From Mother Jones: Detroit

I was a kid in Flint, Michigan. My dad and mom had lived in Detroit since the Great Depression so my father's formative years were spent there. We moved when I was still in grade school, but if you asked me where I'm from, I suppose I'd say Michigan.

This terrific but unspeakably sad piece focuses at first on the accidental shooting of a young girl in a crummy Detroit neighborhood, then expands to scan the awful sadness that hangs over the city.