Auchtoon!

Although the cartoon this week is not specifically about Michigan, I would argue that anything about Florida directly relates to Michigan. We’re connected. Michiganders visit there, vacation there, many of us even eventually move there. I mean, lots of sun and no state income tax, what’s not to like, right? Well, as it turns out…

You guys read the news — you don’t need me to list it out. Suffice to say, Florida has clearly been the epicenter of our nation’s culture wars recently, and that doesn’t look like it’s going to change anytime soon.

But beyond the current political and social conditions in Florida, I have to admit that I do have a personal axe to grind with the state, and it has to do with their professional sports teams. For the past dozen years or so, Tampa Bay and Miami teams have been astonishingly successful while Detroit teams have been astonishingly terrible. As I write this, the Florida Panthers (yes, that’s a real team) are in the Stanley Cup finals, and the Miami Heat are a game away from the NBA Finals. The Red Wings and Pistons didn’t come close to getting in the playoffs.

But thing is, their fans don’t seem to care. We Michiganders live and die with our teams; we cling to and celebrate championships from decades past and relive every bitter defeat as if they were yesterday. Florida fans might stay for the entire game when they win and then be completely “oh well” indifferent when they lose.

So I may be a little bitter. Okay, a lot bitter.

A recent article by Bridge Michigan brings up an often sited but long unresolved issue — the ongoing stagnation of Michigan’s population. Michigan ranks 49th among states in population growth since 1990, ahead of only West Virginia.

If you’ve lived here for awhile, you are sure to be aware of the reasons and circumstances for this. Notice I didn’t write “excuses” because that would imply that nothing has been done or can be done to fix this. I think our state has plenty going for it and the capability to retain and attract people. A good plan and a consistent governance would help. But I think we’ll get there.

Still, I have to admit to being a bit defensive about this. On the macro level, it’s difficult to see growth-leading states add populations both to places without enough water and places with too much water. Sure, Michigan has an occasional dry spell or summer home slide into a Great Lake, but on the whole it’s an incredibly safe and sustainable place to live. You’d think that would be enough to move us up a few places on the growth list!

It’s not as if America didn’t have lots of guns 60-plus years ago. We most certainly did. But then, there was a much higher percentage of people who used them for hunting and sport. The weapons themselves were typically much less lethal — single-shot rifles, revolvers, and the like. And critically, there wasn’t a political party completely beholden to gun manufacturers and their lobbyists.

Reliable statistical data for and about guns are notoriously difficult to find. This is mostly by design (again, the aforementioned gun manufacturers and lobbyists). But it is pretty obvious that the total amount of guns manufactured and sold in recent years is significant — 16.6 million firearms purchased in 2022.

That’s down from a record 21.8 million in 2020, but even if last year’s sales were zero, we’d still have a problem. Firearms aren’t like Chevy Chevettes or modern day dishwashers — they are highly durable and likely to last more than a few years. The old ones don’t go away, and we just keep accumulating more.

The total number of firearms in America is mind bending. Sure, we have 331 million people, but per capita, America still easily dominates the developed world.

We are awash in guns, so it’s no surprise that we are awash in gun violence, or that a loaded weapon might find its way into the hands of an eight-year-old to take to school.

So, three seemingly unrelated recent events:

• Ron DeSantis and his ongoing feuds with Disney
• Elon Musk and his ongoing meltdown with Twitter
• Gretchen Whitmer and her ongoing quest to follow through on 2022 campaign promises

And, honestly, the cartoon isn’t about any of that. It’s about how male leaders are often applauded for aggressive, forceful behavior, and women leaders are often, um, not.