In March 2016, long before anyone thought Trump had a chance to win the presidency, Musa al-Gharbi and I predicted it on my podcast. (Write-up here.) Since then Musa got witch-hunted, sort of like I did in 2006, but he handled it more “professionally” (ahem) and still has an academic career.
I’ve been following his work ever since. His latest Substack post, Welcome to Sierra Vista, AZ, is a fun road trip across a very strange land. —AB-aB
Welcome to Sierra Vista, AZ
An update on Those People.
MUSA AL-GHARBI
OCT 21
 |
I’ll be staying for a bit.
Thanks to generous support from the Open Society Foundations and the Institute for Humane Studies, I was able to buy myself out from my teaching and service responsibilities for the rest of this academic year.
I’ll be living and working from Arizona until my manuscript is in the hands of the publisher. Then I’ll head back to Long Island and rejoin my family to work through the editing and track-laying for the book tour and media circuit for the remainder of my time.
There’s No Place Like Home
For those unfamiliar, there are many things that my hometown is known for:
- Sierra Vista has always been a military town. Since 1994, the attached base, Fort Huachuca, has been the primary intelligence base for the U.S. Army. That’s how my family ended up here: both my mom and my step dad were military intelligence.
- Ft. Huachuca was also the home for all four regiments of the Buffalo Soldiers, the all-black U.S. army units immortalized by Bob Marley and the Wailers:
- Sierra Vista is the home of the world’s first McDonald’s Drive-Thru. You’re welcome, America.
- Sierra Vista has relatively high-altitude, is near rivers, canyons, lakes and mountains and gets more rain than most of Arizona (most of it happening in a few weeks during our monsoon season). The area is home to lots of unique wildlife too.
I’ve been working from the local community college that I graduated from. The other night I was greeted by a coyote in the parking lot on the way to my car. Life in SV. In fact, Sierra Vista is considered the hummingbird capital of the U.S. More broadly, the area is wonderful for outdoor activities like hiking, camping, fishing and biking. Clear skies and low light pollution make it an excellent place for stargazing too.
- Outdoor activities are facilitated by great weather all year around. Our coldest months (December – February) have average daytime temperatures in the low-60s. Our hottest months (June, July) are in the low 90s. The rest of the year, we’re in the 70s and 80s.** And so, we get a lot of retirees and snowbirds who’ve had their fill of the cold.¹
Perhaps this description makes the town sound idyllic. In many respects, it is. However, the area is also a frontline in the culture wars.
- Sierra Vista is the largest town in Cochise County, which sits in the southeast corner of the state, adjoining Mexico and New Mexico. During the early 2000s, the area was a hotbed for “Minuteman” vigilante squads patrolling the Southern border. Sierra Vista and Cochise County still makes national headlines for issues tied to the border.
