his good gratitude for his good fortune. That universal prosperity was a natural condition of american life. Assume beginning to otherwise. As the union saw it, the labor an economicrthrough order in which the mass of human saddles been born with on their back. An order in which the many toiled to provide pleasures for the few. Collective bargaining made obsolete the iron law of wages, stated that labor could command no more than a capital. Ce livin living from it made obsolete the marketplace known as bidding at the factory gate, in which workers offered services for 10 cents an hour, only to lose a job to a who would takeob nine. If preserving the victory of the foolish strikers is nostalgia, we have to ask whether the golden age of the anrican worker was aberration, made possible by bye the only we were country to emerge from world war ii with this capacity. Century, will laborers again have to reconcile themselves to roles as members international pes san tri . We have to ask, was the american middle class just a moment . Never again going to be as wealthy as it was in the 50s and 60s, because we competitorsmic during those decades. The rest of the world was still digging itself out from the world inflicted during war ii. Of course, the countries that our greatest industrial competitors were the countries war. Feated during that we paid to rebuild their infrastructure so they had more and we tookries over responsibility for their defense. Engineers our best were going into defense and aerospace, because thats where the Big Government contracts were. Their best engineers were building cars. And the event that really put an end to the geometric expansion of the american way of life was embargo of 1973. That was a consequence of another imperial responsibility war ii,red after world which was the protection of israel. After we sent arms to israel war, the Prime Minister requested those arms. Theres a local connection here. Ha ha saudi arabia cut off our oil supply. Price of a gallon of gas went from 36 to 53 cents a gallon. Started rationing gas. If you had a license plate that odd number, you could get it on monday, wednesday, friday. When thewas at a time average american car got 13 miles to the gallon. Owned a 1972 chevy impala, 22 years after the fact. It had to be 20 feet long. It was a rolling motel. [laughter] drove it from michigan to california and slept comfortably in the back seat. So not surprisingly, people wanted cars they didnt have to fill up every day. American Auto Companies didnt want to build small cars. They had just signed a contract that i talked about a minute allowing the workers to retire after 30 years, at any age, with Health Benefits for life. And there wasnt enough profit margin in small cars to pay for those benefits. Really believed that only flaky people out in california wanted to drive and volkswagens. So they made terrible small cars. The pinto was rushed into production in 25 months instead of 43 months. Ford decided or calculated it would be cheaper to pay off fromawsuits that resulted it catching on fire during rearend collisions than to put the gas tank above the rear axle or to fit the tank with a it fromliner to prevent spewing fuel. There was a memo. Actuarial calculations. They say an actuary is somebody a value on a human life. They did in this case. Companiesrican auto lost an entire generation of drivers with cars like that, and two cars. Both of the head gaskets blew up. So even though the quality of american small cars has caught up with germany and japan, there are still people who wont touch them. The recession in the early 80s, which i call the first great was not nationwide like the one we just had but it thinkeper here than i even the recent recession. It was sort of confined to the midwest. Result of the disruption of the oil supply caused by the iranian revolution and the antiinflationary carter. Rates set by people couldnt afford to fill a car with gas or a loan to buy one. A new houset afford either. And all this had a terrible effect on the steel mills which the half their product to Auto Industry. And so then this next exert is excerptat happened is about what happened to a chicago steelworker who started his career other in the 60s. And also, about how the steel crisis there led to the launching of Barack Obamas organizer. Community thats the tiein to the i wrote, called young mr. Obama, chicago and a blackng of president. Okay. This is from a chapter entitled bowl. The term rust belt was actually originally rust bowl. First usage i found for it was in time magazine. Popularized by Walter Mondale during the 1984 president ial campaign when he accused president reagan of turning the midwest into a rust bowl. Way it was altered in the of journalism to match the whatever other belts we have. Term bible belt. The term before the rust belt was the frost belt. Way, on the east side of chicago, life did not run according to the laws that nature imposed on the rest of the world. When night fell on other neighborhoods, those neighborhoods stayed dark until morning. On the east side, the night sky steel,red when u. S. Republic steel, sent the waste product of steel making. The steel mills created their own suns, their own skies, their own weather. In other neighborhoods, wives washing in the basement when it rained. Hung itast side, wives indoors lest their sheets be stained with soot. Mornings, it was littered with graphite. You could take a spoon and get it, recalled an east cider. On a mustymarked odor. Men didnt go to work when the sun rose and return home when it set. To 3, 3 to 11, 7 sometimes a different shift every week. Up on 106th street at 3 00 in the morning, all the were open. You could buy a 12pack of beer. Rob stanley was born on the east side in 1947, two years after a u. S. Steel safety man came home from the war. And welsh descent, stanley was an exotic in his neighborhood. His playmates called his catholic killer. The family never thought about going to college, because steelworkers made more money than chemistry teachers. Thought about rumbling with negro gangs and playing football sandlot local allstars. About 5 of my class went to college, stanley said. Guys on the east side didnt have plans. What happened is you were just enjoying life, going out. Park, all the teams we were on. Our plan was to get a better playerst better ball and make enough money to get a car and make it to our games. Stanley graduated in january 1965, he had to pay rent or get kicked out of his house. S so he walked over to interlake steel where he was immediately shovel into the Blast Furnace on the midnight shift. It was the worst job, but it paid 2. 