Hamburgers or hot dogs. Which food would you say is more American? How about peanut butter and jelly or grilled cheese? Apple pie or chocolate chip cookies?

These were some of the decisions I had to make—along with my three teammates—at a recent training session for upcoming school field trips to the Georgia Writers Museum, where I’m an active volunteer. The project wasn’t really about food, however. It was about discussion, debate, and decision-making. It was about the voting process.

The preparations were in advance of Voices and Votes: Democracy in America, a Smithsonian Traveling Exhibit that is touring the country and will be at our location—the first of five stops in Georgia—from April 25 to May 31. There are a lot of activities and moving parts involved in hosting the exhibit, and one of them is providing field trip activities for students.

In our training, each of four groups had to come up with what we determined to be the most “American” food out of a few dozen choices that were listed and described on index cards. There were different ways to make the decision. One group, for instance, spread all their cards out in front of them, and eliminated them one by one until they had only one left. Our group held up two random cards at a time, choosing one and discarding the other, until we had just one left. Some were easy to eliminate, but most required some debate and discussion, including whether regional foods—or those that originated in other countries—should be considered American. And since there were four of us in the group, we needed a way to break a tie vote.

At one point, I realized that one of our members had said “I can live with that,” or “I’ll go along with that,” a number of times in a row after she initially voted for the other food. I asked her if she had any problem or issue with this, or if she felt that her choices were disregarded by the group.

“No,” she said. “As long as I can express my opinion, I can accept the decision.”

It immediately struck me what a profound and important statement this was—one that could greatly benefit all of us, especially in today’s political climate. Decisions that are made will be more acceptable to more people when everyone’s opinion is listened to and respected, and people feel they have been heard. But when decisions are inflicted on them without their input or consent—well, history has shown over and over how well that works, and it’s usually not pretty.

I hope this is one of the lessons the students on our field trips will learn. And I hope they will then teach it to the adults in their lives. It’s something most of us need to learn or relearn, and I have no doubt that our country—and the world—would be much better for it.

By the way, our group chose peanut butter and jelly sandwiches as the most American food. Apple pie was a close second.

March 4, 2026
©Betty Liedtke, 2026

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