The Heartland...Pointed Riffs on Sensibilities and Expression

Americans are in the 2019 pre-warm up phase to the 2020 USA presidential election primaries and caucuses; followed by Democratic and Republican nominating conventions, and finalized with the November presidential election. With that notion in mind, there will continue to be numerous primary candidate visits to America's heartland accompanied by dogged media scrutiny and inquisitive, persistent reporters.

The Heartland.

This geographical compilation of several states and inhabitants will be scrutinized, interviewed, analyzed, and sought out for televised, down home, folksy discussions for insatiable media consumption by the rest of the country. Images of political candidate meetings in diners, church halls, at state fairs, and supposedly impromptu rallies with printed placards and not handmade signs will serve as fodder for cable news networks and the major channels' 6:30 PM news broadcasts. And then there are those multiplicity of political polls that supposedly capture the “feel” and thinking of the region but in truth only capture the views of those who elect to be polled and then actually tell the truth to annoying pollsters. The resultant poll percentages and talking head analyses are one thing. We know the ultimate truth lies in the secrecy of a voting booth, various paper ballots, and the widely used fill in the circle ballot cards with a number two pencil or black ink pen.   

So, why the attention on the Heartland? And where is it?

Surely, it is not “Oz” though the region and its challenging weather pattern was an idealized inspiration for a classic tale of “home” and the perennial themes of good versus evil. And yes, it is an amalgamation of several diverse states that are interestingly, though not necessarily, defined by geography but rather nuanced by its land mass and location in the United States.

Clearly, the “Heartland” is middle America and blue collar shaped by its geographical location that provides a unique perspective as to who the folks in that part of the country are. Without a doubt, specific states within the “heartland” bring more political clout than other “heartland” states when one looks at electoral college significance versus popular votes. But all heartland states represent a certain American ethos and pathos.

Truth be told, there is a continuing, significant and growing cultural divide that permeates the heartland from the rest of the US. That split illuminates the separation between a certain set of “heartland” values that tend to be diametrically different from other parts of the US especially East and West coast states that are provocatively seen as "politically correct" whatever that means in reality. Rightfully or wrongly, the value sets that are placed on those regional differences provide the backdrop to the essence of who and what the Heartland is.           

And in that milieu of human dynamics, that are is no static assumptions. The Heartland does give birth to iconoclastic individuals who evolve in a multiplicity of life experiences, individuals who in some way, form or fashion elect to evoke and possibly challenge or broaden widely accepted regional social sensibilities regardless of geographical setting.  

Dr. Neal Zeilinger, photo provided

Dr. Neal Zeilinger. 

With his preference to be called Neal, here is an excerpt from his intriguing story, simply titled “Billy D.” coming in aaduna's forthcoming issue:

Odis City, Nebraska, seventy miles south of Omaha, was nobody's paradise.  Just a place populated by ordinary people trying to make a living, Odis was a wide spot on Highway 92 surrounded by a vast sea of grain fields.  It served the immediate needs of the farming community with its Co-Op elevator; a post office; a bar and grill called The Green Oyster; a grocery store; a gas station and Dairy Deluxe, or DD, out on the highway; and six churches for its four hundred official residents - atheists not counted.  There was also a high school/junior high that drew students from surrounding communities in Driscoll County. 

            It seems that three carloads of kids from Kansas had driven up to Odis for some Saturday night fun.  They crashed the junior prom, causing disorder on the dance floor and some scuffles that spilled out onto the street.  The County Sheriff sent a couple of cars, but it took them not quite a half-hour to arrive and by then it was all over and the offenders had left town. 

            Parents were outraged at the lack of law enforcement.  They raised some disorder of their own at an emergency town hall meeting called by the Baptist minister and held in the Junior High gymnasium, the scene of the crime. 

Nebraska. Kansas.

Heartland.

Our America.

Neal Zeilinger.

Postscript: Neal resides in St. Joseph, Missouri. We do not know if he has driven the 491 miles of the new "Heartland Expressway" that may be still under construction. 

'Nough said.

WATCH FOR aaduna's summer 2019 issue LAUNCHING SOON!

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