April Fools

Since Mother Nature played an April fools joke on us today with weather last night at a balmy 60 degrees before plunging to below freezing tonight with hail, I thought I might mention the worst joke being played on us all in Southeast Michigan these days.

Kwame Kilpatrick needs to just go. With all the problems that plague Detroit and to a lesser extent the whole state of Michigan, the last thing we need is another embarrassment to go national. But national it has gone. The sex and legal scandals to beset the region are now fodder for national jokes. Just as we started to make headway with our tattered reputation, the mayor's personal shortcomings and lack of ethics has smacked us back down.

While many of us push for green policies and regional cooperation on mass transit, the headlines get highjacked back to sorry and sordid scandals involving secret deals, wife-cheating, and clumsy obstruction of justice. While businesses try and return to Detroit with loft development, new hotels, casinos, and stadiums, the mayor throws away millions of dollars to protect his personal and now very tattered reputation.

Most of us care little if a politician gets caught with his pants down. It is the lying, cheating, hypocrisy, and dishonesty that makes us throw up our hands with disgust.

Born-again Fundamentalists buying hookers and male prostitutes, conservative senators cruising mens' rooms, governors paying for $5,000 call girls across state lines, even Presidents going after interns in the oval office. These are the headlines that prove our society's dissonance between sexual mores and sexual behaviors. A little honesty would go a long way here.

In the meantime, when one gets caught with their pants down, it is too late to run and hide.

That is the time to come clean. Fess up. Own your behavior. And for Kwame Kilpatrick, it means just go.