The Midwest is the Best-Kept Secret of the United States

All the attention of the United States is primarily focused on its media centers, New York and L.A. It should come as no surprise. These two locations and their surrounding areas have developed as the hubs of popular culture, news, media, fashion, etc. Television shows and movies depicting life all over the world are fabricated, produced, then marketed from these corners of the world, leaving the rest of us to consume them, along with whatever merchandise they inspire. A large part of the attention America receives is captured and relayed to the rest of the world in that media.
Occasionally, one will find a movie or a TV show that does not take place in New York or L.A. or is about people in some other area of the world, but the majority of shows on TV take place in or are based on these high-profile areas of our country. For example, in recently memory I can think of TV shows like L.A. Law, L.A. Doctors, L.A. Firefighters, LAX, the O.C., Lincoln Park, Laguna Beach, Arrested Development, Curb Your Enthusiasm, Entourage. All these shows take place in Los Angeles or the L.A. area. Give us a break, California's not that great. They even film reality TV there, the fakest place on earth.
On the flip side, you have your high-profile shows like Seinfeld, Friends, Law & Order, the Sopranos, NYPD Blue, Will & Grace, Flight of the Conchords that all take place in New York. New York and L.A. are dynamic and interesting in their own ways, but do they really need to take all the spotlight from the rest of America? Every once in a while, you have TV shows that are not based in New York or L.A., but in other dynamic cities of America, such as Las Vegas, Miami, Boston, or Chicago. With the exception of Chicago, the attention is still directed primarily at the eastern and western seaboards of the United States.
In addition to the media circuit, the east and west coasts have their stranglehold on the news industry as well. Most of the news in this country comes from Washington, D.C., on the east coast. A lot comes from New York. Our "national" news comes from New York. L.A. gets its voice in there as well. How much of our exported news is celebrity news and gossip? As if that's really important.
Even as we have other important hubs of entertainment located in other areas of the country, Atlanta, Tennessee, Pennsylvania, Orlando, other parts of California, the Midwest of the United States is largely ignored. When foreign visitors travel from other countries, for the most part, they go towards these commercial centers. How often does one see a group of Japanese tourists on a street corner in Iowa?
As if that wasn't enough, everything that is broadcast on TV is broadcast from the eastern time zone. Prime time in television is 8:00pm eastern time. That means that people in the Midwest have to alter their schedules if they want to watch prime time TV. When they advertise TV shows and the times to watch them, they mention central time secondly, in passing, as if it's not even important, without even uttering an existence of mountain time. Does anybody on the east coast even know that there is a mountain time zone? So what, nobody in Colorado watches TV?
The only kind of national attention the Midwest gets, I feel, are in the avenues of professional sports and, to a lesser extent, music. Professional sports get all kinds of media coverage, and they are in virtually every big city in the U.S., even the Midwest. But even so, there are certain areas of the Midwest that are even further ignored: Iowa, the Dakotas, Nebraska, the rest of Illinois. So everybody in Illinois has to be a fan of Chicago sports just because those are the only teams they have? I don't buy it.
Professional musicians that tour, e.g. bands, give significant interest to the other cities that are wholly ignored by other forms of media. Rarely will you find a T-shirt of a band's tour that does not include cities like Boise, ID, Omaha, NE, or St. Louis, MO. Bands on successive tours know that there are people in these towns, and more than that, people who like to rock!
While I do think the communication and published media gaps in the world are getting smaller, thanks in large part to the internet, I think there is still a great deal of uncertainty and intrigue in the Midwest. If one were to look at a map of cell phone coverage in the U.S., you would see that there are whole sections of the states of Montana, Wyoming, Nebraska, and the Dakotas that are untouched by modern technology. Does that mean there are no people there? Of course not! Well, not everywhere. But don't the few people who are there deserve cell phones just as much as the people on the east coast?
Perhaps, though, what gives the Midwest its intrigue is the fact that all this other stuff is taking up its space away from the Midwest, leaving the Midwest with its space for whatever it wants to do with it. In the Midwest, you don't have people scrambling to be a part of this attention-grubbing environment that consumes so much of the rest of the United States. People in the Midwest are honest, well-mannered, laid-back, careful. They have nothing to hide.
It is difficult to pinpoint, but people in the Midwest have a philosophy of life that is drastically different from people on the east and west coasts. They look at things more broadly. They are used to having more space and more time. Even though they can have the same values or education as people on the coast, they have something else. They have a different understanding.

