More than jobs lost...so is hope!
January 23, 2006 will be a day remembered by thousands of people and working families within the 11th District. It won’t be remembered fondly, to say the least. It will be a day that for many is the beginning of something too many working families in our community may have seen coming, but were powerless to stop. The 1,567 employees of the Ford Wixom Plant, a place of historic value and profound workmanship, were told yesterday the plant will close; that their skills, talents, traditions, and loyalty are no longer needed.
And somewhere near that Wixom plant there is a dry cleaner; a pharmacy, a corner store and a restaurant; there is a car wash and a day care center that are mourning this loss as well. The domino effect of yesterday’s announcement rippled throughout this beautiful community;
friendships will be tested and forgotten in time. Dollars will dry up. Businesses will fold. People will move. Neighbors will try to stay connected, but will soon fade to the business of their new realities in new communities.
I experienced this when I was a restaurant owner in Pontiac, Michigan some years back. General Motors closed their Foundry and the Fiero plants. Thousands of men and women that I considered family just one day stopped being there. They stopped bringing their garden tomatoes. They stopped showing me pictures of their kids and grandkids. They stopped laughing at my silly jokes. They also stopped spending money with me. Their lay-off was my lay-off. Friendships and friendshifts; time went on, but it still saddens me to this day. I still wonder about many of them, blue collar and white collar, alike. I still miss them.
I know too well what’s happening in Wixom and in the other cities that are devastated by this news. I am praying for them all.
And now I wonder what could have
been proactively done to save the plant in my District. I wonder what efforts were made to take one of the most flexible and convertible automotive factories in the world less expendable.
So I ask the question:
Is there any evidence that suggests that Congressman Thaddeus McCotter worked to stop this job loss? There is no evidence that Congressman McCotter worked to get the White House and the Bush Administration to pressure an American company to keep American jobs here at home.
The day after this announcement, I have been unable to find a word of encouragement from Thaddeus McCotter. His website (http://mccotter.house.gov/HoR/MI11/Home.htm) shows no mention of this devastation. No mention of assistance. No mention of condolence. No mention of retraining. It’s just absent of anything that shows he’s paying attention to you.
At the sake of this just looking like a partisan attack on my opponent, please take a step back and weigh the words I write here. Then ask yourself this question: McCotter is the Congressman in a District that was just devastated by the closing of a major employment center; the effect on the community it sits in, and the domino effect that ripples throughout all of southeast Michigan, is it the business and leadership of a
Congressman to respond to this situation? Just answer yes or no.
