by James Glaser
May 2, 2005

I was home for a couple of days before I noticed the phone had not rung. After three weeks on the road with no ringing phone to disturb my thoughts, I guess I sort of forgot about it here.

I checked and there is a dial tone and I can call out, but when people call in, nothing sounds on this end and I guess I am liking that. I lived for several years up on the Big Fork River, pre-cell phone days, where there were no land lines, and no chance for a phone. I think back fondly on those years.

I know Americans have lost the art of letter writing and that is sad. I see people attached to their cell phones and wonder if they have ever been alone since they got one. My house is peaceful and quiet. I can hear the wind and the birds and the squirrels making all sorts of noise outside. They are better than a stereo. Long hours of thought time are a blessing and tend to lead to talking to God. Sometimes I think the call of the loon could be a promise from God that some things in this world are still fine.

I came home and wanted to draw something about what I saw in the slice of the country that became visual to me on my trip. I can draw, but it takes me awhile to get comfortable doing it and breaks in my work time really screw the whole process up. I was drawing when I realized that the phone wasn't ringing because that is usually when it does. You start a new project, a good book, or you are soaking in a very hot tub and your whole body is relaxed and that shrill bell makes you jump. You don't want to answer, but then you start to feel guilty and think what if it is important? Of course for thousands of years, man didn't have phones and the world didn't come to an end.

Maybe phones and war have something in common. Before phones, leaders of nations would have to write back and forth and just the act of composing a letter can take some of the starch out of your anger with some one, but with phones, you can get mad and call some one in the heat of the moment and say things you might think were foolish later.

I should fix the phone ringer and I will some day.... as soon as I get sick of the peace and quiet not having one gives me. When I lived up on the Big Fork River, we had an old neighbor by the name of Andrew Wren. He was having medical problems and Dr. Doran, our local physician, wanted him to get a phone in case he needed help.

I was over there one day and said that he should give me his number and he said "why?" I said so I could call and he couldn't figure out why I would ever want to talk on a phone, when we lived so close. We lived about two miles apart. Andrew said the first thing he did when that phone was installed, was to take it apart and take out the ringer. He said the phone was for his use, and not for people to bother him. He said if he wanted to be bothered, he would move to town, that he lived out in the country, because he liked it. I can see that.

I will however have to fix up my ringer as there are people I like to talk to, but I might wait for a while longer, at least until I get my drawings done and the truth be told, I think I am still catching up on rest from my long drive.

There are some images that have planted themselves in my mind that I want to get on paper before they fade. Here in the North woods we have poverty, but it is hidden down driveways and unless you actually drive in and meet the people you will never know how they fare. On my trip down South, I saw many homes, or I should say dwellings that had no windows and the curtains were flowing out the openings where a window had been or was supposed to be. That image of those flowing drapes, I guess they were sheets used as curtains, really stuck with me. I saw the same in some parts of New Mexico and Arizona. Remember, no windows, no air conditioning in the summer or effective heat in the winter.

I wrote before about the giant white aluminum crosses I saw along the highway on my trip. These crosses were lighted up at night and some had "Jesus Is the Light of the World" in neon going down each side. These things could easily have been 60 feet high or higher and they were positioned in neighborhoods with some of the poorest "shelters" I have seen Americans live in.

Now right away it came to me that Jesus said, "Blessed are the poor in spirit" and also he said, "Blessed are the merciful." But more important than those was that Jesus said to us (Matthew 22; 39) that the second greatest Commandment is, "Love your neighbor as yourself." Every where I saw poverty in America, right close by, I saw the homes of the rich. In several places I saw those giant crosses and the price of just one of them could have fixed up many of the homes of the "neighbors" Christ told us to love.

Because I am from the north, I think of those "rich" homes I saw down South as the home of the Plantation owner and those ones with the curtain billowing out as those of the slaves. Sure this is the 21st century and we have no slaves, but the income disparity might be comparable to a hundred and fifty years ago.

Here we are, running around the world, telling other countries how we know what is best for them, when we have dirt poor American citizens living right down the road from Americans who live in opulence. What we are trying to do is spread our brand of Democracy and in doing that we keep stressing that "all men are created equal."

Of course we have to remember that all things are not equal here in America. Not our rights, not our abilities, not our motivations, and not our station in life. Some things we will never change, but to infer to the world that we know how things should be run is not very honest. All we have to do is look around and see how things are here. No one can honestly say that America is a Christian country and that we follow the words of Jesus Christ, because we don't love our neighbors in this Land of the Free. And a quick driving trip around our great land will visually prove that to you.

Some Americans live like they are living in a third world country. You can say that is by choice, but that isn't true. Look at our prisons and our justice system. Money will let you get away with crime here and the color of your skin sure helps too. Education can help you climb the ladder, but education is not equal here either. We have lots and lots of things to work on right here at home and if and when we do get it right, then we can go out in the world and tell other nations how to do things. Until then, those people we elect in Washington should be looking around America to see what needs work.

Post Script

When Jimmy Carter was President, I was working down town Saint Paul and Walter Mondale, the Vice President, was coming home from Washington. He was in a big limousine with dark tinted windows and he had a police escort. He was heading out to his home in the gated community of North Oaks and had to go through the city to get there. He did not however have to stop at red lights, where he might get a look at poverty and people living on the street. He was rushed through and I think that is what happens to all of our leaders. They no longer can see the Real America, because they are living behind tinted windows and they speed right past, so they don't see how many Americans live in this land.