Cultural distance

So I'm in lovely Bellevue, Washington--a suburb of Seattle--and it is stunningly beautiful and peaceful here. The people are sooooo nice too. Calm, laid-back, friendly, comfortable...great place to be.

And after munching on some good Vietnamese food, drinking a glass or two (ok, three) of delicious Chardonnay from a local vineyard, I decided to offer this while a trifle buzzed: the farther away from middle America, the better--generally speaking. The food is better, the incomes are higher, the people are more educated, the scenery is better, the infrastructure, etc. etc. Again, this is generally speaking, and there are drawbacks to living out of the "Heartland"(L.A. and New York City come to mind especially). But even in the last parenthetical two, there is an energy, a freedom, and a tolerance that, perhaps oddly, makes me feel safe vs. endangered.

There are so many Asians here you would think a free Michael Jackson concert is just a few blocks away everywhere you go, but nobody cares. In many parts of the Midwest and the South I bet it would be a cause for serious alarm. I say that because I grew up with all sorts of Mexicans as a kid and nobody cared. Only when illegal immigrants started going out to the Midwest and the South in large number (after I was already an adult) did it become so newsworthy--to the point that many people seem to think it's the beginning of the end for America.

I don't want to be one of those guys getting on the bandwagon of "Religion is Stupid," as seems to be the craze lately. Religion is very personal. And my lack of it is intensely personal--I just don't want to talk about it if I can help it. But I'm reading Hitchen's "god is not Great" book and I can't help but see how areas that are at least more moderate in their practice of religion, more accepting, more sure of themselves, make for better people and better citizens. I doubt very few here would care at all if I were an atheist (or a Jew or a Hindu, for that matter). Lubbock, Texas or Topeka, Kansas...not so sure.

This is already overlong and meandering, so let me try to sum it up this way. A lack of education and or grounding in secularism leads to superstition, and uneducated, superstitious people practicing religion can be a very Bad Thing (TM). Combine that with how diversity can breed tolerance and that the lack of diversity can breed fear and/or intolerance, the "Heartland" of America is suffering--more than the West Coast or North East--from both organized superstition and intolerance in the guise of religion and "traditional values." It's a shame, because I've met a large amount of genuinely very, very nice people from the Midwest and South. Amongst them would be close friends and people in my own family, including my mother. But I'm so glad I don't live there. Not because I'm a snob or an elitist, but because I want to hear different languages, eat different food, see different people, listen to different music, live the American Experience! I don't want to define myself by an ethnicity or a religious denomination. I just want to be human, and feel free and unafraid, like all of us. And the more one clings to the "Old Time Religion" and cultural norms, the harder that seems.

Again, this is generally speaking and a matter of degrees vs. sharp divisions, but I've seen the Midwest and the South. Even lived there for a while. Believe me, it's better out here. Ah....forget it, why not another glass, yes?