[lbo-talk] Please help the Grande Ole Opry

[Alan Rudy]

Wow, I've heard and seen a great deal more on Nashville and The Grand Ole
Opry than I did on the equally, if not worse, flooding in Rhode Island last
month... but, surely, RI doesn't have anything as important as the Opry...
and no one in ME, NH, VT, RI, CT, NJ, PA, MD, VA, or NC thinks that NY,
Boston and DC get all the coverage of New England and the mid-Atlantic
states, and no place else in the region matters...
there was little or no national coverage of the absolutely devastating ice
storm the crushed upstate NY, VT and NH (much less even mre of Ontario) 15
years ago, there's even less coverage of the semi-regular sever floods of
the Red River in NDak and Minn. hardly get much of anything nationally, the
absolutely devastating drought in Georgia 2-3 years ago hardly got much
coverage, seen anything about the 13-20 percent unemployment in Michigan of
late, how about all the tens of thousands of people who've been part of
regional and/or national protests who've gotten no coverage?  Anyone in the
South give a rats ass about the South Bronx, about Southie, about Maine,
about Flint, Cleveland, Gary, Compton, Oakland, Fresno, Coos Bay, The
Tri-Cities?  Its not about the South and its not about NY, its about the
death of public sentiment and mutuality, and the juxtaposition of ever
greater inderdependencies with ever greater indifference, defensiveness and
paranoia... The national news media sucks, regional and local news media
cover nothing (to speak of) outside their region/locale, what's new?

The Grand Ole Opry should be saved, but so should the Library of Michigan.
Where's Ebbett's Field, the Fillmore East, CBGBs?  Where are the historical
markers and archives for any number of pivotal events in US labor history,
and how is it that none of them are in HS textbooks?

This isn't about regional snobbery, though that stuff surely exists.

On Fri, May 14, 2010 at 11:25 AM, Doug Henwood <dhenwood at panix.com> wrote:


>
> On May 14, 2010, at 1:39 AM, B. wrote:
>
>  You can go here to donate keeping the Grand Ole Opry afloat (no pun
>> intended) during the recent torrential floods: <http://www.opry.com/>
>>
>> Oh, yeah, and NOLA, another hub of great American culture/music, is also
>> under threat. Is it because it's "the SOUTH" that no one gives it immediate
>> attention now -- or what?
>>
>> What if the Grand Ole Opry was in Manhattan?
>>
>
> You think NYC gets a lot of help from the rest of the USA? And since when
> does the USA give much of a shit about its culture, high or not?
>
> Doug
>
> ___________________________________
> http://mailman.lbo-talk.org/mailman/listinfo/lbo-talk
>

-- 
*********************************************************
Alan P. Rudy
Dept. Sociology, Anthropology and Social Work
Central Michigan University
124 Anspach Hall
Mt Pleasant, MI 48858
517-881-6319