Day 51.5-52: Washington DC

After deciding to make a small sliver of time to visit Washington D.C., I decided to do it as an unabashed tourist. And what better way to be a tourist but to interview other tourists? I asked random strangers around the National Mall some of the questions I’d been asking strangers all summer: “What frustrates you most about the U.S.?” “What gives you the most hope about the U.S.?” and “Briefly describe your ideal society.”. For the other street interviews, I had asked about the globe more broadly, but I thought it would be more fitting to focus on the U.S. given the location and the context. Here’s what I heard back from a cross-section of foreign tourists, American tourists, and locals.

Carol and Randy

Randy & Carol

What frustrates you the most about this country?

Randy: “Healthcare, taxes…”

Carol: “Yeah, taxes.”

What specifically about healthcare?

Carol: “It’s just not as easy to get it anymore. It seems to cost a lot more for a lot less that you’re getting back.”

What makes you most hopeful about this country?

Randy: “American spirit. We’ll get through anything. We have our ups and downs but we’ll persevere…the American people can get through anything.”

Can you briefly describe your ideal society?

Randy: “Life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.”

Carol: “There you go.”

David

David

What frustrates you most about this country?

“…there’s no basic equality. [People] judge you by your last name, or your tribe, whatever. That’s the most frustrating.”

What makes you most hopeful about this country?

“I think we can say that with the next generation things will get better.

Can you briefly describe your ideal society?

“Like living in a small town.”

How come?

“I don’t want a lot of crowds like this.”

Yeah, me too. Thanks for your time!

Steve and Noreen

Noreen & Steve

Do you two live in the States?

Steve: “No, we come from London.”

Oh, ok, that’s even better maybe [for my project]! What frustrates you the most about this country?

Steve: “People are very blunt, they’re very direct. That’s different from England.”

You got a problem with that or what?

*laughter* Steve: “We found, for me, [the general attitude] is very much, ‘put up with it. It’s not perfect, put up with it’. Whereas in England, we try to put things right. Little things.”

Noreen: “Generally people have been very polite.”

What makes you most hopeful about this country or maybe the world in general?

Noreen: “Barack Obama…I think he’s done a lot of good here in the U.S.”

Steve: “…but there’s a lot more not to be hopeful about than there is to be hopeful about, I think.”

Can you briefly describe your ideal society?

Steve: “Everyone’s got enough money to live properly and have a chance.”

Noreen: “Everyone’s equal.”

Jay, Larry and Marilyn

Jay, Larry, and Marilyn

What frustrates you most about this country?

Jay: “The inability of Congress to do anything meaningful or purposeful for the American people, or so it seems.”

Larry: “…the intrusion of large government.”

Marilyn: “All that.”

And what makes you most hopeful about this country?

Jay: “The spirit of the American people. For example, yesterday, when the police officers was engaged with a bad guy in Louisiana…”

*apparent blank look*

Jay: “…you don’t follow the news, that’s ok. Same thing in a foreign country. Belguim, France, where the terrorists came by, it was Americans who stood up and did something. That spirit lives on.”

Ok. So can you briefly describe your ideal society?

Jay: “I don’t know if there is an ideal society, but I think our country comes as close to it as possible.”

In what way?

Jay: “The ability to be whatever you want to be. That you’re limited not by where you were born, but how you apply yourself. So freedom, caaap-italism [his emphasis].”

Larry: “Freedom is a big one, for sure.”

Robert

Robert

What frustrates you most about this country?

Robert: “Freedom.”

Freedom frustrates you?

Robert: “Freedom, opportunity, equality.”

But what upsets you about the U.S.?

Robert: “That people do not appreciate it. We have more freedoms than any other country in the world. Hearing people who don’t appreciate what we have.

And what makes you most hopeful about this country?

Robert: “The next generation. To continue our freedom and appreciate what we have and advance the infrastructure, the technology. It’s so much more advanced than what I grew up with and I’m sure it will continue.”

And last, can you briefly describe your ideal society?

Robert: “That’s a tough one!”

