MEMPHIS, Tenn. – The hubs of business and economy are now in the rearview mirror as the News21 SUV drives along roads carved into mountains.

It’s the second leg of a nationwide road trip where four News21 journalists – Brittany Brown, Rosanna Cooney, Storme Jones and Tilly Marlatt – each bring their own experiences and expertise to record and document tensions that are present in America today.

We are passing through an America where people are brought to tears voicing pride for their country, citing freedom and the American dream as the reason for getting emotional.

“Where else can you become rich and famous overnight?” asks a woman whose tattooed forearm reads: “Those who suffer the most, scream into the silence.”

Americans tell us that they still long to get along with each other. We are learning to get along, too.  After a bad experience at a Kentucky motel, we learned that it is best not to inquire about bedbugs if you want a room. Americans wanted to be respected, and that means trusted.

In the Appalachian region, much maligned by the enduring hillbilly stereotype, we are hearing how LGBTQ people reclaim a space for themselves in rural communities, and make their voices heard. As we head southwest, toward Tennessee and Arkansas, cardinals flash red in the trees and the summer heat brings a sweeter fragrance to the air.

In almost every interview where President Donald Trump is mentioned, his influence on people’s perception of the nation and their perception of the state of hate is omnipresent.

It is a privilege to be allowed into people’s lives, into their barbershops and catfish ponds, to record their thoughts, lived experiences and impressions of their country at a time when America seems to be transitioning.

News21 fellows Brittany Brown, Storme Jones and Tilly Marlatt contributed to this report.

Follow the News21 blog for updates as the team reports on the road.

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TEKAMAH, Neb. — Since the start of the State of Hate road trip, the News21 road warriors traveled more than 3,000 miles and reported in Arizona, California, Nevada, Utah and South Dakota, before they arrived in Nebraska.

The first stop was Tekamah in Burt County, Nebraska, a town of 1,852 people about 46 miles northwest of Omaha.

Construction workers Frankie McCandless and Keith Terwilliger – in town from Tennessee on a job – were eating lunch at the Subway sandwich shop on South 13th Street.

News21 asked them about the state of the country and both agreed that there are divides, but not along race lines.

The two men said issues in the country today are over jobs and the economy, and everyone is affected by them, creating frictions among different groups.

“The way I look at it, it ain’t just one color, it’s all colors…,” McCandless said. “Everybody needs to get out and get a job and pull their own weight.”

Some people are able to work and they still get government money and everything else, he said.

Terwilliger echoed his thoughts.

“Welfare and food stamps are well and fine, but they are made for a purpose, but not as a way of life,” Terwilliger said.

McCandless and Terwilliger applauded President Donald Trump, saying he’s doing a good job, especially when it comes to the economy.

They said they are hoping the divide in the country closes if the president succeeds at making the economy better.

“There are more jobs now than there have been in decades in this country,” Terwilliger said. “He is standing up for our manufacturers, our farmers, for our foreign trade. It has been totally lopsided. All the other countries put terrible tariffs on us.”

Terwilliger added that people are worrying too much about issues like immigration policies.

“Too many people are crying and moaning about every little thing,” Terwilliger said. “Everybody is just too tender. Everything upsets everybody.”

McCandless added: “Everyone needs to get along instead of fighting with each other.”

Down the road from the Subway, Larry Bucy was selling fireworks at a fireworks stand with the words “Tekamah Area Vet” written in red paint out front.

Bucy said the media was blowing news events out of proportion, creating divides.

“If you just look around, it seems like we’re OK,” he said. “Then if you watch the national news, it’s going to hell in a handbag.”

Driving closer to Omaha, the next stop was in Fremont, Nebraska, a booming town of 26,000 that has a Hormel Foods hog-processing plant that produces Spam and other products. In 2017, Costco broke ground for a chicken processing plant, which is scheduled to open in 2019.

Glen Ellis, 54, has lived in Fremont for 14 years and owns Milady Coffeehouse, in the city’s historic downtown.

