A family sits around a breakfast table in a Cleveland Holiday Inn Express talking about family things. The teenager shrugs as Mom announces she’s going to redecorate his bedroom. The conversation pauses for a basketball segment on the local Fox affiliate.
A rack of USA Todays announces the next war.
I can’t say Americans are war-weary; many are simply disconnected from current events and their historical context. Another war engages a minority, and the financial costs come due after many of us have died of natural causes. Life goes on.
Sitting in a hotel breakfast room, my mind turns to other journeys and yet another war.
On their separate journeys around Thatcher’s Britain, Bill Bryson and Paul Theroux observed British sensibilities in dreary guest house breakfast rooms. As the Iron Lady rolled out her war in the Falklands/Malvinas the mood went from fears to cheers.
Breakfast over, I walk through Cleveland’s strangely quiet downtown towards Lake Erie and the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
