The easiest way to convince some folks that you're plotting against them is to insist that you aren't. For way too many of us, that's all it takes.
So there's no point in trying to persuade some people that the census is not a government plot to find out how much gold they have stashed, how many kids they have or where they live (pssst ... if you got a form in the mail they already know that).
So for the rest of us, here's some advice: If you want Michigan to retain whatever clout it has at the federal level and ensure that your community is in line for money and services it is rightly due, fill out the form and mail it in. Nothing fancy, nothing hard. Fill in the blanks and mail it off.
On behalf of the other 10 million people in the state: Please.
State officials say that for every person not counted, Michigan can expect to lose about $10,000 over the course of 10 years; a family of four that isn't counted could cost Michigan $40,000.
The decennial (every 10 years) head count, which is mandated by the Constitution, helps provide the numbers crunched at every level of government every day to provide services, predict need and tell us about ourselves.
Federal money distributed on the basis of population is used to provide health care and services for the elderly. Road money and money for other key infrastructure needs, like water and sewer service and high-speed broadband Internet, is based in part on census figures. That's a key consideration when a community or state asks for its share of federal dollars.
One of the more painful realities for Michigan and other Midwest states over the past few decades has been the ongoing population shift from the Rust Belt to the Sun Belt and beyond -- the South, the Southwest and the West.
Representation in the U.S. House is based on population, and while Michigan has been losing people -- and House seats -- since the 1960s, southern and western states have been gaining.
Until 1983, Michigan had 19 representatives in the House. That number is now down to 15, and there is speculation we'll lose another seat after the current census.
Michigan needs every body it can get in Washington.
The ongoing Asian Carp issue is an example; imagine if that was a problem threatening Texas, with its large and growing House delegation, and not the Great Lakes states. No more carp.
So sit down and fill out the form. Draw the drapes if you must, do it in the dead of night and wear a disguise when you stick it in the mail box if you have to.
But fill it out, please.
