Michigan Mistake

In the last week since I’ve been on and around I-75 I have seen several Michigan license plates. When I was out west I hardly saw them at all. I was a long ways from home. But there is always something special about seeing a Michigan plate when on the road. It always makes me smile and reminds me of home. However the other day, I drove by a car on the freeway with a University of Michigan alumni plate. As I drove by I noticed two girls in the car pointing at my car and seeing the Michigan State license plate frame. Naturally, I stuck my thumb out the window and gave them a thumbs down and waved. They gave a thumbs up for U of M, but we know that green and white are the true colors of Michigan.

There is nothing like seeing another one of those deep blue Michigan plates on the road. A touch of home. Oh, but wait! Terrible news was passed my way this week that Michigan is no longer going to make the classic blue license plate. Rather than white on blue it’s going to be blue on white. To be quite honest, I think it’s a terrible shame and I’m a little angry about it. Governor Granholm, you’re lucky I’m not in Michigan or I would be knocking on your door and wouldn’t leave until this decision was made right.

They claim that the new plates will be “easier to read.” Give me a break! They have been blue for how many decades? What’s going on, are peoples eyesight getting worse? I doubt it. I’ve never heard a complaint about the classic blue plate. On the highway you can be a long ways behind a blue license plate and know that it’s a Michigan car in front of you. There’s not another plate like it, and it’s simplicity has always won me over. After all, it should be full of blue; our state is beautifully unique and has access to the freshest water in the world. That blue represents the Great Lakes.

If you ask me it seems like Michigan is conforming. Now it will look similar to just about every other license plate in the country. Some countries have the same license plate for every citizen. Here in the United States we are fortunate to have 50 different license plates. Well, let’s embrace that! What’s the point of having 50 license plates if they all look the same? A classic has been lost.

We will never see a colorful wall of lisence plates like this again. Imagine if you made one of these of today’s plates, it would be nothing but boring white, printed with ugly graphics.