Midland TX, The Heart of Bushland.

[reprehensor]

"The values Midland holds near to its heart are the same ones I hold near to my heart ..."
- George W Bush

MIDLAND, Texas - God is everywhere. The First Baptist Church. The Universalist Church. The First Presbyterian Church. The First Methodist Church. Even the Cowboy Church ("a new way to experience Jesus!").

snip

To have and have not...

The Midland ruling class, strictly WASP (white Anglo-Saxon Protestant), lives spread out around Golf Course Road: impeccable suburbia, manicured gardens, a flag and a sport-utility vehicle (SUV) in every home, a protected universe enveloped in blissful harmony the secular middle class in Baghdad cannot even dream of. A TV highlight is the new ad for the US Marines ("The Few. The Proud"), a mix of Iwo Jima iconography with some cool Tom Cruise-in-Mission Impossible rock climbing.

snip

At a filling station on the wrong side of town - with people visibly worried about the rising price of gasoline - a young black man put some things in perspective: "You should know that West Texas was the last place in the US where they were forced to admit that racial segregation was against human rights." In his book Made in Texas, Michael Lind, a researcher at the New America Foundation in Washington, writes that George W Bush grew up in West Texas and absorbed popular Texas culture as much as the world vision of the members of the WASP elite. But "all the western imagery of the Bush ranch" should not deceive anyone, he says: "Midland, Crawford and Waco are not in the Great West, but in the Deep South, the most racist and most reactionary."

snip

For the ruling class, life in Midland entails a job in the oil business, a marriage in the early 20s, at least four kids, a couple of SUVs and church every Sunday. Cultural life is sketchy. In early April there's a "Family Literacy Style Show" at the Petroleum Club. Early this month there was the Texas Gun and Knife Show. In mid-December there's The Nutcracker by the Midland Festival Ballet. There are a couple of mediocre art galleries. There's not a single bookshop - which may lead cynics to explain why, when he was about to invade Iraq, Bush still didn't know the difference between Sunnis and Shi'ites. A football match between the white collars of Midland and the blue collars of neighboring Odessa passes for a major cultural event, but not as much as the staggering mutual hatred. No nightclubs, no lap dancing in Midland. Roughly there's absolutely nothing to do except pray to the Lord. To have some fun, one has to drive 300 miles (about 480 kilometers) west to El Paso or 315 miles (507km) east to Austin. Moral certainty is Midland's main currency. Smiling residents are not terribly upset by the sexual-humiliation scandal at Abu Ghraib prison - as they were upset by Bill Clinton's White House oral sex, a Sodom and Gomorrah antic so despicable that the nation simply could not survive unless the sinner was expelled from his job. Baptist, Episcopal, Presbyterian Midlanders manifest "disapproval" of what happened in Iraq - and no more. Meanwhile, with the United States totally polarized on key issues concerning religion, race and marriage, George W Bush continues to use his Evangelical Christian credentials very effectively to attract voters - at least those who go to church every Sunday.

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[indigobusiness]

1. I grew up in Midland

I was directly across the park from Bush. I can speak to the facts and fallacies of this piece. Much, but not all, of it is true.
Midland is full of amazing and notorious people. For me it was Stepford of the West. But many of the best people I have known were Midlanders. And many are like our President...that is mainly why I left.

In the mid 70's I saw Dubya at the Ist Natl Bank cafeteria where many of the local oil barons and movers and shakers and would-be shakers got ther caffeine fix, anyway, I heard someone say as I brushed past on my way out. "That's George Bush...you might be looking at a future President of the USA".

I got a chill and the weirdest of fealings...but I had a nightmarish sense it could be true...even as I laugh at the preposterousness of it all. I'm now living that nightmare.

http://sludgereport.blogspot.com/

edit: I don't recall many pickups.

[indigobusiness]

6. fealings???nothing more than fealings....

Did I really spell feelings that way?
I guess that's how you spell it with a west Texas drawl.

[efhmc]

2. Wrong about the SUV. One vehicle would definitely be a pickup. The

couple who works on my ranch goes to the Cowboy Church. They are most certainly to the right of the dial. Too bad there are no liberals that are willing to be where I need them to be and do what I need to have done to keep the place going.

[pop goes the weasel]

3. The Cowboy Church

around here had a booth in the local Christmas bazaar last year. It was noteworthy for their very unusual crucifix. It had a large sign appended to it stating "We believe in Santa!"

[fudge stripe cookays]

4. I met some Midlanders at the March in DC

Both seemed like amazing people. They were at the reception for Texas folks Saturday night. And they were both Planned Parenthood folks.

I've really been woken up by the fact that, as comforting and easy as it might be living in a more liberal spot, those of us who insist on standing up for our progressive values in the middle of these wastelands, and converting more people as we go about our daily lives are doing a HELLUVA lot of good. That fact keeps me going every day.

There is no shame in living in Texas (or any of the other red states). It is much more difficult to scream your values at the top of your lungs when you are around a hostile audience than it is to constantly preach to the choir. We have the power to change things incrementally and majorly.

[indigobusiness]

5. Midland hs a lot of solid people...

Many are very independently minded.

Texas has only recently joined the ranks (and I stress rank) of the "red" states.


grammar edit