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 Liberal Unfriendly Place: Fairview, TNThese are comments on Fairview, submitted by other Turn Left visitors. They do not necessarily represent the opinion of the webmaster. You may add a comment on Fairview if you want. 
My hometown of Fairview, Tennessee, has got to be one of the most liberal-unfriendly cities around. Situated in the northwest corner of Williamson County (not a very liberal-friendly locale either) and 30 miles to the west of Nashville, Fairview (interesting footnote: it was called "Jingo" from 1878 to 1937) is simply your average WASP nest, where about half the populace belong to about a dozen different families and where Christianity (read: right-wing Protestantism) is the dominant faith. As one learns from a glance at the op-ed page of the local paper, the majority of Fairviewians hate Bill Clinton with a passion; however, Reagan and Limbaugh enjoy almost godlike status. The town's rightward slant is underscored by the fact that many residents live way out in the sticks and are rabid gun owners. (There seems to be an unwritten rule around here that the farther you live from Highway 100-which serves as Fairview's main street-the farther you are to the right on the political !
spectrum
Fairview is a religious-right paradise. After all, it was at a PTA meeting at Fairview High that the Williamson County school superintendent (a right-winger himself) was cheered lustily when he talked about getting spanked at school as a child and receiving another spanking when he got home-whether he needed it or not. (Sick.) The local churchgoing population is mainly divided between the conservative First Baptist Church-which my family once attended-and the even more conservative Fairview Church of Christ, and some church members have been active in conservative politics. Example: in 1994, conservative county school board members, led by Carole Robinson of Faitview, defeated a measure that would have established a publicly funded day-care center for teenage mothers at Fairview High, with the flimsy excuse that using public funds to support a day-care center would encourage teenage sex, or as they put it, "fornication." All in all, right-wing religious beliefs run deep in Fai!
rview;
as my mom has put it, "You can't spit in this town and not hit a Christian conservative."
Fairview has had almost no racial problems-most likely because the town has almost no blacks! The only black kids I knew during my three-year stint in the local public schools were two brothers and a sister, originally from Detroit, who left Fairview and transferred to another school during my 10th grade year. For me, the most disappointinting aspect of Fairview's conservatism has been the attitude of citizens about the future of the 600-acre Fairview Nature Park. The park, which is home toan annual "Nature Fest," as well as mountain bike trails that are becoming well-known around the state, is on land that was left to the city in the will of Dr. Evangeline Bowie, on the condition that it be preserved and used for a park. But then in 1996, progress reared its ugly head when the city commission decided to erect a town square-using part of the land from the Nature Park. I had expected Fairviewians to write to the local paper by the hundreds, protesting the destruction of what had become a local treasure; to my surprise and horror, many people said, in effect, "It's the city's land; let the city do whatever it wants." This attitude was a total ignorance of Dr. Bowir's wishes! Two years later, the square hasn't been built yet, but I seriously doubt that the city will back down.
If all this doesn'y convince you as to how liberal-unfriendly Fairview is, here's one final footnote: Among Fairviewians, the most votes in Tennessee's 1996 Republican presidential primary went to-you guessed it-Pat Buchanan.
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