Geographic illiteracy(Travel)

After reading a piece by Tim Egan in the New York Times about East Coast geographic illiteracy vis-a-vis the West Coast I got thinking that we are all a little guilty of geographic illiteracy. I remember losing a friend by not knowing which state was on top, Kentucky or Tennessee. After our first and only date, as someone from Tennessee, or Kentucky, she ended up sending me an atlas with a sticker stuck to Tennessee, or Kentucky, to let me know definitively which was which. I tried to apologize for my ignorance at the time but she was a proud member of one of these states and took umbrage at my ignorance. As much as I thought she over-reacted, I could identify with her, since in New York at the time of the Oklahoma City bombing, it seemed that the Michigan Militia had me as a member, in the minds of many, even though I was from Minnesota and the last time I was in Michigan was when I was ten. But since Timothy McVey was from a Midwestern state that started with M I got ribbed because I apparently was from his home state. By the time I finished explaining that my state is kinda shaped like a backwards E and Michigan is shaped like a mitten and a comma my audience was two or three miles away mentally given the 20 second attention span of the natives in New York City. Being from Minnesota, It takes me 20 seconds to clear my throat in preparation to talk.

In addition, it was not unheard of for a clerk in New York to list me as being from St. Paul(city), Minneapolis(state).

But it is also not just an East Coast thing. I had a girlfriend years ago, she was from the Bay Area, and for six months she kept telling friends that I was from Michigan (that damn state was giving me a complex). When I corrected her she would comment, "Oh, what's the difference." She eventually dumped me because, generally, she didn't like people from Michigan.

A friend in Minneapolis said, "Japan, China, what's the difference?" during dinner with another friend who's parents are from Shanghai.

In Seattle I run into the "Your from the East Coast,..." thing often. It seems "East Coast" can be used as a means of suggesting, "Your not from here are you?" even though they know damn well I'm from Michigan. In Seattle, I think, "East Coast" is an unknown land just east of the Cascade Mountains where a number of questionable people live.

And in OreGON you can't pump your own gas. In the Midwest it is hard for them to get the pronunciation of Oregon (like gun) correct since they really don't care. They'll pronounce it as they damn well please. Just like no one cares, in New York or California, that I'm not from Michigan or how no one in Seattle cares that states 1500 miles from the East Coast are not the "East Coast". Or, I'll admit, I didn't care that much about the geographic alignment of Tennessee or Kentucky but it seems that a lesson may be that everyone is a little touchy about where their from and it would behoove us to stay geographically informed, or at least display a willingness to learn, and to try to show a little empathy for those not like us. Or for those not from "here".