30 an hour, enough for apartment and a car. You just would apply. That day. 50 guys youd always see guys with new helmets walking around. The vietnam war, which brought so much work to the steel industry, made it easy for stanley to get hired as a grunt impossible for him to enroll apprenticeship. The foreman new his conscription was inevitable. But afternoon, a friend pulled alongside his car, waving an envelope. Just got drafted, he shouted, and so did you sure enough, when stanley home, the envelope every 19yearold male received was waiting in the mailbox. Thats another reason employment high, especially in the industry, because the young blue drafted. Les were being stanleys time in country lasted only a year, but the war lasted longer, so there was still plenty of work when he came home. Ar two years, he was part of construction gang at u. S. Steel. Seven days a week, he dug clay pits. He wrote letters to International Construction jobanies hoping to find a josh that would take him back to hong kong. Ther he mailed them out, season started which would help keep him on the east side through the winter. Got his girlfriend pregnant, which would keep him on the east side forever. Back fromt gotten vietnam, had big plans of traveling the world. Been planning for father. Married now, with a daughter, he needed a career like his father, put in 39 years at u. S. Open before retiring after heart surgery. In the 1970s, he began a pipefitters apprenticeship. Nobody knew then but he could worstve hired in at a time. And now, wisconsin steel had international by harvester in 1902. Fearing price gouging by u. S. Equipment manufacturer wanted the mill to itsuce plate still for Unemployment Rate<\/a> in 14 . Gan was and one of our chemistry hishers used to begin classes by telling us, it used to be that you didnt have to study here, because you could just walk across the street and get a good job. But those days are over. To you guys are gonna have study hard and go to college. So i studied hard and i went to college. Get after that, i didnt good job. I got out of college in the early 90s when there was another recession going on. I remember being fascinated by boom autoom baby workers about how easy theyd had it finding work. Detroit story in the free press about a young guy who as pumping gas in flint, when g. M. Personnel officer rolled in and asked, why arent you the shop . The jockey shrugged. Took his name and number. A week later, he got a call work. Him to report to they had a name called generous motors. The early 70s. At that point, the workers had a deal where they could work for on full and retire benefits, no matter what age they were. And they had health care for the rest of their lives. Thats over too, which well get to later. My friend larry had to tell his bad that kids these days dont have it as easy as you did, dad. It was just a reversal of the usual fatherson conversation about how tough it had been when he was growing up. And larry said, i think that you know, if everyone had the same opportunity you did, to just walk into a personnel office, fill out a piece of paper, go to work the same day, wed all be there. You just cant walk into general today. Larry eventually made it to General Motors<\/a>. But i think it took him about 10 years. And he had to work in several other smaller manufacturing concerns. Hes still not an actual employee. Hes a firearm and he works for workses a fireman and he for a subcontractor. So he didnt quite make it as is. As his dad another guy profiled was john cooper who runs a classic car show. School ined from high 1965 and his job search consisted of cutting classes one to apply at all the auto plants in town. He hired in on september 13, 1965, which was g. M. s largest hiring date since world war ii. Because no coincidence, it was just as the vietnam war was cranking up. Vietnam was the Perfect Little<\/a> for General Motors<\/a>, because it was big enough to provide 750 defensea year in contracts. But it wasnt so big that the company couldnt build cars too, they had done in world war ii. It wasnt a total war. Was not5 to 1969, there a single month when the Unemployment Rate<\/a> was higher than 4 in the united states. You couldnt be a slacker in the 1960s. An atppies had to create entire alternative reality to indoll lens. Years went on to work 37 at General Motors<\/a>. His whole life course was basically set, right out of high school. Me was that told the baby boomers, he believes, will be the last generation to than their parents did. Part of this is a generational story. Then in 2006, fisher body was torn down. While the work was going on, i a sign that said demolition means progress. Kind ofthought was orwellian. Now that piece of land looks between nagasaki and badlands. Nothing there but wild flowers. Gus, who had done so much business for 20some years actually, it would have been almost 40 years, from General Motors<\/a> workers, had to lay off all 14 of his waitresses the week after his plant closed, because he wasnt from guys serving money across the bar, to customers being the retired auto workers who lived in the rooms above the bar. The book was also an attempt for me to find out what happened to that defined our communities in the midwest. I realized it was also a american middle class. And thats mostly what i want to talk about today, because one of to make isi tried while the nations cultural and trends originate on the east and west coast, the Economic Trends<\/a> originate here in the midwest. Was the birth place and is becoming the graveyard of the middle class. Where henry ford started paying his workers 5 a day so afford to buy the cars they were building. The united auto workers, which obviously played a big role in maintaining the suree class by making workers got a fair share of the wealth they were producing. Uaw always set the standard, because no product adds more value during production than the automobile. The first excerpt im going to read is about everett, a family friend, 98 years old, one of the last if not the last veterans of the flint sitdown strike. And im going to talk about how his life reflected the prosperity of the midcentury middle class. Survivingthe last sitdown strikers, everett not only participated in the battle the middle class, he enjoyed all the spoils of the peace that followed. An hour inned 27 the 1970s, more than any of the analysts indget lansings mazes of State Government<\/a> cubicles. After he retired, he was guaranteed Free Health Care<\/a> for the rest of his life. 38 years so far, only a year worked in the shop. Wonout the benefits the uaw from General Motors<\/a>, everett would have lived out his old age uncle, if he were living his old age at all. Bedecided 100 years would enough life. After g. M. Went bankrupt in him that the cause of his consumption of Health Benefits<\/a> was personally g. M. s financial crisis. Everett cackled. Living know where id be without it, he said. Id be living with one of my nephews. Gone. Sisters are i really dont know where i would be if i had what i have. I i had to buy my insurance, wouldnt be living in this 2,000 a month apartment. But how long are my benefits going to last . All the money i got is interest money i saved through the years. In his own lifetime, which began