Small-Town Heroes from the Heartland
It is late spring in Streator, Illinois, and like a thousand other places across the heartland of America, the smell of freshly overturned earth in the farmer’s fields signals the beginning of that endless cycle of birth to death to birth for which we all depend on for sustenance. The miracle of life now stirring in the rich, black loam of the prairie will once again astound us as the empty fields that stretch from horizon to horizon will, like magic, fill with the green offshoots of high bio-tech seeds, engineered to grow with an incredible swiftness and biologically configured to resist almost everything that nature can do to destroy them.
I have lived in urban, suburban, ex-urban, and now rural America in my life. But this singular fact of existence dominates the pace of life in the small towns that dot the landscape of the prairie and imbues the people with a deep respect for the land and the Lord’s bounty that is reaped as a result of hard work, sweat, and good luck.
Perhaps it is no accident then that so many of America’s fallen hailed from towns with place names that are familiar only to those who live but a stone’s throw from where these heroes grew up.
Who has ever heard of Clairsville, Ohio, birthplace of Medal of Honor winner Sylvester Antolak? Among the heroic deeds mentioned in his citation were:
With one shoulder deeply gashed and his right arm shattered, he continued to rush directly into the enemy fire concentration with his submachinegun wedged under his uninjured arm until within 15 yards of the enemy strong point, where he opened fire at deadly close range, killing 2 Germans and forcing the remaining 10 to surrender. He reorganized his men and, refusing to seek medical attention so badly needed, chose to lead the way toward another strong point 100 yards distant. Utterly disregarding the hail of bullets concentrated upon him, he had stormed ahead nearly three-fourths of the space between strong points when he was instantly killed by hostile enemy fire. Inspired by his example, his squad went on to overwhelm the enemy troops. By his supreme sacrifice, superb fighting courage, and heroic devotion to the attack, Sgt. Antolak was directly responsible for eliminating 20 Germans, capturing an enemy machinegun, and clearing the path for his company to advance.
Hundreds of other Medal of Honor winners can lay claim to a similar background, growing up in rural villages and hamlets that, in many cases, time has forgotten and the world has passed by. America’s small-town culture has been ridiculed, criticized, and dismissed — especially over the last few decades — by an elite that cannot fathom why anyone would wish to live more than a couple of miles from a world class opera house or art museum. Nor can they understand why someone would choose country quiet over the babble and cacophony of the big city.
So they disparage these simple citizens — the ones who do most of the living, loving, fighting, and dying for America — because at bottom, they are what they accuse small town folk of being: narrow-minded and bigoted.
If these elites were to open their eyes, they may discover that people who live in small towns have exactly the same values as those who live in larger cities and suburbs. American values are the same regardless of where you live. The difference is they are perhaps taken to heart in a more fundamental way in small towns than in places that boast large populations and cultural diversity. Patriotism seems more heartfelt and genuine in rural parts of the country, more a regular part of life than in urban or suburban America.
Perhaps because showing one’s patriotism has been equated with having an “unsophisticated” attitude — a lack of world weariness and cynicism that the smart set personifies — the elites accuse those of us in flyover country of possessing a dullard’s sense of how the world really works. In this context, patriotic feelings and gestures are worse than futile, they are dangerous. Outward manifestations of patriotism come perilously close to upsetting the cosmopolitan self-image held by Americans not vouchsafed the blessing of living in a more pastoral setting. Such rash displays of emotion where America is concerned are contrasted with the blasé, more refined attitudes of our betters, who appreciate the splendid opportunity to feel smugly superior to the rubes who show reverence to the flag rather than dream of burning it.
But the biggest difference between city and country has to be that in rural America, the word “community” holds real meaning, far beyond the political meaning of the term that becomes a poor substitute in big cities. Small-town folk may be wary of outsiders and seem a little taciturn to strangers. But they would give the shirt off their back to their neighbor if they needed it. Yes, they may be insular and uninterested in what is happening outside of their immediate circle of friends and family. World affairs may bore them. National affairs may be something that one pays attention to every four years.
But when it comes to “community,” rural America personify how Russell Kirk described the concept:
Although Americans have been attached strongly to privacy and private rights, they also have been a people conspicuous for a successful spirit of community. In a genuine community, the decisions most directly affecting the lives of citizens are made locally and voluntarily. Some of these functions are carried out by local political bodies, others by private associations: so long as they are kept local, and are marked by the general agreement of those affected, they constitute healthy community.
