I grew up in Indiana and left a 1968 to go to college. I never went back. In my time, Indiana was filled with ignorant bigots. Despite nearly half a century, they have managed to preserve that contemptible aspect of local culture.
The difference between now and then is that now the state government has managed to find a way to re-legalize discrimination of EVERY kind, equal protection under the Constitution and federal law be hanged.
They were prejudiced in my days against everything that wasn’t male, white, and straight, and hailed from certain specified Christian sects (Catholics met in covens and drank blood, so they couldn’t apply) and had filthy names for everyone else.
Keep in mind that Indiana was the home of the Ku Klux Klan and the rest of this will start to make some sense.
Perhaps more than the faux Christian gusto with which this was passed by the legislature was that signing ceremony the governor staged.
Pence apparently aspires to be president, but clearly plans to be president of his kind only, and to chase away and disenfranchise everyone else, one way or another.
To be honest, Indiana doesn’t have much to recommend it in terms of development potential. It has worked hard in the last 40 years to draw new business. I’m sure it was expensive, and Governor Pence and his Teavangelical pals have just flushed all of it, including the future, down the toilet.
It’s pretty, at least in the south, so there is a thriving tourist industry. Tourist spending is discretionary, and people have a lot of other choices, so I expect that to drop like a rock
It has universities – Indiana, Purdue, Ball State, Indiana State, and many others. The trouble with that one is that educated people from out of state attend, and pay tuition. They have a lot of equally good, and far more welcoming, options.
There are sports – but that represents a problem in itself now that the NBA, the NCAA, and the NFL all admit that they provide services to everyone.
It has a tech industry, pharmaceuticals, and Cummins engines. All of this depends on being able to lure, hire and retain, educated, high-tech individuals to the state. And to be honest, Indiana is rather a hard sell.
The Cummins corporation story is especially instructive in this regard. Cummins is headquartered in Columbus, a very small town that in my day had NOTHING to recommend it. Cummins paid the architectural fees for world class architects not only for its own buildings, but for every new or remodeled building in town to make it more attractive. They did this for entirely pragmatic reasons: so they could attract, hire and retain talent.
In the private “signing ceremony” the governor staged for this, I noticed he was surrounded by what appeared be people dressed up like Catholic nuns and possibly a Hasidic Rabbi.
Possibly they were real. Klan history notwithstanding I guess the Catholics figure they’re safe now, all cozied up with the Teavangelicals, although I doubt His Holiness will be pleased. But about that Rabbi: what makes him think no one will come gunning for him next?
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