Letters: Trump dunked on Detroit. Freep readers have thoughts.

I am choosing to take former President Donald Trump literally, just this once.

The whole country,” he stated at a Thursday speech delivered to the Detroit Economic Club, in Detroit, “is going to be like, you want to know the truth? It’ll be like Detroit. Our whole country will end up being like Detroit if she’s your president.”

I am choosing to take Trump’s ignorant, mean-spirited spew as an inadvertent endorsement of Kamala Harris. Mayor Mike Duggan responded to Trump’s attack on the city, saying, “We’ve got record low homicide rates and we’re growing our population for the first time since the 1950s.”

And here is Trump, a guest in our city, claiming that, under Kamala’s leadership the country will follow suit. I can think of no better example for the United States to follow than the one exhibited by Detroit. I can think of no more fitting an endorsement of Kamala Harris, that under her guidance, the entire country would benefit.

Robert Greene

Detroit

What Trump said in Detroit: Trump takes a shot at Detroit, in Detroit. The joke's on him.

Trump's Detroit comments were a dogwhistle

When it comes to race relations, former President Donald J. Trump has always been a “they" and “them" kind of guy.

Proving this way back in 1973, when he was sued by the U.S. Department of Justice for not allowing people of color to rent apartments in his family's New York properties, when he said during the case, "We don't want to live with them."

And Trump’s latest comments about Detroit scream that exact “they” and “them” sentiments.

Steven Manganello

Portland, Maine

It's a delight to visit Detroit

While I am a die-hard Detroit Tigers fan, I was disappointed to see that the front page of the Free Press for Oct. 11 gave extensive coverage to the Oct. 10 game, but ignored the utterly outrageous statement by Donald Trump (“everywhere will be like Detroit”) to the Detroit Economic Club the same day.

Mr. Trump used Detroit as a cautionary tale, thereby demonstrating his ignorance of the city and its people. I have lived through the city’s multiple transitions, including those which were sad and unfortunate but now no city has done a better job of recovery than Detroit.

It is a delight to visit downtown and see the dramatic changes that have occurred. The reality is that it is Mr. Trump who is a cautionary tale, a warning of what can occur when one speaks without thought or knowledge. As exciting is the Tigers’ grit and determination, it is Mr. Trump’s ignorance which the Free Press should have emphasized, and not the baseball game.

Mark H. Cousens

West Bloomfield

Trump was a bad guest

What kind of person, as guest of a city's business community, insults and denigrates the city? How about what former President Donald Trump said in Detroit? Does he even know the Tigers are in the playoffs after a magical month? Has Trump been downtown and seen the revitalization? He’s living in the past.

I grew up in Farmington until college and have great memories of Tigers games, Greektown, Red Wings, some incredible concerts (Prince, Michael Jackson, Bruce) all at the old Joe Louis Arena.

You might not agree with all her plans. At least Kamala Harris has ideas — helping new homebuyers and new parents, lowering prescription drug prices. She is trying to improve lives. See Trump on health care. His lies about FEMA are hurting people in a desperate situation.

The whole country needs you. It’s time to move past the nastiness and division. Help move the country forward. Please vote for Kamala Harris.

Amy Somary

Arlington Heights, Illinois

Endorsements: Free Press picks for Michigan US House, Senate and House in Nov. 5 election

Democracy and a great economy: Why not both?

All the recent polls say that the economy is the top issue that voters care about. The economy is certainly important. But my number one issue is maintaining our democracy. So, I’ll vote for the candidate who will not become a dictator.

By the way, it turns out that a strong democracy creates a strong economy. The Brookings Institution has published powerful research that democracies have stronger economies with higher per capita GDP growth than authoritarian regimes.

The difference is not small: “... democratization causes an increase in GDP per capita of between 20% and 25%.”

You can make your vote count toward a strong democracy and a strong economy.

Norm Howe

Ann Arbor

Field of abortion crosses needs to go

I imagine that if you were to poll the parishioners of the Shrine of the Little Flower, on Twelve Mile Road and Woodward Avenue, about their church’s mission, they would say that it includes spreading peace, love and acceptance. That’s why it is so very disturbing to me every year when they subject all Woodward motorists to a gigantic field of abortion crosses.

I understand that’s their belief, and that they have the right to freedom of speech, but it just seems so antithetical to what a church's purpose should be. Religion should be about joy, and no one feels joy driving by that display, regardless of which side of the abortion debate they fall on.

I realize that the crosses symbolize the unborn that didn’t get a chance at life, but let’s for a moment think about the living people who are in essence being preached to while they wait for the light to change. This church is telling the hundreds of women who’ve had abortions, driving by every day, that they are murderers. There are countless reasons as to why these women made the difficult and personal choice to end their pregnancies, and they sure don’t need a religious institution shaming them daily.

The church is making a provocative, partisan, public statement to stir emotions. It is hurtful, disturbing, in bad taste, and it needs to stop. If people want to be proselytized to, they will come into your house of worship, but until they do, please just let them fill up their gas tanks in peace.

David Cash

Detroit

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This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Letters: Trump in Detroit, democracy, economy, abortion rights