Small town values

[ksmith]

A good column by Devilstower. The wrap-up is the money shot, but read the whole thing. We're more like than not, but it's the MO of one party to make us believe otherwise.

Hard as it is for some on both sides of the divide to believe, small town people are exactly as smart, dumb, good, bad, close-minded and curious as those who live in the cities. Small town values are American values, but no more American than "New York City Values" or "San Francisco Values." In fact, their values are the same values.

The only reason to think otherwise is a GOP that's become utterly dependent on spreading the poison of divisiveness and bigotry as their only means to survive.

Comments

[scbutler.livejournal.com]

I grew up in NYC, but my parents are both from towns on the Wabash and Ohio rivers, small town America writ large. So I spent a lot of time as a child doing things right out of Penrod and Disney's Pollyanna. The only real difference, as the essay points out, was what people wore (well, and the museums and theaters too). Now, however, with big box stores everywhere, even the clothing difference has disappeared. You may not be able to get Manola Blahniks in Peru, IN, but you can get just about anything else. (You might have to drive to Kokomo, though.)

[kristine-smith.livejournal.com]

You could get the Blahniks on eBay. The internet is a great leveler.

[scbutler.livejournal.com]

Not sure anyone in Peru could afford them now that Cole Porter's moved out.

[e-moon60.livejournal.com]

A very good column. I've lived in a very small (just barely over 1000 people, and it was 650 when we moved here) for almost 30 years. When it hangs together to take care of itself, to help neighboring small towns after a tornado, etc., when people share and communicate and get along in spite of differences...that's the healthy side. Hatred and bigotry are the constant temptation...to see the Other as immoral, lesser, something to be excluded and attacked. The good values are the same, city, suburb and rural...and the bad values, ditto.