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This picked off of salon.com this morning
(If I understand the rules correctly, then by quoting only the first two paragraphs, and then the last two I have complied not only with the DU rules, but also with the copyright law, and that this counts as a brief quotation.)
Turning a red state bright orange
At a South Dakota barbecue, a colorful young woman proved why America's red-blue divide is mostly a bunch of B.S.
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By Garrison Keillor
Aug. 24, 2005 | I was in Mitchell, S.D. (pop. 14,000, home of the Corn Palace), not long ago standing around in a parking lot next to City Hall eating barbecue off paper plates, the way you do sometimes, with conservative, churchgoing, stick-to-business townspeople, and there, standing next to me, eating just the coleslaw (she is a vegan), was a slender young thing from Los Angeles who was in Mitchell to visit her cousins. In her 6-inch heels, she stood a little taller than I, and her hair was a swatch of brilliant atomic orange, and she wore a cut-off T-shirt revealing a large section of flat midriff with a bluish rhinestone in her bellybutton. It was her first time in Mitchell and she was having a great old time.
Everybody was talking to everybody -- good pork barbecue will do that to you -- some of us lurking around the long grill where the hog lay with his legs splayed, picking at him, and others standing around the beer kegs, about 40 people in all, some invited, others drop-ins, and it was two congenial hours during which (as I think back on it) I didn't hear anybody talk politics. We could look at each other and sort of guess at the political vibe -- looking at the Lady of Orange, you thought feminist green Euro lefty libertarian -- and why pursue it further?
. . .
But Mitchell enjoys you, Mademoiselle L'Orange. It admires your spunk, your gumption, your sense of hilarity, the way you swan around us plain Midwesterners and throw your head back and laugh. You are right not to assume our disapproval. Too many Orangists do this. They tend to gravitate toward the coasts, which is perfectly understandable, but you shouldn't assume the hostility of the Great In-Between. Don't alienate people who aren't necessarily your enemy. The red/blue business is 78 percent B.S. There's a lot of purple going around, and mauve and magenta. Red or blue, we know that life can be unfair, and hard work is not necessarily rewarded. The world can be merciless. Time marches on. The precipice lies ahead. This is not a Democratic or Republican point of view -- it's common knowledge.
And knowing that, we love being around you, vegan L.A. lady at the Mitchell barbecue with your orange hair and 6-inch heels. I'm wearing a navy blue suit and white shirt and thank you for not drawing hard and fast conclusions about my politics and taste in companions. All of us here wish you well and want you to be happy, Miss Orange. And take my word for it, this is terrific barbecue, vinegary and savory and chewy and memorable and altogether worth the loss of life. Thank you, pig.
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(Garrison Keillor's “A Prairie Home Companion” can be heard Saturday nights on public radio stations across the country.)
(C) 2005 BY GARRISON KEILLOR. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. DISTRIBUTED BY TRIBUNE MEDIA SERVICES, INC.
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