Prairie arrogance

 

This is so perfect. Someone I work with, who is a native North Dakotan, told me they give this children's book to everyone who visits them from outside the area.

I get that people who live here think they are made of stronger stuff than the average American, but this book epitomizes what irritates me about the people in this part of the country.

The wording is "you CAN'T know the X if you're not from the prairie." X includes the sun, sky, snow, and wind.

Um, I grew up in Arizona, we sure as hell "know" sun! And I moved here from upstate NY, they sure as hell "know" snow there (I think folks from Wisconsin might also have something to say about this).

Now, the wind, I'll give them that. But the other stuff is just obnoxious. I wonder how the friends who receive this book as a gift feel about its claims.

My point is, you don't need to be from the prairie to know nature, and people from lots of other places obviously understand the natural world. So just slow your freaking roll. 

As a side note, I grew up in Flagstaff, Arizona, which is beautiful, and a fabulous place to live, and people from there are rightfully proud. And no one wrote a book like this about it, and no one I know from there would dream of giving people a book like this - a book which celebrates their supposed superiority. js