This is part of a weekly series of interviews by Debilyn Molineaux, project director for AmericanFuture.US This project's mission is to help everyday Americans to imagine a better future for themselves, and together we’ll write the next chapter of the United States of America.
Johnny Addams was interviewed in Omaha, Neb., on Nov. 12, 2023, as part of The Coffee Shop Tour. Ironically, he doesn’t drink coffee and we met at his home. The interview has been lightly edited for clarity.
Debilyn Molineaux: How far would you like to imagine together? We recommend somewhere between two and 20 years. What sounds right for you?
Johnny Addams: Twenty years, to 2043.
DM: Where are you in 20 years?
JA: According to my desire for my personal life, I see myself in upstate New York, I’m living there with my family. I’m working as an airline pilot, flying in and out of JFK. Potentially living in the Buffalo area, and based at JFK from there. I have a lot of family and friends around me. A lot of them are in the Mormon community.
DM: What will you be most proud of?
JA: My marriage and family. We are very close. Who I’ve become as a man of faith with a close family. Being a pilot.
DM: How will you spend your day?
JA: I’m a pilot that generally flies internationally. I would have a couple of days flying, likely out of the country. When I’m not working, I’m spending time with my family, I have hobbies like fishing, playing with pets, and gardening. Maybe involved in advocacy for something down the line.
I want to spend a lot of time with my family when I have my off days, since I won’t see them when I’m working. I’ll do things with them that are recreational, like travel often. I’m hoping that’s an option in the future, meeting new people and exploring their culture with my family. We’ll also watch movies, go to parks. Family is my first priority.
DM: What is your family like? A wife? Kids?
JA: I have a wife, and at least three but as many as five kids.
DM: How old are your kids?
JA: The oldest is 15 and the youngest is between 2 and 7 years old.
DM: How will you feel, most of the time?
JA: When I’m with my family, I feel immense joy. I’ve been praying for a family my whole life. My family means everything to me, as my family in 2023 is everything to me now – they set a really good standard for me. Being a religious person, very religious, very involved with my church, I know that family is the most important thing in the world. And not in a metaphorical sense, but in a literal sense. They are a priority for me, everything else is secondary. I also feel joy when I’m flying. Challenges will come up, worldly challenges, and in 2043, I have confidence in navigating those challenges. I know that it will all work out.
DM: What will be your three-to-five priority values?
JA: Patience, for myself and others. I understand that what I want takes time.
More humility, more than I have in 2023. Being humble is necessary to take my life where I want to be. It’s hard to be too humble, this will be a lifetime pursuit.
Compassion for others.
DM: I want to go back to humility. What is humility to you?
JA: There are a couple of aspects. There is humility in admitting that you are not correct on something. That is a very difficult thing to do, especially for me. I recognize my challenge in 2023, and I want to change more so I can be in a situation where I have a family and a strong job. Again, humility takes a long lifetime to change. It will be vital. The second aspect of humility is the religious aspect. Humility to God, the Heavenly Father as we call him in our church. Being able to submit – we have a concept of submitting our will to the Father. We have plans (for ourselves), but He also has plans for us. We need to figure out and adapt to what He wants us to do.
DM: Similarly, can you dive a little deeper on what compassion means to you?
JA: Compassion goes along with humility. Accepting, in some ways, that you aren’t correct. A part of humility is compassion and treating people the way you want to be treated. Compassion is also understanding. Putting yourself in someone else’s shoes. As I look at others, I’ve wondered a lot about how other people think and how something might appear different to them. So compassion is slowing down a minute to consider what they might think, from their perspective. There is some curiosity, “why are they doing that?” instead of judging them.
DM: What does the community that supports your future need to include? It could be a physical community, faith community, pilot community. Define it as you wish.
JA: I’m planning my life around my current community, that’s the community of my faith. There is a Mormon community in Buffalo, where I’ll be. And I’m already part of that community. My future self will support me being a pilot that is not there 100 percent, the community will help with my family. I’m not connected deeply to the city of Buffalo itself, nor do I need anything from the non-faith community. I’m there, being a good person and contributing as best I can. My social life is centered around my faith community or with pilot friends. I’ll have a private pilot’s license and I’ll be able to fly small aircraft in and out. Aviation and faith are my main source of community. I hadn’t thought of how I might relate to the local community. I may reconsider this.
