Drove through rural Idaho this weekend. This, just outside of my old college town of Caldwell, about 30 minutes west of Boise.

husseinfarmcity.jpg

And the close up.

husseinfarmcityclose.png

I really like Idaho, actually. It’s weird that the entire area around Boise is this overwhelming, never-ending sprawl of sterile subdivisions, all of which look like they’ve been built by the Bluth Company, and it’s also weird that you’ll see signs like the one above every once in a while, sometimes proclaiming giant verses from the Bible and sometimes just reminding you that no matter how many Obama bumper stickers you slap on your bike, your vote will be nullified and canceled out by somebody with the exact opposite set of belief systems as you. But that stuff aside, Idaho is often gorgeous, and there are good people there, too, even though they might be in the minority vs. the batshit crazy ones, and the whole goddamn state is just so earnestly and wholeheartedly and desperately American, for better and for worse, that it’s a pretty great place to be on the Fourth of July. Or maybe this is more accurate: It is, if nothing else, a very appropriate place to be for the Fourth of July.

With honor and distinction, Erik Henriksen served as the executive editor of the Portland Mercury from 2004 to 2020. He can now be found at henriksenactual.com.

10 replies on “A Warm Welcome to Farm City.”

  1. Yeah…. I’ve got a similar love/hate affair with Texas. The crap I hate about it is just about the exact same thing I love about it.

  2. A friend of mine got married in Caldwell a couple of years ago and I stayed in a motel down the street from that sign.That weekend it was thanking recently-deceased former congressional rep. Helen Chenowith, apparently for her role in completely eradicating the dreaded wild salmon from Idaho.

  4. Reading that was the first moment when I realized that someone might actually try and shoot him. I’ve heard that before from people, but never really believed it. America is better than that.

    But there’s something so hateful about this billboard that I know believe it could happen.

    Thanks for bumming me out, Idaho.

  5. interesting sign, but can the merc please stop with the self-hating, i-want-to-spend-the-fourth-with-real-americans-not-portlanders theme, please.

    getting in touch with the red states is so new york times 2004. we don’t need to “understand” guys who put up signs like this. they are hate-filled dumbshits. the end.

  9. soo…. it’s fine and dandy to say McCain is a moron but when the tables turn around everyone gets sensitive?

    Grow up.

Comments are closed.