Expat Envy on the 4th of July

On the 4th of July, it is hard to replicate the wonderful experience of celebrating America's independence the way it is done back home.  You can get together with fellow expats, you can try and make the right food, you can pull up some You Tube videos of "A Capitol 4th" from the nation's lawn in Washington D. C. but it's not the same.  Sometimes to really experience something, you just have to be there.

Today, I saw some smoked ribs, baked beans, and cole slaw my friend Scott made for his family, and I was filled with such longing for American food, I had 'expat envy.'

So here's a toast to my friends participating in boat parades on Ten Mile Lake in Minnesota, or marching in the 4th of July parade in Illinois, or watching the fireworks over the lake in Madison, Wisconsin, Chicago, Illinois, or Lake Okoboji, Iowa.  Enjoy your 4th, enjoy your wonderful plate of food, enjoy the view from Pikes Peak in Colorado Springs of purple mountain majesty or of gathered elk in Estes Park, Colorado and pinch yourself at being able to experience such a glorious day. Sometimes we don't appreciate the extra-ordinariness of our everyday existence until we can't experience it like we usually do.

To anyone reading this who has served, is currently serving, or keeping the home fires burning for someone serving our country, thank you so much for your gift of service to the nation.  I appreciate it. I have enjoyed the years of freedom I have experienced that you have made possible.  I don't take it for granted for even one moment.

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You Could Feel Something Like This Coming

Today the Governor of my former state of Illinois was thrown out of office without a single legislator rising to defend him. Having spent four days in Springfield, Illinois in October seeing the Lincoln sites that inspire so many Americans (including our new President), I could feel that the situation back then wasn't sustainable. He didn't have a friend left before the news came out about the Senate seat he felt was "golden."

Click on the title to read my post from back then. If you're interested in reading about the Lincoln sites that inspired Obama, please click on the Lincoln label.

How broke is Illinois?

I finished off my visit to Springfield with a visit to the current state capitol (somebody, please move the smokers out of the doorways) and the Museum of Funeral Customs (very interesting actually, especially the video about Lincoln's Death Train).

President Harry Truman had a phrase that "if you want a friend in Washington, buy a dog." The current governor of Illinois might want to make sure he owns one! Every state employee and food server in Springfield had nothing nice to say.

They're angry that so many jobs will be lost when cultural sights that bring tourists to town are shut down. They're angry he refuses to live in Springfield and insteads lives in Chicago, using a private plane to fly back and forth at great expense while state workers are losing their jobs. They're angry the DOT is going to be moved out of Springfield and thousands of state workers will have to uproot their lives. What about the press organizations? Most can barely afford a Springfield bureau. How will they cover the billion dollar business of the Department of Transportation if it's moved down to southern Illinois, they ask. To state employees, it feels like disrespect.

"Why doesn't he shut down the governor's mansion instead of our state parks and cultural heritage sites? He refuses to live in the Governor's mansion and the only use it got was when the Saudi Ambassador came to town to see the Lincoln Museum after the Ambassador gave a gigantic donation," they ask.

Illinois hasn't paid it's bills on time for years (hospitals routinely wait a year to be paid) but one state worker summed up best how broke the State of Illinois is. "This week," she said, "I received a call asking me to count the rolls of toilet paper in my department's storage closet because the State didn't have the money to buy more for other departments running out and needed to know if we had some we could send to other buildings. Now that's broke."

There's no need to worry about freedom of speech in Springfield. The budget, yes. But not freedom of speech.

Route 66 Road Food

If you are young, or European, or both, you may not be familiar with a fabulous American pop song called "Route 66" that was very popular in the 1950s. It's a classic. The song captures all of the freewheeling joy of taking the open road and driving westward across America in the spirit of discovery. The road starts in Chicago and ends somewhere in the southwest like New Mexico or California.

On American roads, there are signs celebrating the local groups that take on the task of picking up litter for two miles at a stretch. One of the groups celebrated on a sign in Illinois was the Route 66 Corvette Club. Now doesn't that just bring you an instant smile? Can't you just imagine their fun "motoring west?'

Springfield, Illinois is right on Route 66. And with that history comes two famous culinary traditions. I had to try them both!

The Cozy Dog Drive-In has been operating since the late 1940s when the owners popularized the forerunner of the Corn Dog. Stopping in this establishment was an exercise in nostalgia for Route 66 road culture.