three months after world war i broke out, everett went from to auto worker to prosperous pensioner. America went from an Agrarian Society<\/a> to postindustrial nation. Townlint went from a small where building cars was a t Cottage Industry<\/a> to a depopulated slum with the highest murder rate in the nation. How did all this happen in the span of one mans years . Everetts father wanted to be a farmer but he couldnt make grow. Nd beans so he worked in the family general story, driving a horse and buggy around the country side, trading goods for milk, potato and eggs. Great war,a won the it was join an army or work in a factory. Airplane engines at the buick. It would eventually employ twothirds of the city. By the early 20th century, flint thirdgradeon its industry. In 1865, the saw milligan pineting, slicing the woods and lumber. Once the forests were exhausted, timber to become the nations carriagemaking capital. A scottish tinker formed the company that became General Motors<\/a>. War meant work. In the teens and twenties, quadrupled totion quad 156,000. Headhunters sought out dirt farmers all over the midwest, handing them oneway tickets to the vehicle city. The newcomers to this boom town tents andhacks, railroad cars. Earls family rented a tiny house. He could afford on his factory pay. After the war, earl tried again, failed again, and returned to flint for good. A city boy with no agricultural ambitions. After graduating from high enlisted in33, he General Motors<\/a> as an apprentice dye maker at 50 cents an hour. Not only were the wages low, the job could disappear in a day. Wanted to hire his brotherinlaw, he created an opening by handing a worker a slip. Bachelors were laid off while married men kept their jobs. Were laid off because their husbands worked in the plant. The supervision, they had no control either. You could come into work today as a supervisor, have a desk, a yellow slip on there that said youre all done. On november 12, at the fisher plant, three welders conducted a short prounion sitdown demonstration. The foremen called their time cards. Stoppedst, they working. Faced with a shutdown, the plant manager agreed to meet with the who toldsentative, them production would not resume until the welders returned to work. The next day, 500 Auto Workers Union<\/a> thatith the prevented the firings. The uaw highcommanded the strike for january, whether new model year production would be at its peek governor wouldw be worn in. But the week after christmas, the company forced the unions hand. On december 30, a rumor circulated that g. M. Was about grand rapids and pontiac so it could stamp out day. Uick bodies a flint went on strike. The movement ended up causing to shutdown it was intended prevent. At 10 p. M. , the night shift stopped working and refused to go home. Strike had begun. Everett was working at the known as chevy in the hole, because it was located in a lowlying area. The strike struck chevy in foreman said,e you need it. Mostitdown strike was the important event of everitts career. It made his working mans fortune possible and was the source of his long life. There was never a better time to motors than the 1940s through the 1970s. There was never a better time to laborer period. After g. M. Recognized the uaw, everitt received a pension plan insurance. During world war ii, he stayed out of combat by building chevrolet. Cks for once the war was won, flint was booming. They even bussed people up from the south. Up here to work. Everybody was working, everybody had a job, everybody had one or two cars. And you kept getting bigger homes. Oh, boy centurys greatest 20th invention was not the airplane or the atomic bomb. The middle class. We won the cold war, not because military strength but because we shared our wealth more broadly than the communists and as a result, had more wealth to share. Everitt has the depression boys for his good gratitude for his good fortune. That universal prosperity was a natural condition of american life. Assume beginning to otherwise. As the union saw it, the labor an economicrthrough order in which the mass of human saddles been born with on their back. An order in which the many toiled to provide pleasures for the few. Collective bargaining made obsolete the iron law of wages, stated that labor could command no more than a capital. Ce livin living from it made obsolete the marketplace known as bidding at the factory gate, in which workers offered services for 10 cents an hour, only to lose a job to a who would takeob nine. If preserving the victory of the foolish strikers is nostalgia, we have to ask whether the golden age of the anrican worker was aberration, made possible by bye the only we were country to emerge from world war ii with this capacity. Century, will laborers again have to reconcile themselves to roles as members international pes san tri . We have to ask, was the american middle class just a moment . Never again going to be as wealthy as it was in the 50s and 60s, because we competitorsmic during those decades. The rest of the world was still digging itself out from the world inflicted during war ii. Of course, the countries that our greatest industrial competitors were the countries war. Feated during that we paid to rebuild their infrastructure so they had more and we tookries over responsibility for their defense. Engineers our best were going into defense and aerospace, because thats where the Big Government<\/a> contracts were. Their best engineers were building cars. And the event that really put an end to the geometric expansion of the american way of life was embargo of 1973. That was a consequence of another imperial responsibility war ii,red after world which was the protection of israel. After we sent arms to israel war, the Prime Minister<\/a> requested those arms. Theres a local connection here. Ha ha saudi arabia cut off our oil supply. Price of a gallon of gas went from 36 to 53 cents a gallon. Started rationing gas. If you had a license plate that odd number, you could get it on monday, wednesday, friday. When thewas at a time average american car got 13 miles to the gallon. Owned a 1972 chevy impala, 22 years after the fact. It had to be 20 feet long. It was a rolling motel. [laughter] drove it from michigan to california and slept comfortably in the back seat. So not surprisingly, people wanted cars they didnt have to fill up every day. American Auto Companies<\/a> didnt want to build small cars. They had just signed a contract that i talked about a minute allowing the workers to retire after 30 years, at any age, with Health Benefits<\/a> for life. And there wasnt enough profit margin in small cars to pay for those benefits. Really believed that only flaky people out in california wanted to drive and volkswagens. So they made terrible small cars. The pinto was rushed into production in 25 months instead of 43 months. Ford decided or calculated it would be cheaper to pay off fromawsuits that resulted it