Sunday, January 30, 2011

My Indiana Home

Heartland America doesn’t feel the same way as people in the cities. We do believe in religion, we go to church all the time, we shoot and fish, and love our families. Some of the time you wish folks in the cities would come live with us and see how we live.
Indiana teabagger Mark Holwager
You can't make this stuff up! It's here. As I understand Mr Holwager, because I live in the city,
  • I don't believe in religion. (O.K., he got me there. But there are a lot of churches in Seattle despite my best efforts.)
  • I never go to church. (Guilty. But I'll bet Mr. H has plenty of neighbors who sleep in on Sunday.)
  • I don't shoot and fish. (Guilty, but of what? Shooting and fishing are values?)
  • I hate my family. (You'd have to ask my kids, but I think I'm okay on this score.)
As for Mr Holwager's invitation to come on in an set a spell, a visit to rural Indiana any time soon isn't in the offing. Then it hit me: If I can't take Citizen K. to French Lick, I can bring French Lick to Citizen K. And I have to admit it: Who wouldn't want to live where you can mount a scope while you get a haircut?

The thrill of it all.

Indiana has had a massive influx of Chinese immigrant.

Where else but Heartland America can you get a Rice Krispy Flurry?

Scope and a haircut.

Fine dining in the Heartland. Reservations only after 6 pm.

There'll be a hot time in the old town tonight.

"Come see how we live."

Indiana values diversity and does not tolerate racism.

One of many thriving business districts in rural Indiana.

Homes in rural Indiana have many modern conveniences.
Community swimming pools are a common sight.

7 comments:

Steven said...

Mr. Holwager is an inveterate liar or he's just plain stupid. I'll opt for the latter.
I've been to Indiana and to the small towns there. If I lived there I might be just as hate filled the teabagger's. My grandfather emigrated from there...went to Seattle and lived a full and happy life. (true) Every time I returned from a trip to Indiana I would remark to my wife about the good sense of my grandfather.

Roy said...

Mr. Holwager's argument doesn't quite work. Take my brother and sister-in-law; they live here in Shippensburg, PA, which is about as Heartland America as you can get (see my last two blog posts). They believe in religion and go to church all the time. They don't hunt, but sometimes fish. And they certainly love their family. But they're registered Democrats, voted for Obama, and think the teabaggers are a bunch of illiterate hillbillies who give their own heartland a bad name.

I think Mr. Holwager should take off those blinders before he opens his mouth!

Leslie Parsley said...

Hopefully there are enough Indianians with brains to over-ride these morons. Frankly I think they're going to have a tough time getting rid of people like Luger and Snowe.

K. said...

Steven: I know a young person from rural Indiana who absolutely detests it. She wound up in Seattle, too.

Roy: The thing is, he likes wearing blinders. Without them, he'd live in terror.

tnlib: The 'baggers can knock off Snowe for all I care. She's lily-livered and mealy-mouthed, and I doubt that a teabagger can win a statewide race in Maine in 2012. Maybe not in Indiana, either: Remember: Barack Obama carried in it 2008.

Foxessa said...

I am currently living in a town? village? (under 5,000) in the heartland of the Revolution and Independence, which remained Union during the times of sesesh.

Family, hunting and fishing, boating, church-going, community service, history are all the way of life here.

I'm enjoying it immensely. I'm really glad though I get to go back to living in Manhattan in the spring. There's not very much to do here, and you see the same people all the time. Even though you love them, you need more variety. But then you'll have to drive a long way, increasing your carbon footprint enormously. My carbon footprint living in this house in this small town in the middle of nowhere is, at my rough calculation, at least 100 times bigger than it is living in my apartment in NYC. It's the car, heating and cooling the house, that makes most of it. But I generate a great deal more garbage here too than in NYC, even though I try to shop with my own bags, rather than taking plastic.

Love, C.

mommapolitico said...

Wow - I'd better alert my liberal friends in the Midwest, because they are obviously confused about what their values ought to be...
Great photo tour, K. - nicely put!

injaynesworld said...

No wonder the people there are bitter and cling to guns and religion...

;)