Resilient Detroit Will Come Back Strong

When Congress bailed on aid for Detroit automakers last month, it felt like lawmakers "had just voted to turn the lights out on the Motor City," Detroiter Sarah Webster writes in the Free Press. But even as the Big Three dance dangerously close to bankruptcy, she refuses to concede loss. "We never give up," she says, noting the signs of progress at the city's auto show. "Resilience has been fused into our bones."

Resilience builds through environment and genes. Detroit prevails on both accounts, Webster argues. Henry Ford, who struggled to launch his empire, left the city a no-quitting ethos. Its residents are children of "thick-skinned" factory workers. "They still know how to fight for what they believe in," she says, which is why she predicts, "Detroit and its auto industry will make a big comeback." (More Detroit stories.)