Editor’s Note: From the Back Forty is Liberty Nation’s longest-running and most popular weekly column. Capturing the truth each week from heartlanders in flyover states, LN gives voice to the hard-working Americans otherwise ignored by the coastal elites.
Heartlanders love a good prank, but April Fools Day 2023 went by without a startle, guffaw, or practical joke. Instead, discussions ranged from the Trump indictment and the latest tragic school shooting to the war on grooming children to be transgender victims. It was a spicy week, as one Hoosier proclaimed: “We’re living an April Fool’s Day daily under this administration.”
The Heartland Reacts to Trump Indictment
Flyover folks are mostly methodical decision-makers. They combine ranch and farm smarts, book learning, and common sense before diving into the unknown. The Trump indictment is no different than deciding whether to let the animals out of the barn when a tornado is approaching. But, of course, that depends on where the reported twister is at the given moment.
Although several Republican and Democratic politicians are grabbing the media’s attention with their reactions to the indictment, most folks in the red state world are taking a wait-and-see approach. Until the indictment is unsealed, most people are hesitant to draw a line in the sand.
Tommy House in Georgia warned of the quicksand threat, “He who laughs last, laughs best.” And another Hoosier at the local pub in Williamsport, IN, reminded, “Pride cometh before the fall.”
The Nashville Transgender Tragedy
People of a certain age in farming, ranching, and rural hunting communities ask the same question every time a school is a targeted out of jealousy or revenge: “What happened to our kids along the way?” Three children and three adults at Nashville’s private Christian institution, Covenant School, became the latest victims of a mentally disturbed young person. The rush by the media to sympathize with the transgender shooter or conceal the facts of the incident sparked outrage.
“If it was a belligerent, beer-drinking SOB with a bad temper living in a trailer in Alabama, you’d know the name of his cat by now,” sniped Brenda McRae in Arkansas. But, she continued, “He’d be a racist, gay-hating, wife beater who preyed on everything but his buddies. But we can’t know nothing about a mentally ill trans person?”
CBS delivered a memorandum to employees, warning them to steer clear of the word “transgender.” Ingrid Ciprian-Matthews, the executive vice president of newsgathering, and Claudia Milne, the senior vice president of standards, were behind the directive that states in part: “POLICE IDENTIFIED THE SUSPECT AS A 28-YEAR-OLD AUDREY HALE, WHO [sic] THEY SHOT AND KILLED AT THE SCENE. And move on to focus on other important points of the investigation, community, and solutions.” But that’s not what transpired.
The police publicly announced to the gathered reporters that “she does identify as transgender.” Hmm. According to a Breitbart report, CBS journalists were not keen on the deception. As one reporter was alleged to have said: “This is absurd because the police identified Hale as transgender. If the cops didn’t address it, maybe you could avoid it, but withholding information is not journalism.”
In Indianapolis, IN, Sheila Cotton Dobbins reacted, “Denying and lying makes it so…at least that’s what they think. And some will believe them, the brainwashed ones who worship the left.”
Even Caitlyn Jenner had a thing or two to say on the shooting: “I don’t consider grooming children a value. I don’t consider violence to shut down opposition a value. Let’s be very clear… The Radical Rainbow Mafia is a threat to peace and order. They are a fringe group of ‘activists’ hijacking the LGBT population. It is an utter shame! It’s beyond a shame…it’s DANGEROUS!
Jenner was applauded. One of Jenner’s fans in Lake Hills, IL, Janet Summerfelt, commented: “I have a lot of respect for Caitlin. She is not an activist, does not push an agenda, and has publicly stated over and over Men DO NOT belong in women’s sports…ever.”
And Then There Was This
Heartlanders remember Riley Gaines, the Former University of Kentucky swimmer and now Independent Women’s Forum spokesperson. Gaines was the athlete forced into the unfortunate position of competing against transgender swimmer Lia Thomas. The former was invited to University of Pittsburgh to discuss that odd time in her life.
Gaines was mid-talk when she commented on Professor Gabby Yearwood’s preening about how much he knows about everything. Gaines singled the professor out: “So if you were to dig up a human, two humans, in 100 years from now, both man and woman, could you tell the difference, strictly off of bones?”
Gabby replied, “no.” The room erupted in laughter and near chaos. Yearwood was shocked and stated: “I’m not sure why I’m being laughed at if I’m the expert in the room. Have any of you been to archeological sites? Have any of you studied biological anthropology? I’m just saying; I’ve got over 150 years of data, I’m just curious as to why I’m being laughed at.”
Gaines replied: “I actually, believe it or not, have put a lot of research into this because…” However, Yearwood could not stand for a discussion and barked back, “I have a Ph.D.!”
More laughter. But Gaines held her cool and took the man down significantly: “Every single rational person knows the answer: men have narrower hips, their skulls are different, they have an extra rib, their femurs are longer, their jaws are different.”
Heartlanders commented: “Trust the science.”