Faith — in God and each other — and an abiding sense of togetherness that manifests itself in the way this “voluntary community” leans on each other in good times and bad is what defines small-town America. No community organizers needed here. They do all their organizing through their local church, or volunteer fire department, or lodge, or other association to which they choose to belong.
Rick,
This is a beautiful piece. There is indeed something about life in small-town America that deepens knowledge of human nature and what is truly important. Perhaps it is the generational knowledge one has of one’s neighbors. People can’t reinvent themselves, but they can evolve and grow. In a small town, you can see that happen. You can also see people fall or stagnate. Whichever happens, you have to deal with it: the people will still be there next week and next year. You learn that the cantankerous neighbor who plagued your youth might offer the straight talk you need later to get you through a crisis. You learn the multi-dimensionality of the individual rather than the multi-culturality of the big city, and this can lead to a surer knowledge of who you are and what your place is in the world.
Our country is stronger and better for having both the small town and the city. It is dangerous to undervalue either.
Mr. Moran;
From McRae, Georgia:
http://www.homeofheroes.com/moh/citations_living/vn_mc_livingston.html
Lieutenant Colonel Livingston commanded the recruit training battalion at Parris Island that I was privileged to serve in.
On our battalion runs, when my 17-year-old @ss was dragging, you’d see The Colonel chugging right along with those scars on his legs, and you’d be inspired,(or shamed enough), to reach down deep and squeeze out another mile or two.
Great piece, Rick.. It will be the one I share today in honor of those who give what they can so we all may openly express ourselves here..
Culture shock doesn’t begin to describe what I experienced just shy of fifteen years ago when I moved from Miami to small town North Georgia.. It still blows my Mind today when all I have to give is my first name to the county bus service provider (who will, by the way, do all in their power to pull near as humanly possible to my front door tomorrow)..
And that’s just absolutely for starters.. I’ve often thought consciously on precisely what you share today.. Those thoughts cross most often when I read the bio of a Life lost while defending our Honor.. It is no doubt in some sizable part that sense of genuine, from the Heart community that instills a little extra something innately protective in those we proudly call Heroes..
Warmest from Talking Rock..
Mark 10: 29-31
“I tell you the truth,” Jesus replied, “no one who has left home or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or fields for me and the gospel will fail to receive a hundred times as much in this present age (homes, brothers, sisters, mothers, children and fields-and with the, persecutions) and in the age to come, eternal life. But many who are first will be last, and the last first.”
Thank You, and your piece brought tears to my eyes this morning. I thought of my Grandfather and his sons when I read it. Thank you to all of our American soldiers in war and peace time and in my thoughts you will be placed first. God Bless our Military. You are first in my thoughts this morning.
Being the son of a 20 year US Navy veteran and an 8 year US Navy veteran myself I’ve had the privilege of living in or traveling through almost every state in the country. I’ve lived in big cities, suburbs, and in small towns and I can attest to the fact that you will find more American flags proudly flying 365 days a year in small towns than anywhere else in America. People in small towns haven’t been smothered, yet, with the PC, multicultural, white guilt agenda pushed in much of the rest of the country and thus still have a respect for the accomplishments of our Founders and our nation.
The elitism that scorns love of country is simply an extension of the rot of Liberalism.
“One of the good things about living in a small community, your character is judged every day” Cal Turner Sr. founder of Dollar General, life long resident of Scottville, KY.
Not to mention selfish.
It is a very great story. I have been since April on my blog doing a series on Medal Of Honor Recipients.
It is indeed no accident. These towns generally have the worst education systems. Such towns also generally have very little diversity. Because people from these towns rarely encounter people from other cultures, they’re very vulnerable to distortions about other countries, and are generally willing to believe all kinds of silly ideas about the rest of the world. People from rural areas are overly represented in the military simply because they have no economic options, and they excel in killing the people of other countries simply because they have been taught to devalue the life of non-Americans. Hurray.
Oscar,
Well, some of the reasons rural citizens make good soldiers is that they are familiar with the outdoors, can hunt, fish, camp. They work on farm machinery and fix or repair it. most have had physical responsibilities and physical independnce way before urban welfare serfs and their soft pampered elites kids who know only of credit cards.
Killing is rough, dirty, exhausting work in the outdoors that does not have ‘time outs’ or ‘discussable arenas of cross cultural subjectivity’. Something unfamiliar to the fever swamps of expensive prep schools and urban public ‘education’ aging pens.
