Growing up in a rural Lutheran environment, that eventually evolved into a suburb of Chicago, and subsequently moving to the South, I'm finding more and more similarities in both... cultural, economic, and racial disparity... it seems the only really notable differences are the accent, and that people wear more colorful clothing here. ;-)
I'm dating a really great guy here, Patrick, who came along, somewhat unexpectedly. We met on a camping trip, and became friends. He was born and raised in Tennessee and grew up in a suburb of Nashville in a conservative Christian environment, with a military father—a JAG lawyer. Patrick moved to Oregon and back. He has a perplexing mixture of conservative and liberal views, that include an interest in guns, tie dye, AND official military camo, has an extensive knowledge of WWII and military history, camping, motorcycles, and a degree in landscape design and horticulture... He attends a non-denominational church with me.
Fortunately, I live in a creative, diverse, community-oriented, urban area of Nashville, which I love. Patrick lives on the "East Side" (of the Cumberland River) too. The neighborhood where I lived in Chicago, was quite diverse as well, which was great—I do miss Chicago sometimes... I felt nostalgic watching Obama's acceptance speech in Grant Park.
Being a mixture of idealist and creative, with a strong Christian faith, I have evolved from an upbringing of religious and cultural legalism. I'm working on a
photo documentary about prostitution to
ask and hopefully answer questions I have about how these women fell into that life.
Though much of Nashville is full of educated, open-minded, creative individuals from all parts of the world, ultimately, I realize I live in a conservative, Southern Baptist, republican state. I would not claim to be a Democrat or Republican voter, but I'm really excited about the breath of hope that Obama's campaign and election has brought into our nation.
So, I certainly identify with this recent blog post by
Donald Miller:"My Journey from being a Reagan Republican to an Obama Democrat""I grew up in a Southern Baptist Church along the Gulf Coast in Texas. It was a suburban church nowhere near a bus line, protected as it were from most demographics that didn’t have our common interests. Those interests were embodied in the Republican Party, then led by President Ronald Reagan. Reagan captured our attention with an anti-communist, anti-atheist message, that was easy to understand, emboldening the American people against a clear threat , that of nuclear war and a godless communist regime. Reagan rode that same horse his entire career, even as an actor while President of the Screen Actors Guild, taking stands against blacklisted actors and directors thought to be sympathizers with communist ideology. The Democrats, on the other hand, were squishy, hard to understand, and believed life was complicated. They sounded intellectual and suspicious.
"We were told that if Democrats were given power we would certainly be destroyed by nuclear weaponry, indefensible by our weak military. We were told that, if a Democrat lived in the white house, we would become a socialist nation and you would not be able to choose your own profession, drive a car that you wanted or attend a school of your preference. The government would make those decisions for you, we were told. We were taught all sorts of terrible things about the Democrats. We were told if a Democrat ever came to power the government would launch legislation that would mandate ten-percent of all public-school teachers be homosexuals. But when a Democrat came to power, none of that happened. Instead, the average family’s base-earning went up by $7,500 per year and we operated under a balanced budget. And we didn’t go to war against an enemy we couldn’t exactly find and certainly didn’t understand.
"Our theology insinuated that shortly after original sin, once Adam and Eve at the apple, they registered as Democrats and went on with their lives, trying to create large governments that would enable lazy people through expensive social programs. We believed we were right and they were wrong, our ideas were Biblical and their ideas were pagan...."
"
Having met the enemy, I discovered the enemy wasn’t who I thought they were. They were flawed, even as we were flawed, but they were no less patriotic, and no less good. And what’s more, they weren’t out to get us like my conservative friends had told me. I began to see, honestly, the far conservative right, the radical right (not the balanced, objective right) as being paranoid. The advertisements on conservative radio talk shows were about guns and alarm systems."
Check out the entire
post by Donald Miller here.