“We’ve gotten away from civility,” he said. “When I grew up, the reds and the blues could talk and share different opinions and not have a hatred. It seems like it has gotten worse and worse. It seems like the older I’ve gotten, I sense it more.”

Ellis is running for the Fremont City Council. His goal, he said, is to help people feel welcome in his town regardless of who they are.

Fremont made national news in 2010 when the Fremont City Council passed an ordinance to prohibit renting to illegal immigrants. Additionally, the ordinance requires all new renters to purchase a $5 permit from the city and swear they have permission to live in the country legally.

The U.S. Supreme Court declined in 2014 to hear a challenge on the city’s ordinance and the law has been enforced since that year.

Ellis said his town is more than that and, in his campaign, he stresses that Fremont is a welcoming city. He pointed to the town’s Latino community, many of whom were drawn to the town because of the meatpacking plant.

“We got a lot of loving people here in Fremont,” Ellis said.

News21 fellows Catherine Devine, Penelope Blackwell and Lenny Martinez Dominguez contributed to this report.

Follow the News21 blog for updates as the team reports on the road.

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SIOUX FALLS, South Dakota — America’s early presidents would not be proud of the U.S. today, according to some tourists visiting Mount Rushmore in South Dakota.

On the seventh day of the News21 roadtrip, the fellows visited an iconic American site to talk with people about the state of hate in the country.

In the powerful presence of the stone-carved faces of four admired U.S. presidents, tourists discussed race issues and America’s current political divide.

Jeff and Janet Smith from Michigan, perched on a bench to take in the famous mountain.

“Being here at Mount Rushmore just levels me so much,” Janet Smith said. “Our country needs to go back to what the founding fathers stood for. We need to be together and not 100 different groups fighting for our own thing. If you’re going to be here, be American like the founding fathers were. You came here for a reason, be dedicated.”

Her husband, Jeff, said the country has a long way to go with race problems, but the political problem is “huge,” too. He said the media is spurring the tension by showing all negatives and no positives.

“There are as many positive people in the country as there are negative and we always show the negativity,” Jeff Smith said. “You can persuade people to think one way if that’s the only way you show it.”

Looking at the mountain, he said the founding fathers wouldn’t be proud of the country today. If there were “men of their caliber today, we could be united again,” he added.

“The presidents here at Mount Rushmore could straighten out America,” he said. “America doesn’t have as strong of a leader today. We have too many ego politicians that are all about themselves and these guys weren’t. They were about building America.”

Charles Smith from Orlando, Florida, echoed the thought that politics is currently dividing the nation.

“The left is opposed to our president who we fully support,” Smith said. “They’re not doing what’s good for America. I think the founding fathers would be upset with the divides.

“Ninety-one percent of the media is reporting on Trump negatively,” he added. “The media has the Trump effect. People criticize Trump for tweeting, but that’s the only way he can reach the people, because the media won’t report what he’s saying accurately.”

Teacher’s aide Phil Dempsey from LakeLand, Florida, applauded efforts made today to deal justly with every culture, but he said political and racial divides are getting in the way.

“It’s really hard for African Americans no matter where they are,” Dempsey said. “They are racially profiled. Police come into neighborhoods and stop them for no reason. It’s always been bad but there is just more attention on it now and it’s bringing it to the forefront.”

Despite the divides in America, Dempsey said the early leaders of the country would be proud of certain aspects of America today.

“They would be proud of the economics of the country but there are things we could still change racially,” he said. “I don’t think they would be proud of the immigration policies at the moment, with families being separated at the border.”

Steve Mellado, of Michigan, on vacation with his wife, Brandy, and four children, said how children are raised affects whether they will feel hatred against people who are different from them.

“As you can see, we’re diversified, multi-colors and multinationals,” Steve Mellado said, pointing to his own mixed family. “There are political and racial divides and there always will be. It’s like that in every country. I think the hate is more media-driven at the moment.”

He added that these times are different in another way – hate is spread more widely and easily because of social media.

About 300 miles east of Mount Rushmore, the News21 SUV pulled up outside a lesser, but venerable, roadside attraction: The World’s Only Corn Palace.

