Traveling to a New America - People Along the Way

EL CERRITO, Calif. - Oct. 25, 2016 - PRLog -- James Hilgendorf's "Traveling to a New America", a year-long visit to towns and cities all across America to meet people and give talks, awakening a new vision of ourselves and a new dream of America, is continuing to build momentum, with the commencement of a new and continuing series of interviews with people the author is meeting along the way.

This is Thomas, age 33, interviewed in San Francisco:

Thomas, what are your dreams?

"I'm working on becoming a cinematographer.  I want to be a filmmaker and make my own films.  I want to create my own thing, what I feel is important, say what I personally feel about stuff.  I want to create great art, great looking art in video, and tell just really good stories.  I want to show people that there are other ways of thinking, paint a picture or reflections of ourselves that we really don't see too much, whether they're good or bad, because we all have our good nature, and then we have our bad nature, and I want to reflect that in my films.  These are stories about people.  I want to have an effect on people."

What are your thoughts about this country?

"I was in the military for six years, and I got to see a lot of stuff, a lot of really negative stuff about what other people in other countries think of us and this country.  I was on tour in Iraq for a couple years.  Being in the military kind of enlightened me a bit because it made me think about politics and about the future, trying to be aware of what's going on around me, and not be so into myself, not be so selfish.  It enlightened me as to how other countries perceive America.  When I was there in the occupation, a lot of the Iraqis did not like us being there.  I guess most of the population was grateful we got rid of Saddam Hussein, but at the same time, we replaced him, took down all their infrastructure, and replaced it with something a lot weaker. The way I see it, they have a lot of negative opinions about us that bred a lot of hatred and envy towards us, and they took out their anger on us because we were seen as the invaders of their country."

How does that translate into how you see America differently?

"It kind of made me a little more aware, the politics of everything, me being part of the military, you see a lot of stuff on the inside, the hypocrisy of our politicians, and the fact that they treat the American people like crap, and the media, the fact they manipulate a lot of events to make certain people be perceived negatively.  I've been included in that for the past several years, it made me a lot more aware of stuff like that, and made me want to further educate myself into knowing what's going on around me, because I feel if we don't know what's going on around us, then we're pretty much going to be doomed to repeat bad stuff that has happened."

You're an African American, are we making progress?

"I guess with everything that's going on, the media portrays us negatively, and that puts people in a mindset that black people, Mexicans, maybe Asians, we're not seen as people, we're seen as stereotypes, and that goes for white people too because white people are seen a certain way, so I think we all suffer from this kind of thing from the media, being misrepresented.  Economically, I guess you could say we've made progress on the economic level, were treated to a certain extent the same as far as money and getting money, but at the same time, we're treated more or less as second citizens."

What are some solutions?

"I wish people had equal education, across the board.  I wish everybody had the opportunity to pursue their goals and aspirations.  I think people suffer from lack of opportunities.  I think minorities in this country do.  I think we get spit upon by the media because we're portrayed in a certain way, but at the same time I think people that are in the media, people who own the corporations, don't really understand us as people.  A lot of people listen to the news and listen to their words and treat that as gospel, and it reflects negatively on us, not just minorities, but on all of us as a people.

"I think in this country, for the most part, we're cut off from each other because of things like technology.  Instead of bringing us together, it separates us. We can easily cut people off, or we can get so caught up in ourselves that we don't really recognize people as human beings.  We're missing the kind of simple connection between us as human beings, and I think technology kind of gets in the way of that."

James Hilgendorf is a filmmaker, speaker, poet, and the author of ten non-fiction books that are opening the way to a new vision of ourselves, a new dream of America, a new religion for the world.

His website is at http://www.jameshilgendorf.org

You can follow his journey across America on his Facebook Page, "Traveling to a New America" at: http://www.facebook.com/NewDreamOfAmerica