In the fall of 2011, Sweden’s largest daily newspaper, Aftonbladet, published a series of articles titled “The Decadent America.” Driving from Sallisaw, Okla., to Bakersfield, Calif., along Route 66, journalist Peter Kadhammar visited some of the nation’s most remote locations that remain unnoticed by the world, lost in the shadow cast by New York, Los Angeles and Washington, D.C.
For two weeks, Kadhammar chronicled the stories of the people he encountered. In the dying countryside towns of rural Oklahoma, Texas and New Mexico, he listened to unemployed parents, impoverished children and mayors in despair, painting a very different picture from the glamorous images frequently displayed on American TV shows.
The series stirred up emotion and was subject to heavy criticism for displaying a one-sided picture of the United States. At the time, I was finishing up my last year of undergraduate study at the University of Missouri and followed Kadhammar’s articles with great interest. For the most part, they were subjectively framed, but there was one piece that rose above the others, as it managed to perfectly capture the true spirit of the United States.
The article was about Trina Benavides, a woman whom Kadhammar met in Oklahoma City. She told him a story about jobs disappearing in the wake of the financial crisis, about uprooting a life in Los Angeles and moving with her family of six back to Oklahoma, about how no jobs were to be found despite her college degree and about living below the poverty line.
Benavides concluded the interview with what I had learned to expect from any American:
“We have to keep moving forward. There is no point in grumbling,” she said.
“After a few days,” Kadhammar wrote, “I realized that everyone finished their stories with a fantastic parting shot full of fighting spirit: Things are bad now but we will start again. We will grit our teeth and work hard and gradually things will get better.
Finally, Kadhammar saw what I have seen for the five years I have lived on this side of the Atlantic Ocean: a United States where people rise to their call of duty, whether it is working three jobs to put food on the table, rising up before dawn to pursue athletic excellence or crossing the country to help out wherever it is currently needed.
When Hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans, thousands of volunteers gathered in the city, responding to the victims’ call for help. Eighteen months ago, the little city of Joplin, Miss. was leveled by a tornado. Once again, thousands of Americans came to help. And while it happened, the world was watching.
This nation rallies a sense of community in times of hardship that I believe is unmatched by almost any other nation on the globe. No ethnic or ideological division seems too wide to bridge when a fellow American calls for help.
I now hope that the recovery from Hurricane Sandy will play an equally significant role in bringing Americans together. I hope that its aftermath can serve to heal the rift nourished by the two political parties over the last few months. I hope that the unity this nation displays in times of hardship can overshadow the political division that will be displayed as black and white on Election Day.
Because I can assure you that the world will be watching.
Anders Melin is a contributing columnist. Email him at [email protected].
