According to his wife, U. S. Representative David E. Bonior is a contemplative man who has had some pretty "harebrained" ideas. It was just such an idea that led Bonior and his wife Judy to walk the 325 miles from their home in Mount Clemens--a suburb of Detroit--to the quaint coastal sidewalks of Mackinaw City, the Lower Peninsula's northernmost point. Walking to Mackinac chronicles the Boniors' three-week journey to connect with the people and the history of their home state, to explore Michigan at human pace, and to appreciate it more fully.
The Boniors plotted their own course, stringing together trails, back roads, and abandoned railway beds. They both carried twenty-five to thirty-five pounds on their backs, so they limited each day's effort to a walkable distance that would end at a campsite or motel. Both in their early fifties, neither of the Boniors had ever undertaken a trek of this magnitude or done any camping to speak of. Their daily challenges were humorous, daunting, and even frightening.
While the book focuses on the Boniors' journey, what moves the narrative forward is the story of Michigan. The journey serves to link the Underground Railroad and waterways, the fur trade and the lumber industry, agriculture and the automobile, and of course the people all along the way.
If you have ever taken a trip on a whim, or if you have even just thought about ignoring the "sensible" voice inside your head, Walking to Mackinac is sure to delight you. Both entertaining and informative, the Boniors' story reminds us once again that even the longest journey begins with a single step.
David E. Bonior is the Democratic Whip in the U. S. House of Representatives. He represents Michigan's Tenth Congressional District and lives in Mount Clemens, Michigan, with his wife Judy.

Walking to Mackinac

Biographies & Memoirs

Bonior, David E.

Leaders & Notable People

UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN REGIONAL

Univ of Michigan Pr

Did you ever wonder what a member of congress was like as a juvenile roaming the streets of his or her neighborhood? Probably not. But nevertheless all of these people in our nation’s capital were once kids. They grew up with a set of interests and values that they would take with them to the halls of a great democracy. Tracing his roots back to the small and large towns in Europe, Bonior recounts for us the coming of age of his boyhood in the Polish/Ukrainian community of Hamtramck, Michigan. 
 The foundations of his boyhood, his Catholicism and athleticism, were where he often sought and found comfort. It was then he learned to embrace the struggle of the underdog. He was taught the value of work by a loving, yet taciturn father and grandfather. And he grew up faster than most boys his age as he lived with the specter of his mother's early death at 37 years of age. 
 David Bonior was a working class kid with big dreams. This book is about the lessons of his youth and how he used them to navigate life on Detroit's Eastside. How he became a leader in his community on and off the sports field and then used those skills to become not only a member of congress, but the House Whip, the number two person in his party in the United States House of Representatives. 
 This is a book of early memories. It's about "Elbowing his way into memory". It is about an American town where he took his first step, said his first word, and learned the fundamental life lessons that made him the legislator he was and the person he will always be. 
 Fully illustrated with period and family photographs, this story is an invocation of a truly American life.

Eastside Kid: A Memoir of My Youth, From Detroit to Congress

Prospecta Press

Few in Congress have accomplished more than David Bonior on behalf of average Americans. Whip is the story of how he did it. In Eastside Kid, the first volume of his autobiography, former Congressman David Bonior recounted the upbringing that formed his lasting principles: love of the underdog, a passion for social justice. In Whip, he tells us how he put those principles to work as a member—and a leader—of the US House of Representatives. David Bonior spent twenty-six years in Congress, compiling a record as one of Washington’s most effective progressives. Respected by his colleagues for both his personal integrity and his legislative savvy, Bonior was elected by his party’s caucus to serve for eleven years as Democratic Whip, one step below Leader in the party hierarchy. From his arrival in Congress in 1977 Bonior was determined to make an impact. In the ‘70s he organized the effort in Congress to recognize the neglected needs of Vietnam veterans. In the ‘80s, he was Ronald Reagan’s most dogged congressional foe over US support for the Nicaraguan Contras. In the ‘90s he became the public face of opposition to NAFTA. No one was more responsible for the downfall of Newt Gingrich—except perhaps Gingrich himself. And when Bill Clinton finally confessed his affair with Monica Lewinsky, it was Bonior who mobilized House Democrats to resist calls for the president to resign. Fueled in equal part by his working-class values and by the zeal for competition he developed as a star high-school athlete, Bonior never failed to fight the good fight. Bonior takes us backstage at Congress, where his brilliance as a legislative tactician helped turn ideas into law. But Whip is no dry, inside-the-Beltway recitation of names, dates, and bills. We are treated to vivid portraits of the people Bonior worked with, such as Speaker Tip O’Neill and both Presidents Bush. And we learn that once upon a time, Republicans and Democrats socialized together—at the White House Christmas party and the House gym. Key to the Bonior story was his ability, as a leading progressive, to keep winning reelection in a district renowned as the home of the Reagan Democrat. We see him meeting constituents at barbecues and farms, post offices and small-town parades. And we see his trademark, the pine seedling: In his quarter-century of electioneering and outreach, he distributed a million of them. “Bonior trees” still dot his district. Few in Congress have accomplished more than David Bonior on behalf of average Americans. Whip is the story of how he did it. Extensively illustrated with 85 black and white photographs. David E. Bonior is contributing funds from the sale of this book to Mikva Challenge (www.mikvachallenge.org) “David Bonior was my mentor when I came to Congress.” -- Senator Bernie Sanders “David Bonior never hesitated to take on the powerful on behalf of the powerless. How did this boy from Detroit grow up to become one of the most progressive legislators Congress has ever seen? Read Eastside Kid and find out.” -- Congressman John Lewis

Whip: Leading the Progressive Battle During the Rise of the Right

City Point Press

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