The other culinary legend Springfield is famous for is the "horseshoe sandwich." This culinary invention had not spread beyond Springfield's borders but I had been told by natives for years that should I get to Springfield I needed to give it a try.

I thought the sandwich was something I would pick up with two hands! Au contraire! This unique creation starts with two thick pieces of Texas Toast, holding the meat of one's choice (I chose hamburger), covered with crinkle-cut french fries, all covered in a Welsh rarebit cheese sauce. There is a "pony" version for those who only want to take in double the recommended daily calories.

America's finest example of Prairie School Architecture

Another thing I had to see in Springfield, Illinois before I left was the only Frank Lloyd Wright-designed home in America that he created that was complete with all of it's original furniture. It's called the Dana-Thomas house. The State of Illinois had announced it was closing the home due to budget cuts.

There is no way any photo can convey the beauty of this home! As I walked up to it, my mouth dropped open and didn't close the whole time I was there. I'm literally not kidding.

As I walked up, what struck me most, was the size and unusual floor plan of the home, followed by the green frieze work unlike anything I have ever seen anywhere else. That green, maybe it's caused by copper patina, glistened in the sun and drew the eye over and over.

Frank Lloyd Wright is known for his horizontal line. One of the ways he achieved it in this house was to make the vertical morter in his brickwork flush with the brick so that only a horizontal line was created. Can you imagine what a painstaking and expensive process that was?

Surprisingly, this house started not as original construction, but as a remodeling job. The aim of the remodeling was not to create a house for cozy living, but rather a showcase for entertaining. Mission accomplished.

Photos were not allowed of the home so please click on the title to go to the website and see images. Creative souls within the state government must find a way to keep this house open to the public! This is more than a state or national treasure, this home is a worthy of international interest.

A House Divided Against Itself Cannot Stand

Lincoln's words are everywhere in Springfield. It's easy to learn much of them just walking the sites. This is the old State Capitol where Lincoln gave his famous U.S. Senate nomination acceptance. The speech is referred to as "A House Divided Against Itself Cannot Stand." It's most famous passage:

"A house divided against itself cannot stand. I believe this government cannot endure, permanently, half slave and half free. I do not expect the Union to be dissolved — I do not expect the house to fall — but I do expect it will cease to be divided.

It will become all one thing or all the other. Either the opponents of slavery will arrest the further spread of it, and place it where the public mind shall rest in the belief that it is in the course of ultimate extinction; or its advocates will push it forward, till it shall become alike lawful in all the States, old as well as new — North as well as South."

This is also the exact spot where Senator Barack Obama
chose to announce his candidacy
for the Presidency of the United States of America
and where he came back to introduce
his new running mate Senator Joe Biden.
It's so fun to hear the locals talk about those two days.

All the locals seemed surprise when I suggested
that the future Obama Presidential Library
would be housed in Springfield.
Heck, if I was the Mayor, I'd already have the lots picked out!

I love the symbolism of Senator Obama
announcing here. Like Lincoln, Senator Obama
is a healer and a uniter, something
this country needs after eight years of polarization.

Lincoln lived a very pedestrian life - his office was immediately
across from the capitol building
and he walked home every night to his house a couple blocks away.

A tourist reincarnation?

This is the Secretary of State's office
in the old capitol. The idea of our current
dynamic and beloved Secretary of State,
Jessie White,
operating in this sedate environment
gave me the giggles-

Call me a complete history geek!

A living tribute to Abraham Lincoln

One of the beautiful ways Abraham Lincoln has been memorialized in his hometown of Springfield, Illinois is through the Lincoln Memorial Garden. In 1936, this tract of land was empty pasture next to Lake Springfield. Legendary Danish-American landscape architect Jens Jensen was chosen to create this incredible tribute in native plants from the states Lincoln inhabited.

What else would surround the entire garden
but a split rail fence-
honoring Lincoln's legend as a logsplitter

Garden Clubs across America
sponsored dozens of park benches
featuring Lincoln's wisdom

I spent an entire morning exploring the six miles
of woodland and prairie Jensen created -
it seemed like five minutes

Jens Jensen loved to create woodland council rings
in all of his work
Can't you imagine sprites and pixies
entering the rings from all sides of the forest?
The circles are often used for
weddings, storytelling, nature programs, even turtle races!