The Midwest is a place not many people have heard of. Because of that, not many people have heard the great things that the Midwest has. People might ask, "What happens there?" One might say that nothing happens there, but really a great deal happens, but it depends on one's own interpretation to determine whether it is worth experiencing or not.
The Midwest has a character about it that is vastly different than any other part of the country, and this can be seen from the smallest farm town to the biggest metropolis. Even Chicago, which is the biggest and most publicized city of the Midwest, cannot turn away its unique Midwestern flavor. Chicago, as busy a metropolis as it is, stretches upward towards the sky from its marshy lake front roots, and if you travel outside the urban sprawl just a little bit, right away you are thrust into the unmistakable environment of the Midwest.
Long stretches of widely vacant highways bring automobile drivers to small towns with town squares, hole-in-the wall bars or restaurants, homes of families, churches, schools, stores, and people. Interesting people with stories to tell. People who are just as informed and energetic and independent as people on the east coast. People who are conservative. People who have never left town and have no need or intention to ever. People who have nothing in common with their neighbors except that they live where they live.
And yet everybody in the Midwest is connected somehow. It may be through its network of highways that bring people from towns to slightly larger towns and even cities. It may be a connection that they have seemingly nothing in common with people on the east and west coasts. Certainly, being from the Midwest differentiates people from the other Americans on the East and West coasts, and they take pride in that.

The Midwest of the United States is often referred to as the heartland, and with good reason. The Midwest provides so much for the rest of the country that the rest of the country takes for granted. How much of the United States' corn, wheat, soybeans, cattle, chickens, and pork are raised in the Midwest? A pretty good chunk. Because of the amazing improvements in shipping and manufacturing, it is possible to get these homemade products even to the farthest stretches of the United States, like Tacoma, Washington, Maine, and Key West, Florida.
A lot of people, without going there, could not possible develop an appreciation for the state of Wisconsin from far away. Perhaps it is something that one has to physically take in to appreciate, but it is not something that should be ignored. I feel like Wisconsin is not on the map for a lot of Americans. Many Americans know that it is there, but feel no need to investigate it. They might think, "What do they do there, eat a lot of cheese?" While this stereotype might be somewhat true, Wisconsin is quintessential Midwest, and consequently quintessential America. Wisconsin has something for everyone. It holds within its boundaries beautiful lakes, scenic woods, vast prairies, small towns, farm communities, and some of the finest cities you will find in America in Madison and Milwaukee.
One might say that I am biased, as I spent four years in the state of Wisconsin going to school in the tiny town of Beloit, but as that is true it has only increased my appreciation for America's heart of heartlands, even after my previous experiences in the Badger state. Living in New York City, I feel a lot of people here would say about Wisconsin, "Let them have their north country, their cheese, their Wisconsin. I don't need it. I'm fine right here. I'm happy in my New York." I feel the same could be said in reverse from Wisconsinites about New York. "Let them have their fancy tiny apartments and hotels, their seafood restaurants, their taxi cabs. I'll take the prairie."
These two areas of the country may not fully realize each other's significance, I, having spent time in either place, am prepared to say that Wisconsin and New York City are in their own right, each other's complete antithesis and ultimate fantasy.
In a way, I feel Wisconsin will be constantly stretching for the fame and glory and excitement of New York City, while New York City will be effortlessly striving to find peace and quiet under the stars. Neither one will ever get to be the other. Wisconsin, by itself, could not possibly represent all that is American life. New York, by itself, could not do that either. Together, though, they embody the balance that America is ultimately looking for.

Yet, nobody ever talks about the Midwest. It gets no mention. It gets scurried under the rug. So much gets said about New York and Los Angeles and Boston and San Francisco, but the Midwest is not spoken for. While it may not be as sensational and frequently newsworthy as the outer portions of the country, I can assure you that the Midwest is just as dynamic, just as noteworthy, and well-worth your attention.
It is not always as kind and friendly and peaceful as the storybooks make it out to be. Not everyone is friendly or will invite you into their home for fresh-baked goods. It's not a Norman Rockwell painting, though parts of it may have inspired some. The Midwest is just like any other part of the United States, only different. If you are not from there, go there, and you'll see what I mean. If you are from there, and have since moved away from there, you probably already know what I mean. But not a lot of other people do.
For better or worse, the Midwest is the best-kept secret of the United States.