Around the World Day 66: Dayton, Ohio

    Contrary to what you might think, this two-week detour back to the American Midwest was a perfect way to continue our world journey.  Traveling can take away blinders that might prevent you from seeing the beauty and/or hypocrisy in your own country of residence.  Thus, this is a blog to describe my feelings upon re-entering the good old (actually, really young in comparison to every other culture and people I have just visited, although as an established country and government, still old) US of A. 

   First, I hadn’t noticed when I left that the design on the back of the penny had changed for the first time in many decades, and I was thus very surprised to see that we had different looking currency to use!  My second impression was of great relief to hear English being used everywhere.  My third impression (we were in Chicago’s airport) was of the friendliness of many people around us.  We happily engaged in a long conversation with a group of passengers who, like us, had just traveled on 10-hour plane rides.  In true American fashion, we joked about the silliness of some airport policies and eventually chatted about our trips as we went through a whole bunch of lines.  Our newly made friends then let us use their cell phones to call home and let our family know that we had taken a bump and made $250 just for waiting ½ an hour until a later flight (and running across the Chicago airport, which is a commonplace occurrence for Michelle and I as it has happened 5 out of the last 5 times we have been there).  America is the land of opportunities!

   One exorbitantly priced burger later (although, nothing compared to the $17 vegetarian burger combo meal we purchased at the Burger King in the Istanbul airport) we were in America’s heartland, Ohio.  I love Ohio, I went to school there and will be moving there in the spring.  So, when I started to critically analyze my home with the same eyes as the ones I used to look at China I was surprised at the many things that I had never noticed before.  First, America’s weight problem was more than apparent.  Nowhere in the world did we see people as overweight as those in Ohio.  Useless sensationalist news about murders and boring social pieces assailed me on all televisions.  I always knew that I disliked the news, but my newfound love of international stories made the terrible newscasting even more disappointing.  Service while in the States continued to amaze me at its poorness. Waiters messed up 3 out of four of our meals, returning an item to Walmart reminded me of the worst bureaucracy we faced anywhere (although with more employees then the populations of Oregon, Vermont, and Montana put together, perhaps Walmart is more like a country of its own).  Fox News broadcast vapid discussions about whether someone has the right to build a mosque near the site of the Sept. 11^th terrorist attack in NYC.  Of course they do according to the constitution!  And no, I do not care what CNN’s viewers have to say about important news issues…I care what unbiased polls say and what people with deeper knowledge then I have say on the issues. 

   If I were a visitor from another country, however, none of the above concerns would come near to the weirdness of holiday preparations in Ohio.  The downtown of Fairborn, Ohio, is covered in ghoulish Halloween decorations complete with mechanical zombies throwing up.  I am not sure what I would think of this strange American tradition.  What if someone was asked about these traditions?  “Uh, Halloween?  No, costumes and candy don’t have much to do with anything religious.  Uh, well, yeah I guess there is a religious holiday that it is for, but we just like scaring little kids and adding to their weight problems.”  What if this visitor from another country were to turn on television?  Well, they would be greeted with no less than a dozen different shows focusing on vampires or vampire like creatures.  Don’t get me wrong, I love vampires…but our country’s current obsession is patently weird. 

 

  Then, when I ran out of gas as a visitor in one of my giant gas guzzling SUVs that I rented because it was the thing to do here, I might stop into a BP gas station.  If I were a globally conscious traveler I might think it interesting that BP was trying to earn the trust of the community by having a group of beautiful 20-something women pump my gas, chat with me, clean my windshield, and hand me a $5 gift certificate for BP gas. 

   But, as I said before, I love my country even more now than I did when I left.  If I were from China, I would read for the first time the news of how a Chinese political dissenter who is locked in a Chinese prison was just awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.  If I were from East Africa I would marvel at the grocery stores that stock any food from around the world.  If I were worried that Americans wouldn’t be nice to me because I was foreign, I would be super surprised at the many people who would strike up conversation standing in line or waiting on me in a food establishment.  I would go to the American Air Force museum for free and marvel at the technological advances over the decades that America has made.  I would have a complex emotional response to seeing the plane that dropped the Nagasaki atomic bomb, but I would also be impressed that America has bravely fought for decades for the freedom that they enjoy. 

If I were from India I would be awestruck by the enormity of the IMAX screen showing a movie about the incredible views that the Hubble telescope has taken over the years.  I would note the pictures of 100 billion galaxies each containing 100 billion stars taken by NASA with a humbleness that I might have gotten the impression that Americans lacked.   If I were from Cambodia, I would savor the politics of the region.  I might be very surprised by the influence that religion seemed to have on many political pundits and voters on issues because I would be told that there was separation of church and state.  But, I would revel in and be very impressed with the press coverage of an upcoming election that many people really seemed to care about and the impending power that all citizens would have to make changes to the government without the influence of corruption.

  And finally, if all of the cars, buildings, and infrastructure overwhelmed me, I would drive 5 minutes to a nature park and watch deer, owls, squirrels, and the gorgeous fall foliage demonstrate to me that America is truly beautiful.