Wednesday, October 31, 2012

All Hail Don Williamson


Former Flint mayor Don Williamson has been a seemingly endless source of material for Flint Expatriates over the years. There were the random firings of competent city employees. The useless "crack down" on baggy pants. Don't forget the time he used city workers to mow his lawn. And the very expensive plan to help the local economy by installing a drag strip on a city street. Of course there was the pricey lawsuit that the city had to settle after the mayor had a paper carrier arrested at City Hall. Oh yeah, what about the cop who got canned for daring to talk to the local media. Let's not even mention all the money the city lost because of Williamson's creative approach to the Genesee Towers situation. For his swan song, the convicted felon asked the cash-strapped city for back pay when he resigned to avoid a recall election.

Given his service to the City of Flint, it's only fitting that Williamson be honored with a statue. After all, Flint's other great leaders like Billy Durant and C.S. Mott have their memorials. It seems Williamson agrees and has erected a golden effigy of himself surrounded by a pride of protective baby lions at his new palatial estate outside Flint.



A reader stumbled upon life-size icon on recent trip home and passed along this report: 
I get back to Flint a few times each year, visiting family. In fact, my wife and I were there last weekend visiting her dad in Lapeer. Travelling back towards Flint via Davison Rd, we ran across an interesting sight. First of all, I should say that my wife's fancy new Garmin GPS flashed a "point of interest" on the screen as we approached the little crossroads berg of Elba. It showed a large area to the north of Davison Rd called the "Patsy Lou refuge" (not really sure if it said refuge or estate or something else). Needless to say that got my attention. No more than 1/2 mile west of the Elba crossroads (near Potters Lake), we were more than a little surprised to see the main entrance to what is obviously Don and Patsy Lou's grand plantation. It is a work in progress, but leaves no doubt that it goes for quite a long way north of Davison Rd. Of course, this alone wouldn't cause me to think of Flint Expats; it was the life sized bronze stature of the Don himself that caused me to write this note.As you can no doubt tell, the Don was standing tall and portly, greeting visitors. Anyone reading Flint Expats for any length of time is surely aware of the special place Don Williamson has with the readership, so I couldn't pass up this opportunity to contribute to the cause.
Is it just me, or does The Don's statue resemble the tribute to another controversial, strong-willed leader?

  Kim Il Sung


12 comments:

  1. This really made my day, my sides are hurting.

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  2. All I have to say is OMG. Oh, and...the horror, the horror...

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  3. Gordon- You are hereby ordered to write an unauthorized biography of Ex-Con Don. I guarantee it would be a best seller. You brief synopsis is just scratching the surface. Don is truly PURE GOLD.

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  4. I guess every city needs a villain...

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  5. Is it wrong that I want to knock it over a smack it with a shoe like they did Saddam Hussein's statue?

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  6. FJ reported on this a day later. No mention of Flint Expats.

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  7. It's the only statue that birds allow humans to shit on.

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  8. Congratulations for scooping the local newspaper by a day:

    http://www.mlive.com/news/flint/index.ssf/2012/11/giant_statue_erected_outside_f.html

    (I would hazard a guess that somebody there may read this blog).

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  9. I can't gloat too much since I get 50 percent of my material from the Journal. Andy Heller mentioned this in a column a few weeks back, but the paper never followed up with a photo, which is odd. This story is pure gold!

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  10. Love the juxtaposition with Fearless Leader NK.

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  11. Anderson Cooper covered this on the Live afternoon show today. I had the sound off but they sure got some laughs.

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Thanks for commenting. I moderate comments, so it may take a while for your comment to appear. You might enjoy my book about Flint called "Teardown: Memoir of a Vanishing City," a Michigan Notable Book for 2014 and a finalist for the 33rd Annual Northern California Book Award for Creative NonFiction. Filmmaker Michael Moore described Teardown as "a brilliant chronicle of the Mad Maxization of a once-great American city." More information about Teardown is available at www.teardownbook.com.