I've gone to look for America

[ambitious_wench]

On US 146 (southbound) in the North of Rhode Island, I saw a bucolic image the other day. It was evening, when the heat finally breaks, and the mosquitoes stir themselves to begin their phlebotomic activity.

On the side of the road, perched on a hill is a motel, one of those purely American inventions, the "motoring hotel", conceived when gas was 3¢ per US gallon, and "motoring" was a favorite vacation pass-time. Cheap, clean, and found on all the major high ways of the day.

They were often family owned, and were the way to the American Dream of owning your own business and home, all rolled into one package.

In this day, motels are mostly owned by corporations: Red Roof, Travel Lodge, any number of giants with homogenous decor and all the design innovation of a stale pancake. Bland, bland, bland, right down to the little packets of Sanka Instant Decaf coffee that somehow manage to offend not only by the lack of caffeine, but by providing insufficient dried coffee to make a cup of anything other than insipid almost-coffee-flavored-water.

Those motels that have remained owner-occupied are hard-pressed to provide a service at a reasonable price. They usually are run down, and the sheets can be grey with age. But the coffee is real, tar-thick, loaded with caffeine and flavor and something the kind-hearted among us would call "Character".

As I whizzed by the "Hill-Top Motel", I saw something that made me smile. A woman stood by a bed of flowers in front, hose-nozzle in hand. Sunlight caught the spray, and a rainbow refracted in the haze of droplets. A normal activity, watering the garden in the cool of the day. I imagined I could hear the sigh of relief from the flowers, thirsty from a day in the sun.

The one thing different about this scene, what made it stick out in my mind was this:

This woman, caring for her garden, for her business, was wearing a sari, brilliant orange, with a fusia colored top beneath that bared her cafe au lait midriff. Her hair was pulled back into a bun at the nape of her neck, and on her forehead I could see a small mark above and triangulating with her eyes.

I smiled. The American Dream is not dead. I wish her luck. And if I ever want to take a break from my home for a night, I may well book a night at the Hill Top Motel.

Comments

[turnberryknkn.livejournal.com]

The American Dream is not dead.

But for how much longer? When even Caucasian, American-born and raised friends of mine openly discuss on the diaries fleeing pending the November elections, one wonders.

[ambitious-wench.livejournal.com]

Good question, Jeff. I heard on NPR this morning that there is an organization to ensure the fairness of votes--normally a role the US plays in other countries--that will be monitoring US elections this year.

Good gods, the idea of another 4 years of the madness of King George.

I'm thinking about making book on one of two things happening just before elections:

A major attack (of domestic origin, not from some terrorist organization) happening, and martial law being declared, and the elections being postponed indefinitely.

Osama bin Ladin mysteriously being "found" and paraded as a war trophy by the current regime.

I think it's important to remember that this is supposed to be a land where every color, creed or origin is valued. And the lady in the sari represents that to me.

The reality is closer to what you intimate, of course. And that saddens me terribly.

Edie

[mdrnprometheus.livejournal.com]

A major attack (of domestic origin, not from some terrorist organization) happening, and martial law being declared, and the elections being postponed indefinitely.

This is America. We are a nation that believes very strongly in the ownership of firearms. Urban Democrats' support for gun bansnotwithstanding, there are plenty of Democrats and other Bush non-supporters who still have assault rifles and know how to use them. (Not me, but that's because my marksmanship is terrible and I have not yet remedied that.) Moreover, we have plenty of militias, survivalists, and others who have been paranoically afraid of martial law for decades now.

In short, I pity the fool who tries to impose martial law on the United States of America, because if you think Fajullah was bad, you ain't seen nothin' yet.

[panacea1.livejournal.com]

Heh, some of us pacifist urban Democrats are starting to rethink our lack of firearms. Which, in and of itself, should scare the pants off you.

[mdrnprometheus.livejournal.com]

See? All these years, the conservatives have been faced with a Democrat government in Washington, and they were scared about their rights, so they went out and got armed. Now, the Democrats are finally understanding how it feels when you're starting to hear the jackboots echoing down the street. I'd be delighted to see y'all rethink that. It's one of the nicer things about Kerry that he's gone hunting before and has at least some understanding of the rural perspective.

OK, so I'm a country boy who grew up next door to a gun club, so what?

[lederhosen.livejournal.com]

Unfortunately, by the time personal gun ownership becomes a deciding factor, the country has already collapsed into a violent shambles. At that point, knowing that the idiot who took us there is regretting it would be small consolation :-(

[mdrnprometheus.livejournal.com]

Meh. We've collapsed into a violent shambles once before, and we came out of that OK if not a bit stronger. It's sort of like rebooting the government once the memory leaks get bad enough.

[lederhosen.livejournal.com]

Except for all the people who died, and the hundred-odd years of bitterness that still hasn't entirely mended. History is much less appealing for those who get to view it close up.

[mdrnprometheus.livejournal.com]

OK, right, but given that the alternative is a police state, I'm still OK with the costs.

[lederhosen.livejournal.com]

If that's the only alternative, sure. But I'd rather not let it get so bad that that's the only alternative.

[mdrnprometheus.livejournal.com]

Well, yes, likewise. It's not clear what else we can do before November, though. If we're trying to stay non-violent about it, all we can do until then is whine and complain a lot.

[silmaril.livejournal.com]

I think that if you don't read that already, some threads in Teresa Nielsen Hayden's "Making Light" (http://nielsenhayden.com/makinglight/) will be of interest to you. Note that most of the best stuff in her blog comes from the comment threads.

Not recent ones, sadly, and even more sadly I really, really don't have time today to hunt back specific entry dates for you... :-/.