On my way to Texas

…to visit my sister, and I’m changing flights in the Phoenix airport. This shot is taken from the Barry M Goldwater Terminal. Decades ago, when he ran for president, Arizona was firmly right wing and very white, but now it is a nicely mixed state, with a rising Hispanic population, and Phoenix tends to vote Democratic. All the announcements at the airport are in both Spanish and English. Yet there’s still the usual pro-military attitude one finds in the Southwest: when I bought a container of TicTacs in an airport shop, the cashier asked if I wanted to buy another “for our troops.” I have nothing against individual U.S. soldiers (just against the people and forces who control them), so I said yes.

In many ways, this environment feels more alien to me than Berlin, a city whose habits and mores I largely share. Strange.

The extra shows a better view of those amazing mountains that surround the airport.