catching on fire during rearend collisions than to put the gas tank above the rear axle or to fit the tank with a it fromliner to prevent spewing fuel. There was a memo. Actuarial calculations. They say an actuary is somebody a value on a human life. They did in this case. Companiesrican auto lost an entire generation of drivers with cars like that, and two cars. Both of the head gaskets blew up. So even though the quality of american small cars has caught up with germany and japan, there are still people who wont touch them. The recession in the early 80s, which i call the first great was not nationwide like the one we just had but it thinkeper here than i even the recent recession. It was sort of confined to the midwest. Result of the disruption of the oil supply caused by the iranian revolution and the antiinflationary carter. Rates set by people couldnt afford to fill a car with gas or a loan to buy one. A new houset afford either. And all this had a terrible effect on the steel mills which the half their product to Auto Industry<\/a>. And so then this next exert is excerptat happened is about what happened to a chicago steelworker who started his career other in the 60s. And also, about how the steel crisis there led to the launching of Barack Obamas<\/a> organizer. Community thats the tiein to the i wrote, called young mr. Obama, chicago and a blackng of president. Okay. This is from a chapter entitled bowl. The term rust belt was actually originally rust bowl. First usage i found for it was in time magazine. Popularized by Walter Mondale<\/a> during the 1984 president ial campaign when he accused president reagan of turning the midwest into a rust bowl. Way it was altered in the of journalism to match the whatever other belts we have. Term bible belt. The term before the rust belt was the frost belt. Way, on the east side of chicago, life did not run according to the laws that nature imposed on the rest of the world. When night fell on other neighborhoods, those neighborhoods stayed dark until morning. On the east side, the night sky steel,red when u. S. Republic steel, sent the waste product of steel making. The steel mills created their own suns, their own skies, their own weather. In other neighborhoods, wives washing in the basement when it rained. Hung itast side, wives indoors lest their sheets be stained with soot. Mornings, it was littered with graphite. You could take a spoon and get it, recalled an east cider. On a mustymarked odor. Men didnt go to work when the sun rose and return home when it set. To 3, 3 to 11, 7 sometimes a different shift every week. Up on 106th street at 3 00 in the morning, all the were open. You could buy a 12pack of beer. Rob stanley was born on the east side in 1947, two years after a u. S. Steel safety man came home from the war. And welsh descent, stanley was an exotic in his neighborhood. His playmates called his catholic killer. The family never thought about going to college, because steelworkers made more money than chemistry teachers. Thought about rumbling with negro gangs and playing football sandlot local allstars. About 5 of my class went to college, stanley said. Guys on the east side didnt have plans. What happened is you were just enjoying life, going out. Park, all the teams we were on. Our plan was to get a better playerst better ball and make enough money to get a car and make it to our games. Stanley graduated in january 1965, he had to pay rent or get kicked out of his house. S so he walked over to interlake steel where he was immediately shovel into the Blast Furnace<\/a> on the midnight shift. It was the worst job, but it paid 2. 30 an hour, enough for apartment and a car. You just would apply. That day. 50 guys youd always see guys with new helmets walking around. The vietnam war, which brought so much work to the steel industry, made it easy for stanley to get hired as a grunt impossible for him to enroll apprenticeship. The foreman new his conscription was inevitable. But afternoon, a friend pulled alongside his car, waving an envelope. Just got drafted, he shouted, and so did you sure enough, when stanley home, the envelope every 19yearold male received was waiting in the mailbox. Thats another reason employment high, especially in the industry, because the young blue drafted. Les were being stanleys time in country lasted only a year, but the war lasted longer, so there was still plenty of work when he came home. Ar two years, he was part of construction gang at u. S. Steel. Seven days a week, he dug clay pits. He wrote letters to International Construction<\/a> jobanies hoping to find a josh that would take him back to hong kong. Ther he mailed them out, season started which would help keep him on the east side through the winter. Got his girlfriend pregnant, which would keep him on the east side forever. Back fromt gotten vietnam, had big plans of traveling the world. Been planning for father. Married now, with a daughter, he needed a career like his father, put in 39 years at u. S. Open before retiring after heart surgery. In the 1970s, he began a pipefitters apprenticeship. Nobody knew then but he could worstve hired in at a time. And now, wisconsin steel had international by harvester in 1902. Fearing price gouging by u. S. Equipment manufacturer wanted the mill to itsuce plate still for Tractor Assembly<\/a> plants. A labor dispute finally killed steel. Consins on november 1, 1979, workers at the tractor plants went on after the company demanded they accept compulsory limits onnd seniority. International harvester was biggestsconsin mills customer. When stanley showed up for work, news crews were gathered outside the gate. You never want to see that. Happened . Ar what its closed. Closed . Stanley couldnt believe it. The mill . They close wisconsin steel had been in the neighborhood for three generations. An institution like that close . As stanley left the mill, carrying his bag of clean told him, foreman well contact you if something changed. Changed. Ver march 27 was the last day stanley and his 3400 coworkers spent inside wisconsin steel. The mill was bankrupt. Stanleys last two paychecks bounced. Hed worked at wisconsin steel for nine and a half years. Six months short of the 10 years that would have kaustle qualifim for a pension. Company promised him severance pay. He got a check for 700. Stanley had been earned 10 an hour in the mill but once he was laid off, he had to get by an unemployment. Even wrote a letter to the chicago bears, asking for a tryout. But the team turned him down. His exwife had remarried to an electrician with a house and he told her, i cant pay what ive been paying you, so ill just take my daughter buy her clothes or whatever. Stanley and a few buddies from a coldin steel caught on rolling mill but after seven months, he was laid off again. Two layoffs in one year seemed like a message that the steel forstry had no more room stanley. The high gasoline prices auto and Steel Industries<\/a> had rained prosperity texas. Back in detroit, he resold the to union men willing to do dangerous jobs for half their old pay. Took 6. 