Skip to main content

Welcome to the real America

I moved for a job back in December.  I moved from West Michigan to Central Illinois.  I took a job in low level management in the hopes it would kick start a career that has been lack luster at best.  The career part is the only thing this move has going for it, I am crushing it andy6 proving myself of being worthy to climb the ladder everyday.  But the personal life in central Illinois well......

Maybe it is because I grew up 20 miles from Lake Michigan and spent every weekend at the lake.  Maybe it is the fact that I lived in a Liberal college town in Michigan, or because that same town was 6th in the country in breweries per capita, Kalamazoo MI is a really cool city and now that I have moved away I realize how much I took the amazing nature of that place for granted.  What ever it is living in Central Illinois sucks.

It confounded me back in November that Trump won the Presidency but after seeing what a completely different area of the country is like it actually makes more sense now. 

My new town, Peoria IL, is about as apathetic a place as I can imagine.  There is a general lack of build it yourself mentality around here.  The focus seems to be one of celebrating corporate America everytime it graces the city limits with a new retail outlet, and but for the grace of Corporate America go we.

A better example of what I mean is that both of these cities, plus suburbs, are about the same size but only one of them has a Golden Corral.  The other has a vibrant downtown foodie scene full of local resturanters that have built up a community to be proud of.  Of the later mentioned city, I will be downtown on May 5th for Art Hop and the all night Food Truck Rally.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

American Pride: The memoir of a future President, Part 3 The trouble with tribal

 "I haven't decided if I want to be a brain surgeon or a short order fry cook." I use to hear this growing up from my grandparents, it was from the show The Beverly Hillbillies, but it was accurate to my teenage years. I learned and played the Trombone, loved the Trombone, kept playing it in college for any group that thought I was good enough to join. I also loved engineering.  There was something about taking the abstract concepts of science and math and finding practical application.  I loved solving problems too. By the time I was in high school and people start asking what I wanted to do with my life, I very seriously said I wasn't sure if I want to be a Professional Engineer or a Jazz Trombonist.  I did both for as long as I could but only one of those was a tried and true career path.  It didn't stop me from minoring in jazz arrangement.  I even wrote a disco song for jazz ensemble that I called "We're Fabulous".  When your in the your late te...

Nikki Haley, needs to own the Bossy Female Leader trope

Nikki Haley needs to be more direct against Trump.  His followers like bluster and crassness and don’t appreciate dancing around the issue.  Attacking Trump directly is the only way to knock him down. I like her talking point about chaos following Trump but let’s be direct about it.  Chaos doesn’t follow him, he makes it.  But regardless of where the chaos comes from, a good leader is someone that people can rally around and break through the chaos and make their polices work. Donald Trump is a bad leader because he hasn’t done, doesn’t have the skills to do that and actually seems to prevent others in his leadership team from being able to do that. Stop vying for a spot in his cabinet if you lose and call it like it is.  He has no leadership skills.  And Nikki Haley needs to say it.  Regardless of where chaos comes from a good leader works through it and keeps his team focused.  We know Trump can’t run a cohesive team even when it really matters,...

Donald Trump Failed This Country

 It boggles the mind how the US presidential race could be this close.  We know what the choices are and it couldn't be more obvious what the "best choice" is. I am definately not saying that I think Kamala Harris the right choice, but given the choices she is the best option. Donald Trump had 4 years to show us what he was about and what he could do and the answers were painful.   He alienated us around the world, with this international antics.  It was the pathetic display of an entitled rich kid that got where he was on a combination of luck, cheating, and his privaleged  upbringing.  Go back and think about it.  He pushed other world leaders out of his way to ensure he got a prominent spot in a group photo.  There was that weird photo of him and a bunch of Saudis touching that glowing ball, what ever was happening there.  He insulted Angela Merkel.  He threatened to pull out of NATO.  He tried to blackmail the very leader o...