The following article appeared in The Huffington Post in September 2014.
HELL IS REAL, says the billboard on my right.
Driving through Indiana, I think: ain’t that the truth.
As the town of Gary – at this point, just a crumbling monument to U.S. Steel’s past greatness – comes into view, my partner gasps from my Prius C’s passenger seat. A Spaniard, she’s used to seeing clean and modern roadways and pristine infrastructure built, in part, with European Union funds. “It’s like a third-world country,” she says, staring at the abandoned factories.