50 an hour. Triedhouston, he california and enrolling in a Bartending School<\/a> that promised he completed the course. When the classes ended, his instructor told him i think looking ontter off your own. So stanley, a steelworker who over three steel for years, wandered back home for no springeason than it was and softball season was about to start. As a 36yearold bachelor, unemployment didnt bother him that much. He shared an apartment near the park. Car wasnt running, one of his teammates would always drive him to a game. Job aslly he found a new a plumber for the federal government, but he really had to start his whole Retirement Savings<\/a> over again at age 40. Taking him a lot longer to retire than he expected originally. The last excerpt ill read is about what happens to a city after its middle class disappears. This is about cleveland, specifically a neighborhood in village, called the which was the cradle of the housing crisis that ended up entire American Economy<\/a> in 2008. I have to go back a little bit, i didnt explain about barack obama. Sorry about that. In chicago to here. Ill go back in the suburb, two towns south east side, desperate steelworkers turned for help to their priest. Distressed by so their plight that he organized the steel country parishes into religious conference, which won a 100,000 grant to open a offbank for laid steelworkers. In 1985, the conference was organizer lack a black organizer. The group took out an advertisement in a Magazine Community<\/a> jobs. The ad was read by a 23yearold Columbia University<\/a> graduate at new york public library. Steelutdown of wisconsin brought barack obama to chicago, where he began his rise to the presidency of the united states. Obama counseled steelworkers still in denial about the disappearance of their industry. Collar aristocrats, they planned to write off their in theyd always gone on strike, returned to work and earned more money than ever. Why would it be different this time . The brightest were retrained as programmers. Brocksrs were at candy. As muchr again earned money as they made pouring steel. Cleveland. Slavic village, the cradle of the housing crisis that ended up entire American Economy<\/a> in 2008, which is another reason to Pay Attention<\/a> to whats going on economically midwest. Slavic village was first settled poles, czechs and bohemians. Of thosee selfcontained ethnic ghettos the oldu could speak world language. Married, be baptized, work, drink and worship and be buried, all within a few squares miles. That started to break up after world war ii, when young families began moving to the suburbs. When their parents died, the kids didnt want to move back to the old neighborhood, so they the absentee landlords. You started hearing people say, my grandmother grew up in slovakia village, but the neighborhood has changed, which is cleveland code for black in or theresing another code which is the in 2000, Slavic Village<\/a> population fell 20 on the way down from 70,000 to 20,000, and those unwanted houses attracted speculators and house flippers. Ohio had some of the weakest lending laws in the nation, so they opened up a mortgage subsidiary and invented the stated income loan. Turksns if they borrower takes 100,000 a year, they were not going to let the facts get in the way of a bad loan. The result of all of this was by 2006, 903 of the 944 properties were in foreclosure. The highest rate of any zip code in the nation. This next excerpt is what it is like to live in the neighborhood of empty homes. Houses go to heaven, that Slavic Village<\/a> is in the sight of a mass rapture. Tradechaels, a retired magazine editor, a bachelor, a man who likes to sit on his porch and talked with neighbors and passersby, lived his entire life in the little square house his grandfather bought in 1923. It is the kind of house that used to be good enough for everyone in cleveland. 800 square feet in a plot of grass where a virgin mary is flanked by roses and miracles and the american flag. He shared it with his brother. He died in 2005. Now he is alone. His School Friends<\/a> want to know why he didnt go to the suburbs. To them, Slavic Village<\/a> is the old neighborhood, no longer the neighborhood they grew up in. Michael stayed because Slavic Village<\/a> is polish, unlike any other where the integration is the arrival of the first black and the leaving of the last white. Slavic village only changed half way. At seven roses, the rookie cafe pierogie cafe is still there. Staying meant staying with the immaculate heart of mary where he had been baptized. There were a lot of friends, working on the sidewalk and 15 people stopped to talk. You dont get that in the suburbs. People dont talk. Housesitting friends than before the housing crisis. The couples who lived there paid 17,500 in 1977. It should have been good for life, but they like to buy stuff, michael observed, delivered and burrowed under no in 2004 they lost it to the bank. Borrowed until they lost it to the bank. From owner to low income rent, the house was moving down in the world. Eventually a quarter of the foundation collapsed, four inches. The tenant moved out, the house was demolished, leaving the outline of grass. The same thing across the street, where the absentee landlord bought out the tenants, who sold drugs. After he set the house on fire, michaels went to court to have the place demolished. Having inherited his house, he never made a mortgage payment. With no children, here thought of borrowing. He never thought of borrowing. Speculators, who were paying double what the neighbors knew the properties were worth sometimes we look at the homes and say, this is going for 86,000 . What is going on . The bank wasnt looking at applications. As the loans went bad and the houses emptied, the scrappers arrived tearing out furnesses , and water pipes right in broad daylight. To scavengers, this house does not have proper plumbing or posted on windows, but clawson avenue became such a magnet for thieves, they even broke into occupied houses. I kid from down the street tried to burgle michaels, but michaels chased him off. Only a neighbor who mowed the vacant lot on closet avenue [indiscernible] clevelanders have a saying, clevelands pain, the nations gain. We hope the rest of america can learn from our misfortune and. Void the same crap the lenders were so aggressive they went door to door on the east side of cleveland pointing out loose shingles, collapsing chimneys, or sagging porches. Money from a second mortgage could repair any of those defects, the door to door brokers told the homeowners. They never mentioned the adjustable rates. Anita gardeners son fell for that scam. Gardener, who worked 31 years as a heavyduty machinist and welder at tr automotive bought a , twostory house on the east side for 21,000 back in the early 1970s. She