LONE STAR ECHOES
Whoa! Gol-durned if I ain’t still reeling in the saddle from Meyer’s saccharine piece. The idea of “the emptiest county” is romantic and the accents are cute, but Meyer falls into frightening stereotypes of rural people. Regarding the good, simple folk thing: Simplicity, or course, implies stupidity, but rural areas have their geniuses and intellectuals, too.
I grew up in a town similar to Mentone, where my father’s furniture store was burned to the ground, and where my grandmother was raped at the age of 80. Both were robbed repeatedly.
Sure, when a family admits to hardship, the community does come running, feud or no feud. However, that loyalty is often motivated as much by curiosity and boredom as by concern.
Next time, try to look beyond the compliant “characters” anxious to tell a city boy what he wants to hear.
SUZANNE LONG
San Diego
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