What’s in a birthplace?

Unless you’ve been living under a rock or you’re lucky enough to not own a T.V. during election season, the airwaves, both national and now local, are flooded with commercials both for and against three candidates, with pro- and anti-Santorum ads just popping up the past few days.

It’s on one of those new ads where we see Mitt Romney reminisce about all the memories he had growing up in Michigan. He talks about going to the Detroit Auto Show as a kid, contrasts that with the bickering between companies and unions in present-day Michigan and implies that he can fix that and restore Michigan to its former glory.

As my dad and I watched that over lunch the other day, he made an interesting point: “This might be his birthplace,” my dad said, “but it’s not his home.”

While my dad enjoys politics far more than I do, Romney is one of the few politicians from any party I’ve ever been able to stand for any amount of time, and that’s because he’s from Michigan, just like me.

Unlike the majority of my peers in school, from elementary to college, I don’t find Michigan too cold, too boring or whatever their other complaints may be. Something in my childhood gave me a big amount of state pride – and, by extension, Battle Creek pride – which meant that Michigan was the first state I could ever identify on a map and it meant I identify with fellow Michiganders, no matter how removed from Michigan they may be.

Perhaps it was my G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero figures, since I can still name off the Michiganders I have from that (Stalker the Army Ranger is from Detroit, Shockwave the S.W.A.T. trooper is from Dearborn and Roadpig the evil Dreadnok powerhouse is from the fictional Michigan city of Goblu – you’ll have to Google that one). Or maybe it was the unending parade of professional wrestlers I watched who came from Michigan, ranging from oldies like Bruiser Brody and the Steiner Brothers to more modern wrestlers like the Motor City Machineguns or Battle Creek native Rob Van Dam. I even squealed with glee when Detroit became Charlie’s stage in the videogame Street Fighter Alpha 2.

Yet with my dad’s statement, I had to look back at all my state heroes. Of those who are actually real (sorry, G.I. Joe), how many of them are actually applicable to Michigan anymore? How does Michigan factor into their lives other than being on their birth certificate and being listed as their birthplace on their Wikipedia page? Madonna is from Michigan – I didn’t list her above not because I’m unaware that she’s from Michigan but that I’m not really sure how the mitten state factors into her act, especially her recent Superbowl performance.

This wasn’t some weird awakening for me – I still get kind of fuzzy inside when I find out famous people, even fictional characters, are from Michigan, even though usually it’s only as relevant as a footnote – but I can certainly see where my dad was coming from. Every candidate will appeal to where their support is, and it’s not surprising Romney would appeal to Michiganders for votes. Santorum, Ron Paul and the rest of field is doing the same in their home states.

This doesn’t mean that if you have state pride like me that you need to immediately abandon your heroes, but just realize that the people you idolize because they’re from Michigan or from Battle Creek, whether it be Mitt Romney or Madonna, it might not be as important to them, especially if they’re on the national stage. Just be happy about the little bits of information you know, because there’s no shame in being interested in people who came from the state shaped like a mitten.