was it was almost paid off when she was diagnosed with a brain disorder that left her too ill to work or even walk up the stairs to her bedroom. So she bought a onestory home, a converted her store and side the old house my buckingham , palace where i could close off the world, over to her 30something sons. When gardener moved in, every house was owned by an auto worker or a steel worker with a wife and new car. And then j and l steele the latest the neighborhoods largest employer closed in 1999. The Blue Collar Workers<\/a> moved out, and the Mortgage Brokers<\/a> moved in, attracted by the desperation. Having lost their paychecks, these dispossessed factory rats were told they still had a source of income. In the houses they had bought cheap and paid off with union wages and frugality. This couldnt have happened if people had good jobs, gardener said, or why would they change their mortgage . They were desperate for money. It was targeted, it was definitely targeted. Mortgage agents were going door to door, calling on the phone. It was in the air. You dont have to have credit. You can have nice things. Gardeners sons fell for the pitch. Neither have been able to afford nice things. The other brother had served 11 years on a drug charge. When he got out of prison, the only job he could find was delivering lumber for sears. Furniture for sears. The other works in a lumber warehouse. When an agent for countrywide financial whose ceo is in prison now, by the way offered them a 70,000 mortgage on the almost paid off house they signed. , gardener suspects the agent falsely inflated the homes value in order to write a bigger mortgage. Agents received bigger commissions for adjustable rate mortgages. The boys used the second mortgage for a shopping spree, a black hyundai tiburon sports car, a new couch a big screen , tv, a refrigerator in the garage full of beer. , the Monthly Payments<\/a> began at 436 a month, but as the boys missed payments, it more than doubled to more than 950, more than they could pay with a smalltime job. When the past due amount reached 4,000, gardeners sons appealed to mom for a bailout. This raises a question, which is the greater social ill, allowing people who can no longer afford their mortgages to stay in their houses, thus undermining the Credit System<\/a> by letting people skip out on their payments or , evicting people from the houses for which there is no buyer, thus undermining the property itself and the surrounding neighborhood . Ted michaels and anita gardener would say let the poor folks say and look after the house. Vacant houses attract criminals. Michaels called the cops on a stripper trying to tear the aluminum drainpipe off a house at 11 00 in the morning. In a 150foot radius around a vacant house, Property Values<\/a> go down at least 7,000. A vacant house reduces its own value even more, because it is usually denuded of plumbing fixtures, boilers, carpeting, sinks, toilets, heating elements, and any architectural sconces that can be peddled to a secondhand shop. Yellow foreclosure stickers are and plywood windows are not warnings, theyre invitations. After the exhaust inner sky , scavengers salvage the last pennies of value until the Mortgage Lender<\/a> ends up paying the city for demolition. So after all that, i should tell you that my book has a happy ending. [laughter] Edward Mcclelland<\/a> when i went back to lansing, i found out that the fisher body plant whose demolition had helped inspire the book had actually been replaced. It was obsolete because it was costing General Motors<\/a> millions of dollars a year to build bodies in one plant and ship them across town to another plant to be assembled. So they acquired some land out in the country and put the whole operation under one roof. The plant on the grand river, which was 100 years old, was also torn down and replaced and now builds the cadillac ats which was esquires car of the year and is the bestselling cadillac in decades. And its also going to be building the chevy camaro soon. I think its interesting to talk about the difference between lansing and flint where gm never replaced the plants it tore down, and auto employment has gone from 80,000 in the late 1970s to 7500 now. As a result, the town has half the people it had, and its murder rate so high, its murder rate is 60 per 100,000, and if you put that in perspective, if new york had the same murder rate as flint it would have , 5,000 murders a year. So when you look at murders of cities in the western hemisphere, flint is up there with latin American Drug<\/a> capitals. But flint, it was in a way crippled by the legacy of the sitdown strike because the flint autoworkers never let go of that militant spirit. Strikes, they were more frequent and lasted longer than anywhere else in the gm universe, so gm dispersed its workers to less militant locals. I also discovered a company in lansing called nile wave which makes particle accelerators for physics experiments, xray imaging devices, and the companys president told we told me that lansing was one of the few places he could operate the business because hed hired retired gm craftsmen , and there were very few places that had both the Academic Knowledge<\/a> of Michigan State<\/a> university and the ethic of manual craftsmanship that gm had imparted to the community. So i think hightech manufacturing offers a future for postindustrial cities. Another example i found about that was in syracuse, new york, and syracuse used to be the airconditioning capital of america. And it made the sun belt possible. And as a result, they ended up moving all the jobs down south because thats where the customers were, and the labor was cheaper. So syracuse invented the appliance that caused its own demise. But i visited a company which made high compression chillers, and they needed the, you know, the legacy of craftsmanship and the legacy of engineering knowledge that was still in the community. And finally, gus sold his bar. I actually, i ran into him about a month ago. He was working on a house he still owns across the street from the old bar, and i showed him the book, and he said i cant read english. So im hoping this book does well enough for there to be a greek edition for gus to read. [laughter] actuallyclelland and if it does generate royalties, im going to donate 25 to some of the social Service Agencies<\/a> that i wrote about in here such as Slavic Village<\/a> development or recovery park which is an urban crop and fish farm in detroit. So i guess and as i talk here about the future of some of these hightech businesses, i guess what i should end with is that michigan did not become great because of the Auto Industry<\/a>. The Auto Industry<\/a> became great because of a michigander. Named henry ford. I think there is still the ingenuity there to find a postindustrial future for the state and for the whole region. So i will take any questions now if anybody has any. I guess we have to go up to the