Saturday, April 12, 2008

Let's everyone just calm the hell down

I am trying to get a handle on the furor and outrage over what Barack Obama said about rural voters, but I can't see what the big deal is.

I went to a rural high school and every farm kid drove a pickup to school and had a couple of guns in the gun rack in the back window. There were 18 students in my graduating class, and k-12 was in one building. Hunters Safety classes were taught every fall starting when we were ten years old.

I know a thing or two about country folks; I'm only one generation off the farm, and I'm off the farm because of the military. I know what window I went to to get my ticket punched, and I don't pretend otherwise.

I am not upset over Barack Obama's comments - I have said those words or a variation thereof myself on more than one occasion. Difference is, when I say it, standing at the back bumper of a Ford pickup with a dead deer in the bed, drinking a Bud Light on the town square, people nod and murmur in agreement.

It's like we can tell our own truths, but uppity city folk who went to Harvard aren't allowed to articulate the obvious.

Gimme a fucking break.

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