My wife and I left Illinois for the first time in 2020 to take a much needed break. Earlier this year we canceled trips to Utah (to see several national parks) and to Barcelona. Last week we drove into Michigan to visit the Sleeping Bear dunes and Mackinac Island in lieu of Barcelona to celebrate our 30th wedding anniversary. The former has at least two sites where a sand dune exceeds 400’. The latter is a very popular tourist destination where one must take a 20 minute ferry ride to get to the island. No cars or trucks are allowed there. Instead, people walk, ride bikes, or take a casual carriage ride led by horses. Lots of horses on this island! Horses are used to haul trailers filled with garbage bags and trailers filled with food, booze, and inventory for tourists to purchase. I also saw horses pulling a trailer stocked with construction equipment such as an 18’ ladder.
We drove from Chicago, around the tip of Lake Michigan, and traveled north up the roads, which were not an interstate highway, to get to Sleeping Bear. Given the nature of the roads, many homes stride the pavement in this White America. Since Michigan is a key swing state, we saw an unprecedented number of political signs – a clear majority for Trump – though Biden was well represented. 4’x8’ lawn signs were not uncommon. Saw a few Trump banners that declared “All Aboard the Trump Train.” Given the condition of these abodes (and as we know), Trump clearly has not brought back the high-paying manufacturing jobs he promised to return to America to make it great again. Trump has done nothing to improve the economic lives of these voters and his tariffs have actually hurt another of his constituency: the American farmer. Dump’s soundbites to end Social Security and Medicare would harm seniors who helped sent the conman into the Oval Office. I predict non-college educated whitey, farmers, and seniors will not support the incumbent in 2020 to the same degree as 2016. There was clearly more political signage in the northern third of the state after we left Sleeping Bear.
As previously mentioned, Mackinac is a tourist mecca. It employs many seasonal employees ala Vail. Mackinac is known for its Grand Hotel, founded in 1887. We walked to the Grand Hotel, and, as common folk who cannot afford an overnight stay in the hotel, we each paid a $10 fee to gain entrance. This place oozed money – certainly filled with trust-fund babies whose great-grandparents or grandparents and oligarchs earned their money by operating monopolies during the economic expansion of America. Framed newspaper articles and pictures of dignitaries appeared on the walls. We ambled to the fourth story “Cupola Bar,” which offers a view of the hotel’s magnificent gardens (tended to by seasonal, Mexican workers) and a one-of-a-kind view of the Straits of Mackinac. I ordered a Pepsi and my wife sipped a glass of wine.
Who buys a 2 oz glass of $599 cognac? Or a $199 anniversary cocktail with edible gold leaf? Certainly not me or you. But those who very recently attended the glitzy fundraiser for a COVID-infected president will. My bill raised my blood pressure because there was no place to give the seasonal worker a tip. I asked about this clear oversight, and she said providing a tip was not part of experiencing the Cupola Room. WTF! A seasonal waitress cannot receive a tip after delivering a $600 drink or a $4 Pepsi??? Yes, America continues to be two nations: separate, hostile, and unequal. And the mask-shunning president and his worshippers have done nothing to lessen the growing inequality in America; only more.
Vote this turd out of office on November third in an effort to redirect America, i.e., the richest nation in the world, on a path to a more just society.
- Mark Erickson
