WaPo Looks Down On Findlay Ohio
Published July 1st, 2008 @ 7:52 am. Tags: barack obama, findlayFINDLAY, Ohio — On his corner of College Street, Jim Peterman stares at the four American flags planted in his front lawn and rubs his forehead. Peterman, 74, is a retired worker at Cooper Tire, a father of two, an Air Force veteran and a self-described patriot. He took one trip to Washington in 1989 — best vacation of his life — and bought a statue of the Washington Monument that he still displays in a glass case in his living room.
He believes a smart vote is an American’s greatest responsibility. Which is why his confusion about Barack Obama continues to eat at him.
On the television in his living room, Peterman has watched enough news and campaign advertisements to hear the truth: Sen. Barack Obama, born in Hawaii, is a Christian family man with a track record of public service. But on the Internet, in his grocery store, at his neighbor’s house, at his son’s auto shop, Peterman has also absorbed another version of the Democratic candidate’s background, one that is entirely false: Barack Obama, born in Africa, is a possibly gay Muslim racist who refuses to recite the Pledge of Allegiance.
“It’s like you’re hearing about two different men with nothing in common,” Peterman said. “It makes it impossible to figure out what’s true, or what you can believe.”
Here in Findlay, a Rust Belt town of 40,000, false rumors about Obama have built enough word-of-mouth credibility to harden into an alternative biography. Born on the Internet, the rumors now meander freely across the flatlands of northwest Ohio — through bars and baseball fields, retirement homes and restaurants.
Make sure to read the entire thing. Apparently, the Washington Post basically considers Findlay some racist backwoods city in Ohio. I couldn’t imagine how they could have written this article in a more insulting way.
And click here to read the Findlay Courier’s response. Many people in the article were misquoted and the Courier corrects the false picture that the WaPo paints about Findlay.
I lived in Findlay for 23 years, and the story has more than a little truth to it.
Being a really white middle class guy people sometimes assumed I wanted to hear about their favorite bigotries.
The good news is that much of the bigotry was generational, bigotry is largely dying out as older generations die out. Not totally however.
There were some bright spots, including the university and most of the churches.
A reporter comes to town and talks to 25 people, this is .06% of the population, chooses 4 to speak with in one neighborhood, of whom all are of the same WWII era. He begins talking to them concerning “Flag City USA” and digresses into the presidential election and its candidates. My guess is the ones he chose to speak with were very open and willing to talk, not understanding that speaking with reporters is a dangerous game unless you are well-versed and able to follow their logic and rules. What happened, you may ask? According to the interviewees, they don’t remember speaking about specific topics or making certain statements. I believe this reporter from the Washington Post knew his job very well and lead them in the direction he wanted to write about. We all read the stories in the paper as well as television interviews and later people say they were misquoted. This includes the common people as well as stars, professional athletes and politicians. Welcome to the free press.
Findlay is made up of a great diversity of people. This includes those of different religions, ethnic groups, abilities and social position, etc. I believe few take verbatim everything they read or what they hear from Joe’s friend of a friend. This is a wonderful town and great place to raise children. We are not a “racist” community. I take great pride in my town and country. I believe that unfortunately, “freedom isn’t free” and that those who defend our country and freedom are true heroes in my eyes. Our ability to have freedom of speech, religion, bear arms, become whatever we aspire and challenge ourselves to achieve is what makes our country great.
Our president must be chosen with great care and forethought by all that vote. He is in a tenable position and will make decisions which affect us all. No matter his decision, someone somewhere will not agree and claim him an incompetent president. I don’t necessarily agree with everything each president has done as they are in a path that no one can understand unless you are standing in his shoes at the time. I haven’t sifted through all of the information out there yet on either candidate however with all of the bashing and mudslinging that goes on even between same party candidates, how you would ever really know the truth of a persons character unless you personally know them is beyond me. You can only take all of the information you gather, assimilate it and come up with your best intellectual and heartfelt feeling and vote or not as you feel inclined.
People must also realize that even though the internet is readily available, not everyone is connected or even if they are, understand what to do with the tool they have. There are still a number of people who may not even own a computer, whether they are unable to afford it, don’t know how to use it or maybe they are older and just don’t want to learn how to use it doesn’t really matter. That leaves them television, printed material and others opinions to base information on matters that they must make decisions.
I would like to remind people everywhere that everyone is entitled to their own opinion, whether it is agreed to by the mainstream or not. Anyone who doesn’t care for the freedoms which the United States offers is welcome to try to find another country to relocate where they feel they would be under a better system. I’m guessing they would be unable to find too many countries out there who would allow them the freedom to express values and ideas against the “government position”.
Read the website comments associated with the story if you want a real flavor of the “mainstream” Democrat Party. The outright bigotry and hatred for all things American is a little disconcerting - but not surprising. The overriding view of these mainstream Democrats seems to be that everyone that is not goose-stepping to B. Hussein should be killed.