“Community Columnist” Michael Schrader

(About intellectual “in-breeding”)

Written 09 September 2015

If you haven’t heard, Port Huron has a “new” planner. I use the word new liberally, because while there technically is a new person occupying the planner position, I wouldn’t consider the new person actually “new”. The word “new” implies different, and hiring a local is not different. The same with Marine City and their recent hire of a “new” city manager. Last year’s hire of a “new” school superintendent was not really “new” or different.

There is an old saying that the definition of insanity is doing the exact same thing every time and expecting different results. We see this insanity in the world of collegiate and professional sports, where the same coaches are recycled from team to team with the newer teams expecting a different result. With a few rare exceptions, a losing coach at one team will be a losing coach at another team. While it is noble to want to give a coach a second chance, typically a bad coach at one team will be a bad coach at another. Lane Kiffin is a perfect example. Lane was a failure as the head coach of the Oakland Raiders, a marginal coach for the Tennessee Volunteers, and a flop for Southern Cal. Football fans wondered about the sanity of both Tennessee and Southern Cal, especially Southern Cal, for hiring someone who had such a dismal record.

In my time in Michigan, I have heard numerous people talk about the need for improvement and revitalization, and the need to stem the continuing exodus from the state. Talk to U-Haul and they will tell you that people are moving out of Michigan, not in. The exodus is so bad that one-way rental of trucks and trailers has become quite expensive due to demand exceeding supply. If no one is moving in, then the trucks and trailers that are used to move out are never replaced. As a person with U-Haul told me, they can’t keep the rental facilities supplied with enough equipment to keep up with demand.

If officials in Michigan truly want to reverse the ongoing exodus, then a good place to start would be with new ideas that attract those not from Michigan to move here. Unfortunately, it doesn’t seem that local governments really want to reverse this trend. The best way to get new ideas that would encourage people from other parts of the country to move here is to ask a person from outside of Michigan. Port Huron, Marine City, and the school district missed golden opportunities to truly seek out new ideas that would attract new people by hiring Michiganders to fill crucial leadership positions. Drive down the highway and see how well the “Michigan First” approach has worked. Obviously, the Michigan way is flawed, or people wouldn’t be leaving the state in droves. Yet hiring “new” people trained and versed in the Michigan way will somehow reverse this?

One of the most frustrating things I have observed about Michigan is how closed minded Michigan is. If one isn’t Michigan born and bred, one is just second-class. Our flagship university spends millions of dollars hiring “Michigan Men” to be the football coach, with the same disastrous results. . My negative teaching experience at one of Michigan’s universities consisted of being told by Michigan born and bred students that any idea from outside Michigan is a bad one. Most of the Michiganders I have met have never crossed the river. I have been surprised at the number of Michiganders who rarely, if ever, leave the state.

While being proud of your state and people is admirable, the lack of willingness to embrace people and ideas originating outside of your home state, intellectual “in-breeding”, leads to stagnation and decline. It’s not just Michigan; my home state of Missouri is the poster child of regression due to intellectual “in-breeding”. As scary as change is, for the sake of survival of our community, it is time to embrace new people and new ideas.

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