Posted on 06/26/2018 6:31:30 AM PDT by Kaslin
Given their level of ignorance, you’d think they’d been dropped off with some lost tribe on the Amazon.
Chicopee—too funny.
They would not have Holyoke so amusing. :-(
The fact that the author considers Chicopee, Massachusetts, as “heartland” is in of itself ... telling.
Spend a month in rural Texas, Oklahoma, Kansas or Nebraska. Oh heck, any rural area at lease a 100 miles from either the coast or a NFL city.
Among the young physicians who were Harvard grads you could easily tell them apart from grads of other schools because they could talk for hours about the uvula but were absolutely clueless if you handed them a pop-up umbrella.
They should have sent them to Taylor or Inkster MI for a larger contrast ( poor no-white ) and then to Holland MI, White and very conservative, both real fly over country.
The Harvard Endowment has the money to send them anywhere to really get their eyes opened, I could name a lot more towns that they never heard of. They should take them to fracking country, Steel Mills, a Stamping, Casting or Forging facility, an Auto Assy Line, ( especially the Tier manufacturers ). How about the Farmers in the Central Valley starving for water caused by Obama and Kalapornia politico's. How about talking to Coal Miners, or Miners up In the "UP" as the UP might be opening up to being really productive again ( 8th largest economy in the world if politician's get the hell out of the way )
It would be nice to know what these kids will say about the experience in 10 years. My bet is it will be along the lines of “I’ve met deplorables. They weren’t bad people, but I’m glad I went to Harvard and don’t need to interact with them”.
Oh BTW, Selena Zito is a must read and or follow. Great interviews via podcast with her and John Bachelor. She is one of the few that told the world, don’t be so sure this Trump Presidential run, he really might surprise you, she saw it, no one listened.
Or how it got it's nickname "Holysmoke" back in the day. They might love the restored magnificent Victorian Homes however, that some have lovingly done over....
> “...you have to spend time in a community to really report on it. Parachuting in for a few hours to interview the locals can lead to flawed evaluations. When you are short on time, your instincts can get blurred and you can gravitate toward the shiny objects, the oddball people and conditions that make the most noise, instead of having a broader focus on the bigger, fuller picture.”
Wow, an intelligent reporter, such a rare sighting. I thought they were hiding under rocks if not extinct.
And I note the omission of an Oxford comma, tsk tsk shame-shame. Tells me this reporter is an old fogey.
That last line was ‘too pat’......................
Perhaps, these students could spend a few weeks learning about Harvard's agricultural investments in Shandon and New Cuyama, CA.
Tell me more Ptsal
LOL! Kinda what I was thinking but to give credit, there are lots of rural places a stones throw from some of the YUGE lib populaiton centers. But the attitudes these kids have been ingrained with is what keeps a lot of them from venturing out past the last street light. Like “our” ignorance is contagious or communicable.
It sounds to me like these kids may have learned a few things. There is a lot happening in America apart from college campuses and or the coastal liberal enclaves.
But in a way it is sad, that we are telling these supposedly educated Elite college kids from Harvard, that they need to study America, as if most of America is some isolated out of the way place , full of people who are like foreign people to them.
Well, you might be surprised. Less than 150 miles from NYC, farmers are walking out to the barn and getting on their tractors.
The elite are mostly iyis...they run in the same circles...
I believe Chicopee has a military base? Air Force? Or is it now closed?
There are many small towns within an hour or two from the cities on the coasts with real people. Given that this was the first experiment undertaken by Harvard and Zito, I think this is a truly hopeful beginning.
Salena Zito is a funny, bright and insightful reporter. She “gets” America.
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