The Rise of the Ignorati

I know some people, including my dear sister and sister-in-law and some of my closest friends, can continue to find happiness living in the town where they were raised. I am definitely not one of those people and think the well adjusted like my sister, sister-in-law and dear friends, are the exceptions who tolerate and survive this plight relatively unscathed. I respect their decision to stay close to their hometowns, but I don't understand it. The biggest advantage to their choice is proximity to mothers and others who'd help you take care of your baby. Now that I have a son, I do wish my mother, sister and others were nearby to share in his ongoing development and give me a much-needed break for writing and working.

OK. Disclaimer's over. Do not be offended, Alexandra, Jennifer and darling friends, for I mean no ill will. It's just that I think most people, not you my dear ones, are harmed by hunkering down in their hometown.

When I visit the bucolic western Massachusetts hamlet (H. P. Lovecraft based the fictional town of Dunwich in his story "The Dunwich Horror" on Wilbraham after a visit in 1928) where I was raised, I am deeply saddening by its demise. Wilbraham is still a picturesque place with nice houses, big yards, apple orchards and an eponymous mountain where I spent many a childhood afternoon. When I was kid, it had one of the best school systems in the country, and I learned to be a socially conscious and thoughtful person in a generally nurturing community. The western portion of the People's Republic of Massachusetts was especially liberal, save for the calls we'd get in the middle of the night accusing us of being "commies," "pinkos" and "Nazis." (More on that another time. Those who know my ancestry and my mother's plight will be especially appalled.) It's almost impossible for me to imagine how someone who went to the same elementary schools at the same time could become a traitor to tolerance, humanity and common sense.

Allow me to explain. I've become Facebook friends with several childhood friends. I haven't seen or spoken to most of them since I left the fifth grade in public school to start seventh grade in a private school. Some have moved far from home, though oddly none to New York. But a staggering number have stayed put, raising kids where they were raised. I enjoy the photos and updates on their families. But for the most part, that's all there is. Most keep mum about issues that should bring their blood to a boil, most recently the travesty of Tuesday's elections. About a year ago one of them even posted about her disdain for politics and desire to never speak or think of it. How did this happen? How could a woman who learned about civics in second grade diss her duty? What's more disturbing is how many of these childhood cohorts have become Republicans. I know this by their Info tabs which include Glenn Beck and Ron Paul among their "Likes and Interests." Likely they never comment on politics because they know they'll take a verbal bruising from their liberal neighbors. But they're confident enough to come out as conservatives on Facebook.

I know many smart conservatives, as much as I could argue that's an oxymoron. My mother is one. She's kept her invite to Nixon's inaugural gala as a memento even though she married a card-carrying social democrat who was red-listed throughout my childhood and young adulthood. My mom and others I know are able to engage in thoughtful debate, and that's part of our political process and what makes life interesting. For the record, I am not a Democrat, I am a lower-case 'd' democrat. Above all, I believe in humanism. And I believe that most Republicans (and fewer registered Democrats) are anti-humanist, at least in policies they support.

I mentioned the demise of Wilbraham. It may look much like it did in the 1970s, but the political and social climate has taken a nosedive. By the 1950s, most of the urban-suburban areas of Massachusetts were largely Democratic, leaving just a couple pockets of strongly Republican rural areas in Barnstable, Nantucket, Dukes, Bristol, Berkshire, and Franklin Counties. Wilbraham is in Hampden County, surrounded by other liberal communities. Current population is 3,712 people, with 62% registered as Democrats. The street where my sister lives is representative of the town, with a median home of $259,480, down 2.37 percent from 2009. But many of the newer neighbors took advantage of fire sales by the children of older residents. These people didn't grow up in Wilbraham and weren't afforded the liberal education I benefited from as a child. Along with their pickup trucks, coolers of Coors Light and packaged foods, they brought their senseless sensibilities. They are rude, inarticulate and resentful of people like my sister, who as a former public school teacher tried to save their children from the ignorance taught at home.

Let's call these people the ignorati. I've seen other uses for the term, like a small Facebook group that says its "sole purpose ... is to promote ignoring invitations on Facebook. To join you must ignore the invitation for joining." That's not what I mean. In the case of my hometown, it's a new wave that's replaced the one-time rulers of the social and political scene, the professors and teachers and others like my parents. The literati. It's more than a malady caused by a lack of reading and analysis. They are ill-, if not misinformed on nearly every topic of consequence. I bring up Wilbraham because I've seen the sea change on my sister's street. But it's happening across the country. The trashification of our once-great nation. Complete disregard for the principles that should have been inculcated in every child, as they were in me. When I think of tragedies like the intense bullying of teens and youngsters by their peers, I suspect they're being groomed at home. I fear people who won't do more than list their party affiliation of Facebook are doing harm at home. I suspect that inside these sprawling suburban homes with perfectly manicured lawns, mothers and fathers are using terms like faggot and claiming God doesn't like homos. Where else are these kids learning it? These parents may be too scared, too intimidated by well-read, well-spoken, well-informed liberals to post their political views on Facebook, so they preach to the captive, the naive, the innocent. Please, parents, teach your children tolerance, acceptance and understanding for those with different lifestyles and backgrounds, and foster creative and critical thinking. (Don't worry, this isn’t anti-Christian. In fact, it's what your faith teaches.) Our nation is dying. Democracy is dying. Engage us liberals in debate. We like to argue, as in consider the pros and cons of any idea or ideology. Go to the polls and take your children with you. But don't teach your children to hate. Sadly, they can and will learn that on their own.