I'm back on my bike and getting stronger! 40, 63, 74 (miles) ... Wisconsin, Iowa, Minnesota. The past few days have been so beautiful, and I am ecstatic to feel connected again. Yesterday we crossed the Mississippi River, a place I knew only through childhood songs. It was absolutely breathtaking. It stayed by our side for most of the day accompanied by rolling hills and enchanted forests. This is the stuff fairy tales are inspired by.
On our journey to this point we have stopped to do work on a few houses. The place that really stands out in my mind is Janesville Minnesota. This is a small town filled with incredibly friendly and happy people. They are going through a lot of problems right because the GM Plant which employed many of the towns people closed down. Of course there is a domino effect and there isn't much money spent and other businesses have begun to close down. Not only this but they have had flooding problems in the past which probably took large amounts of money to repair. Situations like this are not uncommon, unfortunately we have past through other towns who have had to deal with major floods, and many towns in which most of the businesses are vacant...its very unsettling.
My eyes were opened to something else while in Janesville, something which was more than unsettling. I was working on a house through a program called Community Action. They tear down and rebuild worn down and abandoned houses. They also work with troubled teens who would be unable to find jobs otherwise. The teens, although stand offish at first and pretty unmotivated, were good people once you got to talking with them. So when the man who oversaw our project told me they had no respect for him I was puzzled. He said they saw him as nothing but another white man telling them what to do. A few hours later as I walked down the sidewalk from the toilet a cop car pulled up behind me and asked if I was lost. He asked this because I was a white woman in this neighborhood. Apparently the people of this neighborhood constantly have to put up with discrimination. Its disgusting that things like this are still happening. How can we grow together if we treat each other in this way? I felt as though just interacting with these people for one day made a difference. I wish that we could have had more time together. Everyone should really learn to be careful with the ideas that they project onto others. If someone is expected to act a certain way than eventually they will. If you treat someone badly they will act badly, if you speak positively to someone than they will live in a more positive manner. Next time you walk past "the bad part of town" think twice about the people who live there. They're just like you and I.