Miami is America, too

Miami is America. But it's not the America I grew up in.

Some weeks ago I was on a business trip, and I stopped at a Target store in Milwaukee. As I was getting out of my car, I saw a woman holding a baby and accompanied by a little girl two or three years of age. The woman was returning her shopping cart to the cart corral and having a hard time of it, since the carts already there weren't arranged properly. I hustled over to give her a hand then headed toward the store.

As I walked through the parking lot, I realized that I felt at home in a way that I never do in Miami. The America I grew up in is a place where people put their shopping carts away when they are done with them. Oh, there are exceptions, but by and large folks just wouldn't consider leaving their carts where someone else will have to go get them...or where they could roll away into someone else's car.

In Miami, it's different world. Perhaps it's city selfishness or hot-weather lethargy. Perhaps it is the Latin non-crisis mentality. Perhaps folks are just too busy. In any case, I doubt it's even a conscious decision. Just as the harried mom I saw with her two kids wouldn't even consider leaving a shopping cart in the middle of a parking lot, it never even crosses the minds of most folks in Miami that they could or should expend the extra energy to put their carts away to save someone else the effort...or to save someone else's car from damage. I suspect most people literally never even think about it.

Like the rest of this nation, though, Miami is both mosaic and melting pot. The other day, I saw an elderly woman go out of her way to put someone else's shopping cart away as she headed into a Wal-Mart here in Miami. Seeing that was as refreshing as a cool breeze with the scent of home.

Right now I see so much that seems so very strange and even wrong about Miami. But with the same affection and sincerity that I say "God bless America," I pray that one day I'll be able to say "God bless Miami." After all, even if Miami isn't the America I grew up in, it is still America.