Trip Log – Day 36 –Mount Prospect, IL to Oak Creek, WI

Posted on June 12, 2015 by paulefallon

Mount Prospect to Oak Creek WIJune 10, 2015 – Sunny, 85 degrees

Miles Today: 68

Miles to Date: 2,076

States to Date: 11

2,000 miles and Wisconsin! My first time ever the Badger State.

IMG_2245I got up early and shipped out of Mount Prospect before traffic grew heavy. Easy riding through city streets and industrial areas and eventually smooth bike paths far north of Chicago. I was supposed to follow thirty miles of bike path north of Oak Bluff, IL, but it was gravel and shadeless so I opted to shift over to Sheridan, a more interesting street that hugs the lake coast.

IMG_2248Since I had a 1:00 p.m. tour time to visit Frank Lloyd Wright’s Johnson & Sons Headquarters in Racine, I didn’t dawdle. But I was going slow enough to realize a marked uptick in clubs, gin mills, and package stores in a state famous for having more bars than churches. My dad would have loved Wisconsin. The sun was hot, but north of Kenosha the road followed the lakeshore; the temperature dropped ten degrees and the breeze was delightful.

IMG_2250I enjoy visiting Frank Lloyd Wright buildings, but come away wondering why he disliked people so much and wishing he could have used his talents to promote human communication rather than trying to make everyone conform to his will. A control freak of the highest order that hated cities, the man did more damage to America than almost any other architect in all the way he’s promoted sprawl. In Racine, the Johnson family insisted that the headquarters remain in the city. And though the result is a magnificent piece of sculpture, it’s a fortress against the city. The tall, solid walls with clerestory tubes of glass allow wonderful light in, but prohibit views out because FLW thought the neighborhood unattractive.

Racine, WI has one of the most successful community policing programs in the country. A few days I ago I contacted the Racine Police Department to see if I might be able to talk with someone about tomorrow. I received morning call from Lt. Dave Wohlgemuth who invited me to meet at one of their COP houses at 2:30 p.m. I was overwhelmed when I arrived. The Chief of Police, Deputy Chief, former Chief (who began the program), Dave, and two other officers spent more than an hour with me discussing their approach to policing, how it has IMG_2253contributed to Racine’s nosedive in crime, strengthened community ties, created economic opportunity, and stabilized neighborhoods. The Biblical guidance, “Ask and ye shall receive” resounded in my head as I rode away, marveling at the incredible outpouring of insights and ideas I get by just asking for an opportunity to meet and talk.

My warmshowers host, Shane, was working late, so I took a writing break and then rode an hour north in the early evening to arrive at Oak Creek after seven. Shane grilled burgers for his three stepsons and me. He offered me beer – honey, red, or dark ale – disappeared to the garage and returned with a glass of foamy brew. I figured he had a beer fridge there. But I was deeper into Wisconsin than I realized. It turns out Shane is a serious beer maker, with a basement full of a dozen or more varieties in fermentation and a triple keg refrigerator with sidewall tap in his garage. As a beer lover from a place where beer is wine’s poor relation, I felt right at home.

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Profile Response: Sandra Lee Foley Hitchcock – Trout Run, PA

Posted on June 11, 2015 by paulefallon

HWWLT Logo on yellowThe ride down Route 14 from Elmira NY to Williamsport, PA on the Saturday of Memorial Day Weekend was glorious. About ten miles away from my destination, the Little League Museum, I saw a sign: Pow Wow Reenactment. I was running early. I was intrigued. So I navigated my bike down a wooded road to a clearing with dozen tents with folks selling food and memorabilia and a field beyond marked with a large circle. Three men led a parade. One carried an American flag, another a Native American talisman, and a third the POW flag. They proceeded around the circle at a deliberate pace followed by people in various forms of Native American and military dress. Two drum circles, one of men, another of women, alternating setting the cadence. Sometimes the women would chant.

IMG_1956The parade stopped and the leader spoke of military valor. A woman in Native American dress recited Johnny Cash’s “Ragged Old Flag”. They executed a sanctioned flag burning to honor lost veterans. A small group of Revolutionary War era enactors observed form their outpost in the woods. The mash-up of American military and Native American themes confused me.

