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Michigan Radio is beginning a new series for the New Year called Three Things. We’re asking people from all walks of life for what three things they think the people of Michigan can do to make things a bit better in the state.

Michigan Radio’s Morning Edition host Christina Shockley speaks with actor and musician Jeff Daniels. He grew up in Michigan and chooses to live here, even though he has a career that often takes him to L.A. and New York.

Jeff Daniels’s first suggestion for Michigan residents is to shop and buy locally. While Daniels acknowledges that many Michiganders can’t afford to spend the extra money often charged by local, independently-owned businesses, he says that those businesses are usually struggling just as much as the individuals and families in the surrounding community. “There are people that were really hit hard,” says Daniels, “and they’re still keeping their doors open.”

When deciding whether it’s affordable to spend a bit of extra money by shopping at a locally-owned store, Daniels says, “You don’t have to buy all your groceries at a place that charges a little more. But, once in a while, it’s okay to spend a hundred bucks more, if you can afford it, because those people are hanging on by their fingernails.”

For his second idea, Daniels wants people to think more about the well-being of others and less about themselves. He says, “It’s a capitalistic society that we live in, I get it. It’s all about money and making money. But there seems to be a very non-existent line anymore between making money and greed.”

Pointing to the obsession with personal wealth in America, Daniels says, “I think we’ve really fallen into a very corrupt, morally-bad place, in that regard.” Daniels urges individuals to ask themselves, “What are you doing for somebody else?”

Rather than being obsessed with personal financial gain, Mr. Daniels wants Michiganders to lend a hand to those around them. “We’re just inundated with bad news, and with everybody’s broke and nobody has anything,” he says, “And you got to start to lift yourself up spiritually.” In order to do that, Daniels thinks that helping others is an easy way to improve morale by strengthening a sense of unity.

As an example of the type of unity he’s talking about, Daniels says, “It’s what 9/11, in that horrible tragedy, taught us. We all grabbed hands. We all started helping each other. And it’s just little things like that that can kind of help us all kind of turn this around.”

Lastly, Mr. Daniels suggests that Michiganders rediscover a sense of pride in their state. He says, “It’s very difficult to find any brightness when things are this tough economically.” But Daniels stresses the importance of finding sources of pride, even when it seems impossible, adding, “We need to find those things, even if it’s really difficult to do. To go, ‘No. This is who we are.’”

Using the Detroit Lions as an example, Daniels says, “So when the Lions kick off, cheer for yourself. Cheer for the state of Michigan and the pride that we take in being who we are, even if we’ve only won one game… We’re going to come back. And, someday, there will be a Super Bowl and we will be in it.”