Publisher's Point Of View
Robert Allan Hooftallen

Innocent people are dead in a mall today and I'm learning that from a motel room, miles from the office.

I needed a change of scenery, sans everyone, and everything that normally surrounds my work day, so I holed up here, where the coffee, water, cable, internet and other stuff are Included in the charge.

I'm on the lam, hiding from the 9-to-five, yet working all the same.

It's nice to be where nobody knows your name, but they are glad you came. That's what buying a place to sleep can do for you.

In an area where you can get rooms like this for about $50 per day, monthly rate, it's a wonder more people aren't staying here permanently. Figure $500 a month for utilities, another $500 or more for a mortgage, insurances, real estate taxes, the time it takes to clean and wash your own linens and towels and it's almost worth staying in someone else's room. Wonder if they'd keep the complimentary soap and shampoo coming?

A microwave and refrigerator are all you need and this room has both.

I ended up here because I just couldn't stand the thought of dealing with the alternatives. On my mind is my lifetime plan and no matter how hard I work at trying to make one, it still seems like the living is still a day-to-day proposition. And it's frustrating to know that so much of what you plan is connected to too many factors out of your control.

It's a rat race life we live and maybe it always has been. It's comical that we work so we can afford our vehicles and have vehicles so we can get to work. That's in line with the way we parents give our children everything and they end up appreciating nothing and how we do so much for ourselves and for them that we do nothing for anyone else.

I'm not only a rat race member, some days I feel like the president.

I rented a room today because I just couldn't deal with an air-conditioned office.

I dined faceless and alone and took these notes on the pages of an atlas. On this page is the United States map, marked with 100 red dots of the country's "100 greatest attractions."

I'm scribbling around northern California, a place I've never been. In fact, of the 100 great attractions, I've been to one and very near to three others.

That's pathetic and makes me wish I had picked a different location for this day of hiding out, maybe Lake Tahoe, that place on the California-Nevada border that made number 7 on the list. If only I had had this list 10 years ago, perhaps I would have gotten somewhere.

The National Sea Shore on Cape Hatteras, N.C., is the only great place on this list I've been. I believe I'll get back there before I get to any of the other 99 I've missed. It's getting pretty trendy these days, but I still know how to find the quiet spots.

At 37, I should still have enough years ahead of me to get to a few of them now that I do have the list. Stating my age reminds me that my birthday is at hand and the fact that I was just getting over seeing that day as different than any other when my son was born on it, making it special for many reasons and providing reason for optimism in the face of decline.

Reality check. Rush Limbaugh's face just flashed on the muted TV screen. I'm sad I had to see him, but thankful the volume's off.

One thing about Limbaugh is that he represents America exactly- actually he represents the growing divide in America in that half the people love him and half the people loathe him. I'm most certainly among the latter. He's a bona fide piece of garbage in my book, but he's figured out how to stay popular: keep the nonsense and hate he spews simple enough for the hardcore right wingers to digest and he'll have a following and friends at Fox News.

At least he can't be accused of flip-flopping. He's always been a junkie hate monger. Check this out http:// mediamatters.org/items/ 200610020013. Type that into your web browser and hit play on the video. Those are some pretty sinful words.

My scribbles have forced me to turn the page, literally and figuratively. I am writing around the descriptions of the Hoover Dam and the Rock Mountain National Park and running out of white space for notes.

Ironic how this day started with a desire to change my scenery and that my notes, and my lunch, are ending after a virtual tour around the United States.