128: Four Corners
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What is the speak of our nation's monuments? When you're at the Statue of Liberty or standing under the rotunda of the U.S. capital or when you're at the alamo, it is clear what they mean. But why? Do thousands of tourists go every day of the summer to four corners that spot in the wilderness where Utah, Arizona, New Mexico, and Colorado, four different states meet at one point. I went this summer, drawn inexorably, magnetically, without quite knowing why, just like every other wandering tourist who strays within 250 miles of the place. Chances are you have done this yourself. You've driven three or four hours out of your way and you show up and there's a marker on the ground, ringed by dozens, literally dozens of t-shirt stands and families come and they stand on the supposed spot where the four states meet and what? They hold hands, they sit on the ground and then mom or dad or sis stands a little platform they have there, built specially for this purpose and takes a snapshot. And then, often, there's this some kind of aftermath moment where everybody stands around haplessly like, what was that all about? You know, we came for this and then the next group comes in. The arbitrariness of it all, I think, is lost on no one. I saw one family with young kids who simply placed a teddy bear on the spot where the four states meet and snapped a picture of that. Couldn't any four corners hold just as much meaning as this place? And my friend, the answer, of course, is yes. And today on our program, we offer our own little national monument here on the radio, our own picture of life in America, our own four corners. From WBZ Chicago and Public Radio International to American Life from Ira Glass, today on our program, four corners, we tell the story of life in America through portraits of life on four different corners in four different states across this great nation, back one, history, back two, love, back three, neighbors, back four, how to become an American. Stay with us. Back one, let us begin with the most epic of our four stories today. About a year ago, writer Sarah Val had a theory that she could tell the entire history of America by describing what happened on and around one single street corner, specifically the corner of Michigan Avenue and Wacker Drive here in Chicago. She thought she could just swivel around and point at the whole dark and inspiring tale. Every then, her story. When I started, I had only a few things to go on. A couple of French explorers, a plaque on the bridge, said "Pass by" in 1673, an Indian massacre in 1812 right there in front of the Burger King, begged notions of Abe Lincoln's debt to the Chicago Tribune whose quaint gothic tower looms over the bridge's north side. I thought that's enough American history and I just make up the rest. Turns out my theory was only too right. The intersection of Michigan and Wacker I found out isn't just a corner, it's a vortex. The deeper I dug into the history of Chicago and its relationship to the history of the country, the more crowded the ghost traffic jam clogging up the Michigan Avenue bridge got. Okay I'm standing here right now on the Michigan Avenue bridge and the Chicago River is right underneath me. There's some ducks floating under there and a boat just went by and here's another one coming. Out there is where the river meets Lake Michigan to the east.
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