I am dumbfounded by the silliness going on

[murielm99]

in Ogle County.

I posted this in rural/farm, too, but I must post it here, too.

Before any of you get upset, I have lived here for 27 years. I come from farmers on both sides of my family, and I am a farmer's wife.

We have a new courthouse/judicial center in Ogle county. We have a group of local sculptors who are the spiritual heirs of Lardeo Taft. They commissioned and donated a sculpture of Demeter to grace the courtyard of the new judicial center. There was some heated discussion at the county board meeting about approving the statue to sit in front of the courthouse.

The sculptor was questioned closely about the subject of the sculpture, Demeter. A goddess of agriculture? Or a symbol? One local board member said that he did not see it at all, and he has been a farmer for 52 years.

Another member felt the issue should be tabled until people had time to discuss it. He felt uneasy about putting an idol in front of the courthouse.

A local pastor apparently thought that there were many active Demeter-worshipers in our county. He opined that if a statue of Demeter was going to be erected, then other religions should have their statues in front of the courthouse, too.

It is a good thing that I read about the meeting in the paper rather than attending in person. I would have been hard-pressed to behave myself. I would have been whooping with laughter and wiping my eyes.

Anyway, the statue was approved 16-6. But we have not heard the end of it. I expect letters to the editor and heated discussions in coffee shops for weeks. to come.

I am acquainted with the reporter who wrote the account of the meeting. I think I will give her a call. She missed the great potential of this story. I must ask her is she has any sense of irony.

I know that one county over, they are erecting a statue of Ronnie Reagan on a horse. I'll take Demeter over that any day. But sometimes I wonder why I fucking live here at all.

[davsand]

1. "Relax, BG, it's just some purty art..."

Don't ya just LOVE living in a rural area? I'm in Champaign County (never managed to escape!) and we have that same kind of stuff too. I have to say, however, the idea of a statue of Demeter leaves me green with envy. THAT is probably a bit too high tone for us to ever aspire to.

We had a HUGE debate at one point about a POW/MIA flag at the Vets Memorial outside the Courthouse. The "Bo Gritz types" had slipped that POW/MIA flag into the plans for the display, and the local Dems about had a stroke. NOT because they are anti POW/MIA, but because of who had backed it. Talk about a Charlie Foxtrot...

Seems to me that egos get in the way entirely too often here in the rural areas.

Maybe I'm just cranky these days because I'm seeing a few members of the local Dem party out there wanting to protect an appointee of theirs who is charged with harassment and abuse of his female staffers. I know up close and personal what the score is on that guy, and this IS a human rights issue, PERIOD.

THAT is the kind of shit that makes me wonder why I even bother with local politics and WHY I freaking stay in the willy-wacks. Tell BG (or whoever else it is that is getting his Carhartts/Dickies/Big Bens in a twist) that it is just "purty art." That ought to smooth it over--unless, of course, the local fundy minister gets there first...


Regards!


Laura

[Critters2]

2. I'd rather be in a rural area than in a city

And all the crazies aren't in rural areas. When I was in rural Iowa, I was surrounded by progressives. Even the Repubs there were to the left of some Dems I know here (they were Repub because of their admiration for Lincoln).

I guess it's all in the eye of the beholder. I now live in a city of 18,000, and feel like the buildings and people are always encroaching. I HAVE to drive to the country about once a week to maintain my sanity. And people here are such money-grubbing "developers" that they'd sell their mother (let alone their great-great-grandmother's farm) for a buck.

And in rural areas, the crazies are in the minority. After all, they're getting the statue, aren't they? My sense is that people in cities feel so disconnected from the powers that be that they don't even try to change things. In the country, they make the effort. And then they get attacked for being nutjobs.

There's nothing new under the sun. It was the urban establishment in the Dem Party that screwed over my favorite rural progressive populist--Henry Wallace. Wrote him off as a crazy. He's still my hero.

[mohinoaklawnillinois]

3. I am sitting at my computer reading this and

literally :rofl:..

I don't claim to know a thing about farms or farming. I was born and raised in Chicago and still live in a southwest suburb.

But what got me was this: "Another member felt the issue should be tabled until people had time to discuss it. He felt uneasy about putting an idol in front of the courthouse. A local pastor apparently thought that there were many active Demeter-worshipers in our county. He opined that if a statue of Demeter was going to be erected, then other religions should have their statues in front of the courthouse, too."

WTF is "putting an idol in front of the courthouse" or "he opined that if a statue of Demeter was going to be erected, then other religions should have their statues in front of the courthouse, too."?

I'm sorry but I don't think there are too many idol-worshipers or Demeter-worshipers out in Ogle County. Correct me if I'm wrong here but, wouldn't this so-called standard apply to the thousands of courthouses across the US that might have a statue of blindfolded justice in front of it too?

This is just getting totally out of hand...What has happened to our beloved country??? Has America lost its common sense?

:banghead: :banghead:



:banghead: :banghead:

[mopinko]

4. sound like ordinary, garden variety

human nature. i, personally, think that at least in big cities, we argue about shit that is real.

[Critters2]

5. My experience of cities (I have lived in both Chicago and Boston)

is that ordinary people don't "argue about what's real" because their voices aren't heard and don't matter. Most people just assume shit will be done to them and they have no voice. Give me participatory democracy, even with the crazies, over that.

[mopinko]

6. i don't know when you lived here, or how long

but have you ever heaard of saul alinsky?

[Critters2]

9. I've heard of him

but things have changed since 1939. For a sense of community cohesiveness (and for community organizing, which I've done in both rural and urban settings), give me a rural area over a city any day.

Interesting how the only acceptable prejudice among "progressives" is anti-rural. The first progressives were rural populists. Ever hear of them?

[madrchsod]

7. as soon as i saw that in the paper i thought

oh no someone`s going to start bitching about the statue...and they did.but at least you won`t have a big stupid statue of sir ronald on a horse in the middle of polo....opps i forgot about dixon`s "flying penis"-- oh i`m bad-"the wings of peace"

[murielm99]

8. When we were talking about the Demeter statue,

the ronnie-on-a-horse statue came up.

My husband said of the ronnie statue, "Now THAT'S idolatry!"