Reader contribution - yes, I have readers!

I am pleased to post the second installment in the ‘map of the world’ series, this time from the Midwestern US.

Not being from the Midwest or having lived there, I am not “qualified” to create such a map, so I’m grateful to Mike who spent the time to create this map and contribute it!

On a side note, some people have sent me links to Our Dumb World . The first map of the world from los angeles was not inspired by that site, but rather by this map that has been floating around the internet for quite some time.

While The Onion’s site is great, the main problem that I have with it is that it presents the world as two places, America and the states of Not-America, perpetuating this myth that America and Americans are a homogenous, unifed bunch, or, at best, separated neatly into Bush supporters or haters, red or blue state. There are interesting aspects to the way Americans from one part of the country view another to be explored, and the degree they are involved, culturally and economically, with foreign countries.

While these maps obviously still make broad generalisations, there is a significant difference in the way Midwesterners, East Coasters, Southerners, West coasters, etc. view the world, and while we may be poking fun at these people through these maps, I would at least hope that it helps people outside the US to realize that America, a vast country of 300 million people, is a much more complicated place than commonly perceived.