I'm just in the final stages of a cross country road trip that started in Florida where I live, west through Alabama, Mississippi, Texas, New Mexico, Arizona into Southern California, up the central valley into Oregon for a 2 month stay, now eastward across the Cascades and into Idaho, Wyoming, Utah, Nebraska, Kansas, angling southeast through Missouri, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Tennessee, Georgia and home again in early June. I love road trips, because you see every little scrap of the country and not just the highlights. You interact with people with whom you would never come into contact any other way.
Each region has its own style and feel, but for me the divider is not race but class. People identify with people who they feel (and see) are like them. In Wyoming for instance, it ain't easy to find a black or Asian person, so racial stereotypes are never challenged. Oregon has tons of Asians, but outside of the main cities it has few blacks. California and Arizona are Mexico North. In the south, black people are everywhere, and while there is plenty of racism, both overt and subtle, whites and blacks rub shoulders every day. Mixed marriages are more and more common, which inevitably dilutes separation. Multi-racial children are everywhere.
The point of this is that my assessment is if we could get rid of the particular politicians who use politics to divide and demonize, this country would homogenize nicely. People want to get along, and they are going to be fine without the constant attempts to blame the "other" for the ills of the country to gain votes. If we could somehow get enough people in congress who could agree to get big money out of elections, that would be a major contribution toward unity, and make it much easier to find mutually agreeable compromises to serve all constituencies.
The real enemy of unity is big money, and that means billionaires and corporate campaign money, and the despicable moral vacancy that it generates in its mouthpieces. These classes do not care about the single mother, or the family that can barely make their payments with both parents working 2 or 3 jobs, or the college graduate who leaves school with a buttload of debt and who can't afford a house. Inherited wealth is the true divider of classes. Being born on third base and thinking you've hit a triple is a separator much more than being brown or black or white.
Again SER, I feel seen. California girl, been to Europe, PNW, and the midwest. I would visit New Orleans if I had the chance but I'd pass on most of the deep south. I felt uncomfortable in Texas, I can't imagine Florida. For me it's the guns. Sure, there are guns everywhere but seeing people walk around in public with them is a big no for me.
If the goal of our shared civic experience was the avoidance of pain, then we’d take down that flag. But that’s of course not the goal.
Then what exactly is the goal? I'd say it IS the avoidance of pain, pain from hunger, pain from experiencing homelessness, pain from untreated medical issues. Isn't that what we all want as a goal, to help all of us? Isn't that the point of a government?
I'm just in the final stages of a cross country road trip that started in Florida where I live, west through Alabama, Mississippi, Texas, New Mexico, Arizona into Southern California, up the central valley into Oregon for a 2 month stay, now eastward across the Cascades and into Idaho, Wyoming, Utah, Nebraska, Kansas, angling southeast through Missouri, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Tennessee, Georgia and home again in early June. I love road trips, because you see every little scrap of the country and not just the highlights. You interact with people with whom you would never come into contact any other way.
Each region has its own style and feel, but for me the divider is not race but class. People identify with people who they feel (and see) are like them. In Wyoming for instance, it ain't easy to find a black or Asian person, so racial stereotypes are never challenged. Oregon has tons of Asians, but outside of the main cities it has few blacks. California and Arizona are Mexico North. In the south, black people are everywhere, and while there is plenty of racism, both overt and subtle, whites and blacks rub shoulders every day. Mixed marriages are more and more common, which inevitably dilutes separation. Multi-racial children are everywhere.
The point of this is that my assessment is if we could get rid of the particular politicians who use politics to divide and demonize, this country would homogenize nicely. People want to get along, and they are going to be fine without the constant attempts to blame the "other" for the ills of the country to gain votes. If we could somehow get enough people in congress who could agree to get big money out of elections, that would be a major contribution toward unity, and make it much easier to find mutually agreeable compromises to serve all constituencies.
The real enemy of unity is big money, and that means billionaires and corporate campaign money, and the despicable moral vacancy that it generates in its mouthpieces. These classes do not care about the single mother, or the family that can barely make their payments with both parents working 2 or 3 jobs, or the college graduate who leaves school with a buttload of debt and who can't afford a house. Inherited wealth is the true divider of classes. Being born on third base and thinking you've hit a triple is a separator much more than being brown or black or white.
Again SER, I feel seen. California girl, been to Europe, PNW, and the midwest. I would visit New Orleans if I had the chance but I'd pass on most of the deep south. I felt uncomfortable in Texas, I can't imagine Florida. For me it's the guns. Sure, there are guns everywhere but seeing people walk around in public with them is a big no for me.
If the goal of our shared civic experience was the avoidance of pain, then we’d take down that flag. But that’s of course not the goal.
Then what exactly is the goal? I'd say it IS the avoidance of pain, pain from hunger, pain from experiencing homelessness, pain from untreated medical issues. Isn't that what we all want as a goal, to help all of us? Isn't that the point of a government?