#SearchingforPurpleAmerica: 17 Profiles from America's West to East

#SearchingForPurpleAmerica -- Tonight, Brittany, age 26, was standing near one of many remaining police blockades in downtown Dallas with Dre, 29, who was looking for an iPhone he lost last night as he fled the Black Lives Matter protest as the gun shots began. They both feel stunned. And angry. At what has befallen their city. At the death of innocent people. At the fact that today they felt more scared than ever (and on an average day they are still pretty scared) that they might be killed by a police officer, who is also frightened because of last night's violence, and therefore more likely to make a mistake. Brittany says she voted for Obama in 2008, her first election of voting age. But she hasn't voted since because she doesn't think her voice is heard, and she she doesn't think voting makes a difference. But she is determined to keep protesting until something changes. On July 11, she plans to join a black out, during which Black Lives Matter activists will strike and not show up at work. "That's the only way to get people to listen in this country. Make them lose money," she says. "And I don't have any kids, so I'll do whatever it takes, even if I get killed. If I get pulled over, and it's not justified. I'm not getting out of the car. Even if I do get shot. I know my rights. And my generation, we're not willing to accept this, the way things are." #election2016

A photo posted by Lucile Scott (@lucile.baker.scott) on Jul 8, 2016 at 10:00pm PDT

#SearchingForPurpleAmerica -- I met Shelly at a gun show in Dallas Fort Worth. For 30 years, he worked as a photographer for Time Life--and says he met every single Presidential candidate from 1960 up to, but not including, Obama. After retiring, he quickly grew bored and got permission from the Library of Congress to print and sell photos from its archives, largely from the Civil War and 19th century American West, and now spends much of his time selling the prints at Texas gun shows--where he says contrary to what one might think, there are many history buffs, and his photos sell like hot cakes. He says he votes both Democrat and Republican, depending on the candidate. And while he himself has a conceal and carry license, frequently carries a gun, and says the 2nd Amendment is important to him, he doesn't feel it is any way under threat and completely supports increased gun control measures, especially in light of recent events. He then pulls me behind his booth and points out all the ways illegal gun sales go on at the show, where enforcement of existing regulations is often lax to none. #election2016

A photo posted by Lucile Scott (@lucile.baker.scott) on Jul 10, 2016 at 6:31pm PDT

#SearchingForPurpleAmerica -- Mark was born in Houston, then made his way to Alpine (pop. 6,000), in far West Texas, near the border and Big Bend National Park. He enrolled at the local college, Sul Ross, to study computer engineering but soon dropped out because the courses were too easy. Now 21, he plans to move to LA to study music production. Jay Downing, the Dean of Arts and Sciences at Sul Ross, tells me when he first moved to town, 23 years ago, just after Waco and the Oklahoma City bombing--both pretty nearby-- he surveyed the town's political leanings, and found that everyone, regardless of race or ethnicity in this 50% Latino town, had strong authoritarian leanings. Today, he says things have completely changed, at least among the young people, who have what he would call a libertarian "live and let live" view of the world and politics. Mark seems to fit that mold but says he was a Bernie man, and doesn't completely identify with any party. For him, choosing between Hillary and Donald is like choosing between the Purge and The Hunger Games, respectively, but he's leaning Hillary because, he says, with a mocking glint in his eye, she will talk about immigration and to foreign leaders in a more "professional manner." #election2016

A photo posted by Lucile Scott (@lucile.baker.scott) on Jul 12, 2016 at 7:48am PDT

#SearchingForPurpleAmerica -- Willie was born and raised in El Paso, Texas, and now owns an auto body shop in town. In this 81% Latino city smack dab on the border with Mexico, he says immigration is the issue most on people's mind, but that unlike many in this city, that shares a metropolitan and business district with the cities it borders on the border, he considers himself American first and Mexican second. And in fact says he sometimes gets in arguments when he wears a USA shirt to soccer or other sports matches. He is Republican leaning, but votes for both on occasion. And while he prefers the Republican's tax policies as a small business owner, he is leaning Hillary, largely because he dislikes Trump's rhetoric around immigration and foreign policy. Though he says he's no fan of illegal immigration, and believes people should take the time to cross legally, like his parents did. On social issues like abortion, his personal beliefs are conservative, but says that is "between me and God on judgement day" and wouldn't presume to tell others, who don't share his beliefs what to do--placing him firmly in camp Pro Choice. He then proceeded to repair the front grate on my car, dislodged during a somewhat traumatizing mishap with a bunny, free of charge. #election2016

