The American B-Side

Do you feel that?

The cool breeze on your back. The sound of October ballparks cheering. The red-orange leaves resting against the sidewalk, the static-y radio broadcast political ads and the drunken parking lots of college football tailgates. That feeling, that floating red-white-and-blue ephemeral feeling, is the closest I have ever come to patriotism.

It’s hard to define in strict terms what America feels, acts or even looks like. But paradoxically, it’s not hard to see it. I see it every nighttime drive I take, with gas stations and billboards rising high into the cool night sky like our personal northern lights. I see it in the eyes of my local diner’s waitresses, in the wrinkles on the cheek of Iowa farmers, in the quickly-drying rivers of Nevada, in the hulking mountains of the Rockies and in the ancient ones of the Appalachians. 

It’s not hard to see America if you look closely enough. 

From sea to shining sea, in each state, country and city, there exist stories, anecdotes and folktales that pump Americana into the nation around us. It’s my hope that over the course of this B-Side — made up of 23 writers, 23 articles, 21 states and 2 territories — we can find America too.

Senior Arts Editor Rami Mahdi can be reached at rhmahdi@umich.edu.

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