On a drive to think to Montreal, Canada late last year I was discussing racing and the auto industry troubles with some relations of mine (I’m ethnically French Canadian, which explains my outspokenness). In typical French fashion I was advised that Formula One is superior to stock car racing. Of course I disagreed vigorously.
Later, as the conversation ran in directions the wine took it, came their tongue-in-cheek boast, “Michigan would be much better off if it had never been given to the English before the American Revolution and then incorporated into the United States,” which sounds like the French ... no?
Presently, since those same industries in our state have found it harder and harder to find friendly ears nationwide, those same people have chided me (not so jokingly) with, “told you so, here we wouldn’t throw you under the bus”, followed by, “come here for good universal health care” or “why do your countrymen put up with talk of a clunker law, don’t they know it will kill scrap yards and thus, local racing?”
They don’t take into account that my family, friends, history and racing community are here and I love Michigan. This week brings the ARCA ReMax series to Berlin with some Canadian drivers, so I feel we have the best of both worlds mixing in our midst. I’ve sung both national anthems at local sporting events (mostly hockey, another shared interest) and my home town of Muskegon, with Pere Marquette Park and more then a few Bouchards, has some Canadian roots, so I am biased toward cooperation between the two nations. They are our closest neighbor geographically, socially and lately one of the few with which we see eye to eye on everything from sport to world views.
I laughed out loud during a conversation with a Canadian writer recently when they heatedly said, “Of course you know of the RCMP ( Royal Canadian Mounted Police ), but doesn’t anybody in your state talk of the PMCR (Provincialization of Michigan in Canada Referendum)? They did not laugh, they were serious saying, “It should at least be debated. So many defense contractors, automobile subcontractors, and racing leagues and offshoots make their homes in Michigan that it might at least grab your nation by the ... and wake them up to the state’s importance, as we know from the number of plants here that are owned by the big three. During World War II it was called the arsenal of Democracy, and in today’s world it’s even more imperative that Michigan thrive. Let your government and people ponder your loss to the nation’s economy, defense and the country’s future as a whole, if you want to change perceptions. Not to mention, how much better off Detroit politics would be if it were called West Windsor.”
Having the get-it-done heart of a Michigander and racing enthusiast, I had to agree that action is necessary to cross the finish line first. In closely watching driver turnouts on race night decline and tracks closing, then hearing from teams that loss of jobs, sponsors and parts suppliers is a major cause, I must admit that desperate times call for drastic measures.
What I don’t know is how others feel about the possibilities in our future being in the hands of our present politicians. I am a journalist and on most subjects I need to try to keep some objectivity and simply report findings. However this is a column, so on this topic I am asking for input, negative or positive. Is such an idea an affront to our nations democracy, or possibly a way of joining two nations in the middle. Either way it’s better than ethnic fighting in other countries that divides them.
Take a Drive To Think on the subject and comment on my profile at our web site; michigancircletrack.com. Maybe, just maybe, enough pressure will Drive others To Think.