A photo posted by Lucile Scott (@lucile.baker.scott) on Jul 14, 2016 at 11:45am PDT

Tiny dog. Grand Canyon. #SoulJourney2016

A photo posted by Lucile Scott (@lucile.baker.scott) on Jul 18, 2016 at 10:39am PDT

#SearchingForPurpleAmerica -- After 20 years of working as an economist for the state of Arizona's Transportation Department, Nettie, now 64, had had enough and retired early. She then moved to the Grand Canyon to work as a park ranger for a few years, in part for the health insurance, and then retired for real--but realized she couldn't leave the awe inspiring landscape she had come to call home. Now she volunteers as a tour guide in exchange for room and board. Her tour, however, is no normal meandering through history, but one of drama pitting the rugged frontiersmen and women who first set up shop on the Canyon's rim against the giant corporation, the Santa Fe railroad, that was trying to monopolize the burgeoning tourist industry there at the turn of the 20th century. As for corporations today, she believes they are using undo influence and corruption to get monopolies, which she fears may lead to the the unraveling of capitalism in America. But after working for the state, she's no fan of government regulation either, saying that her department would spend days or weeks preparing briefings on transportation bills--that the state legislators would proceed to not even read, or bother to ask for verbal expert input, but instead just vote on a whim, or, increasingly, on party lines. And don't even get her started on the unrelated riders that are attached to bills. She's a registered Republican, but that's largely just because that's what her parents were. And in practice, she says she's an independent. She believes politicians can and will say anything, and she votes based on who she thinks will actually do what they say. For Prez, she's undecided. She's no fan of Trump, but doesn't think we need anymore Clintons in the White House. And with that, she takes her leave to head to the Grand Canyon library to do more research for the book she's writing on Western man's first foray into transforming this stunning wonder of world into cash money. #election2016

A photo posted by Lucile Scott (@lucile.baker.scott) on Jul 18, 2016 at 3:51pm PDT

#SearchingForPurpleAmerica -- Mike got his first taste of politics at age 6, while helping his dad, an old guard Republican, during a victorious run for the Delaware State Senate. He went on to study political science in college, before moving to New York to pursue that biz known as show. Today, he is a successful LA-based actor and comedian, who has appeared on any number of sitcoms, and just finished shooting a show debuting on ABC's new streaming site this fall. Though an avowed progressive, he also plays the conservative host of a mock political radio podcast, along with a friend who plays the liberal half of the duo, that features actors and comedians impersonating the political luminaries of our time, from Donald Trump and Carly Fiorina to Hillary and Bernie. For him, the most interesting aspect of the show, politically speaking, has been that successfully playing his redder alter ego and arguing the conservative perspective has caused him to, for the first time, really step into the other side's shoes--and train of thought. He says that while he hasn't changed his own beliefs, he has a new appreciation for many conservative economic arguments (social issues he says are another matter), sees that both sides share much more than is perceived, and now understands that he has his own unexamined biases and knee jerk thoughts--a phenomenon he once attributed primarily to the other side. He believes that if both sides could get out of their segregated media and, often, geographic worlds and just talk to one another, they'd stop seeing the other side as such an other and realize we all have far more in common than we are often led to believe. #election2016

A photo posted by Lucile Scott (@lucile.baker.scott) on Jul 22, 2016 at 3:40pm PDT

#SearchingForPurpleAmerica -- After spending the first 37 years of her life as a devout member of the Mormon community in Bakersfield--a conservative oil town in California's Central Valley--Samantha was asked to leave the church earlier this year after coming out as trans. However, she says the shunning and loss of many of her lifelong friends and community did not make her loose her faith--but to dig deeper into it. She now subscribes to the original Mormon tenants of Joseph Smith, which she interprets as open minded and inclusive, not to what she sees as the more discriminatory, exclusionary teachings of Brigham Young--which came later. And though people have threatened her with violence in this city where a trans woman was killed last year, Samantha is determined to publicly advocate for trans rights. She has attended city meetings to fight back against a move for a bathroom law along the lines of the notorious one in North Carolina, and is dedicated to providing services and support and for those in need in Bakersfield's trans community, many of whom are living in secrecy and fear. Why, despite the personal risk? Because it's what her faith demands. In her spare time, she performs big band music and loves to talk jazz. As for the election, she'll be voting for Hillary. #election2016

A photo posted by Lucile Scott (@lucile.baker.scott) on Jul 26, 2016 at 11:43pm PDT

