Over the past year, I鈥檝e slept in a haunted hotel in Nevada, gotten my shoes wet recording sounds of the ocean in La Jolla, Calif., lost a laptop on the prairie of Colorado and driven through the Navajo Nation in a rainstorm.
But everywhere I went, I asked people the same question: As the U.S. turns 250 years old, what does the country mean to you?
Rob McDermott runs the Morenga Palms RV Park outside of Wenden, Ariz. He said the country means a lot to him. He retired from the Army with 22 and a half years of service after going to Iraq and Afghanistan each twice, and Kuwait.
鈥溾�奝eople are looking at the Constitution that people have fought and died for and like it鈥檚 just a piece of trash,鈥� McDermott said. 鈥淓verything鈥檚 鈥業 have a right to this鈥� and 鈥業 have a right to that.鈥� Well, look at the Bill of Rights. That鈥檚 what you have a right to.鈥�
I asked what he was referring to specifically. He said the Second Amendment.
鈥淓verybody鈥檚 got a right to keep and bear arms,鈥� McDermott said. 鈥淲e also have a right to overthrow a tyrannical government. I mean, that鈥檚 our Founding Fathers. That鈥檚 where they got away from. And if our government gets a little too big for their britches, it鈥檚 required that we step up and take charge. I think that鈥檚 something that people have forgotten about and I think that鈥檚 pretty important.鈥�
Here鈥檚 what other people told me:
Joe Westerlund, town manager of Tonopah, Nev.
鈥溾�奍 love America. This is the greatest country in the world,鈥� Westerlund said. 鈥淚 don鈥檛 care what administration鈥檚 in or how bad it seems. Go to another country and you鈥檒l see just how great this country is. It really truly is the land of opportunity.鈥�
Harry Chahal, manager of a motel and pizza shop in Tonopah, Nev.
鈥溾�夾merican new generation, they don鈥檛 want to work. Kids, they don鈥檛 want to work. Too much, like, games. Too much technology. They don鈥檛 want to do any physical work. You know, they want to make easy money,鈥� Chahal said. 鈥淲hen we come up here, we work 16, 17 hours a day. My kids, they can work maybe 10 hours. My grandkids, they鈥檙e going to be lazy.鈥�
Dina Neal, Democratic state senator representing a district in North Las Vegas, Nev.
鈥溾�夾merica is in a battle for its principles and its identity, and I feel that there are some sacred principles that are being crushed under this particular regime of government, and it is violating freedom of speech, freedom of association, and it violates some of the constitutional principles that we hold dear, and that鈥檚 unfortunate.
鈥淚鈥檓 hopeful just because I believe the light bulb is turning on for American citizens that this particular government and the way that it is functioning is not safe for any American.鈥�
Jaynie Parrish, executive director of Arizona Native Vote, on the Navajo Nation
鈥溾�奍t鈥檚 very complicated, is what I鈥檓 feeling. It鈥檚 good, bad, everything in between.
鈥淲hat I鈥檝e learned in this work, no matter what it is, it could be education, healthcare, fighting for tribal sovereignty, our people have the long view. So this 250 years or even 500 years of disruption of settler and colonialism, it鈥檚 a small period in a 10,000-year-plus history that we have. I look at it that way, and I think a lot of our people look at it that way.
鈥淲e鈥檙e going to be here long even after, if there is even a United States, we鈥檙e going to be here even after that, because we鈥檙e from here.鈥�
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