Glimpses of the USA: On the Road to New Orleans

Spending the night in Springfield, Illinois, en route to Louisiana. The state capital, the governor a good man. But mere blocks from the capitol building I encounter, whilst running, urban blight and decay unlike any I've ever seen. Litter everywhere. Boarded-up houses. Busted furniture and broken children's toys on sagging, paint-flecked porches. Unopened cans of vegetables, abandoned. Payday loans and bottle shops (why not?- observations, merely, not judgements). "Recognize the symptoms of overdose": Naloxone. Have I mentioned that the state capitol is minutes away?