Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan showed what a politician with courage and leadership does in times of turmoil. He announced that Detroit would accept several hundred Syrian refuges. He pooh-poohed the concern about security, noting that screening measures already in place have been very successful for years and that simple humanity demanded action. It was the morally correct thing to do.
So, while Governor Snyder and his Republican nabobs in Lansing sit cowering in their offices afraid of their own shadow (or cynically acting out of political calculus), Mayor Duggan has emerged as the leading political figure in the state.
Hopefully, Democrats in Lansing and D.C. will begin to show the same courage as Mayor Duggan and take a lesson from the French: don’t allow fear to cause you to lose sight of your humanity, or of common sense. Be prudent, be defiant, and be strong in the face of terrorism. In other words, live up to the spirit that made this country great.