Thank you for loyally following my journey across America. I greatly appreciated your support, encouragement and suggestions. You may be surprised to learn that there was something else you provided: accountability. As I considered each day of activities, I felt an obligation to discover as much as possible, generating the reservoir of material necessary to provide you with interesting commentary. It motivated me to fully engage by learning and experiencing more than I might have had it been exclusively a self indulgent journey without you along for the ride. Yes, by providing a rich, vicarious experience for my readers, you became the key differentiator between a mediocre journey and magnificent tour worth sharing. For that, I am especially grateful.
The statistics of the journey are worth noting. A little over 11,300 miles were driven across 34 states. The car traversed America beginning in West Palm Beach, FL at 16 feet above sea level to 9200 ft. in Wyoming. There was one accident when a Metro bus backed into me in Washington, DC and one flat tire in Los Angeles. Known for my heavy foot, you would have expected a speeding ticket or two. None. And no parking tickets. The highest speed recorded on the speedometer was on the road to Presidio, TX on which the car reached 110 MPH. (Not a good example to set.) There were 85 hotel nights ranging from the least expensive, George Hotel in College Station, TX, to the most expensive, the Jackson Hotel in Jackson, WY. Interestingly, these were, also, my most favorite. How could I not mention, at least 25 amazing DQ Blizzards (all Oreo) were consumed over the course of the trip. And a nod to Nathan, one decadent cheesecake.
The previous Letter from the Road took you through my disappointing visit to Springfield, IL and the Lincoln Museum. I had every intention of driving on to Georgia and visiting Jimmy Carter’s Library and attending his Sunday School class, Frankly, after 13 weeks on the road, I was ready to go home. Instead, I drove to NYC allowing for two highly nostalgic stops. (I’ll post a mini-blog update when I visit the Carter Library and Carter’s Sunday school class in Plaines, GA.) The two stops were “walk down memory lane” musts. The first was to have lunch with a lifelong friend in Defiance, OH and the second was in Napoleon, OH where I ambled around town retracing my teenage years. I, also added to my souvenir collection buying Napoleon High School Wildcat tee shirts. My other souvenirs collected over the course of the trip included a mug from each of the presidential museums and baseball caps from each of the national parks. My favorite mug is the one purchased at the Eisenhower Library ( “I LIKE IKE”) and cap from Zion National Park that features a large black bird.
Over the two months since my return, I have been mulling different approaches to presenting my concluding remarks. Admittedly, there has been a bit of procrastination, too. Ultimately, I decided to share three sets of observations which broadly and succinctly capture the heart of my experience and the original purpose of my journey. Interestingly, I was left with a new set of questions which emerged as I considered each of the summary observations. As a reminder, the tour of the country was intended to gauge American mood and heart. The four pillars of the trip were intended to be the lens through which I would better understand the state of the nation. As a reminder, the four were:
- Tour national parks and cultural institutions,
- Visit presidential libraries,
- Observe the crisis at the border, and
- Engage the black community to understand better the state of race equality.
In retrospect, I could have enhanced the experience with a fifth pillar devoted to better understanding aspirations and challenges of the newest generations. However, I believe I had enough conversations along the way with younger people that I have sufficient material with which to work.
Concluding Observations
“Cynicism is death.” Thomas Pynchon, Crying of Lot 49
“We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.” The US Constitution
“A house divided against itself, cannot stand. I believe this government cannot endure, permanently, half slave and half free. I do not expect the Union to be dissolved — I do not expect the house to fall — but I do expect it will cease to be divided. It will become all one thing or all the other.” Abraham Lincoln 1858
Observation 1
Last weekend a bolt of lightening struck, instantly providing the inspiration for completing the final blog entry. I attended with my friend, Anna, the Saturday matinee of Great Society at Lincoln Center, starring Brian Cox as Lyndon Johnson. The play covered the period from Johnson’s election in 1964 as President in his own right until Richard Nixon’s inauguration in 1969. The essence of the final dialogue of the play between Nixon and Johnson was the acknowledgement of an awkward reality. Simply, the juxtaposition of the American citizen desiring clean and responsive government with the ugly fact that the process of selecting and electing our representatives and leaders is wrought with skullduggery, hypocrisy and corruption. Yet, knowing this, we expect our politicians to flick a switch instantaneously transforming from calculating politician to enlightened leader.
