Now That I Can Dance

Most of the time when I think about Detroit, I worry. I worry that the city will never find its way out of the morass that it sank into around 1967. I worry that Detroit will never head any list for more than its crimes and unemployment. I feel bad that it seems to be as racist as it was in 1967. I wish the Detroit Free Press was the newspaper it was thirty years ago. . I wish the car companies were doing better even though I drive a Subaru. I wish that the Detroit incinerator was not huffing its toxic air in my direction 24 hours a day.
But once in a while I feel good about Detroit. I feel good we have two Democratic Senators and a Democratic Governor, and that two of them are women. I feel good that we have three good sports teams. I feel good that we have a major symphony orchestra and a first-class art museum. I'm happy I can see indy and foreign films at four venues. We have every kind of ethnic restaurant you could name within an hour of the city. I am happy we have Aunt Agatha's Bookstore an hour away.
But today, I felt especially good as I watched thirty or so young people put on a sensational musical review for 1200 people. This was the sixth and last performance and I am so glad I caught it. The Mosaic Theater is a ray of hope for young people here, offering them the sort of opportunities that Motown purported to offer and didn't fifty years ago.
"Now That I Can Dance" was the story of the Marvelettes and Motown, one of Detroit's greatest contributions to popular culture. If any of those thirty twenty-somethings couldn't sing or dance I didn't hear or see it. And how nice to be in a multi-racial, multi-age, multi-ethnic audience in the newly restored DIA auditorium. We rocked baby, we rocked and we sailed home on a cloud of optimism.