When I returned to Indiana from the Washington, D.C., area a few years ago, I kept getting the same question.

Why, people asked me, did you leave the East Coast for Indianapolis? The word "why" was always exaggerated -- as if they were saying, "You came here voluntarily? What, are you on the run?"

I've talked to many others who experienced the same phenomenon. A colleague who moved here from Boston, and another who came from California, say they've fielded many quizzical questions from locals about their moves to Indianapolis.

Is this Midwestern modesty, or an inferiority complex? This week provided fresh evidence to support the diagnosis of an inferiority complex.

How many of you, after all, believed Indianapolis was going to be awarded Super Bowl XLV? For months, it seemed most locals doubted we could hang with big, bad Dallas. When the NFL went with our Texas rivals, the reaction in Indianapolis was a collective shrug of acceptance, as if the city's people were saying, "I knew we wouldn't get it."

We're not big enough. Or rich enough. Or warm enough. We don't have enough party palaces. Or culture. Or five-star hotels.

In Dallas, the reaction was, "No kidding. Of course we won. We're Dallas." Meantime, back in Indianapolis:

"Who wants to come to Indy?" one reader wrote on The Indianapolis Star's Web site, summing up many other comments. "Indy just isn't big enough to host an event of this magnitude," wrote another reader.

We'll call that one ridiculous. Why? Ever hear of the Indianapolis 500?

And don't forget, we lost the Super Bowl contest by two stinking votes. Dallas did not blow us out.

But the Super Bowl affair exposed once again the need for Indianapolis to look in the mirror and say, "I'm good enough. I'm smart enough. And doggone it, people like me!"

There are, to be sure, plenty of Indianapolis boosters saying just that. Some residents countered the naysayers with encouraging words this week. But they were overshadowed in a city suffering from one huge inferiority complex.

To be clear, I gripe plenty about crime and city schools, and I worry about the future of this place. But once in a while it's good to step back and think about what makes this a vibrant and comfortable city to live in -- voluntarily.

What? You want examples?

There's Monument Circle. The 500 Festival Mini-Marathon. Victory Field. Broad Ripple. The American Super Heroes Museum. Amateur sports. The Indianapolis Museum of Art. King David Dogs. The Aristocrat Pub. Crown Hill Cemetery. The Watson's Girl. Bob & Tom. The Indianapolis Water Co. Canal towpath. IUPUI. Eagle Creek Park. Fountain Square.

I could go on.

"I've got to tell you what I tell people all the time," Roland Dorson, president of the Greater Indianapolis Chamber of Commerce, said when I asked him to sell Indianapolis. "We're flourishing and we're inviting and we're thriving."

And we shouldn't have an inferiority complex.