All Sane on the Rural Front

sherman in georgiaAfter 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

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