Grieving in The United States of Irony

rebel
Originally uploaded by aaronjmaier.

This photo was taken recently on a drive through the hills of Southeast Ohio. Yes, that is a Confederate flag hanging at half-mast in front of a heart shaped artificial pond guarded by a ceramic angel. The scene in the photo made me think about the part of the earth I have called my home for twenty-seven years now. What does it mean to be from Ohio? This is an issue that I began to struggle with after Ohio's collective vallues were displayed prominently upon the world's stage during the 2004 presidential election. This introspective process was accelerated by people I had met in my travels to Europe and North Africa. They would constantly want to know what this exceedingly average state in the Midwest whose decisions were determining the fate of the United States and consequently the world was really like. Most of the questions went something like this:

What are the people in Ohio like?

What is your culture like?

What do you say before you eat in Ohio?

Did they really question the concept of evolution and teach creation science based upon biblical text in public schools?

Do the poor people in the rural areas of America really vote for George Bush?

Do they know that they are voting directly against their economic interests because of the attention paid to peripheral "moral" issues?

Why does everyone have a flag in their yard, is it like somebody would drive by and not know what country they are in?

Do people in northern states really fly the Confederate battle flag in their yards?

Isn't that a symbol of a society built upon state-sanctioned racism?

Why do you fly the American flag at half-mast?

I always had a difficult time answering them. For all of you on the other side of the pond, I hope this photo of a patriotic Ohioan honoring tsunami victims in their own unique manner answers some of your questions about the mental state of my home state. For the reader back here in Ohio, I apologize for trampling the flowers in your neighbor's yard.