Tiny dog. Big Sur. #SoulJourney2016

A photo posted by Lucile Scott (@lucile.baker.scott) on Jul 28, 2016 at 6:35pm PDT

#SearchingForPurpleAmerica -- When Stevon, age 31, was growing up in San Francisco, the city was 17% black, but today, with largely tech industry fueled gentrification and newly minted multimillion-dollar homes covering the hilly Bay-side landscape, that number has dropped to 3%. His youth also coincided with the height of the crack epidemic, which impacted his family, and landed him in his grandmothers home. He says thanks to her and the SF school system, he ended up at a top college, and is now running for a slot on the city Board of Education, a move that is part of his dedication to shaping the city's future by joining its longtime culture of advocacy and public service. Though the city has become wealthier, the public schools have remained notoriously underperforming and few in the city who can afford to send their kids elsewhere opt to stay in the system. What does he see as the key to fixing that? Having salaries and housing options that will attract top talent to becoming teachers in the schools, and then making sure the federal government doesn't impose any one size fits all approach, and instead lets local leaders and that top teaching talent figure out the best way to meet their own local needs. He was a Bernie supporter, but now not only plans to vote for Hillary, but to fly to swing states to campaign for her. "I want to be able to tell my kids that I did everything I could to stop Donald Trump," he says. #election2016

A photo posted by Lucile Scott (@lucile.baker.scott) on Jul 29, 2016 at 10:08am PDT

#SearchingForPurpleAmerica -- Alan is the third generation of his family to run a 6,000 acre cattle and hay ranch in rural eastern Oregon, which the family started after his grandfather, a geologist, discovered groundwater deep beneath the rock in 1921 and began irrigating this stunning desert region--where one glimpses cattle loping amongst the rocky plateaus and tumbleweed and must occasionally brake for them. Much of this arid, cattle-strewn land is owned by the government, as is much of the surrounding forests, where Oregon's once thriving, now barely trickling lumber industry is based. Alan says the relationship between the federal Bureau of Land Management and the ranchers and lumber mills used to work just fine, but starting in the 1980s, when spotted owl conservation efforts shut down the mills and, as he sees it, wrecked the economy of three states, the officials have been afraid of lawsuits, prone to more and more regulation and inaction--and to penalizing the ranchers who have grazing rights on the federal land, and have been managing the environment for generations, if they act to say stop a fire or invasive species in their stead. He also contends that they not only better understand the land than the transient federal employees, but have a vested economic interest in preserving its biodiversity--since their industry depends on it. What's the solution? He wishes all the actors, environmentalists, government and local industry, could just sit at a table and hammer out a compromise instead of constantly resorting to lawsuits. And though he's a registered Republican and a less less and less government is more kind of a guy, he plans to vote for Hillary come November, as he thinks the fact that Trump is a giant bully who may wreck our current world order supersedes his desire for less federal interference. He's also recently stopped watching Fox News all together. "I can't stand watching them try to act like Trump is a reasonable option," he says. #election2016

A photo posted by Lucile Scott (@lucile.baker.scott) on Jul 31, 2016 at 6:00pm PDT

#SearchingForPurpleAmerica -- At the Rocky Mountain Raceways, on the outskirts of Salt Lake City, during a juniors tournament featuring boys and girls as young as 5 zipping down a track that disappears into the Rocky Mountain horizon at break neck speeds, Laura, now 54, can't quite put her finger on why she registered as a Democrat at age 18, despite the fact that everyone else she knew in her Mormon church was a Republican. But she's remained registered as one to this day--though she regularly votes for members of both parties. She was a big supporter of Mitt Romney, not just due to their shared faith, but also because he was willing to pare back government inefficiencies and make changes to policies--such as taking away the Affordable Care Act requirement that businesses provide all employees working over 30 hours health insurance. Good in theory. In practice, it caused the private company she works for as a lunch lady to limit her hours to 28 a week and threaten to fire anyone who works 30. And so, with two kids about to enter college, she took a second job here at the raceways. This election she thinks she'll vote for Hillary, but remains open to Libertarian Gary Johnson should he step up and impress her. In fact, she thinks Utah may go blue for the "first time in forever." The thing she knows for sure is that she won't vote for Trump, who she calls "a bully who will start World War III." And she despises his immigration policy, saying her faith requires welcoming all people of all religions and backgrounds into your land. "It all just doesn't make sense," she says. "Wouldn't you want someone who came over here from another country when they were young and grew up here to be able to go college so they can be productive members of society. They're going to stay either way. And a wall? If you build a wall, people will still come, they'll just dig under it." #election2016

