Living as I do in a very small North Carolina town (Catawba) on the very far exurbs of Charlotte, I appreciated this article by R. R. Reno on living in Omaha. I have become quite fond of this little place and the congregation here as he is fond of Omaha. His observations on the place you live and the wish to live elsewhere and the attitudes others have to your home hit the mark.
Here is a great couple of sentences on how the wish for "diversity" often ends up meaning homogeneity:
Instead, in conversation they’ll say that Omaha lacks “diversity,” by which they mean a critical mass of other people who think as they do about politics and morality. They condemn Omaha as provincial, but what they are really saying is that the city is not progressive. In their minds, Berkeley or Boulder are ideal, all the more so because they so completely combine homogeneity with progressive self-congratulation.
2 comments:
Ah, classic Reno (that Lindbeck-ite). Cantankerous and thoughtful rolled into one.
This sentence describes my life in West Texas as if he were spying on me: "Some transplants cultivate a bitter sense of exile. They listen to NPR and keep a pile of New Yorker magazines next to the toilet."
Rick Serina
Trinity Lutheran-Albany (TX)
Wait, I'm from Boulder and I like it. Almost the perfect place.
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