A 5,500-mile cross-country road trip gives a news/current-events junkie like me plenty of time for listening and thinking. I subscribe to satellite radio to get a number of options and relative diversity in content. Many hours of flipping back and forth between NPR, CNN and MSNBC and FOX and Patriot stations and even BBC definitely drove home the deep level of polarization and division in the American political landscape.
There is truly a stark contrast between the two worldviews we’ll choose from in the November elections. Listening to the right-wing commentators double down on Trump I found myself thinking of the book, The Anatomy of Fascism, in which historian, Robert O. Paxton, traces the history of fascism and lays out some ideas for how we might learn from the past examples. Paxton notes, "[fascism is] a form of political behavior marked by obsessive preoccupation with community decline, humiliation, or victimhood and by compensatory cults of unity, energy, and purity, in which a mass-based party of committed nationalist militants, working in uneasy but effective collaboration with traditional elites, abandons democratic liberties and pursues with redemptive violence and without ethical or legal restraints goals of internal cleansing and external expansion.” That’s a wordy way of saying that the messaging behind fascist movements includes noting that the country is in decline due to bad enemies and so a rule-breaking strong man is needed to get things back on track. That’s exactly what the MAGA media folks are spreading. FOX and Patriot stations continuously discuss an immigration catastrophe, the border crisis, and “illegals” who have committed crime in the U.S.
Meanwhile, the left-leaning stations are focused on bashing Trump and trying to protect a woman’s right to choose. I am progressive in my values and definitely tend to agree more with left-leaning commentators. I’ve written before that the erosion of woman’s reproductive rights harkens scenes from the Handmaid’s Tale. Moreover, the complete assault on environmental protections so often demonstrated by Republicans, including the previous Trump administration, is too disturbing to truly entertain.
All of that said, as I’ve stated many times, the entire for-profit corporate media machine does us all a destructive disservice. It is a continual spewing of fear, division, sensationalism, and speculation.
Beyond the media hype, here is some reality I noticed/experienced on this grand trek across this grand country. First off, I’ve travelled a lot, including to over twenty other countries. I know that I am mightily blessed to live in a nation in which I have the freedom to hop into my car and take off. Not only that, but the infrastructure is sound, navigable and convenient. Believe you me, that is not the case in many parts of the world including Russia, where a different “strong-man” reins.
Secondly, though my heart hurts that our system is so based on stuff and diesel trucks hauling that stuff all over the place, I have to say that I respect pro truck drivers. For the most part they are excellent and courteous drivers. I used to be a heavy equipment operator and, as an old farm kid, I’ve been driving trucks and trailers since I was about ten-years-old. I appreciate that nearly all truckers pull into the other lane whenever another vehicle is off on the side of the road. They also signal to change lanes and give an appreciative taillight flicker when I flash my lights to let them in.
There was one exception that I had a bit of fun with. Somewhere in Wyoming, a line of semis were in the right lane and I was cruising about 80 MPH (the speed limit there) in the left lane. A truck transporting a bunch of new cars came flying up behind, going much faster than all the other trucks. It got right on my bumper, but I couldn’t immediately pull over due to vehicles on the right. The driver laid on the air horn. I held steady and moved over when I could, giving the guy a hands-up signal, like, “Hey dude, where am I supposed to go?” He blasted the horn again and raced ahead. Well, some miles later we came to a long, long uphill grade and my ornery side surfaced. I passed the nasty trucker and pulled right alongside another big rig that was moving slowly in the right-hand lane. When the nasty dude got behind me I slowed down and kept him pinned against the other truck. He laid on the air horn and I chuckled in my rear-view mirror. It didn’t take long for his rig to lose momentum and he had to move over and crawl up the big grade. I waved good-bye and took off. A little mean I know, but also fun.
Here's the more salient point to this story given our media culture of division and polarization. I drove from the Pacific Northwest through the Midwest and into the deep South, crossing many lifestyle and cultural norms lines. I stopped at twenty gas stations, several grocery stores and a couple of coffee shops and restaurants. Olive and I stayed in three motels, including the sketchiest motel I’ve ever experienced. Also, along the way we slept in the car on 8 different nights at 8 different locations. Not once (other than the pushy truck driver and the manager of the nasty motel) was anyone anything other than polite, kind, and helpful.
At the laundromat in Perry Georgia, I wasn’t sure where to put the laundry soap (in my relative privilege it’s been decades since I’ve had to use a laundromat). A very dark-skinned, tall and large woman with a heavy southern accent and long, perfectly painted finger nails, showed me how to work it. After that she and her fella kind of took me in and showed me which drier worked the best. Later, as I was coming out of the restroom, she was getting ready to go in. I told her there wasn’t any toilet paper. She drawled, “All right. Well, we girls do what we gotta do right?” I said, “Yes ma’am we do.” It was a funny, sweet, human connection.
On the last night, somewhere in rural western Utah, well after dark, I found a promising place to park and sleep. It was a gravel road, below what looked like a large ranch house. Just as Olive and I were getting snuggled into our sleeping bag and blankets, a big truck pulled up alongside my car. Somewhat warily, I opened the door. A guy in a cowboy hat with a shotgun in a gun rack rolled his window down and asked if I was OK. I told him I was and that Olive and I were just heading back to Oregon from Georgia looking for a place to sleep for the night. I asked if it was OK for us to stay there (for all I knew it was on his property). He said, “Oh yeah, that’s fine. Just wanted to make sure you were OK.”
If I had to bet my house, I’d bet that cowboy and I are of very different political persuasions and hold differing ideal worldviews, and yet, just then, we were also just people getting ready to go to sleep for the night. In the end, by the very fact of being human, we all have so much more in common than not.
Our American experiment is in a rough spot. I critique and occasionally criticize my country not because I’m anti-American or a hater (as I sometimes get accused of), but because I genuinely want all of us, in the U.S. and beyond, to learn to heal and thrive together. I believe that possibility is before us as we navigate these challenging times.
Beauties in Unexpected Places
I set out on our huge road trip adventure with the following intentions:
· Be present to beauty even in places where it may seem hard to find.
· Be kind towards every being I encounter, including all members of the most difficult species, my own!
· Be in joy, even when I’m road-weary or impatient.
· Create conditions for Olive to have the most fun and pleasure possible all along the way.
I feel I did a pretty great job with this, except, perhaps for the one obnoxious truck driver, though in honesty I don’t regret one bit giving him a hard time.
Here is a vid of beauty I recognized and received right on the Georgia fairgrounds next to storage containers and the freeway. The vid is not about the visual but rather the sound.
Life with Livvy – Confessions of a Dog Agility Addict
Our very first AKC National Agility Championships has come and gone. We finished 34th overall which I think is amazing for a first time handler and 2½ year old dog. Olive was really rattled by the huge energy and big noise, especially the unusually loud and concussive teeter-totters but she held it together, trusted me, and gave it her best. Going into round 3, we were ranked 15th with a chance at making it to Finals Day, but I goofed up with three obstacles left in our final run! Arghhh! If I had just calmed down Livvy would have had a clean run. Many lessons learned.
I am so respectful and appreciative of her bravery and heart. She also was just the best traveling partner for all those many, many miles.
Here is a vid of our Standard clean run.
Here is a vid of our Jumpers With Weaves clean run.
Here is a vid of the final run called Hybrid in which I lost my mind a little bit and pulled Liv off the jump right before the tunnel. I’m so sorry I was not calmer for her in that moment.
Grateful to be home. Feeling very blessed.