Detroit Free Press columnist: "GM Tennessee transplants to find welcome surprises"

[Bozita]

After reading this, I felt the need to post it for TN DUers.

My best wishes to all folks affected by this closing and a hearty welcome to those coming soon to the mitten.


http://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20091122/COL32/911220497/1193/GM-Tennessee-transplants-to-find-welcome-surprises&template=fullarticle

POSTED: NOV. 22, 2009

GM Tennessee transplants to find welcome surprises
BY RON DZWONKOWSKI
FREE PRESS COLUMNIST


In what could be a tough call for many, General Motors Co. has offered work at a plant just outside Lansing to 840 of the 2,000 workers who will lose their jobs when GM closes its factory this week in Spring Hill, Tenn., about a half hour south of Nashville.

Eligible workers have until Monday to decide whether they want to apply to move to Michigan, which is surely making for some long conversations this weekend in Tennessee.

"For some folks, it's going home," said Mike O'Rourke, president of UAW Local 1853 in Spring Hill, referring to workers who transferred to the Tennessee plant from jobs in Michigan.

"For others, it's 'I've got to feed my family,' " O'Rourke told the Associated Press.

And some will look at the middle of that mitten on the U.S. map, 500-plus miles north of Spring Hill, and say, "Michigan? Isn't that where everything is falling apart?"

Here's a little perspective to add to those conversations.

No, not everything. Michigan has monumental problems, for sure, but still a lot to recommend it.

Delight in 4 seasons
Granted, it may not seem the most welcoming place if you arrive when that new shift is supposed to start, in February. That can be a brutal month, weather-wise, but that's why it's also the shortest. And remember, heating is always cheaper than cooling.

You will have four distinct seasons, which makes everything relative. Fall becomes a crisp, glorious relief from summer, winter is always spectacular initially, and just when you can't stand another day of it come the signs of spring, which will tease you into summer. (Unlike the Tennesseans you're leaving behind, you're going to need more than "a coat." There is no single, all-purpose coat that works in Michigan.)

Know this: You will be welcome. At a time when more people are leaving this state than arriving, our arms are open. Especially to people with jobs. There's something to be said, too, for going against the flow. Risk-taking is a very American trait.

And since you'll be arriving in this nadir of hard times, you will have ready-made "you kids don't know how good you have it" lessons.

You can find great bargains on housing. And many homes are already empty and waiting.

In relatively short time, you can get from a major metropolitan area, with all that's good and bad about that, to pristine countryside, wondrous isolation and more varieties of nature and culture than most any three states combined can offer.

Ground floor of fresh start
You will never want for water, whether you like to fish in it, race across it, watch the sun set over it or just drink it. We've got all you need -- and pretty soon you're going to want a boat. Maybe two. Actually, they're a little like coats up here. No all-purpose models.

You will get resident tuition rates at the finest collection of public universities in any state. And you can pick a side and join the fun in the never-ending Michigan-Michigan State brouhaha.

OK, our government isn't working so well, and we do have these long-standing differences that were part of how we got into this mess. But that's also why we'd like you to come. We need some folks with an outside perspective to help us change for a better future. When someone says "because that's how we always do it," we need some people who don't have that "always" thing going.

So come on up. Economic necessity has made us a land of opportunity. You could be getting in on the ground floor -- make that the basement -- of a radical reinvention. It may not seem like it right now, but trust us, in five years, you'll be blown away.

RON DZWONKOWSKI is associate editor of the Free Press. Contact him at [e-mail].