I was born in a Small Town
Very most likely, one of those “small towns in Pennsylvania” to which Senator Obama was referring.
I realize that most of my posts lately have been PAcentric – I don’t want anyone to think that I believe that the political world revolves around Pennsylvania, it’s just that, right now, it does.
Pennsylvania holds its Primary in one week. Tuesday, April 22nd, is the last of the hotly contested “big(ish) state” races – If Senator Clinton has a decisive win next week, as her husband, President Bill Clinton, told a crowd of steelworkers in Coatesville, PA “she can win.”
Regarding “bittergate”, personally, I don’t think that Senator Obama intended any distrespect by his statement(s). As far as “small town” Pennsylvanians go, there probably is a degree of “bitterness.” Whether or not that has led to an increase in hunting, religion and voting conservatively, I’m not sure. What has changed is the perception of the political parties, not the individual values.
When I was in my first year of law school in Philadelphia, a professor gave us a quick geography lesson. He drew a rough sketch of Pennsylvania and explaned “here in the east we have Philadelphia; In the Western part of the state you’ll find Pittsburgh” and then taking a red marker and circling the central area he said “and this part in the middle? That’s Alabama.” Being from “the middle” all I could think was, “he’s obviously never spent much time in Pittsburgh.”
I was born in a smallish suburb of a large city in Pennsylvania, but I grew up outside a small town (Bernville in western Berks County).
One of the memories from my childhood involves the father of one of my friends. Troy’s father worked for Dana Corp., the speciality steel company in Reading. One year he spent more time unemployed than he did employed. I always wondered how the family survived. According to the commonly-accepted knowledge, steelworkers made more money unemployed than they did working. I never really asked.
Great post. I’m from small town Idaho and live in small town Utah. I wasn’t offended by Obama’s remarks. Indeed, when you look around, you see, in many of these small towns, bitterness against the Federal government. Read the local papers. You’ll see rants against the Federal government and how it steps on peoples’ rights. And there’s nothing wrong with being bitter with the government.