Chron Gets Middle America Wrong Again: Globalization was Good for My Small Town

By Benjamin Wachs It can be painful when San Francisco media tries to write about the Midwest. They can't seem to understand that it's a … oh, what's the word I'm looking for...real place. With real people, who live lives every bit as passionate, engaged, and complicated as hipsters and activists on the coasts. (Or at least the passionate and engaged lives we would lead if we weren't stuck in transit). Some of them protest wars. Some of them ride bicycles (really!). Some of them are very good artists. Yet somehow we tend to miss all that. When it comes to culture, we see them as philistines. When it comes to politics, they're hicks. When it comes to race, they're bigots. And when it comes to globalization, they're hapless victims. And that's just a Mark Morford column. The rest of us get in on the act, too. Exhibit Z on this... [read full story]