Lord, I was born a ramblin' man,
Tryin' to make a livin' and doin' the best I can.
And when it's time for leavin',
I hope you'll understand,
That I was born a ramblin' man.

All night, awake, half-awake, in dreams, I have wanted to get on a train and spend a month stopping and listening to what people have to say about America in those small towns once served only by the old "blue highways." Real small places. FDR had Harry Hopkins send writers out into the country to send reports back on what they saw of the lives of the people in the Depression. FDR wanted to feel the Depression. He couldn't do that from statistics. The photographs of Nanty Glo, Pennsylvania were one result of the project.

Liu Shaoqi went to the countryside in China during the Great Leap catastrophe. He didn't trust the statistics, didn't trust madman Mao. Liu Shaoqi saved the peasants.