not a melting pot

Great read:  If we decide the election, who are we?

In spite of the “election” reference, it is not just about politics.  It’s a great insight as to the paradox that is “the people of Tampa Bay.”

It helps that it is written by Ben Montgomery, one of the most talented writers in all the land.  I encourage you to read the whole bit, but check out these tidbits:

In the Tampa Bay area, we live at the vortex of bloodshed and sunshine and amusement and unpredictability, much like it must have been in the early days, before Plymouth Rock and Jamestown, when the first North American exploration by white men was launched right here. Panfilo de Narvaez, 1528.

We are diverse racially, economically, politically and ideologically, but the area is not so much a melting pot as it is a collection of tribes situated around a giant pool of saltwater.

We feed our homeless and drive them from public property, thumbs hooked on Tasers.

Our cities are brimming with Rhodes scholars and transvestlte prostltutes, wiccans and nudlsts, carnies and Southern Baptists, retirees in golf carts and military personnel from MacDill Air Force Base, where the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan are run. Two of the Sept. 11 terrorists blended right in.

We have, according to a 2006 UCLA study, the fifth-highest percentage of gay, lesbian and bisexual residents of the top 50 metropolises in the country, behind San Francisco, Seattle, Boston and Portland, Ore. We also have a county commission that voted to ban county sponsorship of Gay Pride events.

There is much more to highlight our collective schizophrenia – go read the whole thing, and add your own examples here in the comments.