I approached one of the vendors and asked for explanation of the proceedings. Sandra Lee Foley Hitchcock explained: “There is nothing inconsistent with honoring the Native American and U.S. military traditions. Native Americans have fought as part of the U.S military for years. That makes it part of our tradition.”

IMG_1957Sandra is a Cayuga Indian from Big Flats, New York who makes beautiful leather objects to sell at fairs. We realized that I had ridden past her house on my journey. “We have two acres. We have to own them in order to live off the land, but really, who can own land? It’s a concept that creates so much trouble, yet we do it. We don’t mow our lawn or tend it; we let nature have its way. We have birds and bees and honey and sometimes a mountain lion.”

I ask Sandra how she rationalizes celebrating Memorial Day against what happened to Native Americans in this country. “The way we deal with the genocide is to forgive. The Creator told us to forgive and whoever forgives most gets the most. We acknowledge that we live under the American flag and we honor that flag. Our traditions are not mixed with your traditions. We absorb them both. Our grief is that so many other people deny our culture.

“We honor the seven generations who have come before us. We live to prepare for the next seven generations forward.”

Sandra answered my question, ‘How will we live tomorrow?’ without me asking.

IMG_2261Sandra wanted to give me something for my journey. I pointed to panniers and explained that I’m travelling light. She didn’t heed me. Instead, she selected a small leather pouch with a hummingbird clasp, attached it to a leather cord and put fresh sage inside. “Put this around your neck. It will protect you.” I have worn it every day since. I like having Sandra close to my heart.

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Trip Log – Day 35 – Naperville, IL to Mount Prospect, IL

Posted on June 10, 2015 by paulefallon

SNaperville to Mt ProspectJune 9, 2015 – Sunny, 85 degrees

Miles Today: 36

Miles to Date: 1,968

States to Date: 10

Today was day of skirting the suburbs and visiting friends, old and new. It began with breakfast with my high school buddy David and his fiancé Charlene. We went to visit David’s latest commercial construction project. I pedaled to Glen Ellyn, where I had lunch with Eliza Klein, my first meeting with a facebook friend and immigration attorney. After a writing break I cycled over to Mount Prospect to enjoy dinner and stay with my Cambridge friend’s Mark and Pandora Brewer. My route included some lovely bike paths, shady residential streets, major commercial thoroughfares, and a few miles through an industrial park near O’Hare Airport. Not all picturesque, but all interesting.

Along the way I passed dozens (hundreds?) of Chicago’s most dubious contribution to our architectural vocabulary – the split-level. I grew up in one; everything is always a few steps away from where you want to be. But Chicago has more variety than anyplace else.

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Profile Response – Jane Cook, Southport, NY

Posted on June 10, 2015 by paulefallon

 

HWWLT Logo on yellow“There is a fundamental difference between middle aged adults who have raised children versus those who have not. It’s a way of addressing problems that they have to deal with as opposed to those that are less important. I am a middle-aged adult, I have raised two children, and I have reached a point where I have to address a key issue in my life: how small a slice of pie will I accept as a transwoman?”

Jane Cook is a 50-year-old professional who has raised two sons. “All accomplishments I achieved as a man. Now I will be a woman.” Jane wonders what aspects of her past identity will transfer intact and which ones will change or be diluted in her transition.

“I can never remember not feeling dysphoric.” Jane was raised a Mormon, with strong prohibitions against self-exploration. Her eyes grow distant but clear as she recalls a book, About Life and Love: Facts of life for LDS Teens. “The book said, ‘There is no mismatching of bodies and spirits’. I still remember the exact line.” Jane dated girls, but knew her attraction was different from other boys. “I always wondered, do I want to be with you, or do I want to be you? The dislocation became stronger the more I encountered intimacy. God bless The Rocky Horror Picture Show. Without that, how would I even know what transgender is!

JgBRkMX7_400x400Jane realized that she could be attracted to guys and felt comfortable within the Kinsey spectrum. But she fell in love with a woman and they had children. “Karen knew that I was queer from the beginning. But over the years, I was living with someone who understood what I could have been, not who I needed to be.”

When Jane began to express her female side, “At first, cross-dressing was exciting, then depressing. It is literally a drag. So many gender dysphoric people are suicidal. I was. That’s when you realize that you have to plunge into the unknown because the present is unsustainable.”

