Lots of despairing talk these days about Dem failures in rural areas. I have an idea for how to start putting a dent in that problem. And since BlueSky just rolled out a threading feature today, here goes, with an idea that came to me from going very, very deep and long into rural America: 1/x - ThreadSky

brianbeker.bsky.social • 109 days ago

Lots of despairing talk these days about Dem failures in rural areas. I have an idea for how to start putting a dent in that problem.

And since BlueSky just rolled out a threading feature today, here goes, with an idea that came to me from going very, very deep and long into rural America: 1/x

Comments

jsussman.bsky.social•109 days ago

📌

mn-marvel-girl.bsky.social•109 days ago

EXCELLENT thread. I’m from rural America. I’m very progressive. No one comes here, no one bothers. Al Franken went and had pot lucks with small town people. It resonated with them. They wanted to seen and heard.

brianbeker.bsky.social•109 days ago

Thank you. I really believe it’s important. There’s no reason for anyone to think that the people who don’t show up care. And also, local issues are super important and yet unknown beyond town limits, like land use and federal land out west, one example.

darrenmart.bsky.social•109 days ago

Geez, what a wonderfully written thread/sentiment. I hope there's still time to actually have these heartland conversations before institutions have been fully seized. Either way, thanks for this. Bluesky content is getting really, REALLY good.

storytam.bsky.social•109 days ago

Love this idea and would absolutely donate to it. Reminds me of Dr. Ayaz Virji doing talks on Islam in rural rural areas. https://www.npr.org/2019/06/16/733146089/a-muslim-in-rural-white-minnesota-on-how-to-love-thy-neighbor

nwayne66.bsky.social•109 days ago

Wow.📌

tealdeer.bsky.social•108 days ago

📌

caitidh.bsky.social•109 days ago

thank you for this. as someone from idaho, it’s so challenging to explain to my city/coastal friends the beauty and isolation of this place, and the unique challenges the people face. my idaho family stretches back to the first mormon migration, and it’s not to be painted with a broad brush.

brianbeker.bsky.social•109 days ago

In 2017, in the beautiful rural Idaho town of White Bird I saw an ad on the front page of the local eight-page bi-weekly paper for a talk to be given by a sovereign citizen type who is now a fugitive from U.S. law in Mexico. He billed himself as a "Liberty Speaker.” 2/

brianbeker.bsky.social•109 days ago

The guy keeping an eye on him was one of the Bundy ranch cowboys whose claim to fame was that he was part of the famous standoff with the feds. He was a beefy guy who not much later got the shotgun he was trying to pull on a cop in a traffic stop hung up in his door, getting him shot and killed. 3/

brianbeker.bsky.social•109 days ago

White Bird has a population of about 150, bereft now of the Nez Perce Indians who lived there before they were massacred for resisting another in a string of broken treaties running off their land. The land is a gorgeous mix sandy wildflower scrubland and green mountains on a clear, wide river. 4/

brianbeker.bsky.social•109 days ago

But I digress. Lots of people came to the community center for the talk. Many carried guns, including one man in his 90s who couldn’t walk, let draw his pistol if he wanted to. They were there to hear about how ANY, any gun regulation of any kind, period, was not just unconstitutional…, 5/

brianbeker.bsky.social•109 days ago

but against the holy word of God. People came in from miles and miles around. The crowd was receptive to the essential gun rights argument, but not overwhelmingly so. No one was jumping up and down for the guy. A lot of folks seemed to think he was a little over the top. 6/

brianbeker.bsky.social•109 days ago

Here’s the thing, the lesson I drew from this and other types of events, the fairs and cookouts and rodeos all across the Lower 48: A lot of America is a quiet and lonesome place. Social events are church on Sunday and Friday night football if it’s not too far away, and often that’s about it. 7/

ericjetblack.bsky.social•109 days ago

📌

gregschueller.bsky.social•108 days ago

📌

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