Beautiful Midwestern tall-grass prairie
in the morning sun

The garden was in the middle of a costume change

from summer to fall when I visited

Mushrooms and tree seed pods were every where.
Other amazing times to visit:
in the spring when the dogwoods and crabapples
are blooming, when the fall leaves are out,
when the maple trees are tapped for syrup.

The Springfield Race Riots of 1908

When I first drove into Springfield, I was shocked to see all kinds of signs about the Springfield Race Riots of 1908. What the heck was that about? There is a walking tour of spots detailing what happened over two awful days but there also happened to be an outstanding temporary exhibit at the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library about the whole traumatic episode.

These episodes always seem to have the same theme
Two weeks later she admitted she made it all up

During two hot and humid days in August of 1908, some of the white population of Springfield went on a rampage and terrorized the African-American population. It all started when a white woman accused an African-American man of raping her. Two black men were held in the county jail for crimes against whites including this one. A large white crowd assembled outside the jail, wanting to take matters into their own hands, chanting for vigilante justice.

The police got the two men out of there immediately. When the angry mob figured out they had been tricked, and the prisoners had been spirited out, they went on an ugly, destructive rampage that lasted over a couple days. It didn't end until the Governor called in the National Guard.

The nation was shocked something like this could happen
in Lincoln's Springfield

The skill with which this exhibit was put together is astounding. It starts off with a proclamation from the current mayor that includes an acknowledgment of the events that took place 100 years ago and an apology. Each panel then explains exactly what the white mob did. Teachers are warned about exercising caution before exposing children to the exhibit.

Despite the incredibly sensational nature of what is shared, I did not find the exhibit induced "white guilt." I found it to instead produce "white growth." There's something about the quiet explanation of each cruel act that is like hearing someone's wrongs and really processing it and feeling it. I wasn't even there and it was 100 years ago, but I could feel some of my own denial cut through like a hot knife through butter by the presentation. I wish I could drag this fantastic explanation of history to some local malls. It needs to expand it's reach beyond those who would come into a library.

This form of hate may be under glass now
but there are always new forms of hate
for us to guard against

If this could happen in Lincoln's Springfield, activists at the time believed it could happen anywhere. The Springfield Race Riots of 1908 led to the formation of the National Association of Colored People, an organization that has been incredibly effective at curbing these abuses.

You might be interested in these posts:

Why the Obama Presidential Library needs to be in
Springfield, Illinois

A near spiritual experience at Central High School in
Little Rock, Arkansas

What Inspires Stories?

One of the objections I kept hearing about the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library (across the street from the Museum) is that there's nothing to see there. It's true that the library is a working research library and the staff are busy taking care of historians and researchers working on their projects. Personally, I wanted to browse the stacks but they're closed to the general public!

If Lincoln has garnered more books about him than anyone else in the world, save Jesus Christ, I imagine a terrific way volunteers or staff there could infect people with a passion for primary documents ("why do we save this old stuff anyway?") is to give a walking tour of some of the neat stuff in the collection.

For example, one book about Lincoln that is beloved by Lincoln lovers is "Team of Rivals" by historian Doris Kearns Goodwin. What are the interesting primary documents she used to assemble her story? What a terrific way to share with people, especially young adults, how a well-researched book is put together. Such a tour could inspire a few books from the next generation.

Entering the Land of Lincoln

I realized when I made the decision to move to Prague that there was a whole lot of stuff in Illinois and the Midwest in general that I didn't get around to seeing. I didn't know if I would ever live in Illinois again, and there was one thing I absolutely had to see before I left because it went to the core of what the people of Illinois are proud of and hold dear.

I needed to go to Springfield, Illinois and see the new Abraham Lincoln Presidential Museum. The minute I drove into downtown Springfield, I could understand why my United States Senator, Barack Obama, chose this place to announce his candidacy for presidency of the United States and later, his choice of running mate. I got an instant lump in my throat just arriving -- such is the immediate visibility of American history here.

Abraham Lincoln, 16th President
of the United States of America

The museum was designed with the help of people from Disney, so it's the first "experiential" Presidential museum. People come here from all over the world, which surprised me, because Lincoln was president of the United States in the 1860s. I'm always amazed when people from other countries know our history so well.