DM: Is there anything you can do today or in the near future to influence or co-create the community that will support you in 2043?
JA: In the back of my head, I think about the way the world is going with international conflicts. As a religious person, I believe in prophecy that it will get bad, but there isn’t a reason to fear. I’m prepared to adapt. In my faith, we are taught to plan for the future, not the apocalypse.
U.S. President Donald Trump boards Air Force One on August 14, 2026 at Joint Base Andrews, Maryland. Trump is traveling to Long Island to tour law enforcement facilities in Nassau County and rally support for local Republican candidates ahead of the upcoming midterm elections
Travel Far Enough, You Meet Yourself
Is it possible that our President has simply not traveled enough?
Born and raised in Queens and attending Fordham University in the Bronx, Donald Trump has no record of traveling outside New York until he was over 20, when he transferred to a college in the neighboring state of Pennsylvania. Were his formative years amiss, then, in his learning about other places and other people?
Is his view akin to the famous New Yorker cover by Saul Steinberg, an illustration of the United States with New York City as the epicenter of the country and the Hudson River the border of the known world? We can now at least add Washington, D.C., and Mar-a-Lago to the map of “the realm.”
Our President has now traveled some, but what we recommend is another kind of travel. Not a state-sponsored trip or a venture to scout locations for future Trump Towers. This would be a genuine travel experience, enriching and eye-opening, showcasing other cultures and ways of living.
It will extend far beyond viewing military parades, hobnobbing with such “understanding” world leaders as Kim Jong Un, or taking tea with the King.
WHERE, then, should the President go? As Elon Musk’s Starship spacecraft is not yet ready to take passengers to Mars, perhaps he could explore our own vast country?
Maybe he could travel to “flyover country,” the farming states, where his ying-yanging tariffs and trade restrictions have played havoc with rural economies. Or possibly to California, number one in homeless U. S. citizens, and while there, regale homeless veterans (approximately 32,500 nationwide) with tales of his brave exploits invading and bombing foreign countries.
Or he might tour the Great Lakes, and rename the other four?
WHEN should he go? This will be tough, as he is very busy building his ballroom and renaming bodies of water.
How about a trip in early November, around the midterm elections? Despite the long-discredited accusation of widespread voter fraud, it would be reassuring to know he might be so caught up divvying out ladles of soup in a soup kitchen somewhere that he wouldn’t remember to deploy the military for “election security.”
HOW will he travel? He should definitely not take his Qatari-donated, newly renovated 747, especially after last time, when he had to be smuggled off clandestinely in a catering truck. It’s unlikely any traveling companions, like the Secretary of State or of the Treasury, are going to fall for the ruse a second time. Besides, we may need those people. No more decoys!
Perhaps the President could fly commercially, although this likely would expose him to undue suffering. Without gold bathroom fixtures and maple wood floors, the trip will be no “Luxury Experience.” If only he still had his “Trump Shuttle,” bought with a massive loan he later defaulted on, saying then, “I’m smart. I got out at a good time.”
Considering the potential pitfalls, maybe it’s best the President travel incognito, disguised perhaps as an elderly woman wearing a lot of bronzer.
Wherever, whenever, however: our President needs a vacation.
Moreover, we need a vacation from him.
If the President refuses our travel suggestions, here’s another idea:
Let’s get him a pet! He has never owned a pet. As we know with our children, pets teach essential life lessons: compassion and empathy; they instill a sense of responsibility. There is a well-established connection between those who can care for a pet and those who can care for people.
So, which pet should we choose? A puppy? A kitten? A boa constrictor?
Imagine, the President may even decide he likes having a pet. After all, what is more obedient than a well-trained dog, besides possibly the Cabinet? And what is more docile than a sweet kitten, other than plausibly the Supreme Court?
The President may even become more mellow with a pet afoot and less likely to slap tariffs on our allies, or attempt to annex our neighbors, or bully our Congress. (Realizing, of course, a bully requires active participation from the bullied to maintain his status.)
Maybe we should do both: get the President a pet and devise a travel plan for him. (Do you think we could possibly convince him to leave his phone at home?)
Let’s go for it! After all:
Travel far enough, you meet yourself. (David Mitchell)
And for our President, that would likely be the most profound discovery of all.
Amy Lockard is an Iowa resident who regularly contributes to regional newspapers and periodicals. She is working on the second of a four-book fictional series based on Jane Austen’s “Pride and Prejudice."