Discussion for article #234905
In all fairness, the Indiana that Letterman remembers as a kid is tinted rose and ignores the various racist incidents and homophobic beatings that occurred.
16 Likes
The way It USEd to BE
THE WAy it ought to be
The Way it’s GOINg to BE AgaIN!1!!1!1!!one!!!11!
2 Likes
Really! I don’t believe that Indiana was a tolerant paradise 40 yrs ago. Maybe we should ask a gay adult who grew up in Indiana as a child for a better perspective. I
3 Likes
Hate to tell you Dave, but your state was infested with ex-KKK members during your youth.
And they were only “ex” because of the 1925 Stephenson scandal that effectively destroyed the Klan in Indiana:
Indiana Klan - Wikipedia
The press investigation, which won a Pulitzer Prize, revealed that more than half the members of the Indiana General Assembly were Klan members. The Stephenson rape case and bribery scandal destroyed the Klan’s image as the defenders of women and justice. Members abandoned the organization by the tens of thousands.
3 Likes
I get that Letterman was embarrassed by whats going on in his home state, but insinuating that Indiana was more accepting of gays in the 50’s and 60’s just wasn’t the case.
7 Likes
Yup, the good ole days:
1 Like
Really, Dave? It’s the Indiana I remember as a kid. It’s the Indiana that vilified Ryan White as the target of God’s wrath, for some inexplicable sin, when he contracted HIV from a blood transfusion. That was the 80s. I’d hoped that ignorant element of Indiana had died off, but clearly it hasn’t yet.
11 Likes
Dave’s childhood memories of tolerant adults around him, if accurate, is more a reflection of his relatives and their acquaintances good nature, than of Indiana society as a whole.
14 Likes
I’ve spent years listening to my mother’s stories about growing up on Long Island in the 1950’s. Unlike many people her generation, she wasn’t isolated from the truth by her parents so she was aware that her neighborhood didn’t allow Blacks to live there, and how bad racism was in NYC.
4 Likes
What some people think about gays, ethnic minorities, etc. hasn’t changed. What has changed is that they are more comfortable wearing their bigotry on their sleeves. Thank you, Internet!
5 Likes
Sure it is, Dave. You just hung out in the wrong bars.
1 Like
That’s exactly right. Unless Dave is evoking the depiction of Indiana in the old movie Friendly Persuasion set during the Civil War where the Quakers were the peaceful, loving folks.
1 Like
Indiana looks different when you’re sober, Dave.
7 Likes
I agree. As are a lot of memories as kids, they are not what they seemed to be. I can’t believe him even though I believe he is sincere in his memory.
4 Likes
Amen to that.
1 Like
I lived there in the 80s. It’s the Indiana I remember and I lived in supposedly liberal (but super insular and very divided) Bloomington.I remember finding myself more uncomfortable in rural Indiana burgs that I ever did when I worked on the South Side of Chicago, and I’m a white guy with a waspy name.
3 Likes
David, when you left Indiana folks with differing views could still be civil with each other. But because of Fox incessant hammering fear and loathing and the GOP grafting on the Tea party polarization is the order of the day. How dare someone compromise!!
I remember a time when I could be friends with Barry Goldwater ( and I was) even if I thought his politics were stupid.
6 Likes
Good point - there was no Fox News - truly a blight on the america if not the world
5 Likes
They were still active in the late 60’s. I saw the burned crosses.
2 Likes