So Jane began a long process, social and professional as well as physical, to become a woman. Her company had processes in place to assist people in transition, but Jane was a high-level, public representative, so her transition demanded, and received, careful consideration. When the formal announcement took place, Jane met with more looks of understanding than bewilderment. “Nobody needed to change. They were already good people. Knowing that I can stay here and thrive here is important to me.”

I asked Jane if she considered herself a trailblazer. “Unfortunately, yes. Its a lot of work; very tiring. But I get strength out of my desperation. There is a lot of support in this country for me.” Jane finds support in the online community and in following public figures, like Bruce Jenner. And she has become a role model for others. Her son is a fan of Dan Harmon, creator of the TV show Community, and more recently, podcasts. When they visited LA and attended a recording session Don Harmon interviewed Jane. Now she has a twitter following. “It’s been a seven year process, from telling my wife to having a fan base (@JaneCook248).”

“Who am I going to be? I really don’t know. The incremental enlargement of subtleties leads to exponential change.”

How will we live tomorrow?

“What does it mean for humanity to move forward? Is being transgendered an affluent western phenomenon? Is it a way to attain Maslow’s hierarchy of achievement? Can we find value in our culture for a third gender identity?

“How we will live tomorrow will always be tied up with who we are as individuals and the power systems within our culture and society. We are always just one demagogue away from a holocaust. Technology can draw us close, but closing it down will make it easier to create disarray than ever.

“I look forward to a post-gender world, where biological presentation becomes unimportant.”

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Trip Log – Day 34 – Chicago, IL to Naperville, IL

Posted on June 9, 2015 by paulefallon

Chicago to NapervilleJune 8, 2015 – Sunny, 85 degrees with thunderstorms

Miles Today: 37

Miles to Date: 1,932

States to Date: 10

Every time I am in Chicago I remember how much I love this city. It’s got big city amenities, big city feel plus eager, friendly people. Bonnie and Frank, my warmshowers hosts, offered to take me on a bike tour of the city. Since I’ve seen the highlights before, we skipped the lake and Millennium Park in favor of the emerging South of the Loop and Pilsen neighborhoods. The former Germantown is now the center of Chicago’s Mexican community. We picked up Janet along the way and four fit retirees hit the streets. Chicago is a giant playground for architects; everyone is keen on architecture. Bonnie is a docent at the Glessner House, and we stopped often to study arches, lintel and rustication.

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We ate breakfast at Neuevo Leon, an amazing Mexican Restaurant whose three dining rooms were packed at 10:00 a.m. on a Monday morning. My chorizo tostadas were delicious, the extra warm tortillas and egg samples a bonus. Everything was generous except the place settings. I have been in three restaurants in the Mid-west that give you only a napkin and a fork. Have knives and spoons not made it across the Ohio River? How am I supposed to devour every bit of the delicious food without using my fingers?

IMG_2215We said our goodbyes and I continued west. My cycling routes often divide into thirds, and today was a classic example. My first ten miles traversed the westward migration of Mexican immigrants in Chicago. I stopped at a Mexican bakery along 21st street – gluttony trumped hunger – to satisfy my sweet tooth. Then I continued on to Cicero, where one side of 26th Street was a huge intermodal train/truck terminal, while the other side was neat Chicago-style brick houses. On to Berwyn, where the houses got further apart but the pick-up trucks still blared Mariachi music. Finally, I hit full-blown suburbs in North Riverside, with malls and long ranch houses, but all the residents were still Mexican-Americans.

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My second third was along the Salt Creek Trail; ten miles of cool, winding path through Cook County’s extensive Forest Preserve system.

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Finally, I popped out in Oak Brook, a lush, very affluent exurb. Oak Brook is the headquarters of McDonald’s and apparently the executives take Happy Meal castles and pump them up to McMansions of enormous size. Brick is passé – the new ones are stone. One turret is a minimum, two or three are better. I saw one house so slick I thought it was still waiting for permanent siding. Then I realized the exterior was polished travertine. Really? In Chicago?

