People in Michigan

There are a few things I have realized about people in Michigan but the thing that bothers me most is their paranoia.

It seems like people here think that everyone is out to get them. When we had the garage sale Irene and Teresa didn't want to talk to any of the neighbors. They felt that the neighbors where "being nosey" and "wanting to know all about their business." Now, Chuck has lived in the house all his life, all the neighbors know that he has cancer and they just want to know how he is doing. To me I feel they are just being nice neighbors. But to Irene, "you can't talk to them; they just want to know when they can come to get all the tools out of Chuck's shop."

I guess it is little things too. Just little comments. Bad things happen to everyone, it is a matter of how that event is judged by the person it happened to. I feel people out here judge bad things that happen to them as the world being out to get them.

I am not sure why people feel this way. I do not know if it is something about suburbia that I am not used to, or if it is the workings of Bush's fear tactics being made manifest into daily life. But I am not familiar with people having so much fear. For the last few years of being in college I was surrounded by those who think they are invincible. The only thing people feared in college was how well they would do on mid-terms and finals. Not that their professors were out to get them and make their lives miserable. There was no mal-intent to finals, finals were just finals.