My homestate, Missouri, often gets a bad rap. It's stuck in the middle of nowhere. The people are bassackwards, and there's nothing to do. I beg to differ on that... Stuck in the middle of nowhere? How can you be stuck in the middle of nowhere when you're surrounded by St. Louis and Kansas City (Okay - someone's trying my patience. There's not a decent city guide to KC on the web, which isn't helping my argument that Missouri is a good place to be.)? Were Harry Truman, Mark Twain, and Charlie Parker backwards? Hell, no!

Fact is, I've lived in Missouri all my life. I was born and raised in Sedalia. I graduated from Smith-Cotton High School in 1991, moving to Columbia a few months later to attend The University of Missouri, my current employer

Missouri's not just farms, banjo-pickin', and running off to Arkansas to marry your cousin. There's lots of cool stuff in Columbia to keep you occupied. Or, if you want to be in the great outdoors, you've got to hit the Katy Trail. It's over 200 miles of old train tracks that have been ripped out and turned into a nature trail that cuts through some of the most beautiful scenery in the state, everything from plains of corn fields to the towering limestone bluffs beside the Missouri River. Then there's my favorite part of the state - wine country. Rocheport's Les Bourgois Winery and Bistro is a wonderful place to spend an autumn afternoon. I recommend the Jeunette Rogue. But by far the best feature of the state are the people, espeically the storytellers who are preserving the oral and written traditions.

I'll be the first to admit that the place is great, but I'll also be the first to admit that it's not perfect. This week an historic landmark in my hometown was nearly destroyed by arson, the interior walls emblazened with the words "Fags go home", directed at the owners of the building, a piece of history gone because of a deep, ignorant hatred. It makes me ashamed to say that the place that is such a part of me is also a part of someone who would do such a thing. Anyplace you go is a sum of its people, its geography, and its history, not the isolated actions of a small-minded few. And maybe if I keep reminding myself, the shame will go away.