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Reactions to the Jane Bashara case
go viral, giving ignorance and fear a voice

One of the late John Cheever's most famous short stories is "The Enormous Radio," and maybe eight of you have actually read it, or remember it from English class. So here's a synopsis:

"Jim and Irene Westcott were the kind of people who seem to strike that satisfactory average of income, endeavor, and respectability that is reached by the statistical reports in college alumni bulletins," it begins. Middle-class. Two children. Irene stays home to raise them, Jim goes to work every day. (Sound like anyone you know? Many of Cheever's stories read like they were written here.) One day in this pre-television age, their radio goes on the fritz. Jim buys Irene a new one. After a day or two it demonstrates an unsettling feature: It can pick up conversations and intimate noises from other apartments in their building. Irene is fascinated to learn that people she sees every day in the elevator and at the park are drunk, money-troubled, adulterers, wife-beaters.

Irene can't tear herself away, and finds herself inexplicably depressed. Jim gets the radio fixed and it plays only music again, but it's too late for Irene — she's listened to the radio of knowledge, so to speak, and has cast herself out of her little domestic Eden.

Today's enormous radio is Facebook, and lately it's been telling me way more than I want to know about my neighbors. And yet — Irene, I feel your pain! — it's hard to walk away.

As I write this, the investigation of Jane Bashara's death continues. There's been frustratingly little to report since last week, and in fact, beyond the shock of the initial breaking news, there have really been only two developments: the cause-of-death finding (strangulation), and that Grosse Pointe Park police consider her husband, Bob, a "person of interest" in the investigation.

(Some people use that term interchangeably with "suspect," although it's not a synonym. See here for more journalism inside-baseball than you ever wanted to know about this new wrinkle in law-enforcement jargon.) read more...

Comments

Thank you

Submitted by Julie Morris on Sat, 02/04/2012 - 21:32.

Thank you for bringing a rational, well thoughtout, piece of journalism to this case. I am appalled at some comments that I have heard in the past week and a half.

 Thank you for the very

Submitted by BetsyFortuna on Mon, 01/30/2012 - 19:15.

 Thank you for the very thoughtful article, Nancy.   It has been weighing heavily on me these last few days that so many Grosse Pointers leapt to the conlusion that some Black Person From Detroit committed this crime and that Grosse Pointe should do more to shore up its borders.  
As you stated crime has not gone up in the Pointes yet there is a widespread assumption that it has.   I do not think the reason that perception has changed is because we get more news over the internet; we've always had the Grosse Pointe News to look and see who broke a fingernail or what fool left their car running in their driveway from where it was stolen.  I'm fairly certain that the reason some Grosse Pointers perceive that crime has gone up is that they see many more black faces than they used to and for many white people, the mere sight of a black person makes them hold their purse a little tighter, lock their door a little faster, feel less safe.
I think we are at a golden point in time here in the pointes, where a chance for real integration, understanding and sharing of cultures is possible.   There are more black folks living here than ever before.  And most of the white people who live here cannot run away this time as they are underwater with their houses.  Let's seize the moment!   White folks, have a conversation with your new black neighbor.  Invite them over for dinner.   Arrange a play date for your kids.   Say hello, start a coversation, get past the stereotypes that have been programmed into us white people and make Grosse Pointe a model city of integration for the 21st century.   Let us be as celebrated now for our inclusiveness and togetherness as we were damned  for our model of white supremecy and policies of exclusion in the 20th century.

Bashara Murder

Submitted by DanaRBA on Mon, 01/30/2012 - 08:57.

This was a very thoughtful and beautifully written article, especially given the painful topic.  I think people jump to the conclusion that some "nameless other" has murdered a member of the community as it is less scary than thinking it was committed by a known person who belongs among them.  

The Bashara Murder

Submitted by suzanneross on Sun, 01/29/2012 - 20:34.

Excellent article, sums it up. Thanks, Suzanne Ross

Comment: 'College user tax' burdens
Michigan students more than others

For more than a decade, Michigan’s elected officials have imposed what amounts to a severe tax on the hundreds of thousands of students who attend our public universities.

The consequences of this “college user tax” – clearly amounting to millions of dollars per year – include raising the cost bar for young Michiganders to attend college by thousands, saddling graduates and their families with crushing college debt and making higher education impossible for others.

Worse, it is eroding Michigan’s ability to resurrect our struggling economy. According to a study released this week by Bridge Magazine, an online publication of The Center for Michigan, the non-profit, non-partisan organization I founded five years ago: “Michigan families pay more to send their children to state universities than families in almost any other state.”

The reason? A “decades-long decision to skim money from the state’s 15 public universities.” Michigan gives less money to its public universities than almost any other state. As state support drops, more of the cost of college is shifted to students and their families. read more...

Comment: In 2012, a more vibrant,
focused Michigan for everyone

Today, the country is middle-aged but self-indulgent. Bad habits have accumulated. Interest groups have emerged to protect the status quo. The job is to restore old disciplines, strip away decaying structures and reform the welfare state. The country needs a productive midlife crisis.

 – David Brooks, in the New York Times

For the past three years, the New Year has arrived both “gloomy and doomy.” But this time around, things feel different -- and better. read more...

Want your voice heard on education?
The Center for Michigan is listening

Here’s one pretty safe assumption: I’m far from alone in being disgusted with the way our political system is “working” these days.

What seems to be happening, both in Michigan and all over the country, is this: A mix of highly partisan activists, passionate ideologues and special interest groups are succeeding in mostly closing the political process to the views of ordinary citizens.

As a result, if you’re not part of the Republican or Democratic base or if you’re not a Tea Party or Occupy Wall Street ideologue, your voice simply won’t be heard.

So what can we do to get our state and country back on an even keel? One idea is to pull ordinary people together and ask what they’re thinking. Then you actually listen hard, take careful notes, amplify their views and bring them into the halls of power. read more...

A prison makes a poor mental hospital;
new approach would be cheaper, more humane

Michigan taxpayers could save millions of dollars every year, not suffer any hardship and do humanity a service. How?  Simply by shifting treatment of the mentally ill from state prisons and local jails to a system of outpatient treatment and mental health courts.

This would also reverse a mistake of epic proportions. Over the past decade, the ugly truth is that the treatment of thousands of mentally dysfunctional people in Michigan has moved from state mental hospitals to prisons and jails. 

We may not have intended this, but it's what happened. In an interview last week, Wayne County Chief Probate Judge Milton Mack, who has studied these matters for years, noted: “In Michigan, jail or prison has become the primary inpatient center for the mentally ill.” 

How did this happen?  read more...

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