Delusions of an Open Mind

At a farewell to class dinner last week, a professor of mine commented on how people insist on clinging to a version of their identity that contradicts reality. Her example: people who have lived in Utah for most of their lives that deny being Utahns. This woman is very liberal, probably the spitting image profile of the voters in San Francisco to whom Barack Obama made the condescending remarks about small-town Pennsylvanians clinging to guns and religion. (I love Obama, but my goodness what was he thinking!)

In response to the comment about denial of Utah citizenship and the arrogance it implies, a friend of mine, who is from a small town in southern Utah, commented that she also thinks it is arrogant for people to refuse to call small towns by the local pronunciation. Her example: people who pronounce Hurricane, Utah like the weather system instead of Hurricun, which is the local pronunciation. It took me a second to understand what she was saying because, since my dad grew up in Richfield and I spent the summers of my youth exploring small town southern Utah, I forgot that people would actually pronounce Hurricane with the long "a".

The liberal adjunct law professor responded "I know, I can't believe how small towners pronounce the names of their town. I went all the way out to Hooper, Utah to get my puppy and when I got there they were calling it Whupper. When I called it Hooper, they said I must be from the city. And I was like damn right I'm from the city and I had to drive all the way out here to the sticks to get this dog. But the dog is great so it was worth it."