You may recall last week when the Huffington Post ignited a few sparks when Rabbi Jason Miller posted a response via the HuffBlog to Toby Barlow’s original article titled “Detroit: Meet Detroit.” The response by Rabbi Miller spawned an argumentative couple of days akin to the days of the RoboCop controversy. On the heels of such fiery (but massively important) conversation, I suggested via the DL! blog that we take this fiercely debated topic of suburbs-v-city to a more constructive platform to breathe some more life in to understanding the nature of each side. My thought: Get Rabbi Miller (the pro-suburbs side) and Barlow (the pro-city side) to have a discussion on the Craig Fahle Show via “Crossing the Lines,” a feature that WDET has been putting together. In the ongoing segment, city dwellers, politicians, designers, writers and everything in between discuss the really tough issues we face in moving Detroit forward.

Well, the suggestion worked.

Thursday morning at 10am (stream live here), Rabbi Miller and Mister Barlow will discuss the question, “Who is a Detroiter?” I trust it will be a fruitful conversation. I think it should also stand as a case in point of why it is so massively important to search for solutions and answers in the quest to move this city forward. We cannot dwell on what is or what has been, we must think of what can be, and ferociously search for ways in which to realize that potential, even if its just creating some fruitful dialogue that seems difficult. With a little calculation and thoughtfulness, or hell, just a blog post and a note to Craig Fahle, things can happen. You can do it. We can do it.

Onward.