Tuesday, February 10, 2015

Looking for "Good"

Sometimes when you work a lot of long nights, where news can be kinda grim, you try to remember some of the good people you've met. I know, as a reporter you bristle at the naivete of calling people "good" (no simple stories -- there's always something, right?), but...

This couple were definitely two of the best, to me. Call me a sucker, but hey, if you can't have faith in a pair like that, you're a more hardened soul than I am. In the city, I've rarely seen such selflessness.

Been wondering lately what they're up to -- whether they ever got the church going again.  Time to reach out and find them.

An Unhappy Ending

Welp, everybody said it would happen. James Fields, the East Side gang leader I profiled here, has been arrested and convicted of shooting a gun at someone after a heated argument outside a bar. A guy who testified against his brother during a murder trial. Even my editors joked about how shocked they were.

Everybody wants a simple story. Let's face it: it's easy not to have any faith in folks like James, or to see him as a "good" or "bad" guy. There's people who say - casually, and let's face it, maliciously - that a wall should be built around Detroit. These people make my blood boil.

NObody ever said they were sure James would make it. He was always "the enforcer" of the gang. Many will claim he never got out. I personally think he did, for a bit. But it's a hard life to leave.