I know!

Robert: “I think the ideal society has freedom, equal opportunity for everyone who wants to succeed, and people who are dedicated to their country, to improving society. I think that pretty well covers it.”

Johnny and Jean

Johnny & Jean

What frustrates you most about this country?

Johnny: “I don’t really know. I guess, censorship? We don’t have as much freedom, I guess, as we might think.”

Jean: “I don’t really have one.”

So what makes you most hopeful about this country?

Johnny: “Maybe the fact that there’s so many opportunities for everybody. We all start in the same place, nobody starts out with a higher privilege to become successful and stuff. I don’t know, I have no idea.”

Jean: “I’m too young to answer these questions!”

How old are you?

Jean: “I’m 15.”

Maybe you haven’t lost hope yet so you aren’t looking for these things! Ok, this is the hard one. Can you describe your ideal society?

Jean: “I just wish people were nicer to each other. I don’t know, I’m only 15 ok?” *laughs*

That’s a super solid answer, actually.

Johnny: “Yeah, I’d say the same thing.”

Will

Will

What frustrates you most about this country?

Will: “The political gimmicks that they’re pulling now.”

Such as?

Will: “You see all the rhetoric going on in the news? They making a big fuss about Trump, they making a big fuss about Hillary, they making a big fuss about Jeb Bush, you know it’s–it’s not serious anymore. Then the President gets on there and he talks about the budget coming up and if Congress don’t pass it then they’re shutting down the government again. And I’m like ‘Man!’. I’m 60 years old. I never heard of no crap like this before in my life. All the hatred going on, it’s ridiculous. People are being more divided than coming together. The killing by the police, all that. I can go on and on.

So what makes you hopeful despite all that?

Will: “See, I’m a spiritual man, so with that I have to say I put my faith, I trust in God. Soon as they turn from their wicked ways and come back to bring more of a Supreme back into this country from which it was built.”

And can you briefly describe your ideal society?

Will: “Where people become more as one, in love.”

Angelo

Angelo

What frustrates you most about this country?

Angelo: *laughs* I would say that the thoughtlessness, and the hypocrisy. We’re supposed to be the land of the free and we’re probably the highest taxed nation in the world. You gotta pay for every fucking thing: healthcare…education…fucking water.”

And what makes you most hopeful about it?

Angelo: “The fact that it’s a melting pot. That there’s so many different types of people, like races, creeds, levels, rich people, poor people. There’s just such a wide variety that out of that melting pot of different ideas and standards and things like that something positive has to be able to come from it, because everyone’s not just thinking one track.”

And can you briefly describe your ideal society?

Angelo: “My ideal society would be somewhat of a nomadic society where you’re free to do as you please, when you please, as long as it doesn’t infringe on other people’s freedoms.”

Armando and Lourdes

Armando & Lourdes

What frustrates you most about this country?

Lourdes: “I don’t know…we’re from Florida and the way that they treat, like, how does somebody who doesn’t really need help in like WIC or government assistance, get it, and then people who really do [need it] are given nothing or the minimum amount. I don’t know how they figure that out and it really frustrates me.”

Armando: “For me, it has to be the justice system. Really, there are so many crim–people–in prison that are nonviolent and are in prison for minimal reasons, you know. I think it should be more like a fine than a jail sentence.”

What makes you most hopeful about this country?

Armando: “The youth. The youth now is more liberal, they’re more loving, caring. Since the youth is going through the system, in college, they’re going to be the people making the decisions in the country in the future.”

And can you both describe your ideal society?

Armando: “Like, a utopia? For me?”

If that’s what you’re into.

Armando: “Where everyone loves each other. That’s pretty much it.

Lourdes: “Being treated equally and having a better government system and adding that all together.


These represent all of the interviews I was able to collect that had usable audio quality as I processed them (tourists, fountains, and planes are loud!). I hope you find some of the similarities, and the discrepancies, between people’s perceptions of the U.S. as interesting as I did. Next, I headed out for a long train ride west to, of all places, Kentucky.

 

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