Now and then: a contrast in settings

I'm off! And as I rode the Washington, DC Metro to Reagan National Airport, I couldn't avoid noticing the people around me, and their amazing diversity. This is my world on a daily basis, and has been since we moved here in 1976. (If anything, it has become more varied in forty years.) There were men and women of all races in business suits and track suits. There were women in hijabs, and men with waist length dreadlocks. Piercings galore. It being a chilly fall morning, there were no visible tattoos, but I know there was at least one -- mine.

My Unitarian Universalist flaming chalice, a gift to myself on my 60th birthday.

My workplace, a large state university, is similar. My church is less diverse, but certainly looks more like the DC Metro than my girlhood Lutheran church.

North Platte, according to the 2010 census, is about 10 times bigger than my little town of University Park: 25,000 people, compared with just 2,500. But North Platte is surrounded by farms and ranches, and University Park is eight miles from the White House, and surrounded by dense suburban sprawl that reaches for miles in every direction.

Both places are predominantly white, but the similarity ends there.

University Park is "78.5% White, 9.3% African American, 0.1% Native American, 4.7% Asian, 3.0% from other races, and 4.4% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 11.3% of the population. North Platte is 93.1% White, 1.0% African American, 0.7% Native American, 0.7% Asian, 2.8% from other races, and 1.7% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 8.8% of the population." Outside of University Park, our county is "majority minority" ("64.5% black or African American, 19.2% white, 4.1% Asian, 0.5% American Indian, 0.1% Pacific islander, 8.5% from other races, and 3.2% from two or more races. Those of Hispanic or Latino origin made up 14.9% of the population.") Lincoln County, of which North Platte is the seat, has about the same demographic mix as the city, and a total population of about 34,000. Let that sink in. There are about 10,000 people in the county who live outside North Platte. Prince George's County, home to University Park, has over 800,000 people, including my 2,500 neighbors.

So that's a rough snapshot of where I am coming from, and where I am going.