microphone. No. Edward mcclelland no . Oh, you dont have to do that . Ok. Are you familiar with the book someplace like america . Edward mcclelland no, im not. Tell me more about it. Well, there were actually two versions of it, and a reporter, writers a reporter and a photographer from acura did the first book. And that book inspired the springsteen song, and i cant remember the title of it now, one of the great Edward Mcclelland<\/a> ok, so was it about how tough things are in america. And then they came out with a second one to check on the people they had interviewed. People that had lost their jobs in steel mills and all across the country. Edward mcclelland and all Edward Mcclelland<\/a> right. They actually got an old chevy and drove and slept in the car and did all that kind of thing like people do, and they checked on them. Its an interesting book. No conclusions come from it, just that things are tough for a large number of people. [inaudible] Edward Mcclelland<\/a> yeah. I wrote a little bit about Bruce Springsteen<\/a> in here and kind of there was a whole school in the early 18 1980s of of heartland rock, i guess they called it. So people, musicians finally got interested in Blue Collar Work<\/a> right when people stopped doing [laughter] doing it. [laughter] Edward Mcclelland<\/a> they were inspired by all of these great twominute songs from california about, you know, the Pacific Ocean<\/a> which was there, their greatest and most endless feature and so they started , writing about the midwests greatest and most endless feature which was unemployment. There was Bruce Springsteen<\/a> writing my hometown, Michael Stanley<\/a> from cleveland who wrote a book called this town which was sort of an anthem of local pride. Things are tough in cleveland. There was john cougar mellencamp, his songs jack and diane, pink house, and billy joel even though hes not actually from the rust belt, he wrote allentown, and bob seger had a song called making thunderbirds about the glory days of the Auto Industry<\/a>. And then springsteen actually, he did a song about youngstown, the ghost of tom thats the song the book inspired. Edward mcclelland oh, ok. Ok. And the titles interesting because they were in california, there was a homeless person who was murdered, and the guy was he just wanted to see what it felt like to kill someone. Edward mcclelland oh, my god. So the homeless gather ored gathered in this park in orange county, and these guys were camped with them, and all of a sudden the police came in to run them off at midnight, and the author said, i cant believe theyre doing this. And he said, what do you think . Is this someplace like america . Edward mcclelland wow. Do you know who the author is . No, i dont remember. Edward mcclelland ok. Ill look it up. Oh, ok. How many rust belt cities did you see that kind of bucked the trend and really didnt have a significant, you know, downfall . Edward mcclelland well, definitely chicago. I devoted a whole chapter to that, and it was from a comment i overheard from people actually working in a bookstore in the lansing, and they said, were all going to end up in chicago. [laughter] Edward Mcclelland<\/a> so it is kind of a rite of passage. You go to high school, you go to college, you spend a year or two on a lowwage job, and then move to chicago, which was what i did. I followed all my friends to chicago in the mid 1990s. They just were suddenly picking up and moving during that recession. And i mean chicago there were a couple of reasons. Back in the 1980s when i was during the period where i was reading about when stanley was losing his job, people really did think it was going to go the same way as detroit and gary and buffalo and just become a rust belt casualty. And a couple reasons were, one, it had a more diversified economy. I mean, the steel mills were only in one small part of chicago, but chicago had publishing, it had advertising, i mean, and most importantly it had finance. Its the Financial Capital<\/a> of the midwest, so it was well positioned for when finance replaced industry. And mayor richard j. Daley, he had really worked hard to preserve downtown. He inherited a downtown in which no buildings had been built since the 19 since the Great Depression<\/a>. And, you know, he left it with the John Hancock Center<\/a> and the sears tower, and he also made sure that ohare, as transportation switched from trains to jets, that chicago was still the Transportation Center<\/a> of the country. And someone in cleveland asked me, what did chicago do right, and i think what they wanted to know was, well, what can cleveland do that chicago did, and my conclusion was that cleveland cant do anything because, in a lot of ways chicagos expense comes at the , rest success comes at the expense of the rest of the region. I mean, it really attracts, you know, its getting a free ride on the Public Education<\/a> systems in michigan and indiana and ohio and here in wisconsin because, you know, so many young people move to chicago. I mean, theres at least one bar for every Big Ten School<\/a> in chicago, and for my school, Michigan State<\/a>, i think there are over a dozen which i think are more than in east lansing. Chicago is the number one destination for Michigan State<\/a> University Graduates<\/a> now. More than half the graduates now leave the state. So thats definitely the success story. But its kind of a case where its kind of a consequence of globalization, just as money and education becomes concentrated among fewer people, it becomes concentrated among fewer cities too. So you had a did someone you had a question back there, yeah. Im just wondering with the Great Depression<\/a> and the rise of the unions because of that, say, why during this Great Recession<\/a> it has been sort of accident, sort of rightwing backlash, and why do you think that is . Edward mcclelland well, i think one problem is that people associate unions with industrial worker, with Blue Collar Work<\/a>. And i remember i asked a union, former Union Organizer<\/a> or a Union Local President<\/a> in chicago why dont more white collar workers demand unions . And he said, well, you know, the white collar worker, he has kind of a bob crachet attitude. I will make you assistant manager, you call me harry. So their kind of lulled into thinking that theyre actually peers of the people they work for when the Blue Collar Workers<\/a> never had that attitude. I think people need the take the attitude that, you know unions , are for all workers, not just Blue Collar Workers<\/a>. But i mean the Union Movement<\/a> in , the private industry is pretty much destroyed. It is down 6 or 7 . And certainly as youve seen here in wisconsin, now theyre moving on to the Public Sector<\/a> union. I mean, i think maybe i dont know what the exact percentage is in the Public Sector<\/a>, but its higher. And they kind of use the argument, you know, after they destroy the Public Sector<\/a> unions, they go to the