As to your ‘other people killing’ quip of self exposed ignorance, try the Revolutionary War, The Civil War and ask the Germans about how their American brethren, German Americans the largest ethnic group, did them in twice.
Get lost, Oscar Wao.
To begin with, the existence of diversity-loving people from big cities is just a myth. I saw how these “diversity lovers” reacted to the introduction of soccer back in the 1970s. They all ran away from it. The people who showed up at the games were more conservative. The NY Times still can’t manage to treat soccer with the same respect that it treats our sports.
Plus, if people from small towns are vulnerable to distortions about other countries, so are the diversity lovers. It’s just that they are vulnerable to a different sort of distortion. For example, throughout the period when the Iraq war was making headlines, all we heard from these people was how no one in Iraq wanted us there, not even apparently the Kurds. What a gross simplification.
Moreover, everyone knows how horribly the Muslim world treats women, yet somehow the diversity lovers are conveniently ignoring this fact these days.
Let’s say it’s true that small-town people devalue the lives of non-Americans. So what? Today, there are many people in the world who want to kill everyone they can in the West and forcibly convert the survivors to Islam. Who do I want dealing with these people, diversity lovers who are terribly naive and simple-minded or diversity haters from our small towns? I don’t know about you, but I’ll take my chances with the latter group.
Finally, the worst educational systems in America are in the inner cities, whose schools have been ruined by various leftist policies and mindsets.
Medal of honor citations:
http://www.history.army.mil/moh.html
Read a few. Remember.
#9 Oscar Wao:
You’ve gone and done it now, Monkey-boy, to post this kind of crap on Memorial Day.
Wouldn’t surprise me if large numbers of PJMers showed up and formed a very long line to take a sh!t in your mouth.
Open wide, Chim-Chim…
Mr. Wao, your last name makes me wonder what wonderful foreign land you come from. I realize you would never consider giving your life for the USA, nor would you make a decent soldier. Just keep grazing in our green pastures beside our still waters until you realize that freedom isn’t free and our small town hero has a FAR BETTER EDUCATION than you can imagine. You, of course, having been educated in communist run american universities (may God blast them) are a citizen of the world, no doubt. You, Mr. Wao, are also A WIMP WITHOUT A COUNTRY.
That’s right boys tear Oscar a new one. Remember we’re out there killing darkies for a damn good reason. Whatever that may be.
Wao the bigot:
“These towns generally have the worst education systems. Such towns also generally have very little diversity”
Well, you have proven yourself a true liberal, heven’t you? Given to smug and baseless arrogance, insult and ugly stereotype, and belief in a self-serving alternate reality.
In fact, those small towns almost uniformly have far, far better schools than ‘diverse’ hellholes like LA, DC and Chicago. Ignorant, bigoted twit.
How much is Soros paying you per troll-post?
Bohemond. Nice work. An immigrant lay about like Oscar could never understand the logic that underlies our democratic system. In fact, none of these people can. I think you’d almost have to be Born and American to understand the logic of democracy. Granted, I feel sorry for them, since it doesn’t seem to make sense to anyone but us. But then again, who told them to be born elsewhere in the first place?
There is much to learn and apreciate from living in small towns that can’t be gotten from big city life. Only experience can explain it.
The small-town spirit you so justly celebrate is also found in Kenilworth, a tiny suburb north of Chicago. Here’s one of several videos I shot of the village’s Memorial Day celebration 2 years ago:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sgXR4Vnzxts
Wouldn’t surprise me if large numbers of PJMers showed up and formed a very long line to take a sh!t in your mouth.
Remember don’t ask, don’t tell Bilgeman! I never cared what my bunk mates were up to, and I don’t care what you did and why you loved being a Marine. That’s your own life, and thanks to our service, we can all have the freedom be exactly who we want. Just forgive me if I don’t want to know what gets you off.
Mr. Moran, your article is spot on. It’s also no accident that the red-blue electoral map reflects exactly what you are saying.
#9 “Because people from these towns rarely encounter people from other cultures”
Oscar must believe, as do most snobbish liberal elites, that folks in the heartland of America, (where most of our food is produced, btw), live in a vacuum and have no newspapers, TV, internet, or anything else that would expose them to “people from other cultures.” I guess one silly idea these folks have is that terrorists want to kill us. In Oscar’s world, we should perhaps sit down to tea with the terrorists, explain how well-meaning & good-hearted we are, then everything will be alright, and the beheadings will then cease, North Korea will end its nuclear program, and Ahmadinejad will say it’s OK for Israel to continue to exist.
