Media Lies-Travel Truths-Small Town America-Bob Davis Podcast 789

To hear Der Spiegel tell it, Fergus Falls, Minnesota is a very special place these days. The town on Minnesota’s prairie is in a deep forest. A city manager carries a gun. The local high school sports iron doors and metal detectors. Moreover the mouth breathing savages that inhabit this place all voted for Trump. Learn more in Media Lies-Travel Truths-Small Town America-Bob Davis Podcast 789.

All Lies

The most noteworthy thing about this story is the fact that it is a complete fabrication. To Der Spiegel’s credit, the magazine is sending a reporter to Fergus Falls.

This time to apologize.

Dark and Dangerous Rural America

Sadly often media lies tell us more truth about biases than their coverage. Especially relevant are the new storylines about the mysterious and the mystical “rural America”. Land of republicans and Trump supporters. Dark and Dangerous. Well spring of public radio’s murder mystery podcasts. Source of the angry and red faced nationalist republican.

Small Town America

Truth is rural America is just as difficult to report on and explain as any urban center. We’ll talk about it in Media Lies-Travel Truths-Small Town America-Bob Davis Podcast 789.

Travel Is The Antidote

More importantly, travel is the antidote for the half truths and fairy tales of the media. I have traveled back and forth across this country, east to west, west to east and north to south many times. There are places I have missed but in thousands of miles of travel over the past few years, I have learned a great deal.

The New Nomads

Moreover many people have taken to converted school buses, RV’s and even Ambulances in search of their own version of America. Here’s to them.

Have A Cup Of Joe

In small towns across the US dedicated to ranching, farming, and mining people aren’t just going to walk up to you and tell you their life stories. Simple observation won’t tell you their stories either. Travel takes you through but you have to stop. Have a cup of Joe and talk to people. Get to know them over time.

Sometimes Working Together…Sometimes Not…Just Like The Big Cities

Finally what I’ve found in these places are all kinds of people living and working together. In some places things are better than in others. Reasons for decline or improvement are often elusive, even to the locals. Whether it’s a mining town or a farm town.

Politics Doesn’t Make The Man or The Town

In conclusion, I am sick to death of reporters telling us politics determines whether we are red or blue. These things don’t take the measure of the people who live in a town, large or small.

Coast To Coast and Back Again

Join me for Media Lies-Travel Truths-Small Town America-Bob Davis Podcast 789. Hear the sounds of some of the places I have visited over the last few years, from a hound dog in Mendocino, California to the total eclipse in Makanda Illinois, and finally overlooking the Pacific Ocean on the coast highway.

I’ve got a few stories of my own to tell.

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Media Lies-Travel Truths-Small Town America-Bob Davis Podcast 789

Podcast 260

Road Trip Part 2. Kentucky, West Virginia and Virginia. Taking stock in a Shoney’s restaurant in West Virginia, as we become aware; this is a really long trip. The ‘southern strategy’, getting out of the weather up North, meant enjoying a perfect sunny day for the run across horse country, into the mountains of West Virginia and western Virginia finally to central Virginia. The second day after the Grand Jury announced it will not indict a police officer in the shooting death of Ferguson’s Michael Brown. Are the protests across the country really about racism and injustice, or are these people professional protesters? Or, is it possible that despite revised economic numbers for the third quarter, low inflation and lower gas prices, Americans are restive? Maybe we just don’t feel ‘right’. As the ride across the country’s middle stretches out, we find there is much to like about West Virginia. A hunting ground for Indians and settlers in Colonial times, settled by Scots Irish and Germans, split from Confederate Virginia in 1862 and become an energy and mineral powerhouse. You don’t have pretend anything in West Virginia. People are just fine with you, as you are. And these people can drive! Lots of coverage of the ‘crazy uncle’ syndrome this Thanksgiving. Suggestions on how to handle your ‘crazy uncle’. Why is the crazy uncle always a right winger? What about your crazy socialist uncle. He gets a pass? (Editor’s Note: For the record, I am the crazy uncle in my family.) Finally, reaching our destination after 27 hours. Central Virginia, in the middle of nowhere, hunting country, ready to cook Cornish Game Hens, Green Beans and real Mashed Potatoes for Thanksgiving dinner. (Editor’s Note: Yeah, my family is quirky.) Get ready for some Davis family hijinks on Podcast 261. Sponsored by Autonomous Cad