A new survey says language, not birthplace, is the core of national identity.
The survey, from Pew Research, finds only 13% of Australians, 21% of Canadians, 32% of Americans and a median of 33% of Europeans believe that it is very important for a person to be born in their country in order to be considered a true national — a true American, for example.
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At a refugeee camp in Kenya, hundreds of Somali refugees are doing what they’ve become accustomed to: waiting. They’ve been ‘rigorously screened by US and UN officials,’ The Guardian reports. And they’ve already waited between seven and 10 years for their resettlement in the United States. Read more →
Last year, Rahawa Haile, a writer in Oakland, became one of the very few black women to attempt to hike the entire trail. And her interview with Atlas Obscura today is a must-read for people who’ve thought about discovering America by hiking the trail.
Be careful what you wish for; you might find it. Read more →
Victoria Islamic Center in Victoria, Texas burned nearly to the ground on Saturday night. The cause of the fire isn’t known yet and it could be months before it is. But the people of Texas aren’t waiting. They’re pulling together to get it rebuilt. Read more →
It takes a lot of thinking to make a statue of a woman throwing her hat into the air. Gwen Gillen, who died two days after Mary Tyler Moore, is the woman who beat 20 other sculptors for the right to make the MTM statue that might have seemed like a tacky project at the time — after all, it promoted a TV network — that has, instead, become a symbol of Minneapolis. Read more →
After World War II, area residents planted more than 1,000 trees to honor service members in a living tribute on Minnesota Highway 22 between Mankato and Mapleton. But road needs change and now the trees must go. Read more →
It was a nice story, but in these times, nice stories often don’t last. In Hibbing,you may recall, the community came together to support the Koslucher family, which lost Christmas presents in a fire just before Christmas when someone reportedly stole them after the blaze. Read more →
You’d think by now people would know it’s a bad idea to utter the ‘B word’ at an airport but an Indian man did it in Grand Forks anyway with predictable results. Read more →
Bob Collins