Yes, Oscar, the folks in the heartland of the U.S. with no other economic options who produce most of the world’s food have been taught to de-value the lives of non-Americans, same as they’ve been taught to get up at 4:00 a.m., milk cows, feed the chickens, slop the pigs, get on a tractor and work a field all day. Perhaps instead of going to war with our enemies, they should just stop producing food; it might be a slower method of killing people in other countries, but it’s just as effective.
I grew up in a big city, but I now live in a small town, and I went to a nice Memorial Day parade today. There are a few differences from what this parade must have been like back in the Fifties. There was the kid with green hair, there were the llamas being marched along, and most of all there was the candy that was thrown to the kids along the route. These kids regards this as a sort of second Halloween, except that they don’t even need to go out trick or treating: they just wait for someone to throw candy their way.
But aside from these differences, there must be many things that are the same: the flags, the tributes to anyone who has served, the bands, the baton-twirlers, and even the town dignitaries trying to get some free publicity. Sure, I would have regarded it as hopelessly quaint when I was a young adult, but it feels so right these days.
Good news everybody!! Our boys have done such an outstanding job overseas that Iraq is on pace in May for the lowest death toll of Iraqi forces and civilians for any month so far. Only the best fighting force in the world could have accomplished this. We are upholding our promise to the Iraqi people despite all the naysayers and irresponsible people who would have left them for slaughter. God bless our troops and lets continue to give them whatever they need so that they can come home as quickly as possible. I just wanted to pass along some good news on this somber day that you might not see on the news.
http://icasualties.org/Iraq/index.aspx
(scroll down, you’ll see it)
Oscar – if America is such a horrible place then why is it the most diverse country on the planet? Shy do people from all over this world clamor to come here? If you don’t like it then you are free to leave and I’m sure you could get free passage paid for by PJM commenters. Personally I think so-called “diversity” will ultimately be our undoing if the myriad peoples from around the world who settle here fail to understand just what it means to be an American and actually become Americans. If they view our great country merely as a cool, free place to live and live as if they had never left home then we will eventually disintegrate.
Generations of immigrants came here not to be Italians, Germans, Chinese, et al but to be Americans. They insisted that their children learn English and participate in activities and institutions that reinforced assimilation. Today, immigration weakens us because nulticultural dogma claims that assimilation is somehow discriminatory.
Political correctness is the solvent for our national cohesion and must be fought tooth and nail.
Oscar must believe, as do most snobbish liberal elites, that folks in the heartland of America, (where most of our food is produced, btw), live in a vacuum and have no newspapers, TV, internet, or anything else that would expose them to “people from other cultures.”
Of course that’s what I believe. Just believing something seems perfectly ok for you people whenever you agree with them. I thought you’d extend the same courtesy to anyone, even people who believe in unicorns and the rapture.
Its more that they are medal winners because small-town life is boring as hell and more of them join the armed forces to escape it. I hate this kind of fake nostalgia, idealizing a mythic past that exists in rockwell paintings. Small towns and rural life are just as bad as the rest.
Dblade. Careful, they eat the smart ones.
On our battalion runs, when my 17-year-old @ss was dragging, you’d see The Colonel chugging right along with those scars on his legs, and you’d be inspired,(or shamed enough), to reach down deep and squeeze out another mile or two.
Are all your service memories so laden with sexual imagery? With your seventeen year old ass squeezing as another mile of Colonel came chugging in, and oh, those scars on his legs from the canings…my god man, how is it that comment made it past the censors, you old troll. Having a good laugh at these Republican pant-crappers, are you? Pretending to be a military man, while moccking them. They’ll never see through it, I imagine.
Poor Oscar Wao. The world just isn’t the way you think it is. People like you imagine that small-town America, or Republicans, are some special evil, but in fact most of the world is just like them, or worse.
You let in a bunch of immigrants and insist that they be allowed to keep their culture. And guess what? They vote against gay marriage.
Bruce Bawer, the gay writer, went to Europe to avoid the evangelical Christians and came back with horror stories about the Muslims over there. Pat Robertson, he has pointed out, merely wants to prevent him from getting married, but the Muslims of Europe want to kill him.
I spent a month in Egypt recently, and I was told in an orientation program that Egyptians recognize only three religions: Islam, Christianity, and Judaism. So where does that leave Hindus, Buddhists and atheists? Nowhere, but at least Egypt can claim to be more liberal than Saudi Arabia. And while people like you love to bash Israel and laud the Palestinians, that is only because of what you perceive to be oppression of the latter by the former. If you ignore that and simply look at the two societies, you would be horror-struck by the bigotry, sexism and homophobia of the Palestinians.
