Redlands, California (view out the window from my dad's house, orange groves across the street)
Beijing, China (view out the window from our apartment, just before I left)
Out the other side of the house in Redlands:
Life is not fair. (Although it is true that when I was a kid in the 1960s, inland southern California had smog problems just above as grave as in the middle picture above. We'll consider this grounds for hope.)
James Fallows is a national correspondent for The Atlantic and has written for the magazine since the late 1970s. He has reported extensively from outside the United States and once worked as President Carter's chief speechwriter. He and his wife, Deborah Fallows, are the authors of the new book Our Towns: A 100,000-Mile Journey Into the Heart of America, which has been a New York Times best-seller and is the basis of a forthcoming HBO documentary.