Real America

It seems that much has been made in this election, and particularly in the past few days, of the size of town and part of the country in which one lives, as though that makes one more or less American.

In her acceptance speech at the Republican National Convention, Sarah Palin, apparently quoting this somewhat dubious fellow, said, "We grow good people in our small towns," and a few days ago, said,

We believe that the best of America is not all in Washington, D.C. We believe... that the best of America is in these small towns that we get to visit, and in these wonderful little pockets of what I call the real America, being here with all of you hard working very patriotic, um, very, um, pro-America areas of this great nation.

I won't go all political here (although, if you haven't seen them, you might be interested in these Daily Show videos on small town values and being pro-American), but I do think it's pretty ridiculous to be dividing up the nation--and sowing divisiveness--like this.

Yesterday, I rode my bicycle to school. On my way home, I stopped at the local grocery store (a co-op) for farm-fresh eggs and crackers, and then the library. Some friends, all of whom live within about three miles of me, and some within easy walking distance, came over for dinner. We sat around talking and laughing and eating soup before returning to grading or reading or studying for midterms.

It seems to me that that sort of thing is what reflects American values--and even "small-town" ones--despite (?) the fact that I live in one of the country's major urban areas. I do agree that the values of this city are not reflected across the entire country. For example, only Portland has a larger percentage of bike commuters, and apparently only California has more grocery co-ops than Minnesota. The city is concerned about climate change, protecting the environment, and green building. We have a large immigrant population and many services to aid those communities.

But wait.

Maybe those aren't American values, after all. Maybe they're just some big-city socialist agenda. After all, why else would I be serving soup to my neighbors--?

Sigh.

I wasn't going to get political. So I'll just end by saying that I love the big-city values of Minneapolis, as well as the American/human values that have been unjustly co-opted under the label "small town." Those values belong to all of us.