MotownMo...The SPIRIT of Detroit

Open Letter to the Ford Family

mo@motownmo.com (Mo) — 2006-10-08T20:30:00Z

Dear Ford Family,

In case you haven't noticed, you have become a symbol of everything still wrong with the City of Detroit. Everything you touch is a symbol of national, if not global embarrassment.

You've ruined a once proud, global motor company which still, unfortunately, bears your name. You've ruined a once proud, founding NFL franchise. You are 'old money', the old guard -- in a new world.

You have finally ceded management of FoMoCo - and hopefully it is not too little, too late. Now, we, the citizens of a still proud, sports-loving city implore you to please, Please, PLEASE SELL THIS TEAM!!!

Sell this team to someone who knows how to win - you simply don't. Simply look at the Lions losing record since you took over. Witness your family business' declining market share since you took over.

It can be done -- with owners who know how to make good decisions and, more importantly, how to change course after they've made a bad one. Metro Detroit has many shining examples of 'winners' - and the Lions desperately need this type of leadership:
1. Bill Davidson - a global business leader who has made the right decisions with 3 (THREE) professional sports teams.
2. Mike Illitch, another global businessman who has (finally) built winners in 2(TWO) major league sports (NOTE - this required him to change course after some bad decisions on management).
3. Peter Karmanos, yet another strong business leader, who has made a winner out of the Carolina Hurricanes.

You aren't strong businessmen, rather the old guard of 'spoiled rich kids' slowly squandering all that your forefathers created for you. Like Britain's royal family, you used to represent Detroit's royalty, and something we looked up to. Now, like Buckingham Palace after Price Charles' and Prince Andrew's debacles, you are more akin to "Emperor Nero in Rome".

Please, liberate us - give us our freedom and go on your way. Sell the Lions to a somone who knows how to win, and finally create some value -- for your family and for the worthy citizens of this proud sports city.

GM Fights Back

mo@motownmo.com (Mo) — 2006-06-02T17:11:00Z

After reading Tom Friedman's Op-Ed piece in the NYTimes "A Quick Fix for the Gas Addicts", I was stunned...silent. I wanted badly to comment on his derogatory, hyped piece on GM's 2-state Fuel program, but couldn't summon anything other than 4-letter words. I prayed that someone at GM would take issue and respond, and thankfully, Steve Harris, the PR mastermind behind one of Chrysler's many comebacks, was up to the task, with "Hyperbole and Defamation in the New York Times" http://fastlane.gmblogs.com/archives/2006/06/hyperbole_and_d.html

I remember back when NBC put explosives in the gas tanks of GM pickups to try to make the company's products look bad. Thankfully, GM fought back then...and they are fighting back again. I just wish our American media would stop forcing our companies, our American companies, to expend critical time and energy to repond to their shenanigans.

What is it with this country? What is our passion with beating up on the big guy -- especially when they are one of us? We broke apart AT&T. We beat up on Microsoft. We LOVE to beat on GM, just slightly more than we love to beat on Ford (I guess Chrysler was smart to sell themselves to become a German company). This is simply nothing more than tabloid journalism gussied up as 'business reporting'. I thought real journalists were supposed to report the FACTS!!!

Even autoblog.com is being factual about this: going so far as to say, "It appears to us that GM is putting the most effort into making its full-size trucks and SUVs as efficient as possible without sacrificing their purpose. For all the GM bashing we're accused of here on Autoblog, we stand with Bob on this one. " http://www.autoblog.com/2006/06/02/gm-s-lutz-takes-friedman-from-new-york-times-to-task/

We love imports. What is our obsession with helping them while we beat ourselves to death? Does anybody know (or care) that Toyota just recalled almost 1 million vehicles, including 2/3 of their darling little Priuses??? When the EPA reported that all imports had been overstating horsepower and fuel economy, did it even hit the national press???? Can somebody tell me what would have been on page 1 of every major everything if GM would have been the center of either of those stories???

Why are we beating up on our own? Are we sadists? Are we jealous? True GM has made some mistakes -- is it fair to continue to punish them for their sins of the 1970s and 1980s? True, GM is trying to turn itself around (even Harris admitted that). Why don't we give them a chance, or at least, the benefit of the doubt???

Welcome to Mo's Town

mo@motownmo.com (Mo) — 2006-05-27T03:20:00Z

Well, I'm finally on.

I've been
tiring
of the negativity
being voiced on my city

I'm going to try
to show the bright side
It's time I fought,
for Motown's what I got.

This town is my life.
My family's, too.
We simply can't
afford to lose.

And we're not alone
We're 4 million strong
If we could bind together
If we could just get along

We could restore the roar
Like Leyland downtown
It starts with one voice
It starts with a sound

It starts with a look
a confident 'tude
Things aren't all bad
I promise you.