The coming battle that really isn’t

By Tony Farkas
This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

I’ve never really been a fan of country music.

Don’t get me wrong; there are quite a lot of songs I really like, and having been in a band, anyone who gets up in front of an audience, even if they’re not top quality, deserves respect, because that ain’t an easy gig.

Along those lines, I don’t like hip hop, rap, screamo, death metal or yodeling, and there’s probably a lot more, but you get the point. Since I don’t like it, I do the unimaginable and not listen to it.

I read a lot of information out there that the Jason Aldean song “Try That in a Small Town” is evil and must be destroyed by the caring, warm-hearted and loving individuals who feel it necessary to protect the people and the planet from whatever currently is considered evil.

The complaints cover the spectrum you’d expect: it inspires fear in people, particularly residents of large cities; inspires violence against said city dwellers; exhorts small-town residents to resort to gun violence; and seeks to get the small towners to rise up and practice vigilantism and mistrust against outsiders.

Having read the lyrics, I can come to a simple conclusion: the Karens and pearl-clutchers who condemn the song are continuing the apparently accepted trend of disparaging anything that makes people feel proud or even safe. As an added bonus, there is the belief that the song comes from a genre of music that is predominantly made by white people for white people, and it is so OK to hate on white people these days.

My takeaway is a bit different, but not because I have a greater understanding of the intention of the song or because I use words as a means of communication. The events mentioned specifically in the song, such as spitting on police officers, robbery, and even governmental overreach, are anathema to the morals and beliefs of the small-town people, and that they wouldn’t stand for it as it seems has been done in the big cities.

Related Articles

Youth Talent Show Coming Up

Flopping isn’t just for fish out of water

See, folks like those in East Texas believe in law and order, believe in the Bible and caring for our neighbors, respect others and their beliefs, are patriotic and generally behave with manners. We’ll even welcome newcomers with a smile.

The naysayers and whiners, though, seem to think that people protecting and taking care of themselves is the bad thing here, and not one has made mention of the criminal activity, cruelty, selfishness and disrespect that fictitious perpetrators exhibited.

That is probably the most egregious miss, which is the kind of thinking that leads to arguments about gun control, no bail legislation and the refusal to prosecute minor crimes that are prevalent in the societies of big cities. Every criminal is a victim, and every victim is either a criminal or deserving of their fate.

Since dealing with crime and criminals has waned, society has become either violent or fearful. Schools are now armed camps, new subdivisions have become gated communities, neighbors sometimes never even meet, doorbells and lightbulbs are cameras capturing whatever shenanigans are in the area, and there’s a growing market for dashboard cameras for vehicles.

Many if not most of you growing up remember being outside all day or running down to the store by yourself to get a soda, or helping your neighbors move in or haul in groceries and leaving the doors to your car and house unlocked at night. These are the things that are emblematic of small towns, yet for some reason, they’re bad, and singing about them is inciting violence.

Plus, country music and songs by Aldean, or Toby Keith or Lee Greenwood are treated as anti-American or something, yet rap lyrics that are misogynistic or glorify street violence or books that teach first-graders about sex should not only be required listening and reading, but are lauded as culturally and socially significant.

Excuse us down here, but we would rather follow a moral code than be subject to the whims of people who are angry but don’t know why. But we can help you, if you come over and set a spell with some of our homemade sweet tea.