Amazing America

We are in the land of cowboy/cowgirl boots and cowboy/cowgirl hats. 

We are on the edge. The western edge. Of North Dakota. 

Out here are horse-riding, flag-defending, family-raising patriotic Americans.

Having traveled in all lower-48 states, I have experienced America's diversity firsthand. 

Here on the edge of the Badlands are very real remnants of early American cowboys. This is Lewis and Clark territory. Here you see tough pickup trucks, muddy from dirt roads, and meet hardworking guys (and gals). 

My mind travels to a small fishing village in Maine, where families have lived for generations. The same principles of hard work and loyalty can be found there among the weathered fishermen. (I took a picture of this flag during a snowy walk in Maine one day a couple of years ago.)

On the other side of the continent are citrus growers, Silicon Valley entrepreneurs and an ethnically-rich culture. 

Find yourself in a small southern Georgia town and you will experience loggers and waitresses and school teachers with heavy Southern accents, talking so slowly that you could fit a thousand New York seconds into one of their minutes.

From Florida to Washington state, we have more in common that we think. Our accents are a verbal sign of our diversity, yet they indicate that in our diversity, we create a pretty amazing whole. 

America. There is no place quite like it.