What does it mean to be from Idaho?

By Paul Roberts 

What does it mean to be from Idaho?

That thought crept up on me one day while I was reading my “local” newspaper, the Spokesman Review. “Local” in quotes of course, because the Spokesman comes from Spokane, Washington and I live 71 miles east in Kellogg, Idaho. The true local paper, the Shoshone (county) News Press, doesn’t really help answer the question, I figure, because it doesn’t really talk about Idahoans much in its two times a week eight page spread. It mostly talks about the happenings of the 12,000 or so citizens of the Silver Valley (squeezed in at approximately 4.9 people per square mile) who, while living in Idaho, could hardly be considered a representative sample of the state. No, I realized, to truly understand the state and its denizens, you must look from outside the state lines, and view us how the rest of the world does.

That’s why I was so pleased to see one of my fellow Idahoans mentioned so prominently in a national news story that probably appeared in dozens of newspapers across the country. What with so few Idahoans around, compared to the glorious number of tan Californians and savvy New Yorkers and the like across our great nation, we Idahoans must take pride in the few moments when our light shines most brightly. And so it shined in the article about celebrity stalkers, when the author identified only one of the dozens of certifiable zanies by his home state - Idaho. It only makes sense, you see, because the writer (obviously a tan Californian, or he wouldn’t have used so much ink describing his Hollywood friends and their greatest fans) knew that if he truly wanted his reader to understand the fear and intimidation felt by our most beloved public figures, all he had to do was mention that the perpetrator was FROM IDAHO and the chills would race down the collective spine of the nation. Nothing more need be said. Let the imagination be carried away by the dread phrase “stalker from Idaho.” The reader’s mind is the writer’s greatest weapon.

Surely, I have found the soul of Idaho. We Idahoans are more than just tater-lovin’, ore diggin’, jack-Mormon, Snake River jumpin’, white supremacist, blue turf red state conservatives lookin’ for a place to call home. We are Fear. We are Dread. I read it in the newspaper.

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What does it mean to you to be from Idaho? We invite you to have some fun answering that question whether you are from here or not. You are welcome to answer sincerely, snarkily, however you want to answer. Have some fun, and share your thoughts with us.

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