Your post was written in May, so I'm being a bit slow to comment; I hope I won't start some political debate here; just want to say that in Russia many of us prefer to think that living in America is so different from living here that it comes as a surprise to know that there are potholes in roads too. But what currently bugs me here and keeping me awake at 1:43 AM is smog coming from a local landfill; we've been accumulating trash for years and now we are paying the price; and while complaining about poverty keep buying every day new stuff producing new trash to be dealt with (or not).