Friday, March 29, 2024

Michiganians should take pride in their state

January 8, 2001

I’ve been thinking a lot about pride lately. While it’s certainly not hard to find school pride here, state pride is a whole other story. It seems there are very few people who truly have any pride in Michigan. Most of the time, I hear complaining about the weather, the roads and how boring this place is.

Pride hasn’t always been something I’ve been concerned about. I used to complain along with the best. On occasion, you can still hear me whine about the weather or some other feature of our state. But I’ve found myself to be in a minority of people who love our pleasant peninsulas, and the reason I noticed it is because of my boyfriend, Josh.

Josh is a native Texan. He was born in Houston and lived there for the first five years of his life. After that, he lived in various cities in Michigan for the next 13 years before moving to Arizona to go to college for a year. He’s since moved back to Michigan and is going to MSU. Despite having lived here for the majority of his life, he will claim only to be from Michigan, but insist he is a Texan.

I, on the contrary, am a Michiganian through and through. I’ve lived in this state for all but the first week of my life. I was born in Toledo, Ohio only because my father worked at the hospital there. I grew up outside of Detroit, moved to Jackson, then to Battle Creek and now I am here.

The other day, Josh and I were discussing state pride. He was wondering why Texans have so much pride in their state. Once upon a time, Texans had state pride because they were trying to become a separate republic. Generations later, the “Don’t Mess With Texas” attitude remains, but for reasons not so blatantly evident. While he pondered the reasons for this, I wondered why people don’t have pride in Michigan.

A recent visitor made me ponder the situation more. A friend of mine from Arizona came up to visit during winter break. As a military brat, she’s lived a little bit of everywhere, but most of what she knows is from her time in Arizona. I relished the opportunity to show her around my home turf.

After adjusting to the shock of the snow and cold, I think she rather enjoyed Michigan. It seems like everything about this place fascinates her, from the blinking traffic lights to the icicles hanging from roofs. These are all things that seem normal to us natives and not all of them are necessarily distinctly ours, but the culmination of all quirks big and small makes our state unique.

All this showing off of Michigan got me thinking, this state is a great place, so why don’t its residents think so?

Think of all that Michigan offers. It’s the center of the automobile industry, the birthplace of cornflakes and the home of La-Z-Boy.Our state is one of the biggest producers of apples and the grower of many other fruits, not to mention the maker of really great fudge. It has thick forests, fields of farmland and skylines of skyscrapers. The land has provided copper, iron and lumber for the rest of the country and the world.

Our state is second only to Alaska in having the most shoreline in the country. The Great Lakes make our two peninsulas (the only state to have two) the most recognizable state in the nation. And in what other state can you point out your hometown on a part of your body?

Sure, it’s not a sunny playground year-round like Florida or California, nor does it have cities of nonstop excitement like Las Vegas or New York City. But, Michigan is a great vacation spot year-round. You can ski, sled and play in the snow in the winter and get a tan on the shores of the great lakes in the summer. In the fall you can tour the state to see the leaves change and in the spring you can watch the plants bloom. Michiganians can keep busy in Detroit or relax on Mackinac Island.

Michigan’s hockey team, the Red Wings, is excellent and championships within the past 20 years have excited us thanks to the Red Wings, Tigers and Pistons. And the Lions, they had Barry Sanders for a while. Our state has originated entertainers like Madonna, Eminem and Kid Rock, and berthed basketball stars Magic Johnson and Mateen Cleaves. It’s been the surrogate homes of many other sports figures, entertainers and celebrities.

Think of all the things Michigan has. Now, doesn’t that make you proud?

Michonne Omo, State News opinion writer, can be reached at omomicho@msu.edu.

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