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In reply to the discussion: Indiana School Decides Not To Discipline Teacher Who Says Gays Have No Purpose In Life [View all]DissidentVoice
(813 posts)Just curious.
I speak from the POV of a native...and my opinion is not objective.
As an "outsider," you may well be more objective.
My mother lived in Gary, but that was before I was born. Unfortunately, it's gone from a booming steel city to a virtual mini-Detroit (I live about an hour from Detroit and it's tragic what's happened both there and in Gary).
I am quite familiar with both Grissom and Ft. Wayne. I have spent a lot of time in both places as I was in the ANG 122nd TFW, based at the Fort Wayne Airport. I remember Grissom when it was an active SAC base and one of the designated landing grounds for the President's NEACP (meaning: if you were on a marked NEACP route on base and an alert/drill sounded, you got the HELL off no matter what it took!). All that's left there are some AFRES tankers, I think. A buddy of mine was a Technical Sergeant there a long time ago, but I haven't seen him in many, many years (he's probably retired now).
I don't know a lot about FWA itself...my base was at the FWA IAP, which is south of the city (http://www.122fw.ang.af.mil/) and I sure don't make any pretence for the base being a liberal haven (though politics weren't much of an issue when I was there long ago...just doing your job WAS).
Bunker Hill isn't much of a town, especially since Grissom went inactive...and Tavis Smiley actually is from Kokomo, about 20 miles to the south (and an absolute DEVIL to drive through) on U.S. 31.
Indy has some surprisingly liberal areas (Broad Ripple).
I really do not know much about Lafayette other than driving through on I-65 and thinking Purdue University football sucks (I grew up in the shadow of the Notre Dame Golden Dome).
I'll tell you one place to avoid: TERRE HAUTE. The place stinks (literally; the "Terre Haute Smell" is legendary) and is almost a textbook definition of "apathetic," despite being the home of Indiana State University. Steve Martin actually got kicked out by the then-Mayor (Pete Chalos). He appeared at ISU when he was first starting to get known and much of his routine that night was on the smell. The audience thought it was hilarious, but Hizzoner didn't. Steve was invited to not return.
http://www.topix.com/forum/city/terre-haute-in/TK22BVPILNR6CKPOD