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My Point of View by Jennifer Vogt-Erickson 

This summer marks 20 years since my husband and I moved to Albert Lea. Both of us moved to new communities multiple times as children, so this is by far the longest either of us have lived in one location. Our children were born in this town, and it’s likely that they will be raised entirely in Albert Lea.

“Well I was born in a small town…”

Albert Lea is in the middle of a rural area, but for day-to-day life, you can find pretty much everything you need right here in town, and you don’t need to drive to Rochester or the Cities to get it. And please buy local, because it keeps money circulating in our economy and has a multiplier effect. It’s like a garden — what you water regularly is what will grow the best.

“Got nothing against the big town…”

The term “small town” is sometimes a stand-in for “small-minded,” but these ideas are not interchangeable. The best that small towns have to offer isn’t backward thinking, conformity and fear of change; instead, it’s community and support and rootedness. It’s people who know your backstory and maybe that of your parents and grandparents, too. It’s people checking in with each other and looking out for each other and other people’s kids.

“Yeah, I can be myself here in a small town…”

Many families in Albert Lea will be celebrating Pride Fest on Saturday, June 21, at Central Park. I’m grateful that the Convention and Visitors Bureau is promoting it — it’s a key way to show that Albert Lea is open to diverse people and experiences. It reinforces to me that this is the kind of town in which I want to live and raise my kids. My kids are safest and most free in a town where children and people from other vulnerable populations are safe and free.

“And people let me be just what I want to be…”

You may have seen Brad Kramer’s condemnation of this fun and affirming event in his My Point of View column last week. He also claims in the column that he respects his gay friends and that he doesn’t promote hate. A few days later, though, he wrote a public post on Facebook in which he called a man the anti-gay slur “faggy.”

I encourage people who have become more open-minded to vocally reject anti-LGBTQ attitudes and to not let it define our small town. It’s just ugliness in defense of patriarchy. At its core, it’s an intolerance toward ways of living that don’t conform to a strict social order where women are subservient to men and are compelled to provide undervalued, underpaid (or unpaid) labor. Feminists and LGBTQ people mess up that order; that’s why they are perceived as such a threat.

Patriarchal power structures also tend to turn a blind eye toward pedophile priests and serial girl sexual abusers like Jeffrey Epstein, and victims have fought for decades to pry justice from these systems and reform them.

Republicans are more likely to favor an authoritarian father model, and some Trump supporters have taken it to a creepy extreme, cheering “Daddy’s home!” in response to Tucker Carlson’s psychosexual rant on the campaign trail last fall about Trump being like a father who comes home and spanks a disobedient 15-year-old girl. I find this ecstatic celebration of abusive behavior much more troubling than people being entertained by drag queens in dynamite make-up, wigs and high heels.

“But I’ve seen it all in a small town…”

This summer also marks forty years since John Mellencamp released the album “Scarecrow,” which includes his hit song “Small Town.” It’s still popular, and I turn it up whenever it plays on the radio. Mellencamp’s hometown in Indiana is between the size of Albert Lea and Austin, and the music video for “Small Town” is half a slideshow of family pictures and scenes from Seymour. Most of us, especially those who grew up in small towns before iPhones and social media, can closely relate to the community pride that infuses the pictures and music.

There is lots to celebrate in small town life, and you can still emphatically reject bigotry. Mellencamp loves his hometown and has publicly supported same sex marriage. We have come such a long, long way in accepting people for who they are, even in small towns, and we are much better for it.

This Saturday, June 14, a “No Kings” protest will be held in New Denmark Park at 10 a.m. It’s part of nationwide protests against Trump and his authoritarian excesses, including the Soviet-style military parade he demanded for his birthday.

You and me and all the other “boring romantics” in small towns and big cities across the country will keep building the movement to save democracy.

Jennifer Vogt-Erickson is a member of the Freeborn County DFL Party.