“I live in the middle, and when you live in the middle, you see things from all sides.” ~ Sarah Kendzior
By Catherine Austin Fitts
Based in St. Louis on the Mississippi River, Sarah Kendzior is an academic expert on authoritarian states who has turned her skills to writing about the impact of authoritarianism on the people who live in the American heartland. She has collected her essays written from 2012 to 2014, and republished them in a book – The View from Flyover Country: Dispatches from the Forgotten America.
I discovered Kendzior through a podcast called Glasslit Nation. I enjoyed reading her essays. Kendzior has done a good job documenting the pain and hypocrisy around her following the financial bailouts. She writes with heart and style about some of the extraordinary lies of the media and Washington politicians. A reader will find important insights throughout The View from Flyover Country.
Kendzior does not understand the covert side of our governance and economy or how the federal budget and finances work – whether in Washington or in her city and county. Clearly, she understands that something is very wrong and the excuses don’t make sense. Kendzior is a perfect example of the loss to all of us that happens when the best and the brightest who are committed to a human future function without a solid map of our situation. Give Kendzior a complete download of “how the money works” in her neighborhood, her county, her state and her country that she can integrate with all that she astutely observes around her and get ready for the fireworks. Miracles could happen.
This is why I continue to be an optimist. I understand the power of what can happen as even a small percentage of the smart, passionate people in America break through the trance and see things as they are. Based on reading The View From Flyover Country, we have come a long way.
We still have far to go.
Related Reading:
There is another book I am suggesting is Hillbilly Elegy: A Memoir of a Family and Culture in Crises, written by J.D. Vance. You can also purchase the CD version.
It looks great. It is in the PILE 350+~
Anthony Bourdain did a segment on Parts Unknown in West Virginia. One reason I loved his travels he shared food with normal people and the food part of their culture. It was heartwarming in that they did not seem themselves as poor living in West Virginia. Many were self reliant on the forest for food and cooked at home. Families whose grandparents immigrated from Italy. Also it was a mixed life of blacks and whites all working together supporting each other. A far cry from the California and East Coasts always preaching diversity. It is an example of a community working it all out by themselves without the government. Of course there is a dark side of drugs but he talked with high school graduates who were going on to college to study medicine and engineering a far cry from the stereotypes of forgotten America. .
Yes, there is talent and excellence everywhere.