We Are All Americans

NOTE: I began writing this post in November and sort of forgot about it and even though it is dated, the point of the post is not time specific.

Thursday night was the annual Wasco / Shafter football game (Shafter happens to be Wasco's biggest rival). Located 7 miles to the south, Shafter is a community slightly smaller in population than Wasco, although it is twice the size in square mileage.

The Wasco / Shafter rivalry manifests itself in many ways: politically, economically, academically and socially. The Shafter people tend to have a higher view of themselves and their community than do others in Kern County. Shafterites just have an air of superiority about them that rubs most Wasconians the wrong way. They think their schools are better, their churches are better, their lives are better and so on.

Interestingly, many people who live in Shafter have roots in Wasco and visa versa. In fact, in our church (located in Wasco), we have several families from Shafter that attend. Many people have family members that live in both Shafter and Wasco. More marriages than you might think involve a spouse from Wasco and a spouse from Shafter. I serve on boards with people from Shafter and I have friends who live in Shafter. Generally speaking we all seem to get along pretty well during the year, but when it comes to the Wasco / Shafter game nobody is neutral.(When I was in High School [go West Valley Rams] we had our rival, Selah, but that's for another post.)

This year, an interesting thing happened before the game. Since the next day was Veterans Day, a pick-up pulling a trailer, sponsored by the Marine Corps, drove around the track with several Shafter veterans on it. As the trailer came to the Wasco side everyone stopped being Wasconians for a brief second as we stood to applaud these great Americans who served our country. It was a meaningful moment that brought tears to my eyes ( but quickly passed as the Shafter cheerleaders followed on their own trailer to the boos and jeers of Wasco fans). Lest you think poorly of those of us from Wasco, the Shafter cheerleaders were taunting the Wasco fans as they went by on their float. Such is small town life!

It is interesting to me how we all have our own community that we identify with yet when push comes to shove we are able to put that aside to acknowledge that we are still all Americans.