California Dreamin'

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It was a warm and sunny afternoon, high near ninety degrees. The kids were in the pool and so were the dogs.The weather was California perfect, the kind of day for which we pay extra taxes. There is nothing that the politicians in Sacramento can really do to change this California experience -- no part of the dysfunctional state budget is related to the weather, and no amount of budget cutting will move the state away from the ocean and the geographical coordinates that afford the benign climate the drew us here twenty-five years ago.


I know how fragile it all can be however. The home I grew up in (above), one that Mom and Dad had remodeled and kept in excellent condition, is now an empty shell with weeds growing in it. It sits in what until a few years ago was and should be a vibrant working class neighborhood in the city, yet a shocking number of homes on the block are shuttered and decaying, the result of greed, corruption, and a bit too much wishful thinking.


I hope that the politicians in Sacramento remember that what we have here is precious, and they have more to protect than a political ideology. The state is about people, and while the politicians may not be able to move California, they may make it inaccessible. They may make it so you can't get here from there. And that would be a great loss.