Week 5 Readings

"You Are What You Spend"
I learned quite a bit from this article; it sure puts into perspective how not-poor our country really is. I'm not discounting the poverty in this country, but I've traveled other countries, and I've seen very little here that compares to the extent and degree of poverty I've seen there. I went to Albania in 1992, and every street had a two-story mountain of reeking trash and many homes had running water for only an hour per day. In Mexico in 2003, I saw people living in cardboard box cities. Yes, America has poverty, but it just doesn't compare to the rest of the world. Our poor here could be considered wealthy in some other countries, where televisions, automobiles, and telephones are owned only by the wealthy. At least some of the poor here have cars in which to live! Indeed, this article reveals a country abounding in many good things. We must be grateful.

(The pictures above were taken on our camera in Nouakchott, Mauritania in June 2006.)

"From Maps to Myth"
and
Turner's "The Significance of the Frontier in American History" (Chapter 1)
"From Maps to Myth" was tough to get into at first, but once it started detailing how Turner turned his geographic idea into the shaping of an American vision, I was hooked. (I should have read Turner's Chapter 1 first.) Turner affected the entire course of this country's future by inspiring hope, providing vision, and defining its identity. It reveals to us geographers what impact we can have upon society if we interpret and show a new viewpoint on the many conflicting issues within society. Looking at the issues individually or corporately can be so discouraging, as was the case in Turner's time when the economy was tanking and political candidates were rampaging (hmmm, sounds like today), but he took a new viewpoint, stepping outside the box and looking at the country as a whole, and in so doing, he inspired an entire identity for this country which survives today.

Linking this to "You Are What You Spend," we must remember that even with the gloomy prognosis of "recession" and the frustration of presidential-hopeful horror, overall, our country is rich and blessed beyond what our forebears could even fathom. Even if the recession gets much worse, we're not going to be freezing in cardboard boxes or scrounging for food in dumpsters or begging for pennies to feed our children. We are blessed and must remember that above all else.

When Turner said in his chapter one, "...the frontier promoted the formation of a composite nationality for the American people," he provides a component in America's cultural "salad bowl" that I've never considered before. The frontier aided in the creation of an environment where the converging cultures didn't have to press closer and closer together until they melted together or burst violently (the "melting pot" analogy doesn't really work); instead, people could spread their wings, becoming as American as everyone else while still maintaining the aspects of their home culture they wanted to keep. It was a unique setup in the grand scheme of the world.

(Picture on right: "The Mortar of Assimilation" in Puck Magazine, 26 June 1889.)

"Geographical-Historical Concepts in American History"
I really enjoyed reading this article. I loved the mix of the physical with the cultural. This is fully expressed in the line, "To me land is the matrix out of which the culture grows" (86). I completely agreed with his rearranging of the regions of the U.S., although I can see why it was a controversial proposition. I'm guessing those states removed from the North and South Central regions and made into a West-Plains region (Texas to N. Dakota) would balk at the idea of being associated so strongly with the west, but it seems very logical and sensical. I think Webb is one of those engaging writers of geography that Lewis was asking for in his presidential address.