some of you may be wondering what chicagoland is. this is a term that refers to the city of chicago, illinois and the surrounding suburbs. although i am not a native of the chicago area (and probably because of my outside view as i live within), i can see the countless problems with this place.

DIVERSITY
the city of chicago and all of its suburbs and the people who live within are a mixed pot of really fucked up people.

first of all, there is religion. if you are not catholic, be careful what you say or do in chicago. the whole region is run primarily by catholics. not being religious, i have made shitloads of "fumbles" in the past few years i have lived here. i have offended people who have "crossed" themselves because they think everyone knows what it means. they assume everyone around them is catholic. total delusion. for more of my opinion on religion, click on that topic...

also, there is a diverse makeup of races within chicagoland. in the heart of chicago, you will be extremely hard-pressed to find a dentist or doctor of any type who is not of indian, pakistani, afghanistani, or arabic origin. note: i define american indian as native american - in order to avoid confusion with indian americans. being native american, i feel more comfortable with that terminology. there are more hispanics, arabs, and indians in chicagoland counted seperately than there are any people of all the other races combined.

illinois is a very weird mixup of peoples. in essence, truly "american" you could say... from the heart of chicago stretching outward west and somewhat south, ethnic bands (or circles) can be found. in the heart of chicago, it is 50% indian/arabic - 50% a combination of caucasian, black, hispanic. a few miles out, you will find more latinos and asians. in other suburbs more distant from downtown chicago are small patches of caucasians and blacks, but primarily indian with a hand full of hispanics.

most of these peoples are catholic-converted or christian. very very few of them are of the religions that are native to their own homelands (as would be expected). many keep some customs integrated with their lifestyles, but most have converted to jesuit-based religions.

then, when you hit the western border of aurora (pretty much the edge of chicagoland) you come in contact with huge latino populations as well as southern baptist fanatics and white/caucasians who speak in southern accents. quite a bit of illinois' residents seem to be immigrants from texas and the southern states, so you might find when visiting illinois that a lot of people speak with southern accents.

and my feelings on this? well, i have my opinion and everyone is entitled to their own. i am not racist, but sometimes wish that all the people who have (as i call it) invaded this continent would just go away and leave us natives the fuck alone. let us have our lands back so we may restore the beauty of nature. refer to my poem entitled "revolution" for more of that opinion...