The palace, in the heart of Mitchell, was built in 1892 as a way to prove to the world that South Dakota had a healthy agricultural climate.

About 500,000 tourists come from around the nation each year to see the corn murals.

Among them was Lauren Langston of Virginia, who is traveling the country in an RV with her husband, Devon. She said she likes that America is a melting pot, saying it’s part of its character, and always will be.

Langston added that although there are “divides among every group at the moment,” it’s important to remember our nation’s history, and that racial segregation wasn’t that long ago. She remembers her mother telling her about whites-only drinking fountains.

“Racial tensions don’t just go away because laws are made. It takes time,” Langston said. “It’s the same with gay marriage. Just because it was legalized doesn’t mean everyone feels great about it. If you want to change people’s minds you have to do it by getting to know people and having love and compassion for them.”

News21 fellows Brandon Bounds, Penelope Blackwell and Lenny Martinez Dominguez contributed to this report.

Follow the News21 blog for updates as the team reports on the road.

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LARAMIE, Wyoming — As the News21 road warriors cruised through the West, they saw the attitudes change with the landscapes.

In Elko, Nevada, a casino town of 20,000 people, several residents said there were no major tensions or divisions in their town.

Janet Peterson, who works at the Cowboy Arts and Gear Museum in Elko, said while there is a climate of hate in America, Elko is very welcoming. She said it is home to about 5,000 Hispanic immigrants.

“They keep to themselves,” she said.

But she sees value in their presence: “There’s a good Mexican store a few blocks away, I can’t remember what it’s called, but I go there because I like the tamales.”

There are problems with hate in America, Peterson said, “but I don’t think it’s one skin color versus another, or one culture versus another.”

Across the dusty Elko bridge, the News21 SUV tracked down the recommended tamales at La Unica Mexican Market.

Patricia Sanchez, a Mexican immigrant who lives in Elko with her family, had a different view of the town, going back a couple of decades.

“I experienced racial bias when I was working here in the 2000s,” Sanchez said. “I was a manager and an American woman didn’t like that I told her what to do. I would ask her to do something and she would ask ‘why?’ and said that I was a Mexican and that she didn’t have to listen to me. It was really tough.”

Sanchez said she worries about the national temperature.

“I’ve seen more racism and discrimination with our current president, who calls us ‘Indians’ that have come to take American jobs,” she said. “Many times, we Latinos do the work that Americans don’t do.”

The News21 SUV headed 230 miles east to Salt Lake City in Utah.

Along the endless I-80, the landscape quickly changed from gray-orange to green as trees and rivers hugged the highway into Utah.

In Salt Lake City, the News21 SUV pulled up outside the Utah Capitol where an estimated 2,500 people were protesting President Donald Trump’s immigration policies, mandating the separation of children from immigrant parents. It was one of more than 700 protests across the country that day calling for families to be reunited.

Lisa Corsetti from Heber City, Utah, said the president’s policies promote hatred and separation between groups.

“Donald Trump has subtle ways of promoting the hatred of certain groups, like calling immigrants animals and saying that they are infesting our country,” Corsetti said. “That is all hate speech that promotes a mob mentality. We’re better if we love people and take people for who they are and not how they look or who they love.”

Corsetti said she believes the president has given permission for hate speech.

“Hatred in America has always been below the surface, but because of Donald Trump, it is now acceptable for people to say they hate people,” Corsetti said. “I’m not proud of America. I’m not going to fly my American flag on the Fourth of July. Instead I’m going to fly my resistance flag.”

Nayeli Huerta from Salt Lake City, who protested with her 16-month-old son Adarius, said she fears for her son’s future because he is biracial.

“There is a lot of brutality and violence and I fear that could be a problem for him, just because of who he is,” she said.

She is hoping it gets better, but for now, she said “it’s worse than the past.”

“In Salt Lake City, there are a lot of racial and political divides,” she added. “I’m not as proud of America as I used to be.”

Brianna Manzanares, a sociology student at the University of Utah in Salt Lake City, interviewed at the protest, said her roller derby team strives for diversity and inclusion, but not everyone agrees on some of today’s cultural issues.