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The exurbs are the most dangerous place to cycle. Entitled people in big cars have no patience for the rules of the road. At one intersection, after I waited to get a crossing sign, six cars cut in front of me for their right turn. Along one stretch a thin, tan woman with dazzling earrings slowed her SUV down enough to scream ‘Sidewalk’ at me, before gunning off and giving me a mouthful of exhaust. Even though by law I am supposed to ride on the road, I followed her unwelcome advice and took to the sidewalk for self-preservation.

I took a long afternoon break and waited out a serious thunderstorm, then got to my old high school friend David Klippell’s house in Naperville around six. It’s been more than twenty years since we’ve seen each other. David, his fiancé Charlene, daughter Karen, and I enjoyed beers and enchiladas. David, a carpenter, showed me all his handy work. Then we stayed up too late talking; we had a lot of catching up to do.

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Profile Response – Yvette Sterbenk and Glen Cook, Corning Museum of Glass Corning, NY

Posted on June 9, 2015 by paulefallon

HWWLT Logo on yellowCorning, NY, the Crystal City, is home of Corning Glass. Founded in Brooklyn as Brooklyn Flint Glassworks in 1851, the company moved to Corning in 1868 to be nearer to the Pennsylvania coal needed to fuel the furnaces, raw materials needed for glass, and inexpensive Italian labor. It changed its name too reflect its new location. Corning became a leader in developing consumer products, including Pyrex, Corning Ware, and Corelle. In 1951, the company’s 100th anniversary, Corning established the Museum of Glass as an independent non-profit. Corning has always stressed new product development; 10% of its budget is earmarked for R&D. In the last half of the twentieth century, Corning’s focus moved away from domestic glass products toward fiber optics and specialty glass. In 1996 they sold off all their domestic glass production, though their most famous products still bear their name. Now Corning manufactures the ‘keystone’ glass components many products. Just as Corning manufactured the first glass for Edison’s light bulbs, it now produces the ultra-thin, tactile glass screen on our smart phones and wide screen TV’s and more than half the fiber optic cable in the world.

IMG_1933I met with Yvette Sterbenk, Director of Communications; and Glen Cook, Chief Scientist of the Corning Museum of Glass; to discuss how will we live tomorrow. Glen worked for Corning Inc. for sixteen years and spearheaded fourteen patents before transitioning to work full time at the museum. “Every panel display in the world has a piece of my invented DNA in it.” Glen values the interaction between the corporate side of glass research and development, and the artistic side celebrated in the museum. Gaffers (people who make glass by hand or blowing) can inform machine fabrication, and vice versa. “No machine invented can do what the human mind and hand can do, while gaffers are often unaware of the fundamental science behind what they do.” Glen’s role is to bridge the intuitive feel of glassmakers with scientific understanding. “Gaffers say that glass is alive; a Pele goddess of sand and lava. That’s true, but there’s also science behind it.” Glen is well suited to his connective role as scientist in an institution of art. “Glass doesn’t do anything it doesn’t want to do, but it can be coaxed. The relationship between a gaffer and the glass is like a conversation between a garden and the gardener, or a chef and his food.” He describes how Corning Museum of Glass supports artists for long-term internships to live in Corning, develop art, and interface with Corning’s R&D folks. “The museum used to be about the archeology of glass, now we are about the possibility of glass.”

How will we live tomorrow?

IMG_1934“I had a conversation with a geologist today, talking about the arrow of time. The future stands in the shadow of the past.” Glen brings out two glass samples. One is piece of 3”x5” glass circa 1780, the kind that filled colonial windows, and which we value now for its handmade quality. The second is fusion process glass, circa 2000. It is so flat and smooth; if the sample were expanded over the area of a football field its thickness would vary less than the width of a pencil lead. It is a distortion-free surface far beyond what the eye can discern.

Why did it take 200 years to make this difference in precision? “The speed of technological change is driven by need. Corning developed the fusion process in the 1960’s, but there was no perceived need for glass that smooth. The Patent Office is filled with inventions that will never be used. There has to be a ‘pull’ as well as a ‘push.’ We could all fly around on jet packs now, we have been to the moon, but they are not everyday experiences because there is no demand.”

Glen expands his ideas beyond science. “We have the ability to feed everyone on earth, but we don’t have the collective will. Our science is spot on, but what will motivate us to apply to the common good of all?”

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“I can say with surety that tomorrow will be more advanced technology, more precision, and more potential. Modern technology is driven by precision, but I don’t know what people will want, which determines which advances we use.”

