RURAL VS. CITY

I conducted an experiment yesterday, but didn't realize it until after the fact. I wore my "McCain-Palin" campaign t-shirt all day, out and about. The first part of the day I stayed in the city. My wife and I live in a citified suburb of Sacramento. A Sacramento-area hospital recently estimated that 5 million people live in the Sacramento region. And our neighborhood is definitely included in that. While our home is in a residential enclave, we remain in the heart of the industrialized, lower-rent part of the urban area. During our morning errand runs to the grocery store, Walmart, etc. I received no comments about my campaign t-shirt. No one even seemed to notice it, much less make eye contact with me or comment on it. In the afternoon, my son and I traveled approximately 40 minutes outside of the city to a more rural area of a nearby county. We were attending the high school footbal contest of my nephew Chris. In the rural community, whether at the game or in the market for a soda, I received numerous compliments on my shirt. Both adults and teens pointed at my shirt and said "Nice shirt," or "Yes!!!," or "I love your shirt." How refreshing that was for me. It's nice to know that in the church-going, gun-using, bitter clinging heartland the more conservative ticket of Sen. McCain and Gov. Palin is well-received, and even cheered.