11 Comments

Great Sunday reading while watching a wealthy Indianapolis church move in across the street and excuse the poor neighbors after one community service last summer. I dread Sundays - the neighbors don't come out of their apartment building anymore.

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I'm glad you liked it so much! Thank you.

In my view "wealthy church" is such a contradiction in terms since Jesus made more than clear how hard it was for the wealthy to get into heaven...

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I think the culture is so terrible because the majority of people that live here havent ever expwrienced anything other than this. That beimg said, the majoritu of those people dont like or welcome change, i mean, loom how long it took for them to accept that there are people that arent the same color as them. Its absolutely absurd. Generally speaking though, i think its definitly a midwest thing, not just indiana. To amswer your question on where would i like to live, i havent quite narrowed it down yet and Im sure thats one of the main reasons im still here, that and my familyis here so it would just be a nightmare traveling back and forth now thay my parents are getting older. However, i will not stay here forever, if i have to sell everything i own and live in my car for a while then so be it. I can tell you that wherever i go, its going to

be somewhere that doesnt really have a winter. I absolutely hate the cold. That movie theatre, is it in the Castleton Square? I drive by there every now and then when i go

to lunch, the place i work at is right

off gray road, its a trucking company. Sorry for any typos, i turned off auto correct so i can train myself to type fast without messing up or having auto correct change my favorite word to duck. It ducking pisses me off!

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i have not finished reading this but i just wanted to tell you what led me to fimd this. Im in the bathroom at work, frustrated with current state laws that prohibit me from obtainjng the only medicine that works for me without turning me imto a full blown drug addict, I typed "I hate indiana" in google search so i could read why other people hate it here and hopefully not be as frustrated as i was when i started knowing that other relatively close by citizens felt the same. Anyways im originally from northwest indiana, then moved to just south of south bend, and now i live in kokomo, i worked on the east side of indy for about two months and then came to the place im at now which is in Carmel. not sure which side, we are just north of 86th street. Its way better now that inhave mobed down here closer to the city, but growimg up out in the country in Indiana is rough. ive never hated a staye more in my life than this one. i come from a poor family so im doimg everything i can to get the hell out of this sad sack sorry good for nothing ass state. People here dont value anything, people here absoluely digust me, and the buggest thing ive learned about Indiana, is that people will do absolutely any, and everything to avoid actually doimg their job/doing anything. People here are so lazy, and very very very uneducated about what goes on outside of their hometowns. So yea to wrap it all up, I feel your pain, and I Hate INDIANA!!!!!

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I’m so glad you found my piece, Cody! How wild that you are in Carmel around 86th street. 20 years ago when I was in college I used to work at a movie theater nearby called Castleton Arts that showed foreign and indie movies.

Why do you think the culture in Indiana is so terrible? Do you think it’s something specific about the state or is it more just the Midwest in general that sucks?

And where do you want to live instead?

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I loved your story about Indiana. Your right about everything. I feel stuck here like that too. I will never get out, but I have God. It was nice reading and knowing that someone else gets it....about this state. God bless you.

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Thank you for your kind words. Please tell me more more about your experiences and perspective.

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David/Sally- Please take all my posts, information, and any other related to editing off the site. I’m very happy that you are working through your past, present, and finding what you wish to be in the future and I wish you both healing, mind and body. I’m sorry that you were treated poorly and suffered such a great deal of anxiety as a result.

Thank you-

Audie Cockings

Traverse City, Michigan, Midwest

Not a shitty, bigoted place or people.

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Hi, Audie,

I'm so sorry if this piece gave the impression, in denouncing Indiana, that Michigan was also in the crosshairs! It is not. Though I, too, am a native Hoosier, my family has maintained a treasured vacation property in MI, in the woods outside of Cadillac, for four generations now. Our darling niece lives up in Ypsilanti. And David's mom grew up in MI! So "Pure Michigan" 🤣 will be in his blood both biologically and by marriage.

Neither of us wants you to feel that the criticisms levied at Midwest culture were meant to apply to your home state. We both think of MI more as a part of the Wisconsin/Minnesota "Great North" area. I personally have nothing but happy memories made there.

Thank you for sharing your feedback!

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This is correct. I don't have animosity toward Michigan and don't regard it as part of the Midwest. I have a generally positive view of the Wisconsin/Minnesota/Michigan region. Especially Wisconsin because of their amazing cheese. To me the Midwest is Iowa, Missouri, Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, and Kentucky. (Though Iowa blends with the Great North states and Kentucky blends with the South.) But especially the trio of Illinois, Indiana and Ohio - they're the heart of the Midwest and really what I'm most talking about as "Midwest culture."

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This is a very cruel comment from someone I've been encouraging with her writing for many years and regarded as a friend. Even more cruel that you felt the need to post it in public on a post where I'm trying to be very honest about how growing up here was very damaging to me. You're sort of proving my point about how cruel and intolerant Midwest culture as a whole truly is. I'm shocked that you would post this.

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