A photo posted by Lucile Scott (@lucile.baker.scott) on Aug 4, 2016 at 8:18pm PDT

#SearchingForPurpleAmerica -- Kelsey and Jake both come from small Wyoming towns, where Jake started his career working on the oil fields, like his father. He quickly climbed the ranks, causing the couple and their two kids to move to Houston--though both miss their Wyoming home, and Kelsey and the kids are spending the summer here in Worland, WY (pop. 5,400). Jake spends all but 12 weeks of the year on the road meeting with oil industry folks across our fine union, and just returned from a trip to Alaska. Though a registered Independent, at 34 he's only voted once, and while he can't remember if it was 2004 or 2008, he knows he opted for the Republican. Why doesn't he vote? "Well, I think it's hugely important and makes a huge difference," he says, but contends the media's so biased he can't make heads or tails of who's actually corrupt or lying or if he should care about people's emails. In fact, the only paper he likes to read is the local one in Worland. However, he says though he has no intention of voting, if you held a gun to his head, he'd vote Trump, in the hopes that he'd surround himself with the smartest people. He knows it's a gamble, but he says he knows what we'll get with Hillary--four more years of the same. And that's the last thing he wants. He thinks Obama has intentionally destroyed the coal industry--devastating much of Wyoming, where traditionally when there's an oil bust (like now), communities can rely on coal. He believes that when in doubt, the industries and regulation should err on the side of the environment; however, he thinks that the government could have offered subsidies to help the coal companies get up to standard. Instead the cost caused the huge corporations that own them to shut coal operations down the moment they became unprofitable--without concern for the workers. "It's been devastating for people," he says. And out here, in this vast but least populous state, there is no market to support many other industries that could put people back to work, and he feels things will stay bad for a real long time. #election2016

A photo posted by Lucile Scott (@lucile.baker.scott) on Aug 10, 2016 at 8:15am PDT

Tiny dog. Big Hog. #SturgisMotorcycleRally #SoulJourney2016 Side note, when we strolled past the rally Trump Shop tent, Vinni promptly lifted his wee leg and peed on one of the Trump shirts. Apparently he is sick of everyone's posts but his exploring their political opinions. He has spoken.

A photo posted by Lucile Scott (@lucile.baker.scott) on Aug 10, 2016 at 8:49pm PDT

#SearchingForPurpleAmerica -- Arthur Short Bull spent his early childhood on South Dakota's Pine Ridge Reservation --which constitutes the nation's poorest county and claims some of its worst health outcomes, in areas from alcoholism to diabetes to suicide. And so in 1980, in an effort to help, he became a substance abuse counselor, and got a job running an in patient facility used predominantly by people from Pine Ridge and other reservations in the region. However, as the years went by, he realized he had truly become an agent of the government, and by that he means an agent of deception -- though he mostly only manipulated the system and fudged paper work in order to see more patients than his quota would allow. Then one day, at the end of a meeting, he realized he'd told three lies in that short time. And so he went home and got out his code ethics and ascertained that at one point or another he'd violated each one of it's 21 principles. So he promptly quit his job, swore off working for the government and became an artist. He is also, and says he has always been, a Republican. He likes their pull yourself up by the bootstraps mentality. And as for the Democrats, he says they give programs on reservations all kinds of money, but don't teach the people to do anything, in effect making them wards of the state. However, this election, he plans to vote Hillary. Why? "Because she's the only choice," he says. #election2016

A photo posted by Lucile Scott (@lucile.baker.scott) on Aug 13, 2016 at 8:53pm PDT

#SearchingForPurpleAmerica -- When Mandy was growing up on a hog farm in a small Iowa town, she swore she'd never marry a farmer. But then freshman year in college, she met Steve. And the rest, as they say is history. They now live in Spencer, Iowa (pop. 11,000), where Steve runs his family's successful 2700 acre farming business, and Mandy teaches yoga part time and takes care of their two sons. Many farmers in town contend government regulations have gone too far and hurt their bottom line instead of trusting them to respect their own economic interests-- and often 100 plus year family legacy--and act in a sustainable way as "stewards of the land". But Steve doesn't think they've gone to far yet. YET being the key word, as the Des Moines water board is suing the area's farmers for releasing nitrates into the water system--but Steve and others contend that the farmers are already doing all they can to prevent nitrate run off, that there's no way to tell where the pollution is in fact coming from, and that the tougher regulations that could result if they lose would be devastating at a time when corn and soy prices are already at rock bottom (forcing most farmers to rely on government subsidized crop insurance, much to many's chagrin), and many, especially with smaller operations are already barely scraping by--and worries about a repeat of the 1980s farm crisis have begun. Steve and Mandy say they are pretty libertarian--anti-big government and government interference and pro gay rights and choice and the like. They generally vote Republican, and feel Democrats often blame farmers for things that aren't their fault, over-tax them, and demonize things like GMO seeds, which farmers contend in fact allow them to pollute less since the seeds are designed to thrive without spray etc (and Steve does his best not to buy from Monsanto). However, this election, the pair remains undecided. "I guess we usually end up voting based on what's best for the business," says Mandy. #election2016