And guess what the Japanese did to the Chinese in the 1930s? Or what a progressive like Pol Pot did to his own people?
It’s been said that if Europe had a democracy like ours instead of being run by elites, they would have the death penalty and execute people just as much as we do. And by the way, European soccer games these days have had so many ugly racial incidents that the soccer authorities have had to run a campaign against racism.
There is no good reason to bash small-town America as something uniquely evil.
Mr. Wao, I do extend the courtesy of believing whatever they want to other people; what I won’t do is let them get away with disparaging others for likewise believing the way they want, i.e. believing that terrorists want to kill us, that beheadings are unacceptable, that NK shouldn’t have a nuclear weapon, that Israel should be allowed to exist, etc.
Unicorns & the rapture? Those are right up there with believing that folks in the heartland of the U.S. “have been taught to devalue the life [sic] of non-Americans.” You’re free to believe it; I’m free to cite facts proving otherwise.
More culture war bull****. Just keep dividing the country up into good and bad, right and left. Soon there’ll be nothing left.
I served with soldiers from small towns, NYC, Puerto Rico, even Micronesia and every one of them showed courage and patriotism that should be celebrated. But you get your jollys by pointing out that Medal of Honor recipients are statistically more likely to come from small towns and making vague inferences about character.
It’s things like this that drive reasonable, rational people away from the conservative movement. You’re hurting the side you’re trying to help and you’re hurting the country overall with this childish nonsense.
Oscar, you are a fool, but note, because of the sacrifice of many small towners your right to be a fool is protected, as is my right to respond to your foolish remarks. One of the foolish things you said was that small town schools were lousy. Really? How about the quality of schools in big cities like Washington DC, Philadelphia, Chicago, Los Angeles, etc etc. Not only do many small towns provide better education than many big cities (why else would those with means put their precious little kids in private schools?) if I had to choose to have my kids educated in a small town or big city, its no choice. Its a sad day when an American dumps on the heart of America, but only a fool would do so.
up until recently the demographics of America was rural. so where else are they going to come from. that being said, small town America is like the child within us. i remember delivering the Sunday newspaper and stopping in the middle of the blvd, and shooting the breeze with other newspaper boys for 10 15 minutes without a car coming by. try that now and i’d probably get run over and if i didn’t i’d get swore at. we just wanted to be like our fathers who fought in WW11, and our kids want to make grandpa proud. the farm has been gone for 40 years now.
the boys in Iraq and Afghanistan are making the older guys proud, as the one trooper said “living the legend”
Always happy to see an article on heroes (there aren’t enough of them even in conservative media), but does the implied trend really hold up?
Seven Medals of Honor have been awarded for actions in the wars and conflicts since 1975. Of the recipients, three have been from cities (Long Beach, California; Lincoln, Nebraska; El Paso, Texas), three were from small towns of less than 10,000 people, and one was from a large town, of a little under 100,000.
Thanks Rick for bringing attention to the public the kudos of the young “men” – the Howe Brothers, Orion and Lyston.
I am a descendant of the third marriage of their father, William Harrison Howe. (They are from William Howe’s first marriage.)
I spoke at the dedication of the Civil War monument in that small town of Streator, IL. honoring these brothers. There were others present who are descendants, one a direct grandaughter of Lyston’s. Two of my siblings, and yet, another who is of a sister of my granddfather, who is also descended from this third marriage.
We traveled from OTHER small towns for the event. (Eventho’ my siblings, and myself are originally from Chicago.) My brother, and myself came in from small Tennessee towns, my sister from the nearby town of Romeoville, IL., the direct-descendant from Elgin, IL., and our cousin, from Portage, IN. All are fairly small towns, when we could have stayed in our small home towns for memorials there…we had a purpose in mind, of attending the event of the dedication of the Civil War monument by the town where these young “men” had resided.
The void of a memorial to Civil War participants was satisfied with this memorial, which was long over due, by the town; nevertheless, now it proudly stands among those of other wars, in their Veteran’s Plaza in the City Park. These two young “men” of that war have been perpetually “honored” with their names on that monument.
My colinear family members, along with myself, were and are, very proud to have been in attendance in this event.
Again, Thanks for your bringing these two brothers and their notoriety, to the eyes of the public.