Laura Berman

Monica Conyers and a call to prayer

In the absence of other connectors, Monica Conyers is the glue that holds us together in these down times.

She's the Detroit city councilwoman who inspires 10,000 eye-rolls. The one whose every public comment gets 100,000 heads turning side to side.

Whether in Hart Plaza or the center court at Somerset North, her name evokes an instant mix of wonder, horror and plain fascination. Comic andtragic, professional and astonishingly not, she is riveting to watch in a way that her more upright and buttoned-down colleagues are not.

Even while the feds circle, and Synagro associates pleaded guilty to bribing an unnamed Council Member A, Conyers took to the airwaves to deliver the latest in a series of instantly famous, mercurial moments: And she delivered, using a formula that was two parts calm professional, one part kook.

"If you're not praying for me, you're just adding to the problem," she said cryptically on WHPR-TV (Channel 33), which might want to change its name to The Monica Network.

What problem? Why should we be praying?

Nobody has yet leveled charges against Monica Conyers, but -- give her credit for staying in character here -- instead of ducking the issue entirely, she called in her public and God.

Wouldn't any other -- make that any ordinary -- official issue a terse statement, or say absolutely nothing, then get out of the way?

Instead she's blaming the non-prayers for "adding to the problem" -- undefined but lurking. Is she playing narcissist Monica here, saying if you're not with me, you're contributing to societal collapse? Or is she feeling humble, suggesting that mass prayer can resolve the crisis swirling around her? We will likely never know.

But I do know that Councilwoman Conyers sees normalcy and reason where most of us see contradiction, irrationality and chaos.

"I have a marriage that's different from everyone else's," she once said of her marriage, and that explains something about the way she perceives herself -- different, and comfortable with being so.

Different is interesting, even when daffy. It applies to Conyers' City Council tenure, which has helped tip the city into crisis.

It applies to her praising the excellence of Detroit schools while sending her son to a private school in a police-driven car.

Good, bad, never indifferent. It is the way she copes with a figurative noose that seems to be tightening around her neck.

By all means, let us pray.

Laura Berman's column runs Tuesday and Thursday in Metro. Reach her at (313) 222-2032 or e-mail lberman@detnews.com