"Traveling Light" On the Road with America's Poor
Saw an advance copy of this book on somebody's desk today. Looks like a good read, to me anyway. I like real life stories (I think I'm the only person that can watch a documentary about almost anything and find it fascinating). I love being able to peak into the world of another person or situation. This is something I'd def do. Ride a bus for five years talking to different people about the way they deal with poverty and the economic crisis this state is in, then write a book about it.
How far can you get on two tacos, one Dr. Pepper, and a little bit of conversation? What happens when you're broke and you need to get to a new job, an ailing parent, a powwow, college, or a funeral on the other side of the country? And after decades of globalization, what kind of America will you glimpse through the window on your way? For five years, Kath Weston rode the bus to find out.
Weston's route takes her through northeastern cities buried under layoffs, an immigration raid in the Southwest, an antiwar rally in the capitol, and the path traced by Hurricane Katrina. Like any road story, this one has characters that linger in the imagination: the trucker who has to give up his rig to have an operation; the teenager who can turn any Hollywood movie into a rap song; the homeless veteran who dreams of running his own shrimp boat; the sketch artist who breathes life into African American history; the single mother scrambling for loose change. But Traveling Light is not just another book about people stuck in poverty. Rather, it's a book about how people move through poverty and their insights into the sweeping economic changes that affect us all.
The bus is a place where unexpected generosity coexists with pickup lines and scams, where civic debates thrive and injustice finds some of its most acute analysts. Hard-working people rub shoulders with others who rap, sketch, and story new worlds into being. Folded into these poignant narratives are headlines, studies, and statistics that track the intensification of poverty and inequality as the United States enters the twenty-first-century. If sharp-eyed observations and down-to-earth critique—of the health care system, imperialism, the state of the environment, or corporate downsizing—are what you're looking for, Weston suggests the bus is the place to find it. The result is a moving meditation on living poor in the world's wealthiest nation.
While I'm on the subject of poverty, I feel like I've been talking about it a lot lately. Maybe it's all the election crap that's being tossed around but everyday I have a conversation with someone about poverty and the non existence of the middle class in this nation. I feel like there is the wealthy upper class and poverty stricken lower class, there is no middle class. You either have it or you don't. That's what pisses me off with this whole election and politics in general (awww shit here I go). No matter who runs for what or who wins what, black white purple or green, the president of the US will always and only represent the upper class. Individuals like myself will never see the empty promises of whatever president is elected in office because their views and opinions only benefit those around them. The president can't see me!!!!! Literally (more on that in another post).
How far can you get on two tacos, one Dr. Pepper, and a little bit of conversation? What happens when you're broke and you need to get to a new job, an ailing parent, a powwow, college, or a funeral on the other side of the country? And after decades of globalization, what kind of America will you glimpse through the window on your way? For five years, Kath Weston rode the bus to find out.
Weston's route takes her through northeastern cities buried under layoffs, an immigration raid in the Southwest, an antiwar rally in the capitol, and the path traced by Hurricane Katrina. Like any road story, this one has characters that linger in the imagination: the trucker who has to give up his rig to have an operation; the teenager who can turn any Hollywood movie into a rap song; the homeless veteran who dreams of running his own shrimp boat; the sketch artist who breathes life into African American history; the single mother scrambling for loose change. But Traveling Light is not just another book about people stuck in poverty. Rather, it's a book about how people move through poverty and their insights into the sweeping economic changes that affect us all.
The bus is a place where unexpected generosity coexists with pickup lines and scams, where civic debates thrive and injustice finds some of its most acute analysts. Hard-working people rub shoulders with others who rap, sketch, and story new worlds into being. Folded into these poignant narratives are headlines, studies, and statistics that track the intensification of poverty and inequality as the United States enters the twenty-first-century. If sharp-eyed observations and down-to-earth critique—of the health care system, imperialism, the state of the environment, or corporate downsizing—are what you're looking for, Weston suggests the bus is the place to find it. The result is a moving meditation on living poor in the world's wealthiest nation.
While I'm on the subject of poverty, I feel like I've been talking about it a lot lately. Maybe it's all the election crap that's being tossed around but everyday I have a conversation with someone about poverty and the non existence of the middle class in this nation. I feel like there is the wealthy upper class and poverty stricken lower class, there is no middle class. You either have it or you don't. That's what pisses me off with this whole election and politics in general (awww shit here I go). No matter who runs for what or who wins what, black white purple or green, the president of the US will always and only represent the upper class. Individuals like myself will never see the empty promises of whatever president is elected in office because their views and opinions only benefit those around them. The president can't see me!!!!! Literally (more on that in another post).
Comments