I’ve always been a very positive person. I get excited easily and I tend to look at the good rather than the bad. Being in Detroit has really caused me to reflect on this personality trait of mine. Sometimes it truly does get hard to see the positive in situations–sometimes you have to look very hard to find something good, to a point of where it can be draining to do.
I discovered a blog called “Positive Detroit” by Erin Rose. This is what she has under “Why I Blog Detroit”:
This blog has been created out of 1 part irritation and 2 parts necessity. The local media in the Detroit Area has turned into a pack of well coifed negative nellies. I refuse to chomp on their pessimistic pill and overdose. I am not alone in my sentiments and I know many others also share my pain and frustration. It has even been suggested that we start a campaign to ban the local media. Not a bad idea in my book, but I would rather beat them at their own game: by churning out positive, important, and newsworthy happenings in and around “The D.”
I have always lived by the motto, “Focus on the Positive and It Will Weed Out The Negative.” If you want things to get better, focus on what’s good in our area, not the bad. Now I am not suggesting strapping on the blinders and living in ignorance, rather, all I am saying is give “positive” a chance. Sorry, that was cheesy. Hopefully I didn’t just cause the Great John Lennon roll to over in his grave.
So, if you are tired of combing through various news and media outlets to find out what good is going on in your own backyard, you are in luck. Just visit my blog daily and you will get your dose of the cool happenings in and around town.
February 2008
~Erin Rose
*Positive Detroit is a registered Service Mark (SM) of Positive Cities, INC. Non-Profit*
This is amazing to me. Negative news has been something that my co-workers have talked about with me. They would say that back when they were growing up every piece of news that was negative had a positive note at the end, even if it was small. Nowadays everything is negative.
Last fall I took a class related to Detroit. We read the book Detroit: An American Autopsy by Charlie LeDuff. This was the first time that I was exposed to the city. It was an amazing class because not only were we reading the book but we were also watching documentaries and videos that related to the book or the city. The first film we watched was “Robocop” followed by a documentary on Detroit’s Fire Department and “A Band Called Death.” Despite growing up in the state of Michigan, I was still very unaware of what was actually happening in Detroit. Charlie LeDuff’s book was what sparked my interest in the city. The fact that he left his job in California and resettled back to his hometown of Detroit just to try to make a difference was something I found very inspiring. The book left me wanting more, but this times hands on–so I applied for this program. After reading the book I felt more confident and comfortable with the city, although I was completely aware of the fact that there was still so much more for me to learn.
Interestingly enough, I brought up Charlie LeDuff at one of my workplaces and the responses were surprising. I expected citizens of the city to be proud of him, with his book sold and very popular in bookstores even in my hometown of Lansing. I was wrong, people had mixed feelings about him. They said that he focused on only the negative news of Detroit, and it was draining their city of all that was good. Interesting enough LeDuff addressed this in his book. I remembered him saying something along the lines of if people saw good positive news and ignored the negative news then the negative news will eventually become the norm of society–which shouldn’t happen. I understood his view on this, but now being in Detroit I realize that the citizens are right. News shouldn’t be focused on all negative all the time, yes we need to talk about all the bad things happening but even if we do we should be able to end each news article with a positive ending, the same way they did it back in the day.