“There are divides all across the board,” Manzanares said.

There are those who don’t believe in LGBTQ rights, those that believe that being transgender is inhumane, she explained. One person said having these beliefs is too much for 2018.

Still, Manzanares described Salt Lake City as more open to diverse communities than 10 years ago.

“There is a strong LGBTQ community and there are a lot of immigration programs,” she said. “Salt Lake City has become an inclusive place for everybody, and while there is more work to do, we are taking steps in the right direction.”

After Salt Lake City, the News21 road warriors headed toward greener pastures in Wyoming.

About 150 miles east of Salt Lake City, the SUV stopped outside the Little America hotel on Interstate 80. The location is surrounded by mountains.

Technician Mike Smith and his wife Tirzah, a second grade teacher, were with their church youth group on a road trip to Martin’s Cove, a historic site on the Mormon Trail in Wyoming.

They expressed pride when talking about their diverse home community, Orem, Utah.

“People from Mexico, Brazil, South Africa, Romania live all within three of four blocks of where we live,” Mike Smith said. “Pride is a choice. Friends are friends. You should consider all your neighbors your friends.”

The couple also spoke of frictions beyond their own Utah community of 90,000 people.

“Throughout the whole world there is diversity, but that doesn’t have to divide people,” Mike Smith said. “There will always be small pockets of people who are screaming about the squeaky wheel and they’ll get all the oil. That’s what you hear on the news. It’s a bunch of junk. You don’t see all the anger that you hear on the news. I don’t think the media is creating the hate, but they publicize what they think will sell. It’s just natural. I don’t see the tension that the media reports. I love America. I wish the squeaky wheels would grow up and realize that there is no difference between everybody. The majority of Americans are the best thing in the world. We have a lot of diversity, the people are as different as the landscapes.”

About 100 miles east, the News21 SUV stopped at a fluorescent fireworks business “in the middle of nowhere,” according to brothers Nate and Ross Melchio who run the store at Creston Junction in Wyoming.

The fireworks store, which has been opened for 55 years, stands isolated near I-80, with its only neighbor – an abandoned gas station. The business has its busy times, the brothers said, and a cross-section of American society stops by the store. Many people cross the border from other states to buy their fireworks, especially around July 4.

Nate Melchio said there is “always friction” between people, but that “it’s mostly political and racial at the moment.”

Still, Melchio said, “I am proud of America still though because there is opportunity for people to run businesses like what I’m doing here now. You can make your future better if you are willing to work hard.”

His brother, Ross, added that there is hate wherever you go.

“The media puts out that African-Americans and the LGBTQ community are the most targeted,” but he said he still views America as “a country of freedom and diversity.”

Back on the road again, the News21 SUV headed toward a night’s rest in Laramie, Wyoming, a community of more than 32,000 people.

Outside Laramie, there is no sign of civilization, with vast green fields stretching for miles. Small lakes abutt the roads, and hundreds of cows dotting the fields in the distance.

The town is near where Matthew Shepard, a student at the University of Wyoming was beaten, tortured and left to die near Laramie on the night of Oct. 6, 1998. It has been described as one of the worst anti-gay hate crimes in American history.

Shepard’s murder garnered international attention and spurred federal hate crime legislation. In October 2009, the U.S. Congress passed the Matthew Shepard and James Byrd Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act.

Buck Ward, who runs the Buckhorn Bar & Parlor, declined to comment on the legacy of Matthew Shepard, saying the event does not represent Laramie today.

“Hate and friction is everywhere around us. Even here in the bar, we disagree about politics,” Ward said. “I think Trump is a big (expletive). He’s out of touch with America and what Americans want. It’s the things he’s saying and not saying that is spurring hate.”

“There is a clear political and racial divide in America,” Logan Lee said. “Being an interracial couple, we see the race thing. Talking about it and hyping it up makes it worse for us. People have made comments to us, but it’s a lot better in Wyoming than in South Carolina when we go back home. Here, there isn’t the history of racial tensions.”

Fred Lee said he doesn’t have any worries as an interracial couple and the media has a huge influence on the public perception of hate.

