Back from Oz

As Dorothy said to Toto, "I don't think we're in Kansas anymore." We went back to the mid-west - Illinois to be exact - and we sure weren't in Phoenix anymore.

The mid-west is a place of its own. Especially the small rural farm communities. The first thing you have to do is to slow your internal clock way down. Everything there works on a slower basis. Everyone talks slower, walks slower, thinks slower, drives slower (unless they are teenagers)and just plain live slower. And everyone is big. I mean big! We ate at the local restaurant almost everyday and I gained five pounds. There was no such thing on the menu as a low carb, low cal, low anything item. Cutting back to them is ordering half a horseshoe. What's a horseshoe? If you were from the mid-west you would know. It's your toast covered with potatoes and eggs and covered again with gravy. Yum!

Technology has passed the little town of Pana by. Not that the kids don't have i-pods and cellphones, but we have neighbors that live full time by our lake cabin that don't have Internet. Not just even Internet, they don't have computers and by God don't want to mess with such foolishness. Technology to them is a new Ford pick up.

Now don't get me wrong, I love going back to this place. It is quiet and refreshing and a good reminder of my upbringing. However, for all its good there are two troubling traits. First, everyone smokes. Illinois passed a no smoking law just like Phoenix but no one in Pana has heard about it. When we visit our neighbors we come back smelling like pack a day smokers ourselves. I guess it's a small price to pay for good neighbors.

The other and most disturbing thing is the ugly blatant racism that is still there. Now, I don't want to indite all of them because most of them are real fine folk, but it's unfortunate that you can't have a meal out without running the risk of having to listen to some loudmouth bigot spout off. And, it's ugly. Phoenix has its ethnics but I guess I have lived in a part of the city that doesn't practice the kind of racism you find in these small towns in middle America. It is true that I've never seen a person of color in the town of Pana. Maybe this allows racist attitudes to prevail.
I had hoped that America had moved passed the Sheriff Bull Conners and water hose era of the sixties. More interesting to me was the louder the lout the bigger he was. And, the bigger he was the dumber he was. It was interesting listening to them spout off - you know the type, they talk loud so the entire room can hear - and they were mostly wrong. Whatever subject they held forth on they usually had their facts wrong. Well, no need to let facts get in the way of a good bombast.

Most of the really vulgar racist remarks came from people that I am prejudiced against. So I got to wondering, if I am prejudiced against a racist am I a assholeist?