Auchtoon!A Cartoon Swimming in Awesome Sauce! Too Bad…
This was going to be tomorrow’s GRPress cartoon. I really like it. It has a unique style, a nice rhythm, accessible design, stinging punchline. Unfortunately it wasn’t until I got to the point of the rough sketch that I realized (and accepted the fact) there are probably only five people in the world who would understand it. Sigh.
As briefly as possible, here’s what you would need to know:
- Michigan has a thing called the Natural Resources Trust Fund. It collects money from oil and gas extracted here and uses it to purchase Michigan land for the public enjoyment.
- Dave Agema, a state representative from Grandville, is introducing a bill to raid this money and spend it mostly on building and maintaining roads.
- Dave Agema has a history of doing and saying audaciously thoughtless things. His justification for his bill? “It’s getting to the point where the state of Michigan will own the state and the people won’t.”
- As it turns out, our government is, as Lincoln put it, a “government of the people, by the people, for the people.” Which is to say, the government is us and we are the government.
- In 1787, after the original form of government and the Articles of Confederation were proving disastrous, a constitution convention (with James Monroe as a key writer) created and adopted our current constitution, which begins with “We the people…” and so on as the cartoon indicates.
See now?! What’d I tell you? Awesome cartoon, right? Wait, what? You stopped reading a long time ago? Sigh.
Chris Willis said,
March 25, 2011 @ 1:27 pm
Actually, I thought it was kinda funny and insightful without the punch line and reference to Mr. Agema (who, you correctly intuited, I know nothing about.) If you ever wanna take a week off, try resurrecting just the thought bubble and let us all infer the source of the dissenting voice; there are enough of them out there lately .
John said,
March 28, 2011 @ 7:48 am
That’s a great idea, Chris! And also a little depressing when you think about it….