From the Midwest with Love (Or Something Else)

“I know nothing of the world. I’m a dumb kid from Iowa and I’m tripping on LSD, what do I know of the world?”

- Bryce, 16 or 27

“If I could say something to the world … huh … let me finish my cigarette real quick so I can give you a real answer.

Okay, so like, I think if I could say something to the world it’d be an apology for how much we suck – not like me specifically but like the country in general – and I guess me too. I once donated to one of those adopt a child in Africa programs where you pay like $20 a month and you feed a child and she like sends you crayon drawn pictures. And, you know, I did it because I’m a sucker for those panderers on the street corners – I also have a weird, overpriced hair straightener from one of those mall kiosk women – and anyway, I had this child for a couple months. And I’d brag about it. Use it as a defense that I’m a good a person but then I had to cancel my credit card – the same one that was supporting this child. I got several calls from the foundation asking me to renew. I never did. And I was secretly relieved because I felt too guilty to cancel the $20 donations, but I also didn’t really want to spend those $20 a month. And I almost renewed.

Hold on … I’m going to light another cigarette.

…

Like I said, I almost renewed it. About a month and a half after I canceled the card I got one of those drawings. It said thank you. It was all in yellow and green crayon and she drew a stick figure version of herself and I was like wow I am shit.

…

I hung it over my desk to remind myself that I was once a good person. But like that’s how we are here. We pretend for two seconds to give a shit and for like three days you learn about Yemen and you tweet about the worst humanitarian disaster but then it falls out of fashion so you start posting your sad single girl posts again without a hint of irony or shame. So yeah … I’d say I’m sorry that our care for the world is mostly just a social media virtue signal.

Is that too cynical?

…

I don’t know – it’s hard, I’m broke and I’ve got my own problems.”

- Jasmine, 19

“Can’t we just all love each other? It’s like the Beatles say, All You Need Is Love.”

- Mateo, 27

“The environmental crisis – that’s what we need to talk about. It should be on everyone’s conscience. I mean, everyone knows we’re in one but like there’s this huge gap between the monumental magnitude of these problems and the real awareness that we have. I truly think that this can be the topic or like the unifying issue that brings the world together – it’s like the one thing that affects all of us. And like, the main thing I hear when I talk to friends about this is that they can’t make a difference.

Well, let me tell you world.

No action is too small. I mean just like recycle and start carpooling or I don’t know walk or ride a bike. And like, don’t waste food, because tons of people are starving and people need to stop throwing away food – leftovers are a sign of love – though we should probably eat less in general, but like I’m not body shaming or anything, all shapes are good shapes.

Oh and reusable cups and bags, fuck straws. These are all easy ways to contribute. It’s not hard.”

- Erica, 24

“Wait. What? Who’s this for? The world? I didn’t vote for him, that’s all I have to say.”

- Georgia, 38

“I’ve got something to say, there are still good men out there. I’m one of them. We’re not all privileged, fuckboy assholes. We have our own trouble. I’ve suffered through addiction, my parents kicked me out because they thought I was a fuck up and you know what, they were right. But I’ve worked my way out of that ditch.

That’s what you have to do. That’s what the world needs to do.

We need to dig ourselves out of a ditch, pull ourselves up by our bootstraps and help each other up along the way. Like, take me for example. When all that #MeToo stuff was happening, I was marching alongside all the women and same thing with #BLM, I’m an ally. I believe in equal rights for everyone all over the world.

…

Off the record … maybe we could grab coffee some time.”

- Jacob, 32

“Fuck gender and fuck J.K. Rowling.”

- Logan, 28

“Listen, I’ve been silently rooting for the disease since March. Is this anonymous? Fine, yeah, you can include my name.

I’m not trying to be an asshole and it’s not that I don’t care about other people, it’s that the world is going to shit. We thought it was bad 20 years ago. Nothing has changed. We thought it was bad in 2016 and it’s only gotten worse. So, yeah, I’m rooting for Covid and the apocalypse. I think we need something that will just completely erase everything and I’ve secretly always wanted to be in an apocalyptic plot line.

Sure, we’ve got flying snakes and murder hornets and whatever else they’ve thrown out. We’ve had protests and riots, but I want more. I want to walk over to the college campus down the street, dowse it in lighter fluid and set the whole institution ablaze. We’ve been marching for months and now they want to paint over the graffiti – how much are they spending on that while firing people of color? It’s bs. And guess who’s still funded? Minneapolis had it right. We have to burn it all to the ground. Burn our capital buildings, burn the academy, burn the Amazon warehouse outside town – they should march on Disney studios and burn that in the process. Google too. I honestly just don’t feel like there’s any other course of action. The institutions – they’re not listening. They’re sending response letters that don’t raise any course of action and I’m sick of it. They’re letting the incarcerated die and I don’t see how that’s fair. We need to open the gates to every single one of our prisons, everyone needs to stop paying, and we need to destroy everything that’s wrong with this country and the rest of the colonial capitalist world.

I want to watch the world burn because there’s nothing left to preserve.”

- Angelica, 31

“This is a stupid project. It’s just the artsy crap that you think is gonna make a difference and the only people who are gonna watch are mom, dad, and twelve people who thought they were watching a real movie.”

- My brother, 16

“I have an uncompromising faith in people. I think that’s what we need – amidst all the cynicism – we need more faith.

No, I’m not talking about a religious faith per say. Have you ever read “The Offshore Pirate?”

It’s Fitzgerald – one of his short stories – anyway, I think it taught me what faith was in a nonreligious way. There’s this scene where the main character climbs up three different cliffs over the ocean and jumps from each. She’s a resounding faith in herself. Faith to take the leap each time – from higher heights with no assurance that the landing won’t be painful. That’s faith. And even if it’s faith in a beautiful lie, if that faith leads to good then really what harm does it do? I think we’ll get out of this as long as we put our faith in each other – not our leaders or the government – faith in the people. You and me.”

- Sarah, 26

“Why did I start this project? Simple. If I’m to tell the world anything, it can’t just be me. Alone, I’m too small. So I collected the opinions of hundreds of people in the area.

These are just samples, not conclusions. A mix of the grim. The cynical. And the hopeful.

What are my hopes? To archive a moment the best I can.”

- Filmmaker, 27