“Good morning, America, how are you?
Say, don’t you know me? I’m your native son.
I’m the train they call the City of New Orleans.” (City of New Orleans, Steve Goodman)[1]
During my university years I was also singing a little bit in bar & cafés – and the “City of New Orleans” belonged to my singing repertoire with other songs, mostly French chansons which I used to sing in bars & cafés in Mannheim and in my hometown Schramberg[2]. Singing those songs, – was also a sort of dreaming of the American landscapes. But still I have never been in the United States of America!
I am belonging to a generation for which the USA are still the land of Liberty. In German we often call the USA “das Land der unbegrenzten Möglichkeiten” – “the land of unlimited possibilities”. So sometimes I think, – that after retirement, if America is still a liberal democracy I will try to visit the US, and travelling around there by train. But will the US still be the land of freedom and liberty? Observing the presidential elections of 2024 I have some doubts. I hope Kamela Harris will win the election, but I fear Donald Trump could win this 2024 presidential race. In 2016 I was one of the rare persons forecasting in some way the victory of Donald Trump[3]. Now it seems that it will be a head-to-head race. A victory of Donald Trump would be a disaster for freedom and liberty of the whole planet earth. The Ukraine would also be put into a very difficult situation by a new Presidency of Donald Trump[4]. Imagining Trump turning the USA, the land of freedom, into an authoritarian state is a nightmare. In some way the 6 January 2021 was a pretaste of that nightmare[5] !
But I think currently Kamela Harris has still a chance to win this fateful presidential election. If she wins, and I hope she will win, I will try to travel through the US by train, after my retirement in some years! But currently as an attentive observer of the us political landscape, I can only wait until the 5 of November, – and sometimes share texts and videos etc. on #Mastodon for Harris Walz – as I did with the video message from Timothy Snyder “Obeying in advance Media billionaires ask for tyranny” and other messages I shared.
Closing my eyes, singing the City of New Orleans, – imaging me riding on a train through the US, – the City of New Orleans, the Adirondack, California Zephyr, Coast Starlight and other trains…, remembering “Amtrak Joe”, – the nick name of Joe Biden[6]. Never forget his courageous decision to withdraw his candidacy for presidential election in July 2024. So he levelled the way for the Kamela Harris & Tim Walz candidacy.
I have a schoolmate living in a town in the West US, which has an Amtrak Station served by the California Zephyr. Perhaps I would make a stop there, – to visit her and her family. 40 years ago we took our Abitur together in the Gymnasium Schramberg in the Black Forest town of Schramberg. She has become an American Citizen and has publicly endorsed for Kamala Harris on Facebook. I have had other schoolmates living in the USA, – but for different reasons they all come back to “old Europe”. Perhaps one day I should ask them, why they left the US and come back to Europe? Geography, family, distance, new love, new job – or other reasons ?
40 years ago, as a high school student in the Gymnasium Schramberg, I could never have imagined that the USA – the land of freedom – the land of unlimited possibilities – would turn into a proto-fascist authoritarian state! That would probably happen if Trump wins the presidential election on Tuesday, November 5, 2024!
America where are you going ?
“Good morning, America, how are you?
Say, don’t you know me? I’m your native son.
I’m the train they call the City of New Orleans.” (City of New Orleans, Steve Goodman)
Ilustration: Book Cover of Albright, Madeleine; Woodward, Bill (2018): Fascism a warning (with Bill Woodward). London, 2018. ISBN 978-0-00-828227-1 which I also used in the post “Witnessed from Grünstadt: The storm of the United States Capitol on Epiphany 2021”
Christophe Neff, Grünstadt 27.10.2024
[1] Here you can find a link to a youtube version (Arlo Guthrie interpretation) including lyrics of the City of New Orleans!
[2] See also „Mannemer Dreck- traumhafte Zeiten – eine autobiographische Zeitreise mit Musikbegleitung nach Mannheim (in German)“
[3] See also „Blognotice 02.11.2020: Donald Trump peut – il encore gagner ?“ and « Rétrospectives sur le blog paysages en 2016 – les billets les plus lus de « paysages » en 2016 ». The second post includes a screenshot of my Facebookpost of the 05.11.2016 in which i predicted the victory of Donald Trump.
[4] See also “L’année 2023 sur le blog paysages – une rétrospective/eine Rückschau auf das Jahr 2023 im Paysagesblog” and „Blognotice 18.08.2024: de retour à Grünstadt – et les martinets se sont déjà envolés vers le Sud„.
[5] See also „Witnessed from Grünstadt: The storm of the United States Capitol on Epiphany 2021”
[6] See also “„Where Did „Amtrak Joe,“ Joe Biden’s Nickname, Come From? What may be Joe Biden’s most enduring nickname, Amtrak Joe, began out of family tragedy and morphed into a lifelong support of the railway” . Marie Clarie, May 2020”
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