Are The Best of the Real Americans Becoming Innocent Casualties of a Culture War?

I was born in a small town and I can breathe in a small town. Those words from John Mellencamp (or John Cougar Mellencamp or John Cougar, depending on the era) sum up my experience in life. I am from here and I am OF here. This is me. But this, my way of life and the only home I’ve ever known, seems destined to become a mere pawn in a culture war that is beginning to rage across our nation.

I love traveling and visiting places like Chicago, Milwaukee, Las Vegas, and Los Angeles. I have fond memories of visits to New York City and Washington, D.C. I could spend months at a time in Seattle. But home for me will always be a place that is quiet, almost reverently quiet. A place where the sun rises on a similar scene each day which is acted out by the same characters, more or less. A place where your neighbors likely have ancestors who were neighbors to your ancestors.

There exists in this place more civility than in places that are much larger. Forced politeness when meeting the glance of a neighbor who is a stranger to you gives way to genuine warm concern for your neighbor and friend of many years. The human tragedies here, like in larger cities, often involve sickness or death. However, quite often they are the natural outcome of growing old and only very rarely is there any need to investigate why the tragedy happened.

Like all who are considered “outsiders”, we have been made fun of for being “backwards” and we’ve taken our share (and then some) of criticism for living life according to our faith. We’ve been referred to as gun-toting religious zealots. We have been preached at by people who choose to live without absolute standards about being intolerant, all the while being forced to tolerate the odd views of a few odd people as we’ve watched those views begin to taint not only our popular culture, but also the rules that we are forced to live under as citizens who respect the law.

This phenomenon has, in some ways, been accelerated by the communication technologies of the day which seem determined to bring us each hour’s news events before the hour is out. Hot button political issues with strong emotional appeal present themselves sometimes in small town America. This can often put us under the national media’s microscope.

More often than not, this can bring unwanted attention from people who really have no stake in our way of life, nor any intention to take part in it. Frequently these well-meaning absentee experts speak up on this or that issue which is close to their heart and attempt to correct us by imposing their “superior and sophisticated” values onto our “backwards” way of life.

Imagine the roles being reversed, with a “country mouse” telling the urban citizen how to live his or her life the best way. A news report of that same “country mouse” later being shot to death could likely be dismissed by anyone in the vicinity as just some “cracker from the sticks” who was messing around with what they didn’t understand.

Not so in small town U.S.A. Through all of this, small town folks have remained resilient and optimistic, not giving in while at the same time not seeking solutions in violence. While we have had our disagreements, and as my great aunt used to say “strong debates”, it is rare indeed that a conflict ever escalates to the level of, say, shooting. We choose instead to simply live our lives, trying to repeat today what worked well for us yesterday and trying also to avoid repeating any mistakes we may have made. And if the “city mouse” shows up at our Town Hall to push her odd agenda onto us, we will likely offer her a cup of coffee and maybe a homemade cookie along with a warm smile. Then we will patiently attempt to explain to her why she is wrong.