Day 6 – After Bennettsville to New Albany, IN

Every once in a while, I do something nice for myself. Today was one of my more generous moments, scheduling me for an easy 10-ish miles to New Albany. I’m glad to write that a) I didn’t need it and b) I’m utterly thrilled to have it. It’s pretty sweet when the rest days come when you’re feeling good; they can really help you to continue feeling that way.

The walk into New Albany was largely unremarkable, just following Highway IN 111 pretty much all the way. It’s crazy how, when you’re walking here, you become absolutely ecstatic over places where your route crosses an interstate freeway, as that means you’re guaranteed fast food restaurants. I hadn’t been in a McDonald’s in the US in at least two decades prior to this trip; now I’ve been in one on two different occasions. Cheap drinks, clean-ish bathrooms, tables and chairs, thumping A/C, and fast wifi? Sign me up. 

New Albany itself impressed me with its well-preserved Main Street, sporting all kinds of neat 19th century architecture, and its pleasant riverfront, all grass and trees. I confess, though, that I didn’t spend too much time outside today. With two nights of “wild” camping prior to this, I haven’t had a good opportunity to post articles and pics for a while, and I’ve spent nearly every waking (and sleeping) minute outside over that time. It’s amazing to be sitting barefoot in a bed.

Over the last couple of days, I’ve been listening to Ben Sasse’s Them: Why We Hate Each Other–and How to Heal. The senator reads the audiobook, so his voice comes through all the more clearly. Sasse’s work builds seamlessly out of Carney’s; he, too, is concerned about loneliness and the breakdown of community. Sasse is an unusual 2019 Republican, in the sense that he has been willing to speak out against figures like Donald Trump and Sean Hannity. He’s no RINO, though; Conservative Review lists him as a “Top 25 Conservative” and he consistently scores highly in other right-focused ranking systems. 

In outlining the problems and challenges facing 21st century America, Sasse works very hard to be even-handed. He finds situations to praise Obama, to express commonality with other Democratic leaders, to criticize Trump, to condemn “whataboutism” and Russian opportunism. Like Carney, he manages to fairly effectively balance a tactical identification of elements from his childhood or America’s past, the loss of which we should bemoan, while avoiding the trap of being overly nostalgic about the 1950s and ‘60s. He devotes extensive praise to Lincoln and King as “founding fathers,” regardless of time. One can nitpick some of the wisdom evoked from homespun vignettes, and liberals can certainly push back at some of the values that he promotes (fairly gently, for the most part), but on the whole he comes across as earnest and sincere.

Which, ultimately, makes his proposed solutions all the more disappointing. After a reasonable review of those aforementioned problems and challenges, Sasse concludes his book with a section focused on solutions. Here they are, using his chapter titles: “Become Americans Again,” “Set Tech Limits,” “Buy a Cemetery Plot,” and “Be a Smarter Nomad.” And look–could we stand to construct a healthier, more inclusive, and more galvanizing American identity? Sure, though I’d want to be careful about the what and the how. Should we be more careful about our tech addictions? Absolutely (he says, as he goes from zero smartphones in his pocket to two.) Should we become more settled in our communities, and invested in the people and places around us? Certainly.

Fine.

But what does this offer for the historic income inequality that has fundamentally altered American reality? Sasse doesn’t ignore this in his review of the problems; he accurately spells out how the bottom two-thirds of America has bottomed out. And he’s generally good about not playing the victim-blaming game. Where he outlines some cultural shifts that have been damaging, he also often explains the challenges imposed by declining material wellbeing.

And yet, his solutions exclusively focus on cultural shifts. Perhaps he’s trying to focus on things we can control on an individual level. None of us, individually, can force congress to make positive changes, never mind the president. Instead of yielding to frustration, let’s control what we can control, right?

But the thing is, family dinners aren’t going to happen when parents are working night and day in order to meet basic needs. Raising a kid with an iPad might be inadvisable, but when childcare is totally inaccessible, parents have got to find a break somehow. When transportation options are limited, people aren’t going to go out of their way to volunteer across town. When people have little to no control over their schedules, they’re probably going to miss PTA meetings. 

This is what feels disingenuous in a book that I otherwise find genuine–how crazy and wild it is that, in this historic moment, when (as Sasse asserts) we’re facing some of the greatest challenges of any American generation, the only clear road forward is… a reassertion of conservative values. Again, I think there are points in here worth hearing, and I’ll give Sasse the most optimistic interpretation possible, believing that he earnestly wants to improve life for all Americans.

But if a politician’s plan to help America get back on course has no specific solutions for the gross income inequality plaguing this country… it’s just hard to take it seriously. And that’s true for Republicans and Democrats alike.

Technical Details:

• Still no ADT waymarks–nothing since the entrance to Clifty Falls
• Might be worth mentioning that there’s all kinds of food options near the I-265 crossing (and pretty much continuously from that point on). The Kroger’s here is the second major supermarket (non-dollar-store) that the ADT has actually passed since Cincinnati (and bigger than Aurora’s IGA)
• There’s something wonky going on with the final approach to New Albany and I’m pretty sure the GPS and TBT fall out here, beginning around H30100. The TBTs say to stay on IN 111 all the way through, basically from Bennettsville, eventually… merging (?) with Main St. The GPS, however, calls for a left turn on Beechwood, a right on Charlestown, and a left on Vincennes, eventually turning on to Main St. Maybe all of that is IN 111? I don’t know, but there aren’t signs indicating that