After sixty years of living the Southern California life style, Bummer, his wife and lab Indy moved to a small rural town. Many events made this journey necessary, including economics, politics, the loon mentality and our basic sanity. Some folks swear by California’s environment of mountains, desert and sea. However, an example of what makes Bummer absolutely crazy, is Los Angeles County’s newest edict of “MEATLESS MONDAYS.” Let’s make this clear, it is not a law, however the council has no more important business to discuss, than to strongly recommend that L.A. County residents refrain from red meat consumption on Mondays.
One of my sons is a resident of Los Angeles and when I telephoned to remind him not to partake of animal flesh on that first official Monday, his sarcastic reply was that he had already eaten his tacos for lunch, but he would try to remember not to indulge the following week. Bummer believes that this mentality is contagious. This is just the latest in a long list of California government meddling into the private lives of its once laid-back, let it flow citizens.
Bummer remembers when the Golden State was the epicenter of high-tech discoveries and associated businesses, entrepreneurial enterprise was available to the most aggressive.
Over the past twenty years, this once business friendly state started to morph into something alien to success. Environmental laws were good for the planet, but the cost of regulation was beyond fathom. Manufacturing was not profitable for many reason’s, including state tax and the cost of entitlements. Gasoline always led the nation in cost per gallon.
The result? Most of the companies that made California one of the richest states in the union, first found relief by relocating in Mexico and then to the Pacific Rim. The more established of these firms found business friendly relationships in other states and continued to prosper.
What has this discourse got to do with the Civil War? The mental and political divide that has enveloped the nation, reminds Bummer of the fracture between the states prior to that conflict. Not Viet Nam or The Great Depression has created the internal turmoil that this country is experiencing today. Will their be another Civil War, as in the 1860’s? No, but Bummer has come to realize that it is easier to concentrate and study the past, when he lives in the present, rather than worrying about the future.
Bummer
Speaking as a resident of Los Angeles who grew up in a rural area, I share your disdain for local elected officials. To me, though, the difference is that I’ve gone from “I don’t know how that clown keeps his/her job” back home to “Who are these clowns?” out here. I still believe the benefits heavily outweigh the debits to living here but I do feel my time in California has an expiration date stamped on it. I just don’t know what it is yet.
Bummer has only lived in this area for 18 months and feels like he has died and gone to heaven. The big cigars and motor cars of the west coast lost their appeal and the slower pace of daily living, even local government, there just are no big wheels and no big deals in Bummer’s lifestyle.
Thanks for the visit and good luck in the land of the Moonbeam,
Bummer
It seems the mentality is even contagious to rural areas. In the last few years, a rural state legislature apparently had no more important business than to emphasize the importance of a book to modern culture (http://d20b91ibeoos7k.cloudfront.net/static/billtext/37886.pdf) and to express its opinion on the weather (http://d20b91ibeoos7k.cloudfront.net/static/billtext/32813.pdf), all through non-binding resolution.
I couldn’t agree with you more, that’s the difference between the state capitol and our rural town.
Whether it is Red Meat or the Bible or the Weather, it is a waste of tax dollars. There has got to be a bigger fish to fry someplace.
Bummer