The City's Father

Detroit voters on Nov. 8 will re-elect elect a too-young-for-the-job mayor after one term who treated his first term the way Al Pacino’s character treated that big pile of blow at the end of “Scarface”or they will vote into office an equally unimaginative, bootless dope. Whether you (and that’s “you,” not “you’re” for a reason yo) down for Kwam or Freman Hendrix — and all due respect to Mugs’ Uncle Jerry— here’s a little nod to perhaps the most memorable mayor of Detroit, Coleman A. Young.

And here are some nuggets I pinched from one of my favorite books “The Quotations of Mayor Coleman A. Young.”

ON BEING GREETED BY A CABINET SECRETARY’S UNDERLING WHEN ON A VISIT TO WASHINGTON:
“I didn’t come to see the house nigger, get me the man.”

ON HOW HE FELT AFTER THE FBI HAD BUGGED HIS TOWNHOUSE IN 1981:
“I don’t even go over there, That was a nice place but when those motherfuckers tapped that damn place, it’s almost as if I had been violated. I can’t describe to you how mad that made me, so I know what it is when a sonofabitch violates your privacy.”

ON ANCHORMAN BILL BONDS, AFTER CHANNEL 7 BROADCAST A 60-MINUTE REBUTTAL FOLLOWING THE “PRIME TIME LIVE’ SHOW ON ABC THAT RIPPED DETROIT;
“Being rescued by Billy Bonds is an experience quite new to me. I never know whether he’s the light at the end of the tunnel or the headlight of the locomotive.”

ON CUSSING:
“Swearing is an art form. You can express yourself much more directly, much more exactly, much more succinctly, with properly used curse words.”

ON WHETHER GOV. JAMES BLANCHARD WOULD GROW IN OFFICE AS FORMER GOV. MILLIKEN DID:
“You don’t grow balls. You either got ‘em or you don’t”