every time we hit the road and look for America (20,000 miles + per year) we find a wonderful place, full of kind people, in coffee shops and flea markets, in beach towns and back highways. Next loop will be from NY via empty highways that the interstates obsoleted Cincinnati, Mobile, Pensacola, Jacksonville, Norfolk then home. After more than a decade of rambling, we've come away with the highest appreciation of Americans when they host you, greet you, meet you. It's only when someone comes along and tells America what it should be that the whole thing falls apart.
Beautifully put, Peter, and on a day like this, it's touching and hopeful. But what do we do when some of the wonderful people who host, greet, meet, and feed us also support the guy who wants to throw brown-skinned people in camps in the Everglades? Of course the person serving you sweet tea in Greensboro wouldn't do that -- he or she would probably serve that brown-skinned person sweet tea, as well -- but many of them will then vote for a guy who will. How do we enjoy their hospitality at that point? It's not just a difference in worldview anymore, is it?
So to start, as an MAT, I'd offer that in a land where school districts with the highest real estate values the high schools are like colleges in terms of available resources and monies and the districts whose students live in trailer parks built on waste dumps outside Chicago (I can give you the citation on that) or within a square mile of inner city Bridgeport, the rest of the societally cast-asides don't stand a chance of ever being able to catch up -- not only because the state mandates testing that isn't written for the underrepresented, but because these are the4 schools that, by definition, lure only the worst of teachers, who are hired to get the kid out of their way by any means necessary. America is Not Taught. How they vote is a direct result of how they've been "educated." For a whole lot of the MAGA faithful, that was, practically speaking, not at all. Now, I do know a few guys who can think -- Harvard grad, city manager -- who are MAGA, so fuck them. But asking a kid who grew up the son of a failing farmer in Kearny, Nebraska, whose early-learning tests suggested he'd end up being a mechanic, to vote with thought and iligence and critical thinking is like asking you and I to assemble a time machine overnight. I mean, we're smart and well-educated, but that'd be tough. When I end up watching an NFL Sunday Night game at an Applebee's bar out on the interstate belt of Birmingham, and the guys on either side of me are pro football freaks too, and all three of us end up doing running commentary on the CFL game between the Roughriders and the T-Cats, I'll vote for non-judging. And what the fuck do you have against sweet tea?
First of all, if you don't have Coke products on hand, you have no business entertaining. You invite people into your home and you don't have carbonated beverages? Well, as Mrs. Landingham said to President Bartlet, "I don't want to know you." The problem with non-judging, though, is at some point you get moral chaos without it -- nazis make good neighbors kind of thing and, you know, there were many economically displaced Germans unhappy with a system that didn't speak to them, so, what, we can't blame them for voting for Hitler? We can't judge them? But even if the education of the voters of which you speak is piss poor, even if the rich folk, say, who benefit from the tax code is not in their wheelhouse, these voters have eyes and ears and sensibilities, don't they? They saw how Trump treated women, Democracy, those who disagreed with him, the disabled, presidential decorum, NATO, the military, the English language, the truth. Didn't anything in them say, "I don't understand trade policy, but I don't want this guy as the face of America"? Don't we owe them, and every Trump voter, for that matter, the dignity that they knew what they were doing? They made a determination that Trump was either a) Who they want to be and how they would act if they ever that that kind of money and/or fame, b) He embraced their ignorance and resentment and, yes, bigotry and told them it was OK to have, or c) They actually want and like him and think he IS the guy to lead America. Peter, I have had those moments you have had -- without the sweet guy, thank all the Gods (Who offers sweet tea? Jesus! All right, I'll stop) -- and I have come away thinking there is more that unites us than divides, as cliched as that sounds. But then, all the common ground notwithstanding, they wind up voting for the candidate, the party that hurts the people you and I love. What do you do with that? Comity can be overrated. Trump has been on the national scene now ten years. What more do the people, those who don't vote bathed in critical thinking and intelligence, need to hear from him -- or from us about him?
Can we compromise and meet for frozen strawberry daiquiris?
P.S. I did standup comedy in Kearney, Nebraska at a place, if I'm not mistaken, called The Baby O Lounge.
We're all looking for America these days. But, it's slowly fading away. And has been for 50+ years. The GOP accelerated the process yesterday. Enjoy your first expat 4th, Barry. Glad to know Melissa's going to be arriving Sunday.
I've had a hard time "celebrating" the 4th of July for a while now. Today feels like mourning. I want to weep and wail. I'm not giving up, but for today, no parades, no fireworks (stage 2 fire restrictions in the place I'm at). I'm with family, we are relatively privileged. We will hold each other close. I will cuddle my 8 month old twin grandsons. For today that will be enough. The fight resumes tomorrow.
every time we hit the road and look for America (20,000 miles + per year) we find a wonderful place, full of kind people, in coffee shops and flea markets, in beach towns and back highways. Next loop will be from NY via empty highways that the interstates obsoleted Cincinnati, Mobile, Pensacola, Jacksonville, Norfolk then home. After more than a decade of rambling, we've come away with the highest appreciation of Americans when they host you, greet you, meet you. It's only when someone comes along and tells America what it should be that the whole thing falls apart.
