Dear America, I struggle to keep track and find my way through the pages of your continentally vast volume, a book that could be titled: America: In Theory & Practice. Its ever-expanding length is stained and scented with all the things that have been “Made in the USA” with love and attention as well as recklessness and ill-will.
Dear author of ambition and citizen of uncertainty: I invite you to make any use of this woefully incomplete index, starting scraps for composing a story capacious, and worthy, of its readers.
A
ACT UP
agent orange
Addams, Jane
affluenza
air conditioning
alphabet soup
alternative
facts
energy
press
anthem
app
AppleTM
apple pie
Appleseed, Johnny
Arecibo Observatory
Attica
B
bald eagle (Haliaeetus leucocephalus)
baseball
beef patty
birth control pill
birther
bison (buffalo) (Bison bison)
black box
Black Hawk (Sauk chief Ma-ka-tai-me-she-
kia-kiak; Sikorsky UH-60 military helicopter)
Black Lives Matter
boll weevil (Anthonomus grandis)
boloney sandwich
Bontecou, Lee
bourbon
Bradbury, Ray
bully pulpit
C
CAFO
Cahokia
capitalism (see zombie economy)
car
crash
insurance
pool
Carson, Rachel
Chinese Exclusion Act (1882)
Civil War (1861-65)
climate
change
denial
of fear
conspiracy theorists
corn (Zea mays)
belt
dog
high fructose syrup
cornered
Cotton, Elizabeth
couch potato
country music
coupons
cowboy
CTE
Curiosity (Mars rover)
D
dance fever
death penalty
debauch
debt ceiling
Dickinson, Emily
diet soda
Dr.
Spock
Suess
Yang, Ellen S.
drag
net
queen
race
dribble
Dust Bowl
E
eat (all you can)
eel, American (Anguilla rostrata)
electric guitar
Enola Gay (see Oppenheimer, Robert)
Ellis Island
Eminem
F
Facebook
facelift
facile
facts (see alternative)
fake (see news)
Fig Newton
Fireflies (genus Photuris)
First Amendment
flag burning
Flint (Michigan)
fortune cookie
Fonzie
fracking
Ferguson (Missouri)
G
gas guzzler
gerrymander
GI Bill
goldenrod (genus Solidago)
Gold Rush (1849)
google
GPA
Grand Canyon
Great
Acceleration
Depression
Gatsby
God is ____
Make America ____ Again
greenbacks
greenhouse effect
H
hairspray
hands-free
hamster wheel
Hawai’i
health insurance (lack of)
herbicides
hi
high school
Holiday, Billie
holy moly
hot sauce
hushpuppies
Hutterite
I
ID (voter laws; super-ego)
I.C.E. (Immigration & Customs Enforcement)
ice cream
Illini
Indian Removal Act (1830)
Indianapolis (Indiana)
independent counsel
infomercial
J
J, LL Cool
Jackson
Andrew (see Indian Removal Act)
Michael
jackalope
jazz
jeans (blue)
jello shots
jewelweed (Impatiens capensis)
juggalo
jumbo jet
jump shot
June bug (beetle, genus Phyllophaga)
K
Kaczynski, Ted
ketchup
Kentucky
Coffeetree (Gymnocladus dioicus)
Derby
Fried Chicken
keystone
cops
species
Keystone XL pipeline
kickflip
kidfluence
Klu Klux Klan
kudzu (genus Pueraria)
L
Lassie
Las Vegas
liability
libel
liberal
liberty (Statue of)
limitations (statute of)
lobby
hotel
political
Loblolly pine (Pinus taeda)
loot
lottery ticket
low fat
Louis, Morris
M
marriage equality
Massachusetts
mass shooting
McClintock, Barbara
McCarthyism
melting pot
Merton, Thomas
Miami (see sea level rise)
military-industrial complex
milkweed (genus Asclepias)
Mississippi River
Monarch butterfly (Danaus plexippus)
monster truck (see capitalism)
moonwalk
moral luck
Mormons
mortality
Mr.
Peanut
Rogers
T
mullet
Muppet Show
N
911
9/11
9/9/11
99% (the)
nachos
national parks
neoprene
new & improved
New Orleans
Nineteenth Amendment (1919)
nuclear
family
deterrent
O
OK
OMG
opioid
OPP
Oppenheimer, Robert
opportunity
optics
orange juice
ore
oxbow
P
patent pending
peanut
allergy
butter & jelly sandwich
farmer
penicillin
petro-subjectivity (B. Bloom)
plastics
poetry
popcorn
possibility
poverty
pro-
gun
life
sports
protean
protein
PTSD
public radio
Puerto Rico
pumpkin
purple mountain majesty
Q
Q-Tips
quahog
quarter pounder
Quest (Tribe Called)
quilting
quixotic
quiz show
QWERTY
R
raccoons
Radner, Gilda
razzle-dazzle
reality (see TV)
redwood tree (Sequoia sempervirens)
religion (freedom of)
reverse mortgage
Rice, Tamir
riches
Ride, Sally
riot grrl
robber baron
robotics (The Three Laws of; Asimov)
rock dove (Columba livia)
Rubik’s cube
S
Sagan, Carl
saguaro cactus (Carnegiea gigantea)
Sandy Hook
sea
change
level rise
shore
sí (se puede)
Simone, Nina
Simpsons, The
skyscraper
snapping turtle (Chelydra serpentina)
soap opera
state
blue
of confusion
red
star-spangled
statue (see liberty)
Stonewall riots (1969)
sugar maple (Acer saccharum)
Sun Ra
superbug
superman
superstore
T
tackle
Tang (see orange juice)
tee-shirt
Title IX
TMI
TMJ
trigger warning
troll (internet)
Trump (see reality)
Tubman, Harriet
Tully monster (Tullimonstrum gregarium)
turkey (Meleagris gallopavo)
TV (see infomercial)
Twain, Mark
tweet
twit
U
ukulele
umbrage
Uncle Sam
union (labor)
united
unwound
uranium
U-turn
V
vacuum cleaner
Vietnam War
Voting Rights Act (1965)
volatility
volleyball
vouchers
W
wall (see Trump)
Wall Street (see riches; OPP)
Walleye (Sander vitreus)
war (endless)
on drugs
on terror
on the poor
Washington D.C.
Washington,
Denzel
George
Mount
welfare
corporate
public
white
bread
noise
supremacy
WTF
WTO
WWF
WWJD
X
Xanax (Alprazolam)
xenophobia
XXX
Y
Yes Men
Yippie
“yo mama” (jokes)
Yo-Yo Ma
Ypsalanti
youth (sonic)
YouTube
Ypsilanti
Yuppie
YWCA
Z
Zamboni
zealotry
zebra mussel
zines
zip code
zip line
zombie economy (see Wall Street)
zydeco
zzzz
Andrew Yang is an artist and educator working across the naturalcultural. His projects have been exhibited from Oklahoma to Yokohama, including the 14th Istanbul Biennial (2015) and a solo exhibition at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago (2016). His writings appear in Leonardo, Biological Theory, Gastronomica, and Antennae, among others. He is an associate professor at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago.Read “Our Ecology of Experience,” an interview with Andrew Yang also appearing in Terrain.org.
Header photo of demolition derby by PawinG, courtesy Pixabay.
