We're Back...

After six months of traveling through Texas, Mississippi, Oklahoma, Nebraska, Kansas, Utah and Montana, we are back in the Bay Area. I've spent the past few weeks working on a book proposal and haven't had much time to transcribe and post interviews. I'm planning to spend the next few months transcribing all of my interviews and writing my book. I will post excerpts of various interviews and continue blogging about politics, current events and women's issues.

Thank you so much for your support, kind words and encouragement over the past six months; this trip has been an incredible experience and I wouldn't have been able to do it without your help. Looking back, I can even appreciate the challenging times, like standing in the hot sun trying to avoid Wal-Mart security in the parking lot and getting caught in a Montana snowstorm with no heater hoping my van doesn't break down.

Over the course of my journey, I've interviewed a diverse group of people, including a Democratic cowboy from Linden, Texas who calls George W. Bush a "wannabe cowboy"; a Pentecostal self-proclaimed "redneck" who stages solo hunger strikes against corporate polluters; a former evangelical pastor who now preaches inclusion in Tulsa, Oklahoma; moderate Republicans who believe Bush is the worst environmental president in history; pro-choice Republicans; Republicans who oppose Bush's foreign policy, but are afraid to speak out; a Republican who wears a "W" pin on her lapel and has a poster of Bush in her kitchen; Republicans who think Bush is not conservative enough; and those who choose not to vote.

If the national and alternative media spent more time in states like Texas, Oklahoma and Mississippi talking to people of all political stripes -- especially to the moderate Republicans who aren't afraid of speaking out, or progressives who live in conservative areas -- they would find the political climate of this country isn't as black and white -- or "red" and "blue" -- as they continue to insist it is.