There are not two Americas. There are not pro-America parts of the county that stand in contrast to the anti-America parts. I know this because I go for walks in my Portland neighborhood. Walking is my favorite method of processing and coming down from a day of work. On a recent walk after a particularly long week I found myself wandering through the grid of Southeast Portland streets for over an hour. I passed by a Vietnamese church that was gathered for an evening service – the worship band playing Amazing Grace. A man drove by in a Mini Cooper with a sticker declaring “One Less SUV”. He parked the car behind his neighbor’s SUV, got out, greeted his neighbor and then headed into his home for the evening. Two men covered in body art sat on either side of a torn down motorcycle passing tools back and forth in between swigs of beer. A Russian church just finished a meeting of some sort and people stood around the building speaking in Russian. I turned the corner and walked past one of Portland’s many strip clubs. This one advertised stripper karaoke and fire dancing – it appeared to be quite full. Next door a huge window provided an unobstructed view of a vintage 60′s muscle car sitting in the middle of an auto upholstery shop. The shop shares a building with a new restaurant painted in familiar warm red tones and filled with folks talking, eating and drinking. A gun shop, Chinese grocery, tango dance studio and Mexican restaurant fill the next few blocks.
I am an hour into the walk but not ready to return home so I pass my normal turn and continue down the main drag that divides my neighborhood. This next section continues the eclectic mix of shops and gathering spaces. A building devoted to Christian Enterprises sits next to a fortune cookie manufacturer. There is a little storefront dedicated to the refilling of ink cartridges. The place is always neat as a pin with no evidence that a customer has ever disturbed the inventory of nearly vintage ink cartridges. I suspect this is a front for a grow house – but I may have watched one too many episodes of Weeds. Another shop deals exclusively in darts and related paraphernalia. I keep walking. A comic book store and coffeeshop. A biker bar. A place called Blind Enterprises. The Portland Atheist Society gathered for their evening meeting to discuss what they do not believe in. I get home after a 90 minute walk and go to sleep.
There are not two Americas. There are way more than two. There are hundreds of Americas, maybe thousands or millions or hundreds of millions. That is what I love about our nation. A friend of mine lives on Bainbridge Island in what I imagine is a beautiful place on acreage. His oldest child attends one of the best private schools in Seattle. That style of education is important to my friend. My oldest child decided to enlisted in the military after a decidely untraditional education blending unschooling, public school and free school. That ability to choose is important to me. My friend and I can maintain a great relationship and approach life from different angles. Recently, I was in China having dinner with a friend from Taiwan. I asked her a question about life in Taipei and she quickly shushed me – don’t mention Taiwan here…I forgot. Back in Portland, a group of us met up with someone who was born and raised in Iran. He talked about his home country and we asked questions – tell us more! We have that kind of freedom – to talk about a country that is on the list of our enemies without fear of someone listening in and reporting us to some authority. And that freedom comes from a framework designed at the founding of the nation that protects our freedom and fosters our individuality. We are a nation of many individuals who contribute to the overall story that is America. Two Americas does not do us justice.
Americans have the ability to create their own blend of politics or their own religion. We can worship or choose not to worship. We can speak in public or choose to keep silent. We are compelled to do very little and yet are found to be doing much. And while it is popular to speak of America’s demise, I still find passion, creativity and innovation in the DNA of our nation’s younger generations. The Constitution (remember that document?) spends considerable ink hemming in the government in order to create a free people. That is in us. And that reality makes it impossible to talk of two Americas. We are more interesting than 300,000,000 pawns who can be teased into one of two neat categories based on a handful of ideologies. I refuse to believe in two Americas – that narrow view stands in stark contrast to the what I see in a 90 minute walk around one neighborhood in one city of this nation.
