I have been interviewing my cousin’s children, Allie and RJ Doroshewitz since 2012. This year is RJ’s sophomore year studying Political Science at George Washington University and shortly he will cast his first vote in a presidential election. The only thing better than recording people’s stories, is recording them over time. Watching these young people come into their adult lives having navigated social media, school shootings and a pandemic… I am in awe and deeply moved. Please listen to RJ.
It has only happened a few times in my life when an experience is so profound that I have to just ‘be’ with it before I can put words to it. As you are about to discover, even though I took two days, my words will fail. Luckily, I was blessed to meet and learn from the remarkable parishioners and leaders who have continue the legacy of the sacred place.
Many of you know that after my experiences in 2020 and 2022, I was truly reticent about this year’s journey. While I still struggle to reconcile the current polling with what I consider to be the strongest split screen comparison of two presidential candidates in my lifetime, with each day, each interaction… that cognitive dissonance is taking up less real estate in my head every day. There is something about laughter between friends. There is reassurance when you look for humanity and, without fail, you find it.
I don’t know what is going to happen. I believe, as I always have, people are inherently good.
Below is a compilation of 5 (yes, 5 – I totally flubbed the intro!) wonderfully kind servers and the wonderful moments they shared with me over the past 3 days. I have moved through Arkansas, Tennessee and now Mississippi and, yes, this is unquestionably Trump country. But for 3 days I have eaten wonderful (and one time GREAT) food and laughed and got to learn a little about their world. I am thankful.
My time in Fort Smith Arkansas was another study in contrasts. I left my hotel and walked pass the court house. A singular towering monument honoring ‘Our Confederate Dead’ 1861 – 1865 stood as tall as the substantial building and would greet anyone entering to seek justice. It seems to me to be a uniquely American ability to accept our unreconciled past and keep going. I had (way too much) breakfast at the 5th Street cafe and I stayed (way too long) swapping stories, laughing and even shared a prayer with Karen (member of Crossroads Cowboy Church, yes, Cowboy church), Cynthia (who proudly announced ‘I quit smoking…. I vape now’) and Christie (who drew the absolute best cartoon pig named Mr. Oinkers on my flag). All of which led me to Miss Laura’s Visitor’s Center and Juliana. The women of Fort Smith do not disappoint.
I can still remember the first time I arrived in Shawnee Oklahoma on a Saturday and made my way down Kickapoo street (not kidding, that’s the name 🙂 to check out the Oklahoma Baptist University. I caught sight of a church across street and knew that I would be attending Sunday service at the University Baptist Church.
That year I wrote, “So this is what I found in Shawnee. A congregation focused, not on politics or social agenda, but on service. I like it here.”
That was 16 years ago and I have never missed a Sunday service at UBC on my travels since. Pastor Justin Dunn is able to gently guide and inspire and I treasure the hours of interviews that he has generously given over these extraordinary times.
This Sunday was no different. Pastor Dunn’s sermon today was on speech and how our words are powerful. They can create good and they can do great harm.
Then Pastor Dunn did something I had never heard him do before. He referenced a current event. Specifically, the Presidential debate and the damage done to Springfield by the former president, and also the language used by the Kamala as an example.
This video includes that segment of his sermon and the discussion that Pastor Dunn and I had after. I think you will see why I always come back.
Crossing into Oklahoma marks the end of ‘high desert’ and the half way point of any southern cross country trek. I found my way to another Route 66 Diner. Just like the one in Gallup, the food was plentiful and tasty. Owned and operated by veterans, it was packed with locals all talking to each other. There was not one person (including children) on their phones or watching Paw Patrol on an ipad. A community together and talking. YES! Not surprisingly, no one was comfortable going on video or tape but they were happy to be heard. I am grateful.
It was not until 2020 that I made my first outreach to the native tribes in Arizona and New Mexico. My interviews that year were exclusively with native women living on the reservation and working in Navaho owned Outposts. Their covid stories were straightforward, heartbreaking and completely without grievance. Remote multigenerational living, limited medical resources and political complications between Navaho Nation, the State, and public health officials combined to create interventions were brutal in their execution. What struck me most was the complete humility and grace with which the shared their stories.
In 2022 I met Elouise. As a manager of an Indian Outpost owned by Bowlin Travel Centers, her story has stayed with me ever since. In search of an update, I went back to their store in Bluewater New Mexico. Bowlin is a 100 year old company with 10 locations between Arizona and New Mexico. Because their outposts are remote, they offer on-premise housing to key staff members. While I worried that this arrangement might be rife for a power imbalance at best, the workers that I have talked with seemed thankful and genuinely happy.
Here is the 2022 interview. Her story is so difficult, but her resilience is profound.
Update – Elouise moved on last year to a new job, but I got to speak with Joseph and Noah. They both knew Elouise and they shared her spirit and dedication to their work and to their employer. Interestingly, when I asked them what they needed, they both gave me the exact same answer that Elouise did. In that way, things have not changed in Bluewater.
In 2008 as I passed through this very stretch of New Mexico I wrote the following,
Contrast (kən-trāst’, kŏn’trāst’) To set in opposition in order to show or emphasize differences
Visually, New Mexico geography defines contrast. From the rich color stratifications to the jutting rock formations, you experience it but it is hard to feel a part of it.
My first post debate interaction this morning was at the hotel elevator where I met two women from Oklahoma, both dressed head to toe in red, white and blue. They seemed more subdued than their attire and within moments they were sharing just how disappointed they were with the debate. They felt that Kamala Harris was unpresidential, did not answer any of the questions, and that the moderators clearly favored her. Trump was strong and the only candidate that world leaders respected. They were clearly terrified of a Harris presidency.
My contrast came two hours later at the Route 66 diner. Sitting at the counter where three good friends discussing the debate. While I suspected they were Trump supporters, they were kind and funny. They signed my flag and slid into a booth to have breakfast. After I finished I noticed that only one of the three remained. Please meet Fred. Born and raised in New Mexico, Fred served for 30 years in the Air Force as a civil engineer. He built Air Force bases in Vietnam and Germany. Fred shared stories of working double shifts when he was deployed just because he loved the work. Off base, he would gain approval to use equipment and materials to aid the local people, schools and orphanages. From clearing fields for rice paddies to building school soccer fields, he was proud of his work and service. I am too.
I asked Fred if he would answer one last question on tape for me and he agreed. In the end, he had one last surprise for me.
The geography that exists between Bakersfield California east to the Arizona border sets the stage for my favorite stretch of this trip. As you come down from the Tehachapi pass, you start the slow assent to the Colorado plateau that makes possible the Grand Canyon and the next 900 miles of your experience. I noted in 2008 that you have to ‘disavow yourself of everything you think a desert should be’. This is high desert and everything is bigger. The winds are stronger, the air is both hotter and colder than seems possible. But the best are the thunderstorms and the desert did not disappoint today.
