I entered the belly of the beast around 4 PM on a dreary Friday afternoon. After leaving Bowling Green in the gray mist that is everyday there, I continued in a northerly direction toward the city of fair Toledo. Left of me storm clouds approached in the intolerable way that they always do, and I prepared for rain. Drippy-drops hit the windshield as I passed the Mosque, an almost too-symbolic queue for what I’m about to get into.

This wretched place has sort of an impenetrable thought bubble around it, it has been economically devastated and here’s why: it’s not, “The Blacks” or “The Unions” or “The Fat Cats” it’s the religions. For all the ‘good intentions’ they may start from, faiths are far worse institutions than governments, and they rule the roost in northwest Ohio and Michigan.

The power of faith in fallacy is so strong that people complain about green energy progress here that won’t cost them a dime. The economics of the situation is starting to change people’s perception here, and you do see a Toyota Prius more often than I remember from my time at the University of Toledo, but this is just a backward place. The little cherry on top is that this is one of the most politically corrupt parts of the country, also being one of the most religious.

Racism is dying slowly in this country, there is only a difference of, “raised right” or “raised wrong” and “raised religious” is raised wrong. To dial it back a bit, there is no longer a racial glass ceiling, you can rise as high or go as far as your talents will take you, maybe even as far as south beach.

There is also a constant battle fought in this part of the country, a crusade against public education, and higher education in particular. I can tell you this: it doesn’t matter if you are attending a university in Columbus, London, Paris, Istanbul or Seoul, you are better for it. On days where the sun shines, and there are few, the University of Toledo is a beautiful place to be.

I say this in spite of president Lloyd Jacobs’ war against the college of arts and sciences. If you don’t mind, I’ll dig into the vault of 90’s rap to reference Dr. Dre’s classic debut album The Chronic,  “Lloyd Jacobs can eat big fat diiiick.”

The pilgrimage to my alma mater lead to significant amounts of nostalgic justification for the miserable years I spent in Toledo. As seen above, on the left, my computer lab of choice, Tucker Hall 0137, directly across from the mens room in the basement of the History Department, ironically in the same building as the center for women, often a forgotten majority of the world.

It’s much easier to forget the caffeine induced enemas when you see your old department building in the spring with all the intentionally beautiful, campus-tour-duping imagery that the campus provides. With that theme, I also remember taking great notes with party-induced heartburn was much easier to stomach when I wasn’t commuting to class behind this asshole:

From a starting point, I disagree with bumper-stickers unless they make people laugh. If they don’t, its a good way to degrade the look of your vehicle, and entice foolish people to key your paint-job. You can keep your guns, your, ‘freedom’ and your, ‘money’ but if you choose not to adapt to change, you’re the stupid one Darwin was talking about.

Thankfully I was in this terrible place to see Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds, at one of my favorite venues, The Royal Oak Music Theater near Detroit. The pleasant experience started with the genuine conversation with fellow concert-goers in the queue, and ended with a classy meeting with my favorite songwriter.

Beer in hand I wandered to the front of the house to enjoy the finest music I have yet to hear live. Noel Gallagher is a trip back in time to a place where peace and love were real ideas, naive as they may have ever been, the beauty is not lost. The crowd was as enjoyable as the performer, drunk as they may of been.

There isn’t a better night than Saturday night to see a show, no matter who it is. Noel’s act having a strong following makes the experience significantly more communal, this meaning, when we’ve all had a few beers, it doesn’t matter where we came from.

I try very hard to stay positive about my station in life, and none of it will be determined by the money I make, one can live happy on any wage. I do want to illustrate the point that your location can determine your state of mental clarity, and moving to Columbus was the best thing for me now. I may not die here, but I know I never truly lived until I left the place I was born.