I traveled to Pennsylvania to see my family. What I gained was a view of the country I had never seen before politically and through sports. We started by meeting a fellow in the airport by the name of Jake who was born in Germany moved to Dubai and is attending UFT in Toronto. This guy had traveled the world and consults for IBM. His passion, coding, which he made into a career selling electronics to big companies, when you break it down he’s just an over paid best buy employee according to him. After gaining some life advice I asked him if he enjoyed hockey after living in Canada for so long. He didn’t love the sport as passionately as some but gave some good insight on Canadas team. I say that because according to Jake the Toronto Maple leafs are the Dallas Cowboys of the NHL. There is never a home game that’s not sold out and nose bleeds start at one hundred US dollars. The key to the Maple leafs financial success despite their lack of winning is the way they have marketed themselves. As Toronto has grown now every company big and small in the city buys out seats in American Airlines arenas. So what you see on the television is not your imagination the Maple Leafs sell out games for a losing product. Finally Jake put in his two cents in on the controversial world cup in Qatar a neighbor of Dubai. He supports the notion of holding the world’s biggest soccer tournament there. The way soccer stadiums are built in the middle east most are closed or glass roofed and air conditioned. Everything in Qatar is manmade says Jake. The sidewalks are cooled the streets have millions of water pipes running underneath them and the City is beautiful. Whether FIFA moves the 2020 world cup is yet to be seen our friend departs back to his home up north.
We make an early morning stop in Atlanta. The airport is of course quiet after we’ve landed from our redeye flight. There’s an obvious air of disappointment though we see several Falcons fans and I hear several conversations still bemoaning the game. That’s all it needs to be known as there is the game the game that defined a city that made Atlanta the new Cleveland of sports. 1 championship in a combined 169 seasons by all sports franchises in the city. Maybe it’s a good thing though the Georgia dome went out on a good note and a new chapter opens for the Falcons in a new stadium next year. We flew over that new stadium and boy is it pretty.
We land in Baltimore and the landscape politically changes immediately. Stores in the airport selling Trump gear and folks wearing all kinds of make America great again memorabilia. It amazes me in the part of the country I live in, Utah, despite it being a republican state you just don’t see that much propaganda. Its amazing all over the country side in southern Pennsylvania you see pro Trump signs bumper stickers, hell even church signs. There is a problem in this country that those against Trump don’t see how or why he has a backing, the assumption is its all racists and back country rednecks that’s not the case though. These people are middle class whites who feel disenfranchised because they feel like they’re privileges are being infringed upon.What i mean by that is these people hear about how much white privilege they have and feel scolded because of it. These people have lost their jobs in these rural Pennsylvania towns and voted for Trump because he told them he’d get them back. If people think that the Trump presidency will be a four year stint think again while a large portion of people think Trump has botched this thing these people do not. They see the fact Trump raised taxes on factories moving out of the country so there jobs would stay here as his promise to get them jobs. They see his government cuts as a way to save money for our country and seem to be fine with the states handling every aspect of there lifes. The botched cabinet hearings? To these people its just a sign of how corrupt the government they elected Trump into to clean up is. So if you think for a moment that this Trump phenomenon will just go away your wrong. In two years these people are going to throw out the people fighting against Trump who they see as people trying to hurt our country and get more people like Trump in office. People with just as radical views, just as little experience, and just as much resolve. So if you think this is a nightmare and you’re just going to wake up from it your wrong, unless people go out and vote against these people this, is the new normal.