IMG_1938Yvette observed, “People come to the Corning Museum of Glass to the see the stuff from the 1760’s; the local, imperfect, hand drawn materials elicit the deepest responses. We seek the human touch.”

Glen continued, “Our humanity lies in what we know. You can’t know where you’re going unless you know where you’ve been. In the end, everything is made of rocks and wood. Everything. We are just hyper intelligent bonobos throwing rocks at each other. We still live as our species did 30,000 years ago, playing with animal, vegetable, and mineral.”

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Trip Log – Day 33 – Gary, IN to Chicago, IL

Posted on June 8, 2015 by paulefallon

Gary to ChicagoJune 7, 2015 – Rainy, 65 degrees

Miles Today: 38

Miles to Date: 1,895

States to Date: 10

The forecast was for rain rain, rain, so I got up and out early to try to pedal the short distance to Chicago before the storm hit. I rode through two hours of Sunday morning empty highways, railroads, distressed neighborhoods, Holiday Inn ruins, and aging industry. Everything was grey and the smell oppressive, but I enjoyed the cacophony of continuous train whistles, petroleum cracking, and my bike wheels thumping the cracked pavement.

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However, pollution made incredible patterns in the water I traversed on old steel bridges.

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I detoured to enjoy a sumptuous breakfast at Sunrise Family Restaurant in Whiting, IN. Since Whiting has a strong Mexican influence, I had a pair of sunny side eggs over chorizo hash and salsa in a skillet, but then added my first pancakes of the journey. By the time I finished my meal the rain came down, but I had the energy to push through.

I managed to get off track of U.S 41 and wound up coming into Chicago via Jeffrey Blvd., a really cool street that maps the city’s Southside development in reverse, from solid post-War single family houses, to duplex apartments, to 1920’s era apartment buildings, and then to Modernist apartments that are second or third generation development.

By the time I got to the bike path along Lakeshore Drive the rain had ceased. Chicago rose out of the water like an aquamarine Oz.

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I enjoyed a fine lunch at a Thai restaurant in the emerging South of Loop neighborhood with my friend Abhi Ganju, a physician and artist I met at a conference several years ago. We’ve been Internet buddies ever since but it was great to catch up in person. Afterward, I spent the afternoon exploring Chicago’s Chinatown.

IMG_2206When I sought my warmshowers host’s house, I had to double-check the address. Bonnie lives in a modernist glass tower with remarkable city views – not the typical warmshowers venue. But she greeted me with the enthusiasm everyone on that website seems to possess. In short order we were chums, comparing the challenges of cycling over Vail Pass. Bonnie’s downstairs neighbor Ginny invited us to for supper on their deck. Bonnie brought cheese and crackers, her partner Frank supplied root beer, Ginny made poutine and her fiancé Joe (who lives in another unit in the building) grilled brats. I offered my question, which they considered a fair contribution to our impromptu party overlooking Chicago rooftops at sunset.

 

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Featured Response – Chuck Latovich

Posted on June 8, 2015 by paulefallon

HWWLT Logo on yellowChuck Latovich is a member of the Board of GLAD (Gay and Lesbian Advocates and Defenders), a consultant in Positive Psychology, and an intricate mystery writer the publishing world has yet to discover. He is also a longtime friend. He sent me this response to the question one month after I began my journey.

 

How will we live tomorrow?

Embedded in your question is a predictive ability that’s uncomfortable for me. Tomorrow will bring inventions and events I can never imagine. (See also: 2003, before smart phones, marriage equality, etc.) Of course, I worry about wild weather patterns, catatonia induced by addiction to electronic devices, and political polarization. I’m not sure what I can do about those mammoth issues; they are overwhelming. I try to act with some integrity within my sphere of influence. I hope I have enough time and health to do more. I hope for the best for those who will survive me.

unnamedBut there is a forecast that I have taken to heart, one that I saw a couple of years ago on a billboard. “The first person to live to 150 years of age is alive right now.” Advances in health care will extend the average lifespan remarkably over the next century. People will rationally expect to live a very long time. This is true of your children, but you and I have a taste of that. I am far healthier than my mother was at my age. I am more mobile. My teeth are my own!