“The media is making things a bigger deal than they are,” he said. “Everything becomes more heightened when the media can reach millions of people on their phones.”

News21 fellows Brandon Bounds, Penelope Blackwell and Lenny Martinez Dominguez contributed to this report.

Follow the News21 blog for updates as the team reports on the road.

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INYO COUNTY, Calif. — As News21 journalists traveled through California, residents repeatedly used one word to describe the mood in America — fear.

Fear of the unknown. Fear of difference. Fear of hate.

At Gus’s Fresh Jerky Shop in Olancha, California, Whittier College sociology major Nora Berguem explains how hate and fear still reside in America today.

Outside the colorful, quaint store hangs a flag saying “God bless America,” but she said the country still remains racially and politically divided.

“There is a lot of friction between racial groups in America. African-Americans and immigrants are particularly targeted today,” Berguem said. “Children are practically being put into internment camps at the moment. We like to say that we’re ashamed of the Manzanar National Historic Site down the road, which was used as an internment camp for the Japanese during World War II, but yet we’re doing the same thing again today. If we look back at what is happening now in 30 years, we will be really ashamed,” she said in reference to President Donald Trump’s zero tolerance policy where migrant families have been separated at the U.S. border.

Fifteen miles north from the lively jerky shop along one of California’s oldest highways, the News21 SUV pulls up at the Manzanar National Historic Site.

Following Japan’s attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941, some 120,000 Japanese Americans were imprisoned at the camp overlooking the vast Sierra mountains.

The now desolate camp stands alone in the middle of the desert as a reminder to American society of how hate and fear can quickly materialize.

Tourist Mina Monden, who was born in Japan but immigrated to America in 1968, bows her head at the memorial, paying homage to her ancestors.

“Hate comes from fear and lack of understanding. If you have a totally different skin color from someone else, you automatically become afraid,” Monden said. “I’m from Japan and we have thousands of different cultures and beliefs, but we never have a fight or hate each other. In America, people are different.”

Hundreds of paper cranes strung together decorated the Manzanar cemetery, left as offerings from visitors. The front of a large stone monument reads “Soul Consoling Tower” in Japanese Kanji characters.

“Being here today at the old Japanese internment camp, I feel for my ancestors,” Monden said. “Americans were afraid of the Japanese after Pearl Harbor. That’s why they treated us like this here. Otherwise they wouldn’t intern all the Japanese together. They were afraid for their country.”

Tourists Terry and Elizabeth Vance from Elko, Nevada, echoed this sentiment of fear.

“Anybody who is different is a target in America today. We are building walls, we are still building weird prisons in the middle of nowhere like this Japanese internment camp,” Terry Vance said. “I think there are people who have learned (from our past). I hope in my heart that will be enough.”

Bernadette Johnson, superintendent of the National Park Service at Manzanar, said the internment camp shows what happens when fear, racism and prejudice build up against one group of people.

“I don’t think we want to make that mistake again. We know it’s a dark part of our nation, but it’s a place where people have to come and contemplate what can happen when fear and racism occur,” Johnson said. “That is what led to the incarceration of Japanese-Americans during WWII. We simply cannot forget what happened to those people and we cannot let it happen again.”

Forty-five miles north of Manzanar, back on the dusty U.S. Highway 395, the News21 SUV drives through Johnson’s hometown of Bishop, California, with a population of 3,800.

It is there that reporters meet community activist Stephen Muchovej, who emigrated from Brazil and lives in the small town with his husband, Eric.

“As humans we intrinsically fear the unknown. We fear what is foreign to us. We see it within all communities,” Muchovej said. “Within the LGBTQ community, there is fear especially among the transgender community. No one, unless you are transgender can say what it really means to be transgender. There is a still a lot of fear about what that means. Fear of the unknown. And that is what is causing hate and divides in America today.”

With that parting thought in mind, the News21 SUV leaves behind sunny California to find new stories in Nevada.

News21 fellows Brandon Bounds, Penelope Blackwell and Lenny Martinez Dominguez contributed to this report.

Follow the News21 blog for updates as the team reports on the road.

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