A photo posted by Lucile Scott (@lucile.baker.scott) on Aug 16, 2016 at 6:19am PDT

#SearchingForPurpleAmerica -- Victor (left) moved into a house in the Twin Cities suburb of Falcon Heights, a few hundred feet from where Philando Castile was shot by police, one week before his death. Since, he's been spending part of each day at the memorial marking the spot to do his part to keep it going. Papa Rasta (right), a moniker earned through his work as a reggae concert promoter, first moved to the area from Jamaica in 1993. He's passed the memorial most every day, but this was the first time he'd stopped. Why? "Because it could have been me," he says. Both say that this strip of road, connecting the mostly white suburb of Falcon Heights to the even whiter one of Roseville, where the mostly Democratic residents pride themselves on the large amount of public park space per capita, is known as a place where black people regularly get pulled over, often for little or no cause. And Papa Rasta once lived in Roseville himself, and says he was constantly followed by the local police. "I felt like I was paying taxes to get stalked," he says. "Like they wanted me out of town." And in this liberal metropolitan area, praised in the national press for its hip but affordable living and abundance of quality jobs, recent reports have revealed huge disparities in education, home ownership and employment, and that this good life is largely only to be had by the white residents, who make up 77% of the total population in the Twin Cities--which all I talked to agreed are both highly segregated. All also agreed that the reports opened their eyes and made fixing this inequality a top local political priority for them. As for the election, Papa Rasta says he's a Democrat and will likely vote Hillary. But he says he's still finding it hard to trust her after her man, as he put it, used his time in office to enact draconian drug laws that locked up so many people just for smoking weed and being peaceful. "I wish she'd come here, maybe stand in front of a reggae concert, and look us all in the eye. Maybe then I could truly believe she's had a change of heart," he says. #election2016

A photo posted by Lucile Scott (@lucile.baker.scott) on Aug 17, 2016 at 8:14am PDT

#SearchingForPurpleAmerica -- When Noor's mother and grandmother first immigrated from Pakistan in the mid '80s, they settled in a primarily African American neighborhood in Chicago, and soon started a clothing store that sold church clothing aimed at black women--capitalizing on their shared passion, as Muslim women and devout Christians, for "looking fly in the house of God," as Noor says. She adds that growing up with two such strong women inspired and impacted her, and in 2014, she graduated from Northwestern University--the elite school just a few miles from that Roger's Park shop, but that at the time seemed a world away. She sees fighting to end oppression of all kinds as an integral part of her faith, and at Northwestern--where many minority students she knew suffered from mental health problems as they strove to succeed in a long-standing university culture they didn't feel part of, forcing some to take medical leaves and never return--she spent much of her spare time fighting for programming aimed at improving their experience. This included pushing for a diversity course requirement so all students can glean some knowledge about systematic oppression before graduation. And after she herself graduated, she accepted a job as the diversity and inclusion consultant at an Allstate insurance branch where many of her coworkers had never before met a person of Pakistani or Muslim heritage. This fall, she's starting at Berkley law, and says she may end up working to stop employment discrimination by working for an org like the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, but is also totally open to corporate law and continuing to fight for change from the inside--where diversity and inclusion are no longer just seen as doing the right thing but critical to competing for top talent in the modern economy. She was a big Bernie supporter, and as a person living in a solidly blue state, isn't sure she can bring herself to vote for Hillary. The primary reason being she fears a Hillary administration would mean a whole lot more bombings of innocent people in South Asia and the Middle East. #election2016

A photo posted by Lucile Scott (@lucile.baker.scott) on Aug 23, 2016 at 6:18am PDT