Beautifully put, Peter, and on a day like this, it's touching and hopeful. But what do we do when some of the wonderful people who host, greet, meet, and feed us also support the guy who wants to throw brown-skinned people in camps in the Everglades? Of course the person serving you sweet tea in Greensboro wouldn't do that -- he or she would probably serve that brown-skinned person sweet tea, as well -- but many of them will then vote for a guy who will. How do we enjoy their hospitality at that point? It's not just a difference in worldview anymore, is it?
So to start, as an MAT, I'd offer that in a land where school districts with the highest real estate values the high schools are like colleges in terms of available resources and monies and the districts whose students live in trailer parks built on waste dumps outside Chicago (I can give you the citation on that) or within a square mile of inner city Bridgeport, the rest of the societally cast-asides don't stand a chance of ever being able to catch up -- not only because the state mandates testing that isn't written for the underrepresented, but because these are the4 schools that, by definition, lure only the worst of teachers, who are hired to get the kid out of their way by any means necessary. America is Not Taught. How they vote is a direct result of how they've been "educated." For a whole lot of the MAGA faithful, that was, practically speaking, not at all. Now, I do know a few guys who can think -- Harvard grad, city manager -- who are MAGA, so fuck them. But asking a kid who grew up the son of a failing farmer in Kearny, Nebraska, whose early-learning tests suggested he'd end up being a mechanic, to vote with thought and iligence and critical thinking is like asking you and I to assemble a time machine overnight. I mean, we're smart and well-educated, but that'd be tough. When I end up watching an NFL Sunday Night game at an Applebee's bar out on the interstate belt of Birmingham, and the guys on either side of me are pro football freaks too, and all three of us end up doing running commentary on the CFL game between the Roughriders and the T-Cats, I'll vote for non-judging. And what the fuck do you have against sweet tea?
First of all, if you don't have Coke products on hand, you have no business entertaining. You invite people into your home and you don't have carbonated beverages? Well, as Mrs. Landingham said to President Bartlet, "I don't want to know you." The problem with non-judging, though, is at some point you get moral chaos without it -- nazis make good neighbors kind of thing and, you know, there were many economically displaced Germans unhappy with a system that didn't speak to them, so, what, we can't blame them for voting for Hitler? We can't judge them? But even if the education of the voters of which you speak is piss poor, even if the rich folk, say, who benefit from the tax code is not in their wheelhouse, these voters have eyes and ears and sensibilities, don't they? They saw how Trump treated women, Democracy, those who disagreed with him, the disabled, presidential decorum, NATO, the military, the English language, the truth. Didn't anything in them say, "I don't understand trade policy, but I don't want this guy as the face of America"? Don't we owe them, and every Trump voter, for that matter, the dignity that they knew what they were doing? They made a determination that Trump was either a) Who they want to be and how they would act if they ever that that kind of money and/or fame, b) He embraced their ignorance and resentment and, yes, bigotry and told them it was OK to have, or c) They actually want and like him and think he IS the guy to lead America. Peter, I have had those moments you have had -- without the sweet guy, thank all the Gods (Who offers sweet tea? Jesus! All right, I'll stop) -- and I have come away thinking there is more that unites us than divides, as cliched as that sounds. But then, all the common ground notwithstanding, they wind up voting for the candidate, the party that hurts the people you and I love. What do you do with that? Comity can be overrated. Trump has been on the national scene now ten years. What more do the people, those who don't vote bathed in critical thinking and intelligence, need to hear from him -- or from us about him?
Can we compromise and meet for frozen strawberry daiquiris?
P.S. I did standup comedy in Kearney, Nebraska at a place, if I'm not mistaken, called The Baby O Lounge.
We're all looking for America these days. But, it's slowly fading away. And has been for 50+ years. The GOP accelerated the process yesterday. Enjoy your first expat 4th, Barry. Glad to know Melissa's going to be arriving Sunday.
Paul had it right oh, so many years ago.
I've had a hard time "celebrating" the 4th of July for a while now. Today feels like mourning. I want to weep and wail. I'm not giving up, but for today, no parades, no fireworks (stage 2 fire restrictions in the place I'm at). I'm with family, we are relatively privileged. We will hold each other close. I will cuddle my 8 month old twin grandsons. For today that will be enough. The fight resumes tomorrow.
Two of my very favorite Simon & Garfunkel tunes. Have a good one, Ba.