See this sign above? This was taken on May 21, 2011, by Andrea Laug. Andrea is a great friend of mine. She moved to New York City two years to take a job at a salon after graduating from Aveda in West Des Moines. She posted this picture on her Facebook page. I sarcastically posted a comment saying “Booo!” in jest. I thought it was funny.
Apparently for a few folks in Des Moines, they don’t see it that way.
In fact, this sign is a non-story, but it is a story because some Des Moinesians can’t help but to act offended. Note I didn’t write “feel offended.” Feel and act are different actions.
New Yorkers have been known to be the brunt of jokes longer than Iowa has been a state (okay, I’m stretching that a bit). For as much crap as they get, if anyone saw a similar sign and it had “New York” and not “Des Moines” on there, their response would be “fugetaboutit!” Most New Yorkers would scoff or laugh at it, and then brush it off and go on with their lives.
Des Moines, on the other hand…
…is acting like someone walked up to them and asked if their Mom was a Cougar.
No, “Really, Des Moines?!” Do we have to overreact to everything emotionally? Hell, I have a bigger issue on how the headline was written on Radio Iowa‘s blog. Then again, I’m no journalist or headline writer.
Sorry, but I don’t buy the notion that NYC was dogging us out. In fact, it helps Des Moines and its profile. How many New Yorkers have heard of Des Moines, outside of every four years when the caucuses roll into town? Secondly, as Suzanne Hull pointed out to me while I was writing this, “No P.R. is good P.R..” I have good friends who offered their comments to this story on different sites. I could not disagree with them more on this. That sign was not put up to “intentionally” demean Des Moines. To suggest that it is, I think it’s ludicrious.
If you can’t laugh at yourself and let this go, then that’s a “you” problem, as ESPN’s Colin Cowherd would say.
This “story” is an non-issue. Des Moines, take a chill pill and relax. We are who we are. Much like New Yorkers, you take it or leave it. They don’t care if you don’t like them, but they sure as hell wouldn’t be stopping in their tracks and whine about it.
Let it go.
Plus, Andrea should get credit for finding the sign first and then taking a picture of it.
Civility Is Not Dead...Yet 