So people tomorrow will have to come up with ways to fill many more years. They will have more opportunities to live a worthwhile life. More challenges, too.

unnamed-1So to a degree I ended up changing your question from how will we live tomorrow to how should we live tomorrow? And my answer is that I hope people will live as you are right now.

First, you have found work that is personally meaningful to you. In your current occupation (writer/researcher/cyclist?), you are using your considerable skills, taking chances, are interested in what you do. To an observer, you are, in a phrase from positive psychology, “in the flow,” beyond happiness and occupying a zone where time disappears because you are fully engaged in what you do and are thoughtful, dedicated and disciplined about it. I’d say you were “firing on all cylinders” if it weren’t a cliché and somewhat out of keeping with your present mode of travel.

unnamed-2Second, you are having fun. Pleasure is there in the meals you recount, in the delight of visiting people and places that you’ve loved in the past and want to see again, or in the fulfillment of a desire for a new, but long-sought, experience. Pleasure is such an important part of life, e.g., “Would you like more beer or ice cream?” I’d probably add sex to those two, and change the beer to wine, but that’s me.

Third, and final for now, you are getting, and giving, all sorts of love. Once more from my own studies in positive psychology, relationships are primary, but that’s adding an academic layer to what’s really common sense. I am continually touched by the stories you recount of strangers who feed you, comp your meals, pray with you, offer help, give you a place to sleep, are curious about you, who are so exceptionally generous to you, who never met you before and who may never see you again but are nonetheless willing to support you. I have found this theme of your narrative incredibly moving. I’m sure there are exceptions, but in what you’ve told us, the charity (as in virtue) far outweighs the slights.

unnamed-3There’s a quote that I have on my Facebook page from a writer named Tim Kreider: “I know intellectually that all the urgently pressing items on our mental lists—our careers, car repairs, the daily headlines, the goddamned taxes—are just so much noise, that what matters is spending time with the people you love.” Holy smokes, Paul, you are going to know a world of people when you are done! I’d say you are a lucky man but that would negate all of the effort you’ve put in to make the love happen. Luck is a small part of it.

Tomorrow: Love, fun, work. Fundamentals.

 

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Trip Log – Day 32 –Stevensville, MI to Gary, IN

Posted on June 7, 2015 by paulefallon


Stevensville to GaryJune 6, 2015 – Sunny, 70 degrees

Miles Today: 61 

Total Miles: 1,857   

Total States: 9

Today was the perfect day to cycle: seventy degrees and sunny with a light breeze that kept coming from different directions to cool and push me along. A day so good I slipped into Central Time and got an extra hour to enjoy it.

IMG_2175IMG_2177I dawdled around my hotel in the morning, enjoyed the complementary breakfast, and pedaled out just before ten. I spent most of yesterday and today on the Red Arrow Highway, an odd road in that it is a main thoroughfare, yet has no state number. It parallels I-94 from Kalamazoo to New Buffalo, sometimes as a narrow country road, sometimes as a four-lane highway. It also has these bizarre I-94 ‘Emergency ‘ signs posted all along the way. If there is an emergency on I-94, this byway isn’t going to offer much help. Regardless, Red Arrow Highway has little traffic, as I-94 is never more than a mile away.

IMG_2179Even on a cycle tour, the rhythm of weekends is different from weekdays. I don’t have appointments to meet with groups, but there are more people out and about for me to meet. I stopped at the intricate sand castle sculpture and wound up talking with Tim Ferrell, owner of Harbor Cabin Court about tomorrow. He is particularly interested our food system, and seemed disappointed that my on the road food regimen isn’t more discriminating.

I stopped by a small crafts fair with local honey and jams. I also learned that any road called ‘Lakeshore Drive’ would veer me off the highway, wind along wooded streets and Lakefront houses, and eventually bring me back to Red Arrow. Plenty of weekend cyclists filled the shoulder. Chris caught me just north of the Indiana line. We rode together for a few miles and swapped touring stories until he grew tired of my pace and sped off.

IMG_2188Long Beach and Sheridan IN are very nice beach towns; Michigan City is sleepy on a sunny Saturday afternoon. In Pines I met Zach, a convenience store cashier, who has the most radical view of tomorrow I’ve encountered to date. Sales tax rates and their application vary in every state, but I was surprised when he charged no tax on my purchase. Apparently it is his small way to subvert our monetary system, which he condemns as he collects cash from customers for gas and cigarettes.

