Living in the Midwest certainly has its ups and downs. CNN recently conducted a survey to discover readers' favorite American cities, based on certain aspects like culture, people, dining and shopping. The list is supposed to serve as a basis for travelers who are looking to visit different parts of the country and experience the richness and benefits that each city has to offer.
The problem is that none of these results are the least bit shocking. According to the research done by CNN, the best two cities in the country to go clubbing in are Vegas and Miami. The best two cities for coffee are Seattle and Portland. Anybody who knows anything about American culture could probably replicate the results of any category on the survey simply by taking educated guesses. But this simply suggests that the list is not groundbreaking.
What makes the list frustrating and annoying is it focuses on "culture-rich" coastal cities like New York, Boston, Los Angeles, New Orleans and San Francisco, while almost entirely ignoring the whole Midwestern United States. In fact, the only two Midwestern cities that were even considered for this survey were Chicago and Minneapolis. Granted, Chicago and Minneapolis are great cities, but where are the other impressive yet overlooked Midwestern cities like Indianapolis, St. Louis, Columbus, Louisville, Milwaukee and, of course, Branson. There's so much going on in the Midwest, it's a shame that, as a region, we are constantly maligned and designated as "fly-over states" just because we don't have the hustle and bustle of the big coastal cities. It isn't fair that Iowa only gets mentioned on the news every four years during the presidential primaries. It's really no way to treat our nation's number one producer of ethanol.
The fact is that there are many aspects of Midwestern life that shouldn't be cast off and ignored just because we don't have a lot of metropolitan museums and luxury boutiques. The Midwest is about human interest. Take, for instance, the case of Angela Hobson. Last week, the Indiana Court of Appeals made a historic decision when it awarded Hobson workman's compensation after she was injured on a pole while working at a strip club in Fort Wayne.
In 2001, Hobson injured herself on a pole at the Shangri-La Club in Fort Wayne, and later underwent surgery to repair a disc in her lower back. Although she filed a workman's compensation claim in 2003 over the issue, her employers did not acknowledge it, and the entire case went to an Indiana appeals court. Hobson claimed that her employer ignored her injury and violated Indiana law by not having compensation insurance. The Shangri-La countered with the claim that Hobson is not a credible source, which is absolutely ridiculous, because if you can't trust a clumsy stripper in this world, who can you trust?
But in the case of Hobson v. Shangri-La, the Indiana Court of Appeals ruled in favor of the plaintiff, and Hobson received full compensation, which is quite progressive in the area of equal-stripper rights. If we have laws protecting blue collar workers, we should also have laws protecting workers that take off their collars for money. This landmark case is the most important litigation a Court of Appeals has presided over since 2004's watershed Alien v. Predator case.
More importantly, this is a perfect example that what the Midwest lacks in metropolitan action, is made up for with interesting people. So next year, when CNN releases their list of America's favorite cities, expect to see Fort Wayne first in the category of legally-savvy exotic dancers.
Write to Paul at pjmetz@bsu.edu
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