Observations from Flyover

Recently I read an article in the London Times about Obama not doing well in polling in the rural south. In fact they say Obama’s elitist campaign alienates the south. It is not just the rural south; it is all the rural areas of the country that people fly over going from major city to major city, the snobby like to call it “Flyover.”

In flyover we trust in personal responsibility, we believe government is usually more cause of a problem than solution and we believe the framers of The Constitution never intended it to be a living document.

We believe that government assistance should only get you through the rough times and not be a life style that last from birth to death. We don’t like our taxes supporting people that never work. At the same time most of us in flyover will come to your aid when you need it. We will help move furniture out of your house as the water rises; we will pull your car out of a ditch in the middle of a snow storm and an invite you in for hot chocolate. We are apt to have volunteer fire departments, not paid fire departments. We are members of Rotary, Kiwanis & Ruritan. We support the boy & girl scouts, the Food Pantry, the United Way and many other organizations. We loaded up food, clothes and blankets and drove to New Orleans and the Gulf Coast after Katrina before we were asked because we knew our neighbors would need help.

We are patriots. We volunteer for military service to defend the nation at a higher rate that other areas of the nation. Our volunteers don’t get stuck in Iraq; they volunteer to go to defend our way of life.

We are not bitter, but we do cling to our religion. We believe in God. We believe in religious freedom. We know there is no separation of church and state clause in the constitution. There is a clause in the constitution states the government shall not "prohibit the free exercise" of religion. We believe that clause allows us to put baby Jesus and the wise men on the courthouse lawn as long as we allow other religions a similar display. We feel the Christian religion is under attack.

We keep and bear arms because we like to hunt and by the time the State Police or Sheriff get out of bed in the middle of the night more than an hour may have gone. Lot’s of flyover doesn’t have 24 hr police coverage. The intruder could be a burglar or even a bear, but we are quite capable of holding whatever it is at bay until authorities arrive. In flyover we are well armed and crime is low. In the cities citizens are not well armed and crime is high. That correlation is not lost on us.

While Hollywood likes to portray those in flyover as hillbillies, country bumpkins, rednecks and extras from Deliverance. The facts are our rural schools tend to have higher test scores than those in the cities. Our colleges and universities turn out Rhodes Scholars.

We are tired of high fuel prices. In flyover high fuel prices affect us more than they do for the cities. In many of our areas the bus lines quit running in the 1950’s and we haven’t seen a passenger train in about as long. Electric cars have a limited range, a range that is shorter than the round trip to work and back. We too have hour long work commutes, but those commutes are at 60 miles an hour. We like the idea of drilling for our own oil. We recognize an increase in supply reduces price. We don’t drive cars as an option we drive them as a necessity.

We are not environmentalist, but we are conservationist. We don’t visit the mountains, the desert and the plains for a week or two in the summer, we live in the mountains, the desert and the plains. We enjoy their beauty everyday and we will protect it, but we will also use it. We know our nation needs coal for power, wood for paper and furniture, and oil for our vehicles and industry. We will provide it, but we live here and will not destroy our backyard. We have learned from our own history.

The London Times story got it right. Obama’s elitist attitude fails. We want a leader that understands that rural areas have different needs than those of the cities and neither should be accommodated at the expense of the other. We want a leader that is our equal, not our superior. We are a government of the people and by the people. We understand something the founding fathers understood; all men are created equal, even in Flyover.

"Commedians" and Jesus

I had no idea who Kathy Griffin was until this week. Nor did I care. I still don't really care, but now I know who she is and maybe that is the whole point.

At an awards show recently, alleged commedienne Kathy Griffin went on a rant attacking of all people Jesus Christ. Predictably it made national news. Mission accomplished for Kathy Griffin, we all know who she is. Unfortunately the majority of Americans likely dislike her and will avoid whatever she does at all costs.

Every time a famous individual attacks Jesus Christ, they always come away looking silly. The fact that fools such as Griffin see Christ as a figure worthy of attack demonstrates the power He has. People such as this sad woman understand on some level the power of His influence, so they realize that attacking Christ buys them cheap attention.

As to the power of commedians, it is rare that anyone takes them seriously. It is rare enough anymore that modern comics get real laughs from real jokes. Instead they resort to statements that rely on shock value rather than genuine humor. The best commedians, such as Bill Cosby of an earlier time and "Larry he Cable Guy" today relate stories based on shared experiences. We understand Cosby's old (respectful) religious humor and stories of his family. Larry the Cable Guy taps into the shared experiences of rural life in America. CBS' 60 Minutes recently profiled him. They did a good job of showing just how confused the entertainment industry was about his success(of course his producer comes from West Virginia.)

Both of these comic figures share a definite confidence in their lives and performances. They are strong and (at least until Cosby's son died) fairly happy looking people. It also is not shocking that both tend to support more traditional American values. Other commedians, such as Griffin, share neurotic and depressed outlooks on life that may have something to do with their reliance on negativity and shock value.

When comedy is at its best, we are all in on the joke and we laugh. Shocking statements masquerading as comedy with no other discernable purpose reveal a shallow mind and a hollow spirit.