Yesterday, today and tomorrow:

Thursday – January 20, 2011

Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow:

I went to the Detroit Auto Show yesterday and driving down Woodward Avenue a once grand Avenue I couldn’t help thinking these thoughts. I thought about all the great men, the industrialists: Ford, Durant, Chevrolet, Firestone and Edison that once graced the city. These men changed the history of the world because they were here in Detroit, Michigan. Detroit has produced great Hollywood legends: Tom Selleck, Robert Wagner, Sonny Bono, Jerry Bruckhiemer, Francis Ford Coppola, Tim Allen, Ellen Burstyn, and Elaine Stritch just to mention a few. Some of the greatest songs and song writers and music traditions were born here in Detroit, MOTOWN.

I then thought about the politicians that once graced our Grand City.

On September 5, 1960, John F. Kennedy, gave one of his most influential campaign speeches at Cadillac Square, in Detroit, Michigan. He went on to win the election, as a result of this famous speech. On October 16, 1962, Detroit Michigan was selected as the American contender for the 1968 games. On September 16, 1963, Kennedy signed into law a bill providing congressional endorsement to invite the Olympics to be held in Detroit and Lake Placid.

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. came to visit Detroit in June of 1963 two months before he spoke in Washington D.C., and gave a version of his “I Have a Dream” speech here after walking down Woodward Avenue.

On July 16, 1980, in Detroit, Michigan Ronald Reagan won the nomination to be the Republican Presidential candidate here in Detroit, Michigan.

These are all great events and these are all great men and women who were responsible for these events happening here in Detroit.

As I continued down Woodward Avenue, I thought about how the Unions have taken so much of the greatness for their own profit. I thought about how G.M. and Chrysler were bailed out, as a result of greatness lost. I drove by Henry Ford’s first production facility in Highland Park, now an empty building going to rot. This is where he turned out the Model A and the Model T by the millions. I thought about how Ford made it through without being bailed out and how Ford became the first American auto company to turn a profit in recent history with out government aid.

I thought about the Union fights and the strikes that have plagued this great city. I thought about the commerce that made Detroit a destination for pleasure and business in the beginning part of the twentieth century. I then thought about the recent mayor and the disgrace that he caused for himself and the city. I then thought about why the decline of Detroit has been so steep and so prolonged. I could not answer that except to say that great men and women still work here and visit here, but great men and women don’t want to stay here.

Detroit produced great men and women yesterday, but today they are too few and far between. For a better tomorrow we must keep our wealth here and we must make sure that our wealth produces the elements necessary to be a city worthy of great attention by people who recognize greatness in a place they can call home.

As for the product I saw, Detroit should be proud of what it is producing. I would put any product I saw at the auto show up against any other car form any country. This is a start, now we just have to get people working so they can buy the product and be proud to drive the product that comes from Detroit.

The House voted to repeal the Obama Healthcare law yesterday and today the republicans will introduce there solution to reform. A few elements include Tort reform and encouraging competition these are the missing elements that I have written about and that need to be explored before anything else. The Senate minority leader Mitch McConnell will also introduce and forward a motion in the Senate to repeal the healthcare law. The Senate version will be authored Jim DeMint of South Carolina. The Senate just might consider a vote now.

That was yesterday, today we must build for a tomorrow that returns the greatness of America. It starts with the reforms that are necessary to move the harmful confines of government away from its citizens and provide the freedom that is needed to create the new products and grow commerce in the way it was intended from the beginning. Ford saw the light that Edison made. Others grew their ideas from these ideas and went on to make newer products for the ages. Technology and ideas have to be cultivated like the art of actors and statesmen we all have a stake in making greatness happen once again.

On this date in 1961 JFK gave his inaugural address in front of a nation and in front of spectators that bared the 20 degree winter winds that blew. His speech was about greatness and it challenged a nation to live to a higher standard. That was yesterday today we can take that same message and apply it to tomorrow.

Gregory C. Dildilian
Founder and Executive Director
Pinecone Conservatives

A footnote: Yesterday, today and tomorrow are connected, greatness comes out of recognizing what has occurred yesterday and making it work for today so tomorrow our posterity has something to grow with.