Forget the phoenix-rising business, an off-the-shelf-cliche that fits any comeback push. Leave that for a peppy ex-governor/ex-TV host.
Better to practice saying, or at least writing, the English version of a Made in Detroit motto that also involves fire and arising.
Kate Linebaugh, a Wall Street Journal writer who has reported from Detroit, got married on Belle isle and studied in Ann Arbor, agrees. In a brief blog post, she delivers a timely refresher.
On June 11, 1805, a fire destroyed nearly the entire city, weeks before the Michigan Territory was established.
That fire that led Father Gabriel Richard, a French priest, to write: “Speramus meliora; resurget cineribus.”
“We hope for better things; it will arise from the ashes.”
Father Richard was assistant pastor at St. Anne's Church in southwest Detroit, founded in 1701 and believed to be the nation's oldest continuously operating Roman Catholic parish.
Now you're ready for a bar bet, party chatter or a spot quiz.
