Jake Edgar grew up in Marceline, Missouri, but he refers to it as a “little nowhere town in Linn County.” Jake now lives in Columbia. Jake spoke with KBIA about his favorite places in Missouri, and how the positive aspects of the state can be outshined sometimes by the state’s politics, in this episode of Missouri On Mic.
Missouri on Mic is an oral history and journalism project documenting stories from around the state in its 200th year.
Jake Edgar: It's just all positive thoughts whenever I think about back home for the most part. I also am in love with Columbia, I think. I think Columbia is a beautiful spot. And I think there's so much to offer. And coming from a small place, I think this is like the perfect stepping stone whenever you go from somewhere smaller to bigger. Because it feels like a city if you're from a small town, even though it really still does. It has a really small town feel to it.
Well, it has a mall. So that's, that really is all the criteria it takes for me to consider a place a city.
I feel so at home here, I can, it's a place where people are just happy to talk to one another. And just make light happy conversation. And I'll walk into a into any grocery store in Missouri, and walk out happier than whenever I went in. Because I'm sure that I'm just going to have a couple positive encounters with strangers.
I think a lot of the things, a lot of the negative things that come to mind about Missouri, are pretty valid. But that's because people think a lot of our politicians, and just the... the sides of this place that are louder and less kind, instead of the positives. Like the fact that most people from here are really truly nice, good people who are just unfortunately, ignorant.
I'd really like to see Missouri — the politics of this place — start reflecting how beautiful the land is. And just getting on... I just want to see a bunch of... or I'd love to see the rest of the state be as progressive as Columbia tries to be. But there's, there's a lot of willful ignorance that come from growing up somewhere small and just trying not to understand things because it's easier to live simply than try and take in all the complexities.
I hear people crap on Missouri a lot. And it just makes me upset because there's so much beauty that comes with this place. And it... just as soon as you start looking at it through a different lens, there's so much more to appreciate. And I think that's kind of the chip on the shoulder that a lot of people from here have is that people think that it's a s***hole, but it really isn't. It's so beautiful, just in it. It almost doesn't matter where you are. Like it's all just got rolling hills and beautiful sunsets and happy vibes. And I wish that the rest of the country could start acknowledging it for that, rather than its negative political policies.
