The hubris of self-mutiliation

I exited the Beltway and descended into the Heartland… the Industrial Heartland of America. Once magnificent cities of steel now ruined carcasses of twisted metal, smashed illusions, shattered dreams, poisoned. A collapse of the human spirit, peeling and splintered.

The SITUATIONAL TOURS has taken me to the Industrial Heartland – first leg of the journey, Johnstown, PA. Once the center of the nation’s steel industry, this small town along the banks of the Conemaugh River has succumbed to the ravages of the American economy. During the 1970s, these monolithic steel mills, filled with the hopes and dreams of a prosperous working class society, closed down with the shifting tides of industry moguls, the oil embargo, labor unions, and the transfer of jobs oversees.