[Vision2020] And One for the Road

[Tom Hansen]

After several years of internet publishing a final good-bye from The Skew as
written by its Chief Editor Dawa Zangmo -

---------------------------------------------------------------------------

And One for the Road
By Dawa Zangmo

I might be a tree-hugging hippie who thinks George Bush is the evil emperor,
but dang it, I consider myself patriotic. So I’m taking the vacation that
every American should take. I’m traveling through America. It’s a tragic
bomb- and fear-filled world we live in but it’s also a beautiful world, just
waiting to be explored and enjoyed.
 
Those ass-wipes who sneak around planting bombs aren’t brave warriors for a
vengeful god, they’re a bunch of sneaky chickenshits. The brave people are
the Londoners who got back on the train. The brave ones are just average
folks who take public transportation, visit national monuments and go on
about their daily business with children in tow, facing the unknown.
 
Sure it would be exciting to jet off to Paris, but my budget traps me here
in a glorious country it could take me the rest of my life to explore.
Taking the back roads along the eastern seaboard allows me to experience the
beauty and the culture that I’m so lucky to witness. I’m learning a bit
about human nature as well. I’ve traveled through an upscale neighborhood in
the Washington D.C. suburbs where every highly priced house is a near carbon
copy of its expensive neighbor mere inches away. It’s a place where success
is measured by looking and achieving the same goal as the guy next door. 

The most charming towns I’ve seen date back to the early 1800s where no two
houses are alike. They’re painted in a rainbow of colors and maintained in
working order from one generation to the next. When something gets old, it’s
repaired, not torn down for the next developer to make a killing, raise the
taxes and leave. What would the new eminent domain law do to such
wonderfully eccentric towns that don’t even boast a McDonald’s? In these
towns, people exhibit their diversity and creativity without forethought.
People with chain saw-carved bears in their front lawn with marigold-colored
houses are not striving to be just like their neighbors. It’s kind of sad to
want to be just like everybody else. Does that mean that you don’t really
know who you are?
 
I’ve had the best Mexican food I’ve ever tasted in a dock-side café in
Wiscosset, Maine. I’ve shared a hot tub with dairy farmers in Kill Devil
Hills, North Carolina. I’ve listened to five different languages waiting on
line to be admitted to the Guggenheim Museum in New York City. I’ve chatted
with contestants in a tattoo contest at a biker rally in Ocean City,
Maryland.
 
Who would want to live anywhere else?

----------------------------------------------------------------

Good-bye, Dawa.  You will be sorely missed.

Take care, Moscow.  See you on Tuesday.

Tom Hansen
Moscow, Idaho


“I think one of the best ways to support education is to make successful
private schools like Logos prosper through tax exemption.”

- Donovan Arnold (July 11, 2005)