- Feb 5, 2002
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SIOUX CENTER, Iowa (OPINION) — When I moved to Sioux Center from Washington, D.C., five years ago to teach journalism at Dordt University, I emailed the school’s HR department to get contacts for moving companies who could unload our van.
You don’t need that around here, I was told. “I will put out an email at some point and see how many people will be around.”
OK, I replied. But I was a little skeptical. I shouldn’t have been.
On move-in day more than a dozen strangers showed up to help me lug couches, beds and boxes and boxes of books. I still owe some of them a thank-you cookout.
That first week we had new neighbors mow our lawn, cut down a dead tree branch and spray the yard for bugs. After all, we former city renters were short in the yard equipment department. I even had the owner of a local furniture store stay open well past his normal closing time when we arrived minutes before he usually locked the doors.
That’s the kind of community Sioux Center is. I see service in action a lot more than I hear any preaching about the gaining and maintaining of power. But that is not quite the Sioux Center depicted in a recent New York Times article.
I understand. I know how hard it is to parachute into a place and come away with a complete picture of that community. During my decade as a political reporter based in the nation’s capital, I once rented a car and drove across the country, from Washington, D.C., to Washington state, in advance of the 2010 midterm elections. I know it is tempting to go to a place and just report in a way that confirms your pre-existing stereotypes. That makes you feel smart. That you were dead-on with your insights. It’s much harder to be open to having your stereotypes challenged by your street-level reporting and not just seek out (or keep in your final piece) people who match your original thoughts on what a place is like.
After reading this article on my adopted town, I think the piece will satisfy East Coast readers who have a handful of stereotypes that pop into their minds on those rare times they think about flyover country. They likely nodded their heads in satisfaction that this article confirmed these preconceived notions, and then they turned the page.
Continued below.
Christians want power? Sioux Center pushes back on New York Times story
You don’t need that around here, I was told. “I will put out an email at some point and see how many people will be around.”
OK, I replied. But I was a little skeptical. I shouldn’t have been.
On move-in day more than a dozen strangers showed up to help me lug couches, beds and boxes and boxes of books. I still owe some of them a thank-you cookout.
That first week we had new neighbors mow our lawn, cut down a dead tree branch and spray the yard for bugs. After all, we former city renters were short in the yard equipment department. I even had the owner of a local furniture store stay open well past his normal closing time when we arrived minutes before he usually locked the doors.
That’s the kind of community Sioux Center is. I see service in action a lot more than I hear any preaching about the gaining and maintaining of power. But that is not quite the Sioux Center depicted in a recent New York Times article.
I understand. I know how hard it is to parachute into a place and come away with a complete picture of that community. During my decade as a political reporter based in the nation’s capital, I once rented a car and drove across the country, from Washington, D.C., to Washington state, in advance of the 2010 midterm elections. I know it is tempting to go to a place and just report in a way that confirms your pre-existing stereotypes. That makes you feel smart. That you were dead-on with your insights. It’s much harder to be open to having your stereotypes challenged by your street-level reporting and not just seek out (or keep in your final piece) people who match your original thoughts on what a place is like.
After reading this article on my adopted town, I think the piece will satisfy East Coast readers who have a handful of stereotypes that pop into their minds on those rare times they think about flyover country. They likely nodded their heads in satisfaction that this article confirmed these preconceived notions, and then they turned the page.
Continued below.
Christians want power? Sioux Center pushes back on New York Times story
