Small Town Bitterness

“You go into these small towns in Pennsylvania and, like a lot of small towns in the Midwest... it’s not surprising they get bitter, they cling to guns or religion or antipathy to people who aren’t like them or anti-immigrant sentiment or anti-trade sentiment as a way to explain their frustrations.” - Senator Barak Obama

Now, granted, the above is taken out of context of the entire speech, but this comment strikes home with me. I live in a smallish town near Tampa, Florida, but I was born in a small Pennsylvania town, and my family history is small towns in NW Missouri by way of Illinois, Kentucky, and Virginia. While various members of my family, current and ancestral, have lived in the Big City, we're historically small town town folk. I'm just mentioning this to show that I qualify as being a small town girl (more about my historical qualifications later).

Small Town America understands that it's not always convenient to live in a small town. Small Towners are used to driving to the next town to shop and even work. Sometimes the kids go to school in the next town or even two towns over.

Living in Small Town America has it's frustrations. Until Walmart, McDonald's, and Pizza Hut stared building stores in towns of 75 or more (I think they might have counted livestock in some cases), Small Towners had to drive to a larger town to shop and get fast food. Sometimes, a call to your best friend in the next town is a long distance call. Cell phone and cable service is only a dream to some Small Towners. Trying to find a job in Small Town America is sometimes laughable. So high school graduates go off to college and usually don't return home except for vacations, weddings, and funerals.

High school graduates leaving Small Town America and not returning has been happening since before my own father left his home town (population 2000) in 1939 for Kansas City to study for the ministry. While living there, he enlisted in the Missouri National Guard and in 1941 became part of the Army. He met and married my mom at Camp Butner, NC (another small town), and after WWII, moved to her hometown of Pittsburgh, PA (a not so small town). During their married life, they lived in small towns outside of Pittsburgh, Miami, and Tampa. I was only five when we moved to Miami. For a few months, we lived on an island in the middle of the Miami River in downtown Miami. In 1959 (I'm giving away my age now), Miami was a nice city to live in, but my parents wanted a home in the suburbs where we kids could play with other kids in a more wholesome atmosphere. South Miami Heights may not have been Small Town America exactly, but it wasn't the Big City, either. I digress, and the suburbs isn't the point of this post.

Since the quote is taken out of context, I'm not sure why Obama thinks that Small Town Americans are bitter. Could it be because Big Government has it's fingers in nearly every aspect of their lives? Could it be because Big Government is taxing us to death? Could it be because it's becoming more dangerous to believe in and pray to the God we want to worship? Could it be because Small Town American sees it's Constitutional rights slowly being eroded away, day by day? Court decision by Court decision? Could it be because we see corruption in the banking and mortgage industry that has been taking family farms for generations? Could it be because the life we remember from our own childhood and want to give to our own kids is fast becoming a dream? Could it be because we see our values being sneered at on a daily basis?

I'm painting with a broad brush right now, but Liberals tend to be Big City people. Small Towners lean more toward the conservative. We (and I'm talking those who are Small Towners at heart no matter where they live) see our rights and values and opinions and dreams being ignored. It's no longer acceptable for us to disagree with opinions expressed by Liberals. Remember the Dixie Chicks debacle? The Chicks made remarks that angered conservatives and Small Towners. We gave our opinion and were castigated because we chose to speak up and react to what the Chicks said. We hear Hillary and Obama make remarks in speeches and we're told that we're not patriotic because we disagree. During the election cycle we're suddenly important, but condescendingly so. We know the politicians come and ask for our votes, but do so while laughing at the rubes behind our backs. They think we don't get it, but we do.

While Small Town America is sometimes suspicious of change, we can change. We don't like change for change sake, but we accept change as a fact of life. What we don't like is to have it shoved down our throats. We don't like to be told that we're small minded or behind the times. A lot of Small Towners were practicing being "green" when (and long before) Al Gore was in diapers.

We believe in the Constitution and think that the Founding Fathers pretty much got it right to begin with. But life changes and is a lot different than it was in 1775 so we understand that the Constitution needs to be reviewed periodically. Not all of us are lawyers, but we don't see the need to change the Constitution on a whim. Some of us don't want guns, but we don't want you to tell us we can't have a weapon to protect our homes and family. We respect your right to say want you think, and expect you to respect our right to do the same. We also understand that we each have the right to disagree with the other.

We don't like being told that we must accept criminals (aka illegal aliens) into our mist and welcome them with open arms. We realize a illegal alien and a mass murderer are entirely different beings, but they are both criminals and don't want either in our communities.

We don't like trade agreements that take jobs away from America, much less Small Town America. We want to be able to work where we live so we can raise our kids, our future generations, in the place we consider to be the best place to raise kids. In Small Town America.

We don't want to work to pay taxes. We want to work to have a nice life for ourselves and our families. We don't mind paying taxes for necessary services, but we'd like to know that we're not paying for someone who doesn't want to work, has never contributed to the tax base, or for illegal aliens to live their American dream.

Don't tell us our faith in God is misplaced. Let us worship how we want and we'll let you worship in your way. You don't want kids to pray in school? Then don't give tests. That'll stop the school prayers entirely. But since Liberals don't like grading systems except pass or fail, you might want to take tests out of the school.

That reminds me, our schools are falling below those of other countries, but you want us to compete globally? Then set higher standards in the schools, not lower them so some students won't feel bad because they don't do as well in school as other kids do. Maybe these kids are the ones who would do better in a trade school and become the plumbers and electricians of tomorrow. Every parent dreams of their kid being the next Dr. Salk or Supreme Court Justice, or even President of the United States, but not every kid is destined to be a doctor, lawyer or scientist. Aren't you giving false hope to these kids by playing to their "self-esteem" and letting them think they will have a chance at a successful college or university career? They might, but would they be successful? Would they be happy?

We don't like the values we see coming out of the Big City. Mostly those telling us how to live or that we are to be laughed at or ignored because we choose to live where and the way we do. We don't like Big City Liberals sneering at our values and our way of life. If we wanted to live in the Big City, that's where we'd live. We choose to live in Small Town America. And if we embrace the values that come with that, then that's our right too.

If interested, you can find the t-shirt here