A View From The Road.....

from small town to small town with boarded up business' and large flags with the slogan "united we stand", small town america is drying up and nationalism is spreading rampant in the poor western towns...

just finished a 2,807 mile road trip, left santa fe went through arizona, into needles california, into barstow, into cambria.. up highway one into san francisco boogied on into sacramento then up by donner lake... into reno, down through some sorry ass towns in nevada and into kingman arizona again and back on into santa fe...

along my travels i would say boarded up business' took the heep... from small town to small town right through mainstreet local people closed up shop... booming big corporate fella's moving in... and just about every town or city was gung ho america, bumper stickers with slogans like "these colors don't run" and "pride" printed over a flag image... i can only guess what people felt about my "TRUE PATRIOTS OPPOSE BUSH" bumper sticker ( except for that man by the lighthouse who said," hey man, i like your bumper sticker"... "thanks", i said.)

i saw two "attack iraq no!" stickers... in santa cruz, california i saw one man standing out of the parked cars holding a cardboard and collaged sign asking "where are the wmd's?" other than this what i most noted was apathy... the lack of any one to take a stance in any direction....

i see more than these few signs of anti-bush, anti-administration policies everyday here in santa fe... i thought santa fe was underachieving.... but now i feel like i'm in a bubble and the country at large is closed off and into their smooth looking cars, phat r&b hip hop tunes and styling wrap around sunglasses... checking out eachother to see who has got the "latest thing" or are you a granola?

another story... our car broke down twice and we ran out of money...both times the car broke down people were very nice to us, complete strangers walked out of the dark and helped other people... my family and i are the other people who were helped... and my parents (whom i do not have good relations with) spotted me some big cash ...thanks mom and dad...

any input...?

I just got back from a roadtrip that went through Barstow, Vegas, some sorry ass towns in Nevada, Mammoth Mountain, Yosemite, San Francisco, Santa Cruz, and then back down Highway 1 to SoCal. A month ago, I drove the whole way from PA to CA and I'll be completing the return trip in a month.

I agree with you for the most part. However, on my trip across the country, I found surprises nearly everywhere. For instance, in New Orleans, Austin, and Flagstaff I noticed alot of anti-shrub stickers and signs. But, for the most part, I noticed general apathy. I have to disagree about San Francisco and Santa Cruz though. I saw MANY progressive signs and stickers in these towns. Many businesses in Santa Cruz had "Peace is Patriotic" signs and alot of cars had Dean or Kucinich stickers. I saw one car that was COMPLETELY covered with progressive bumper stickers.