people who are now doing less well than they would have been if they had a union and say, look, these people have jobs and benefits, arent you envious of them . So they want to drag everybody down to that level. And, well, and another reason the depression was, there was certainly more Political Support<\/a>. I mean, one reason that the sitdown strike succeeded was because franklin d. Roosevelt was in the white house, and frank murphy, who was a roosevelt ally, was the governor of michigan. They deliberately were trying to wait until he was inaugurated because he refused to send in the National Guard<\/a> to kick them out of the plants. So, and i dont think theres that kind of Political Support<\/a> at least at the governor level anywhere in the midwest right now. You could argue barack obama . Edward mcclelland well, he did help us do work in chicago, and i think thats a big reason that he was so sympathetic to bailing out the Auto Industry<\/a>. I mean that was pretty much the first task of his administration, was putting together a task force to rescue the Auto Industry<\/a>. And he certainly beat that drum hard during last years campaign, especially in ohio where they had plenty of auto plants. I mean, mitt romney had written an oped for the new york said the title said let detroit go bankrupt. , and obama didnt let him forget about that. Im curious Edward Mcclelland<\/a> yeah. The, whats, what would you say is the number one lesson that you take away from from what appears to be kind of an industrial evolution which has happened in the past and is likely to happen in the future as the economy evolves . Is there a key lesson that you found that you would look and say that, as we look at economies 10 and 20 and 30 years looking forward, that you look and say, it was true here. It was true there, and it is something people should be aware of . Edward mcclelland well, i would certainly say diversify your citys economy would probably be number one. Because you look at flint, and flint had, i mean, twothirds of the labor force in flint was dependent on General Motors<\/a> in one way or another, either directly or through a subsidiary. And after, after they lost that, i mean, the whole town fell apart. Theres no way you can replace 70,000 jobs, and even if you can replace them, theres no way you can replace them with the kind of middle class jobs that they had. So i think id say that would be the number one lesson. But i mean, i think part of it was simply unavoidable. I mean, in the era when things were so good, the economy, i guess as they would say, was siloed. I mean, we didnt really have to think about the rest of the world. I mean we were the only country that could make anything. And now we live in a global economy. And so workers are competing against workers all over the world. So, but dont be, dont be a oneindustry town. I think that applies to big towns as well as small towns whether you, you know, have a paper mill or anything like that. Dont think one industrys going to come in and save your town. [inaudible] is there a lesson for workers in their also, dont think you are going to have a job for life, i suppose, is a lesson for workers. Edward mcclelland a lesson for workers. Dont even think youre going to have benefits for life. Because a lot of workers as you saw in wisconsin thought they were going to have a pension and thought they were going to have benefits. And its sad that you have to say that to people, but i think , i think maybe the promise that the baby boomers thought that they grew up with, i dont think people of my generation expect that same promise that they did of, you know lifetime employment , and cradletograve benefits. I think all right. One more question here. I think its about so what should happen with towns like flint and detroit . Should they be dissolved . Do they deserve to continue as cities . Edward mcclelland well can they . Is it feasible . Edward mcclelland well, i think that i dont think flint and detroit are functional cities anymore. Really. I mean both theyre both under , the control of Emergency Managers<\/a> appointed by the governor of michigan. Whose job is really to keep cutting their budgets. But theyve already been cut to such a level that they can no longer provide basic services. So, i mean, theyve lost so many people that theres no way 700,000 lower class people in detroit can pay for the infrastructure that was built for 1. 8 Million People<\/a> in the 1950s. I mean, when i was in detroit, the Lighting Company<\/a> blew out, and the library and wayne state and all the cord buildings downtown were shut down for the day. So, i mean, thats the kind of thing you expect to happen in third world capitals. I mean, i think the answer is consolidating them with the surrounding suburbs the way they did in indianapolis and toronto and miami. Because if a city cant afford democracy, its not really a city anymore. Its, theyre basically wards of the state, and its really dragging down not just the city itself, but the entire state of michigan. I mean when you have the two , most violent cities in the nation, and when you have a city that is such an international similar symbol of urban decay youve got people flying in from france to take pictures of it, that reflects badly on the entire state of michigan. So i guess, we have run through our our our our mother thank you everybody coming year. Here. [applause] [captions Copyright National<\/a> cable satellite corp. 2016] [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. Visit ncicap. Org] announcer 1 on history bookshelf, here from the bestknown history writers of the decade every saturday at 1 00 p. M. Eastern, and you can watch any of our programs at any time, visit our website cspan. Org history. You are watching American History<\/a> tv all weekend every weekend on cspan3. Announcer 2 next, located best, a visual studies professor at the university of california, talks about the photographic betrayal of native americans during the 19th century. Especially how photographers portrayed the modoc tribe, leading up to their war with white settlers. We also hear about how photographs of native people were used to promote native expansion after the civil war. The California Historical<\/a> society hosted this event. Now, my cato right revising a book and previously coedited a volume title. Forthcoming articles, essays on soldier photography with the anthology","publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"archive.org","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","width":"800","height":"600","url":"\/\/ia601207.us.archive.org\/6\/items\/CSPAN3_20161210_210000_Book_Discussion_on_Nothin_But_Blue_Skies\/CSPAN3_20161210_210000_Book_Discussion_on_Nothin_But_Blue_Skies.thumbs\/CSPAN3_20161210_210000_Book_Discussion_on_Nothin_But_Blue_Skies_000001.jpg"}},"autauthor":{"@type":"Organization"},"author":{"sameAs":"archive.org","name":"archive.org"}}],"coverageEndTime":"20240627T12:35:10+00:00"}