My Awesome Home State:
I’m incredibly proud of my home state today. According to an article in yesterday’s Detroit Free Press, Michigan has the highest African-American voting rate in the country at 57%. The Midwest region, according to the US Census, has the highest voting rate of any group of states in the nation.
Its a dumb old cliche’ to believe that people are more authentic, "more real" in the middle of the country. Its qually idiotic to believe that that same middle is filled with rubes who paint their garage doors red white and blue and begin planning 4th of July parades in February.
Civic participation is not cool. It will not get you laid or backstage to meet the band. It is, however, the very foundation of democracy, the system that allows us to be who we are. I’m incredibly proud to be borne of a part of the world, where cynicism nothwithstanding, this means something. A lotta something. The numbers bear it out (via Negrophile).