My friend Bill Chertok was a close friend of Senator Andy Dinniman. A constant warrior for the City of Coatesville and it's people and a leader of the Democratic Party in Coatesville and Chester County. I still miss him.
Larry Chertok & his wife Terian continue the legacy of Chertok’s more than Century in Coatesville:
"I realized after the election of '08 that I don't really know my country firsthand. Why was I so upset by Palin's "real America" quotes? I am traveling the States with my two kids to look for "America" this summer. I wonder what I'll find?"
"What I realized upon returning home is that I really am a child of the newly named 'Megalopolis' of Boston, New York, Philadelphia, Baltimore and Washington DC and I feel comfortable in this enormous corridor. I know how to live here and I value the intelligence, the tolerance, and the ideals of the American Northeast. I may never agree with Northeastern Republican ideologies but I can live with them as nothing is is as bad as what I saw in the South.
I also saw firsthand how our country is a collection of American Countries in so many ways. The Midwest, Utah, Texas, and the South are completely their own sovereign nations with the exception of their largest cities. I learned that Sarah Palin's 'Real America' concept is a thinly constructed longing for something that NEVER existed. The concept that America's small towns in the heartland is the 'Real America' is preposterous. There is a reason why people make a mass exodus out of small towns to live in larger populated cities and have done that since the beginning of the frontier movement (remember all those ghost towns and abandoned frontier cabins? There are no ghost towns along the Megalopolis corridor only some struggling cities). Small towns can be charming but my more frequent experience with them is that the inhabitants can often be fearful, ignorant of the world, and intolerant of anyone that doesn't look like they could be related to them. They are also super suspicious of anyone from the Northeast. These are the people that Sarah Palin wants to use as the perfect example of Americans. THEY are the ones that don't fit in to the majority of American philosophies as the election of Barack Obama proves. They are dull relics of an uglier American past.
In some small towns where progressive ideologies, new ways of looking at rural living, and sustainable economies in the new century are promoted, life couldn't be better. These communities in places like middle Wisconsin, southwestern Colorado, New Mexico, eastern Idaho, eastern Tennessee, and southern Montana all deserve a closer examination as they salute the future of country living.
I am home now and wallowing in the concept of "home". I feel so blessed to live here as we all do about our beloved hometowns. When pulling up to our house, it peeked through the trees and I was welcomed back. Fall had arrived to the mid-Atlantic and I was more than thrilled to get back to the busy life of teaching, schooling, dancing, playing, and being with family and friends.
I learned something about myself during this trip also. I never realized how fearless I was until going through the process of this trip by myself for 5 weeks with my young people. I enjoyed myself, saw things I never thought I would see, and learned so much about my country. I drove almost 8,000 miles and I would do it again. I also have a lot of appreciation for my little red caravan and how reliable she is. I saw the whole country through her tinted windows."
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Six Weeks Around America Terian Chertok
