Small Town Underbelly

 

by Pa Rock

Citizen Journalist

A few days ago I wrote a post for this blog about the community in which I live.  It was a glowing tribute that highlighted all of the town's positives.    The piece was so upbeat, in fact, that a friend suggested I might have posted it as part of a strategy for selling my home!  But this town isn't all sunshine and roses, it has a darker side as well - as do most of the little communities in this part of the country.

I mentioned in the first post that a couple of industries had their doors shut permanently during the preceding few years, and lost paychecks, especially those of skilled workers who are then forced to move outside of the area to find new jobs, have a devastating impact on the overall economic health and vibrancy of a community.  Two big retailers have also closed their local stores:  Sears and JC Penney's.   Their closures can probably be traced to the two factories closing as well as to the presence of a large Walmart in town.  Walmart has sucked many independent retailers out of small town America, leaving in its wake plenty of empty buildings and flea markets.  The retail situation grew even more dire during the pandemic when many of us learned the ease with which we could shop over the internet.

But, economics aside, there is also an extremely ugly element to life in small town America - the people who race up and down the local roads in their trucks with (literally) flags-a flying.  Most of these folks thought their ship had finally come in when Donald Trump was elected in 2016, and though Trump did nothing to better their circumstances during his four years in office, many of these same folks felt that they had been personally robbed when the voters in the next election chose someone else.  They were mad, and Trump, being Trump, fed their anger at every opportunity.

Yes, people outside of the mainstream citizenry, people who have avoided contact with the government for generations and who sat at home quietly harboring their biases and frustrations, felt vindicated with the election of Donald Trump and began dusting off their prejudices and putting them on display.  They were people, too, and like Donald Trump they would be heard.

And today many have chosen to stay out in bright light of day.

Here are two examples from my community that I encountered within the past two days.  One was a young man working at one of our several local "dollar" stores, the poor people's alternative to Walmart.  Those stores share a limited customer base, and none seem to ever be very busy.  Often the ones in which I shop may only have one employee on duty in the entire store.

Yesterday as I was walking across the parking lot to enter the "dollar" store where I normally shop, two employees wearing the store shirt and a third man who appeared to be in charge - perhaps an area manager on a visit to the store - were standing outside having a smoke and visiting.  They were also laughing at a distressed woman who was walking along the other side of the busy boulevard carrying a grocery bag and occasionally letting out a mournful wail, appearing to likely have a mental health issue.

After going inside and shopping for a few minutes, I stepped up to the counter to checkout where I was waited on by one of the young male store employees who had been outside smoking earlier.  Standing a few feet away from him was the guy who had been with them, the man I assumed was an area manager.  He watched as the employee rang up my order.  During that process, the young employee turned to the other man and said, "I want to buy a .22, but I don't want to buy it at Walmart."  The other man suggested that he try a pawnshop, but the young man said that he did not trust guns from pawnshops.  

Then, while I was standing directly in front of the cashier, closer to him than his friend was standing, he said quietly, "What I really want is an AR."

"Fifteen?"  The man replied.

"Yeah," said the kid.

I ended that account by referring to the cashier a "kid," which he obviously was - not only because of his juvenile urge to own, and no doubt sexually fondle, a state-of the-art killing machine - but also because that urge was obviously going to take precedence over the many things that he might actually "need" in his life - like diapers and food for the toddlers at home, car repairs, rent money, medical attention, or even an education.  Having an AR-15 was a seed that had been planted in his mind, and that seed was going to flower.

The other incident that caught my attention was something that I consider to be an affront to civility.  As I was driving through town the day before yesterday, I pulled up behind a small Chevy pickup at a stop sign,  Living where I do, I have grown accustomed to the occasional Trump bumper stickers and yard signs that serve as reminders that not everyone is happy about the results of the 2020 election, but this little truck was bearing a sign that was beyond the pale.  Across the back window, in bright white block-lettering - about 10 inches high, was "F___ Joe Biden," with the first word spelled out so the whole world - including children - could enjoy the driver's limited intellect and fountain of rage.

I followed this person, without getting close enough to determine whether it was male or female, for several blocks before the little truck went one way and I went another.

And with that carefully prepared sign in the truck window, I believe that I witnessed the absolute bottoming out of our current civilization.   Once we start flinging the "F-word" about with wild abandon, there is no place lower to descend - except perhaps to begin pulling out our AR-15's in frantic attempts to have the very, very last word.

That's the underside of my community - and probably yours as well.