Once Upon a Time, in America

I love traveling - getting out of the wonderful cocoon of Northwest woods and into the vast wilderness of a land which I sometimes conceptualize as "America" but still am puzzling by it.  This is my third road trip and each time I returned with mixed feelings of awe, pride, wonder, joy, sadness and injustice. While I enjoyed the repeated and serendipitous opportunities to travel across Mei Guo (the beautiful country in Chinese) and being transformed by the experiences in un-explicit ways, I can't help noticing how few people of color were on the road, and wonder about "the land of the free" once again. I'm not too naive to know that with the economy and gas price close to $4 a gallon a road trip is a luxury for most people. But it is not just about money and race, it is about opportunity or the lack of it.

I was invited on all three trips by friends who fortunately seemed to enjoy my company and sharing of driving and only twice I was made to feel unwelcome - a motel in Dickinson was full (it was a Friday night but Dickinson sure didn't look like a weekend tourist destination to us) and the kitchen of a bar in Casselton was closed to serve us lunch. (It was 2:30 p.m. but we saw other customers eating.) We ended up camping at the parking lot of WalMart in Dickinson but the vibe made us decide to "get out of down" at 2 a.m. in the morning. In case you are wondering, both towns are in North Dakota. 

When I took my first trip with a girlfriend from Minneapolis to San Diego I was living in a rough inner-city neighborhood. There were many section A housing; drug, prostitution, noise, garbage was a daily fare. When I was transported from all my worldly worries and man-made ills by the ancient mountains and mystical canyons in Colorado, Arizona and New Mexico, I was also acutely aware of the unjust missing opportunities of my neighbors - I wonder given the opportunities to "see" America in its nakedness and full glory, would they develop a love and pride for the land as I have. I think it will change how they see their country, and more importantly, it will change how they see themselves.  

"..that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom" - Abraham Lincoln, The Gettysburg Address

The Freedom to Ride 

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What is Around the Corner for America?