oodlenoodleroodle: chromaticanxiety:npr:After Josh deLacey graduated college a few years ago, he
oodlenoodleroodle: chromaticanxiety: npr: After Josh deLacey graduated college a few years ago, he decided to hitchhike across the U.S. He didn’t have a job, didn’t have obligations, and didn’t have anything holding him back. Like Beitiks, he saw hitchhiking as an experiment. He wanted to know if there were good people in the world. He traveled with no money, and wasn’t going to ask for anything from anyone except for a ride.He carried a hand-painted sign that read “Traveling on Trust” and made his way from his home in Washington state to Michigan to New Mexico and then back home. He got in the car with young pregnant mothers, a grandmother, a Vietnam veteran, a police officer, a pastor, a criminal, a car full of teenagers and even a man who used to be a meth cook. He rode with 138 different drivers, and traveled 6,745 miles.“What really impacted me was that I could trust more people than I thought I could,” he says. “It’s really forced me to evaluate what makes a good person.”Thumbs Up, Then And Now: Hitchhiking Stories From The RoadPhoto credit: Calvin College Has he heard of hitchbot though…? I really want to be all “hey awesome, cool story” and all that buuuut… like… try doing that while black? try doing that while woman? try doing that while trans? Like, this kinda looks like white male cis privilege to me >_> There was a black man who tried to do something like this, no? There was a section about it on TAL, I’m sure: his model/inspiration was the Peace Pilgrim, who (this is all off the top of my head so possibly inaccurate) was a woman who did it in the 60s? Whether a woman could do it now is another matter, of course. But that just makes it even sadder: we’re supposed to be progressing and moving forward, and yet there are some ways where we’ve moved distinctly backwards. -- source link