Find Momo in Santa Rosa.

We drove through Santa Rosa and only a few shops were open. We met Jim, who was painting a Pizza Hut that was converted into a not-Pizza Hut. He left Santa Rosa in 1972, when he said Main Street Santa Rosa was thriving, every shop hustling and restaurants cooking meals for patrons and happy travellers.

This dream seems to have died. The hot spot for franchises feeding frantic interstaters looks down onto Santa Rosa’s broken windows and vacant parking lots. How can we fix this? I’m guilty of feeding the franchise as well - with occasions mindless stops buckling to the convenience of fast food and predictable monotony.

It terrifies me and breaks my heart. Is America a finally tuned machine feeding the already rich and crushing whatever dreams lay in its wake? Can we all possibly awake and control ourselves for a minute and fix this? This isn’t news to me or to many of us. My hopes are that the country isn’t handed over to rich ignorance, and that the brilliant lights inside of us burn a little bit brighter.