I am watching in tortured awe as the country waves its fist and clucks its tongues that my company, my career, my livelihood is not worth saving.

This corporation has paid for my life, from beginning to present. It has stood silent in the background giving me aid through one family member or another. And ten years ago I slipped easily into the ranks of its employment, as comfortable there as I would be in a relative's home.

As thousands of Michigan residents watch the hearings in horror, there is no way to describe the tension that has now become everyday life. It tears at each one of us, thick with betrayal and the unknown as we wait to find out the shape of our future.