Well, I grew up in a small town in east Tennessee with roughly the same population as Whitesburg, and about 150 due south of that town. I know the type... insular, clannish, largely ignorant of the outside world, and about as closed minded as one can find. I fortunately escaped my little hometown after high school and never looked back.
The person who wrote that is not particularly stupid, just ignorant and set in his/her small town ways. I don't know if the rest of the town shares those sentiments, but the writer might be something of a loner or outlier in their opinions....such as they are.
In my own little (former) hometown, we had our dissidents and contrarians... they were treated with civility, but not much respect. I recall one who had been a conscientious objector and refused military service in WWII, and whatever his real convictions were at the time, the rest of the town always thought of him (and said behind his back) that he was a sniveling coward and few people wanted anything to do with him.
I imagine that the writer of this piece is somewhat like that guy in my own hometown. We did have another character -- every small town has one -- named Leroy. Leroy lived with his parents well into adulthood in a tumbledown house close to town, until his parents died and left him the house. Leroy had no marketable skills, and lived off the kindness of others. My mother used to take him food once a week, as did other church ladies. He had no utilities in the house because he couldn't afford electricity or running water, and he rode a bicycle everywhere he went. He had some kind of disability check that he used for groceries and I think that's all the income he had.
Anyway, Leroy had a higher reputation -- a poor simpleton who did the best he could under trying circumstances -- that our conscientious objector in WWII.
And that is who I think of when I see this newspaper statement, knowing the context of his/her life better than most. As I said, a sad life captured well by Shakespeare's famous quote in Macbeth, "It is a tale, Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, Signifying nothing.
The guy with 5 teeth in the whole mouth, likely, right? LOL
Well, I grew up in a small town in east Tennessee with roughly the same population as Whitesburg, and about 150 due south of that town. I know the type... insular, clannish, largely ignorant of the outside world, and about as closed minded as one can find. I fortunately escaped my little hometown after high school and never looked back.
The person who wrote that is not particularly stupid, just ignorant and set in his/her small town ways. I don't know if the rest of the town shares those sentiments, but the writer might be something of a loner or outlier in their opinions....such as they are.
In my own little (former) hometown, we had our dissidents and contrarians... they were treated with civility, but not much respect. I recall one who had been a conscientious objector and refused military service in WWII, and whatever his real convictions were at the time, the rest of the town always thought of him (and said behind his back) that he was a sniveling coward and few people wanted anything to do with him.
I imagine that the writer of this piece is somewhat like that guy in my own hometown. We did have another character -- every small town has one -- named Leroy. Leroy lived with his parents well into adulthood in a tumbledown house close to town, until his parents died and left him the house. Leroy had no marketable skills, and lived off the kindness of others. My mother used to take him food once a week, as did other church ladies. He had no utilities in the house because he couldn't afford electricity or running water, and he rode a bicycle everywhere he went. He had some kind of disability check that he used for groceries and I think that's all the income he had.
Anyway, Leroy had a higher reputation -- a poor simpleton who did the best he could under trying circumstances -- that our conscientious objector in WWII.
And that is who I think of when I see this newspaper statement, knowing the context of his/her life better than most. As I said, a sad life captured well by Shakespeare's famous quote in Macbeth, "It is a tale, Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, Signifying nothing.
No, that guy is the mayor.
What, writer for the newspaper and the mayor? You serious?
I have seen small town. Real estate agent was the sheriff and I know what you mean.
I think whoever has the most teeth in the town is mayor by default.
Howls. That's how it works in small town.
Like I said about the real estate agent being the sheriff, he was going to be my next door neighbor too but I couldn't stand the weather in that town.