This axiom was further complicated by the phenomenon that so intensely reared its head during the Johnson and Nixon years. Before this era, Americans more or less believed and trusted their government. This changed. Our government led us to believe the actions of the US military in Viet Nam were going better than they actually were. A grand lie, simply put when the truth emerged with aggressive news reporting and the release of the Pentagon Papers. Consequently our trust in government gave way to cynicism and the birth of the “credibility gap.”
The credibility gap continues today. We find ourselves cynical, once again, as the battle rages for controlling the political narrative. There is a polarized debate of the role of fake news, mainstream news, social media and memes in our political discourse. The difference is we are all players in the dissemination of fake news as we manage our image or brand on social media. Consider the following conversation I had along the way with a 26 year old server with a small child. The conversation went something like this with the young women (YW):
SS: Are you on social media like facebook or twitter
YW: I hate it, but I have to be to keep up with my friends.
SS: What platforms are you on?
YW: I gave up Facebook and Snapchat. Just do Instagram now.
SS: Would you let your children use them?
YG: Never. No way!
SS: Why not?
YG: It’s totally a lie, no one tells the truth. Do you think everybody is as happy as they pretend to be? It’s going to destroy us.
This young woman understands the the destructive power potential that the credibility gap holds for our democracy. It is apparent to her that we are all players or co-conspirators in creating and distributing falsehoods. For the health of our democracy, we need to restore credibility. I have no prescription. I am encouraged that this woman is clear eyed. Recognizing the problem is the first step of recovery. I am left with a set of questions which maybe relevant for the process of restoring trust.
- Jack Nicholson declared in the movie A Few Good Men, “You don’t want to know the truth!” Or do we?
- How do you decompress polarized emotions in order for a national discussion to take place?
- How do we get to a place where the debate is the competition of facts and not falsehoods?
- Who and how is this movement led?
My sense of the nation is our citizenry want to be pulled back form the precipice. They are tired of histrionics, lies, and missed opportunities. They are realistic knowing that the process of making legislation will always generate friction. But the process of administration must be clean, transparent, and immune from partisan influence. We must stop feeding the credibility gap. We need fierce leadership by example that begins at the kitchen table.
Observation 2
We are at our best when we dare to be audacious. Grand and outrageous ambitions not only stretch capabilities but, as well, act a glue unifying our citizenry in common purpose. In my travels, the largest and most diverse crowds of tourists were at our most noteworthy achievements. Consider:
- The Hoover Dam, built in a little over 4 years still to this day is viewed daily by large crowds of tourists that leave amazed at our technical prowess and vision.
- The roads navigating the mountains of our national parks were packed. In awe of the beauty of the oaks and the engineering enabling them to appreciate the majesty of our nations natural beauty.
- Our Interstate Highways, TVA, Manhattan Project and NASA brought opportunity and prosperity to remote regions and fueled new industries.
- Our big investments brought new opportunity to minorities.
Today we are missing our real differentiator and key to our world leadership. Over the last century, while our military has played a huge and important humanitarian role and freeing people from tyranny, it is not what made us great. Rather It was the product of our ingenuity and audacious dreams that made us great. It was the power of our dreams and investments which enabled a powerful military to be built. Unfortunately, the military has become the priority, replacing investing our dreams. A strong military should be the by-product of greatness.
-Prior leadership built trans national railroad and Panama Canal, eradicated polio, provided rural electrification, and pursued nuclear power
- FDR created large programs to address infrastructure, economic stability and poverty.
- Eisenhower inaugurated the interstate highway system.
- Johnson addressed poverty and civil rights.
The country grew and prospered and became the envy of the world. Somewhere in the later third of the prior century, this orientation changed. Our political leadership became far too consumed with petty issues while allowing itself to becoming dominated by the military industrial complex. We have misplaced investments thus missing the real opportunities for extending our greatness.
