As always, I leave the cartoon open to your interpretation. (My intention is not to tell readers what to think — it’s more a nudge to get them to think.)
Also as always, these little essays that follow are not supposed to explain the cartoon. The cartoons should stand (or die) on their own. And no amount of “Don’t you get it? It’s funny because…” can revive a dead cartoon.
Mostly the essays are here to add a little context, provide more depth. Sometimes they explore a different view or present additional axes for me to grind.
Right. So. All that said, I’m going to go right ahead here and explain the cartoon and tell you what you should think about it: It’s actually meant to be hopeful. Yes, it is disheartening that drivable roads, drinkable water, and functioning schools should be fairly simple to achieve. But they aren’t. And we Michiganders have been fooling ourselves for far too long to think that it should be easy. There is no magic solution. We can’t cut taxes or throw money or political gimmick our way to where we need to go. It will take planning and commitment and real work. I think Gov. Whitmer set the right tone with her speech at the swearing-in ceremony last week. Let’s hope that it carries through 2019.
(Next week I promise to get back to not telling you anything.)
John Auchter draws cartoons. Lots and lots of them. You can find them at his incredibly popular website auchtoon.com. You can also find his stuff on Michigan Public Radio’s website under Opinion.
John, you said, ….We Michiganders have been fooling ourselves for far too long to think that it should be easy. We were fooled by those who “represent us” in Lansing, and that in turn makes us fool ourselves into believing them. The People of the State of Michigan need to make the government accountable.
I don’t agree with Gov. Whitmer on some things, but she does identify the top concerns in the cartoon. The rest could be easy: work together (both sides), keep in touch with our reps and senators on progress of these big projects; keep the bar set high, hopefully we will work harder to get there. Please don’t sit back, criticize and complain. Speak Up! WE are the BOSSES of Michigan. Let’s get our money’s worth.
GO BUCKEYES!!
Can the bar ever be set too high for quality education? Michigan used to have bragging rights about our schools. Now they’re embarrassing. Our roads are deplorable and if we hope to attract money from the tourist industry, we better fix them. The glory days of auto money are gone. We must attract other money in order to survive. The first step I would recommend is to cut our elected officials to a part-time basis. Most other states function better than we do without full-time government reps. Wake up Michigan. We can’t afford the outrageous salaries we are paying all those do-nothing beings in Lansing. Go Gretchen! At her worst she couldn’t do worse than the nerd.