kicking puppies is bad

When I moved to Indiana in 2000, I was in a state a culture shock.   I had never met people who *seriously* believed they were racially superior to others.  And I had never met people who *truely* thought women were ALL entirely useless for anything except shopping and popping out babies.  I showed up for my PhD program with spikey magenta hair and an idealistic attitude.  I ended up teaching blonde nursing and education majors who were only in college so they could find a husband (which is all they thought they were good for).  They thought I talked too fast, and whispered that I was probably one of those “queers”.

I grew up in a solidly Republican area of Upstate NY.   I thought I understood “conservatives”.  But the “conservatives” in Upstate NY were like the “liberals” in Indiana.  Being surrounded by so many people who truely felt that I was going to hell was a little disconcerting.  By the end of my first year at Purdue I had a drawer in my office filled with little Bibles and pro-life propaganda.  I found it was easier to just take them from the evangelicals handing them out on campus than it was to disagree with them.   Also, I assumed that they were spending money on these things.  And perhaps I could single handedly bankrupt them by taking 400 bibles.

In theory, I knew people like this existed (I’ve seen reality TV like Wife-Swap).  But it wasn’t until I went to a place where the campus lawn was *regularly* covered with little white crosses (each cross representing a billion poor innocent aborted babies) that I realized what an educated, elitist, liberal bubble I lived in.   I really didn’t understand that the *majority* of our country was like that.

And when 9-11 happened (yes, I was in the midwest for 9-11), all hell broke loose.  There were Hispanics beaten in the Sears parking lot (because they had dark skin and therefore must be “towel-headed terrorists”).  The attitudes of people in Indiana following 9-11 were hateful, racist, offensive and truely scary.  I decided Indiana was not the place for me.  I left my PhD program (sadly unfinished) and I escaped to California with the tiny bit of my sanity that remained.  Since then I have moved around a bit, but I recently I relocated to California (again).

But something weird is going on.  Something creepy.  Something crazy.  A month or so after I moved to California, Prop 8 passed.  Again, I was shocked.  California is supposed to be my  educated, elitist, liberal bubble.  California was letting me down.   Then something weirder happened.  Miss California possibly lost her crown by speaking out against gay marriage in her Q&A session.  She was beaten by Miss Indiana, who was *more* politically correct (although her question was much less divisive).  I didn’t actually watch the pagent, so I have no idea what Miss Indiana said – but news reports say she wasn’t hateful.  Since she is a beauty queen, I’m guessing it had something to do with world peace or education for all children.

And I remembered thinking (in the recent presidential election) that something weird was going on.  Indiana went Democrat in a presidential election.  Indiana?  Democrat?   This has only happened one other time since 1940 (according to a random website – I didn’t really check sources on this very well).  Something is wrong.

Indiana voted democrat.  California passed Prop 8 (I literally cried about this one).  Indiana’s Miss USA contestant managed to be politically correct and non-judgemental.  California’s spoke out against gay marriage (and has since joined NOM and been featured on Fox News).  Something weird is going on.  California is doing creepy “conservative” things.  Indiana is doing “liberal” things.  Iowa is allowing gay marriage and California isn’t.  It can only be explained by aliens.  There is no other possibility.  The body snatchers are here.