#SearchingForPurpleAmerica -- Kory, age 27, is too young to remember Detroit's glory days, when the city held 2 million people, instead of today's 650,000, and the local government issued permits for building homes instead of tearing them down--leaving the city a grid of empty lots interspersed with the remaining early- to mid-20th century homes--tall and lovely and English Tudor inspired--disintegrating in dilapidated grandeur. But he does know he wants to be part of rebuilding his city into somewhere people want to be and invest in. Though he works full time for Comcast, repairing phone lines and the like, earlier this year he started his own non-profit, after seeing a 20-year city plan in which the West Side neighborhood where he was born and raised was designated as parkland. "Seems like the city thinks it's just going to be so bad that everyone will just leave, and they can reclaim it all," he says. His goal is to stop that by making it someplace people not only want to stay, but will seek out, by bringing in local artists to build installations, in consultation with the neighborhood residents, and doing little things, like building nice wooden boundaries around the popular horse shoe pit someone set up in an empty lot by his house. However, though his heart is in his neighborhood, it's also with his kids, ages 2 and 5, who are getting close to school age and would have to navigate drug dealers and several abandoned homes where users squat to get to school. And so, though he has trouble uttering the words, he fears he, as so many others with the means have before him, will have to leave. But like many of those still here, he's much more focused on the local situation than the election. In fact, while they identified more as Democrats, many I talked to had voted only once or twice or not at all, feeling like here, though living in a major city, one is somewhat outside the system, off the grid, and left to rely on one's wit, skills, and friends and family. #election2016

A photo posted by Lucile Scott (@lucile.baker.scott) on Aug 24, 2016 at 6:21pm PDT

Tiny dog. Famous lighthouse. #SoulJourney2016

A photo posted by Lucile Scott (@lucile.baker.scott) on Aug 30, 2016 at 12:53pm PDT

#SearchingForPurpleAmerica -- George, age 44, came to organic farming in Vermont in a roundabout way, working in a fish hatchery and then as a teacher before turning his sites to kale, cabbage, and cucumbers. But now he's one of the larger operations in the Montpelier area. And unlike most organic farmers in Vermont, who rely largely on CSA members and farmers markets and the like for business, he sells 85% of his crops to Whole Foods. But organic farms of all sizes are proliferating in the state, and most people, regardless of political affiliation, see the industry as a life line for farmers, flailing and shutting down en masse as markets drive the state's once ubiquitous dairy farms out of business. However, he says while demand is up, the market is flooded, and it's hard to know whose legit organic. Plus, he has to compete with huge operations in California that pay their workers like $6 an hour, while he pays a decent wage--meaning business is still a constant struggle despite his larger size. But it does insulate him from the vicissitudes of smaller town ire--such as the woman who wrote him an irate letter proclaiming she'd take her business elsewhere after he placed a sign for Phil Scott, the Republican candidate for governor, in front of his business. Is he affiliated with a party? "I'm affiliated with George," he says. "I support same sex marriage, and I really like my guns." He also really likes Bernie Sanders, his Senator, who he believes truly understands the state's independent mindset, and who he whole heartedly supported. Because while he repeatedly says the state's too liberal and just gives people handouts, removing their motivation to work--and forcing him to bring in workers from Jamaica--he also thinks the Republicans are largely responsible for said situation, as they empowered the corporations to gut the middle class and dispense with jobs that pay people a wage high enough to motivate them by making them feel they can build a decent life with their earnings. Who does he support for President? Well, currently he plans to take a big fat magic marker and write someone, anyone other than the two candidates, in. #election2016

A photo posted by Lucile Scott (@lucile.baker.scott) on Sep 1, 2016 at 7:28am PDT

Today, after 2.5 months and over 14,000 miles of #SearchingForPurpleAmerica , Vinni the dog and I return home to NYC! Yesterday, during our last stop in Boston, we spent much of the day traversing the Freedom Trail (the red brick line featured to my right), which leads one to all the 18th century hot spots popular during America's first fight for freedom. I'd last followed this winding brick road when I was in 4th grade, last millennium, during a family trip in the midst of a frigid Boston winter. As my parents had pulled us out of school for said trip, they were doubling down on all educational activities, and would not listen to my protestations of fading health. And so, come day's end of trudging down that line in the blistering cold, I'd developed a 104 degree temperature. And for years after, I'd have nightmares in which there was a road to hell, and it was that blazing red line. And so, I decided to end my trail about America by reclaiming that original Freedom Trail. And now, I would like to say thank you America for all your incredible generosity, stories, and local treats! May all your ongoing fights for greater freedom and the liberty to pursue your happiness blaze on... And... Scene! (For now). #BrooklynBrooklynTakeMeIn

A photo posted by Lucile Scott (@lucile.baker.scott) on Sep 2, 2016 at 8:08am PDT