The staff have the hardest time
keeping kids from pulling all the hair and eyelashes
out of the Lincoln family.
They look so real and the kids want to touch them.

One of the terrific
Presidential Museum volunteers -
there are many

When the museum was built,
the workmen kept trying to get all of the pieces
of the flooring to meet beautifully in the middle
but the tips kept breaking.
So a workman said, "I'll fix that,"
and he put a Lincoln penny into the floor so the tips didn't show.
It's still there! Some of the gentlemen volunteers keep a ready supply
of new shiny pennies to put on that spot
so kids can find it and have a neat souvenir:
a lucky Lincoln penny from the Lincoln Museum.

Museum visitors start their journey
by experiencing life in Lincoln's log cabin
and later go on to experience life in the White House.

During the four days I was visiting Springfield, the whole Bailout story started in the news. Somehow it made me appreciate the sacrifice of this Civil War Generation and what they went through to keep the union intact even more. The sacrifice and stress on the Lincolns themselves was incredible, with three dead children and of course, Lincoln's own death.

One of the most telling displays was the whispering gallery. As you walked through, you could hear all of the awful things people would say about the Lincolns while they were in office whispered out loud.

Another display that I appreciated was a presentation answering the question "what do we save this old stuff for anyway?" Explaining this to children has never been more important since children often no longer have a real librarian teaching them about libraries anymore in their schools. The presentation was so well done, many of us could not tell if the historian in the presentation was a hologram or an actor.

Listening to tweens come out of another "experiential" presentation, I heard them exclaim "that was so fly! That was awesome! Can we go in again?"

There is no way I can convey what the Museum so expertly conveyed which is how damn lucky the American people were to have this leadership at a time of enormous uncertainty when things could have gone so many different ways. As the historian in the first presentation said, the reason we save these old things is "so that the best in us-- live on in you."

The Ants Go Marching In

After some time in Wisconsin, it was back down to Illinois. I had a very pretty day in the Chicago suburbs, with my friend from Cottey College, Major Jennie Olsen, USAF, retired. Yes! I have a retired college friend. How can that be? Where did the time go?

We had a great time exploring Morton Arboretum, a beautiful 1,700 acre park created by the man who owned Morton Salt company.



Jenny is now studying to be a massage therapist. Guess who got to volunteer to serve as guinea pig? Hey Cottey girls, Jennie is doing great and says hello!

Casting My Vote

I moved out of my home in Illinois before absentee ballots for the presidential election were scheduled to be mailed out. I called to see if my ballot could be forwarded, or sent to a P.O. Box, or all kinds of different scenarios. None of them were allowed.

If I moved to Prague immediately, I would have two residences in the first 40 days (student housing and then my own apartment), which probably complicates my voting. I was not willing to risk not being able to vote.

So I'm slowly making my way to Colorado where my family lives. I want to spend some serious face time with my Mom and my sister before going overseas and it turns out if I live in Colorado for thirty days, I can cast my vote there. My vote will actually matter more in Colorado because it's a swing state. I don't care about that as much as just getting to add my two cents. People gave their lives so I could do that!

My Morning Constitutional

One of the great pleasures of living in this city is the Rock River. Most mornings I go down to the riverfront to take a walk or a rollarblade and enjoy the calm. These are some pictures from this summer.

First I'm greeted by a Karen on the other side!

The river right before dawn

Doesn't this tree bring out your inner eight-year-old?

What could be in there?
Be glad smells don't transfer through the Internet -
someone put a dead fish in there

Every fall the rowing club holds the Rock River Regatta,
a very spirited competition

Brick apartment buildings always make me smile
because they make me think of Lincoln Park neighborhood in Chicago
full of young people with their first job in the city

There are many beautiful yards and homes along the way

When I first came to town and saw this plaque,
I thought it was so cool.
It was from 1927 - wow, that's so OLD!
Do you think I'll have to redefine my version of OLD
when I move to Prague?

A perfect spot for the weekend

This homeowner asks passerbys to select a ribbon
and join her in a traditional Tibetan
prayer for peace

A wall of whimsy

This is "Symbol," an outdoor sculpture

created by Alexander Liberman,
an artist born in Kiev, Ukraine

On the way to more fun sculpture -
I love this family!

That's it! Three miles of constant beauty
It's been a pleasure to experience throughout the seasons