Detroit and America - A Barometer

From the Oak Initiative and Rick Joyner:
   
    Just a few days ago Detroit was called not only the most dangerous city in America, but the most dangerous city in the world. Since I was there, I wanted to understand how this could happen to such a great American city. This is especially important because many of the same policies and the style of leadership that has led Detroit for decades is now being imposed on the whole nation.

     Detroit does not just look like a war zone in many areas—it is one. The population within the city has fallen from around 2 million to about 800,000. Real unemployment is over 20%, and as one observer recently said, the only people left in Detroit are the very poor who had nowhere to go and the criminals. Then many of the poor have had to become criminals to survive. In many areas it is borderline anarchy.

     Think about what your city would be like if in just a short period of time over half the people left. There are not just empty houses on virtually every block, there are whole neighborhoods that are empty, and deteriorating fast the way property does when not occupied. There seemed to be more boarded up buildings and businesses than open ones. The cloud of depression is possibly even thicker than you might find in Haiti right now, because in Haiti they at least know their catastrophe has gotten the attention of the world and there is hope. In Detroit, hope for the future is hard to find.