Route 12 runs through Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore for more than ten miles, though I only saw the water when I sidetracked to the main beach, which was crowded with sun worshippers on a clear day too cool for many swimmers. After a writing break, I made my way to the Miller’s Beach neighborhood of Gary, an eclectic, funky place where my warmshowers hosts Olivia and Ty made an awesome dinner of pizza, tortellini and Asian salad before heading out to view an art show in a converted grocery store, empty storefronts turned graffiti canvases, and enjoy fresh beer at the Eighteenth Street Brewery. Guys at the bar joked that Gary was the best city on earth. Maybe it’s seen better days, but I’ve been to worse places.

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How will we live tomorrow? – Responses

Posted on June 7, 2015 by paulefallon

How will we live tomorrow? 

“No one is going to answer that question because we cannot know. There is only one God, who knows all. The rest is just a guess.”

Rudy, waiter at Al Ameer Restaurant Dearborn, MI

How will we live tomorrow?

IMG_2188“Without a monetary system. When we get rid of the Fractional Reserve system we can move forward to equality. Until then, every man will just chase money and we will all suffer. There are only three countries in the world – China, Iraq, and one other – that don’t use the monetary system masterminded by the Rothschild’s. There’s more debt than money. Debt is created out of nothing. But more people have gotten on their knees to it than to any messiah.

“I bet you never thought you’d get so much from a convenience store clerk.”

Zach Nelson, Convenience store clerk who charged me no tax, Pines, IN

How will we live tomorrow?

“Ayn Rand, freedom, individual liberty.”

John Worth, McDonald’s customer, Portage, IN

How will we live tomorrow?

 IMG_2180-1“If we live well today, we can continue that way. Not a whole lot of good comes form conflict. We have to get away form the ‘War on Drugs’ and ‘War on Poverty’ and ‘War on Cancer’. There are enough natural resources ont he planet to sustain us, if they are managed to avoid scarcity. The challenge is to manage them well and not squander them through war and corruption.”

Timothy Farrell Owner of Harbor Country Cabins, Harbert, MI

How will we live tomorrow?

“Hopefully as well as we live today.”

Chris, cyclist who rode a few miles with me, Chesterton, IN

How will we live tomorrow? 

“I’m taking the LSAT. I want to go to Wayne State. My family is here, my children. I can’t set my sights on Ann Arbor.”

Fatma, mother of three, Dearborn, MI

How will we live tomorrow?

“We have the ideal scenario. We have neighbors that all share. When we were all just farmers, that’s what we did all the time. When industrialiation came, the bosses didn’t know the laborers’ names, they just became ‘worker’. Before industrialization, it was a perfect time. But the smarter we got, the harder it got.”

Fiona Bachtel, Seventh grade agrarian, Norwich, VT

How will we live tomorrow?

IMG_2117“Actually, I was planning to live today. It’s a beautiful day, I’m going to get my gear and take a long board ride.”

Alex, Skateboarder Ann Arbor, MI

 

How will we live tomorrow?

“Giant agribusiness monocultures are all about reducing stress to improve yield. The best tomato comes from a field under stress. Just like the best people.”

Dave Bachtel, IT Executive and bass player, Norwich, VT

How will we live tomorrow?

IMG_2139“Cooperatively.”

Keli Hindenach, Curator of American Museum of Magicians Marshall, MI

“I worked in museums all over the world. When this job opened, I came back to my hometown and married my high school sweetheart. That’s why our tagline is, “The wonder of it all.”

How will we live tomorrow?

“Always in the future there will be greater technology, like hover cars.”

Joseph Hindenach, Intern at American Museum of Magicians Marshall, MI

How will we live tomorrow?

“Have faith.”

Dorothy, Customer at Louie’s Bakery, Marshall, MI

“These nut rolls are really terrific at 6:05 in the morning, when they are still warm, after a long night of partying.”

How will we live tomorrow?

IMG_2141“One day at a time. Tomorrow might be terrible, but you have to live today first.”

Jessica and Wendi, Cashiers at Louie’s Bakery, Marshall, MI

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