Globally Rational

This is the third article in my View From Above series. Click here to see the first two: the first one covers Kuwait, London, New York, and Boston; the second one covers Missouri and Indiana.

Off in the distance, I see the lights emanating from Pittsburgh. Compared with the rest of the areas along the route of my flight, which left from Kansas City, Pittsburgh’s vicinity seems to be much more than a simple set of suburbs. The image of the working-class Pennsylvanian (or Ohioan), which has been increasingly burned into my head as I follow the 2008 election, is completely justified by this sight. There are lights far outside of the actual city, suggesting that there is no dearth of small factory-centered areas here.

My previous image of Pennsylvania consisted of a largely semi-urban forested (produced by the state’s name, which translates to “Penn’s Forest”) with a highly-educated economic hub in Philadelphia and a highly-industrialized working-class environment in Pittsburgh. While this impression was only affirmed by my few trips across the Pennsylvania turnpike, it seems that a view from above dispels my theory.

I am currently flying over what seems like an urban area, but there is no heavily-concentrated set of downtown lights. My best guess is that this is another of the many industrial areas west of Philadelphia. It bears a striking resemblance to most of the suburbs near my home of St. Louis, but there is no city in the middle like what I’m used to seeing. This must be another area whose economy is supported by the working-class Americans who, as Hillary and Obama never forget to mention, form the backbone of this country.

The farther east I travel, the more brightness I see along the highways. The patches of black, which were the norm in Missouri, are nearly nonexistent now and there seems to be a gradient of the luminosity along the roads. I will never again picture Pennsylvania as “Penn’s Forest”… now, it is the link between the highly-developed East Coast and the mostly rural Midwest.

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