--Alexis de Tocqueville,
“Democracy in America”, 1835
Thirty-nine and counting. That’s how many states in the United States of America
I’ve had the privilege and pleasure to visit on my various road trips through
the years. Just eleven more states to
go. The last place I checked off my U.S.A.
bucket list was North Dakota.
Drove in for the day and visited The Roger Maris Baseball Museum in Fargo. It’s right off Interstate 94 at the West
Acres Shopping Mall. Maris broke Babe Ruth’s single season home run record in
1961, with 61 home runs for the New York Yankees. The mall museum is a sweet little piece of Americana. Even got a
refrigerator magnet to mark the occasion.
Being from Massachusetts I
might be tempted to just skip seeing a place like North Dakota. Our two states couldn’t be more
different. One ruby red Republican, the
other blazingly blue Democrat. Harvard versus heifers, right? Then there’s size: seven Bay States could
easily fit into one North Dakota,
with room to spare. One is land locked, the other coastally contained. Truth is
many northeasterners view states like North
Dakota as “fly over” territory, you know those big
square states we pass over on the way to going somewhere else.
But not me. I want to see all of America, every last star on the
flag. I want to remember and claim all of America
as America. So I want to eat powder sugar covered beignets
in honky-tonk New Orleans
and rubbery deep fried cheese curds at the Minnesota State Fair. I want to watch gnarly surfers tame the waves
in ultra mellow La Jolla, California
and South Dakota
farmers bring in the wheat on a windy July Great Plains afternoon. I want to witness a gay pride parade in Miami filled with the boisterous and the proud and walk
side by side in a scruffy Brooklyn
neighborhood with Orthodox Jews, all back suits and beards.
Because America
is all those places and all those people and then even more. NRA hunters in Utah and gay marriage advocates in Maryland.
Conservative Christians in Kansas and assured
atheists in San Francisco.
Pro-life activists in Georgia and pro-choice proponents in Chicago.
Aspiring new immigrants in Tucson and
blue blood Daughters of the American Revolution on Beacon
Hill. All Americans,
right? Each one, as much a part of this
land of the free and the home of the brave as you or me, correct? Well….
In political, media and even Main Street circles a common complaint these
days is how divided our nation is in 2013.
How maybe there really isn’t one U.S.A. anymore. How we’ve cracked so
wide open and split so far apart along so many ideological, theological, social
and cultural fault lines that it’s hard to believe in the “United” part of our
name. Red state, blue state. Coastal
elites and the Midwest heartland. The Bible Belt and the New South.
Look at Facebook and read as liberals and progressives mock
conservatives with snarky cartoons and self-righteous rants. Watch Fox News and
see conservatives critique and condemn liberals as “un-American”. “If
only ‘they’ would be more like ‘us’ then America
would be more American, the right kind of America.” Some even hint of
giving up. “That’s it! I’m moving to Canada!” The
civic sin here is a seductive one: believing that our national problems would
go away if only we were all the same.
Voted the same way. Thought the same way. Lived the same way. Worshiped
the same way. Loved the same way.
That’s a pretty normal response to times of rapid social
dislocation and change which marks life in early twenty first century America. But for me, what makes America, America, is precisely this social
messiness. I don’t want it any other
way. America is more a quilt than a whole
cloth. America
is more a stew with multiple ingredients than a monolithic melting pot. And I’m ok with that, grateful that our
founding myth is not about just one race or culture or history or ideology or
religion. Instead at our best we’ve always
invited everyone to the American table believing it is all good when we listen
to each other and appreciate the gifts each brings. It will all work out. “E
pluribus unum”: from many can be one.
But first as a liberal I need to listen to conservatives. Straight, I am called to hear the concerns of
my gay and lesbian neighbors. Rich, I
must take seriously the plight of my poor brothers and sisters. Christian, I need to respect the beliefs of
all faiths and no faith. White, I have to hear what it is like to be a person
of color in this country. Lifelong New
Englander, I need to remember there are 44 other states out there too, each as
much a part of the United
States as the place I call my home.
So: Alaska, Hawaii, Alabama, Mississippi, Utah, Arkansas, Idaho, Montana, New Mexico, Oklahoma, and Kansas,
I’m coming. It may take me awhile but I’m determined to visit you and find out
what makes your place uniquely American.
Now that’s an American road trip.
John, I notice that South Carolina and Georgia are white on your map, and I can help you fix that! You have a standing invitation to come to South Carolina and stay with the Aldridges. We have a guest bedroom and plenty to do. In spite of sometimes putting our worst foot forward for all the world to see, this is a great state. Mountains on one end, ocean and beaches on the other, revitalized city centers in Columbia and Greenville, Charleston, which is a world class destination (Come in the spring or fall if you can. Summer is too hot.) We can scoot over to Augusta, Georgia one day, or Savannah, where I was born. I don't play golf, but these states are heaven for golfers. And good people. Not everybody down here is dumb and bigoted, though some certainly are. Marion Aldridge (Julie's Dad)
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