From the hollers of Appalachia to the streets of east LA, America is full of beautiful weirdos

America: the land of the free (and the home of the brave). The land of opportunity. A nation of immigrants. A country built on life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. A country built on slavery. Democratic. Republican. Once great. Still great. Great again. Never great. United. Divided. Under threat. Stronger than ever. An ideal. A dream. A scam. What is America? The United States celebrated its 250th birthday this year, and politicians and pundits have endlessly opined on the significance and meaning of this great experiment and its position today. Peter Santenello, however, is not interested in such grand (and often simplistic) proclamations. He’s interested in Americans — the individual people who live in this vast, diverse, confounding, contradictory place we call home. Peter Santen