Hang around me long enough and you'll hear me express sentiments to this effect. Most people are at least surprised, if not completely taken aback - even people who have traveled. I can't understand how they don't see what I see. Well, Chris Hedges sees what I see:
The Gilead Baptist Church, outside Detroit, is on a four-lane highway called South Telegraph Road. The drive down South Telegraph Road to the church, a warehouse-like structure surrounded by black asphalt parking lots, is a depressing gantlet of boxy, cut-rate motels with names like Melody Lane and Best Value Inn. The highway is flanked by a flat-roofed Walgreens, a Blockbuster, discount liquor stores, a Taco Bell, a McDonald's, a Bob's Big Boy, Sunoco and Citgo gas stations, a Ford dealership, Nails USA, The Dollar Palace, Pro Quick Lube and U-Haul. The tawdry display of cheap consumer goods, emblazoned with neon, lines both sides of the road, a dirty brown strip in the middle. It is a sad reminder that something has gone terribly wrong with America, with its inhuman disregard for beauty and balance, its obsession with speed and utilitarianism, its crass commercialism and its oversized SUVs and trucks and greasy junk food. It is part of our numbing assault against community and connectedness.
1 comment:
I totally agree with the comments of the poster. First off I am aware that America used to be great "great" being the operative word. Since 9/11 that has all changed I don't like what we have become at all. People don't trust anyone agencies are making everyones lives miserable by making anything we need to do more difficult with red tape. I figured something out American claims to care about its people, but really all its cares about is BIG BUSINESS, CORPORATIONS, CONGLOMERATES. This country is set up for BIG BUSINESS that is all it is geared CORPORATIONS. There is no community, no architecture, no free education, no health care, its just not friendly to citizens. Its all about Wal-Marts and Pepsi, fast food, fast money, cheaply made products, outsourced customer service, and road rage. The war which has been a huge lie since the beginning. The thousands of soldiers and innocent civilians dying in the name of feeding the monster (oil & money). The self indulgent gluttiney of America and its people. No one cares about the environment. Really its a tragedy I don't know how anyone can be proud to live here anymore. Personally I think its an embarressment. We are the loudest, arrogant, uncultured, unrefined group of people I have every met.
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