The most frequent name that came up in conversations across the country was Elon Musk. Common descriptions included: Immigrant entrepreneur, big thinker., tenacious doer and huge imagination. Elon Musk has caught our imagination with the breadth and scale of his endeavors. If only he were born here. People are looking for a President that leads in audacious thought and not hollow USA chants. It is that person America needs in 2020.
Observation 3
We need a generation of history books written from the perspective of minorities to swing the balance from the white point of view to an objective perspective. At the same time we need a national discussion on values and those we embrace and defining who we are as a people. As the minorities increase in the proportion of total population, historical American values come in conflict with the cultural values and norms of minority groups. The hard history of minorities and the values that they hold dear maybe in direct conflict with historic western values. This divide cannot be ignored.
I learned a history new to me that I had no appreciation existed when I retraced the freedom walk in Nashville and viewed the National Civil Rights Museum. I wondered why there were no blacks or other minorities touring Monticello or any of the presidential libraries. I was stunned by the large South Asian population co-existing but separate in St. George’s, UT. I was saddened by the arrogant and insensitive impression I left with the native Americans in New Mexico through what they interpreted to be an ostentatious display of wealth. I learned that Los Angeles is the most segregated large city in the United States. The discussion begins with a simple statement, though a bit of a cliche. “We are in this together.” For this we need balanced perspectives that begins with an education system providing objectivity in the portrayal of history.
A few questions come to mind:
- What platform or medium would serve as an enabler for equal participation of our citizens? - How do we inspire a new and objective history to be written?
- How do we learn to listen to one another?
- What role do religious or cultural institutions of ethnic origin play?
- Is there an output of this national discussion that elevates the conclusions to an enshrined status?
Final Words
My formative years were spent living between Defiance and Napoleon, OH. Both are county seats for Defiance and Henry Counties, respectively. They are 15 miles apart and both are on the Maumee River that leads to Lake Erie. Agriculture has been the backbone of the area economy and benefiting from some of the most nutrient rich soil you’ll find anywhere on earth. The receding glaciers of the Ice Age created the Black Swamp that provided the nutrient rich underpinning of the economy. Campbell Soup built their largest food processing plant in Napoleon. My father was the lead executive overseeing its construction in the middle 1950s and the reason for our relocation from Philadelphia.
My parents chose Defiance for our relocation because it was larger having 12,000 residents, a small liberal arts college and a country club. Napoleon had 6000 residents and the potential for running into fellow employees of the soup plant. When my father suffered a massive stroke, we relocated to Napoleon on the hope Dad would recover and afford him an easier commute. He didn’t recover fully, and for that matter very little. I wss an eleven year old boy finding myself thrust into some adult roles early. Good, bad, or indifferent, both of these towns and growing up early made me and it is the prism through which I viewed many of my experiences.
Our prism evolves over time through the daily interactions we have with our parents and the other important influencers in our lives. Like everyone else I came away with a set of core values, operating patterns, prejudices and preferences. Admittedly, some of which I am not proud. All the same, they are mine and provide a unique perspective as do yours for you. This summer’s experiences have challenged me in unexpected ways and opened new doors of opportunity and possibilities at the same time. All of this was in the context of the original premise of the journey about reconnecting with the soul of America.
I met Tim, a childhood friend from Defiance, for lunch at once was Kettering Country Club. Now a public course. Tim and I played golf and generally paled around as kids. One of the more interesting things we did was create an 8MM movie with the other two members of our pack, Billy and Scotty. In the movie, we robbed the State Bank in Defiance (film set location) and Superman saves the day, routing out the robbers. Tim and I have stayed in contact through the years. He practiced law, following in his father’s footsteps. Like his father, Time has a wry sense of humor and is incredibly wise. I shared my observations and experiences from my summer jaunt with him. Tim said to me towards the end of our conversation. “I’ve never been much interested in money. Never really made that much.” He returned to Defiance from Portland, Oregon, 20 some years ago upon the death of his father. Why, I asked, did you return. Tim responded saying, "I couldn’t see my mother left alone and I missed our sense of community.”
“Sense of community.” That was it. I returned to my roots and found the answer to the state of America’s soul. We long to belong to one another. Our soul is adrift because it is no longer anchored in a real community.
Maybe I’ll write a book.
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