On Facebook, I mostly confine my dine and dash visits to esoteric banter surrounding my day. Occasionally, I put out something cryptic (which those in the “know” will understand and others will wonder about). I have recently even published some photos of my creative work. On a serious note though, Facebook has been my only outlet sometimes to scream out in pain when a phonecall isn’t possible. Once again, it is always interesting who responds and who posts about their grand lobster dinner or vacation as another life is crumbling on the previous line. A lot of people would rather use social media to talk about how “great” their life is” while never commenting on anything too “heavy” unless, of course, it involves them. And then again, if you only get on once in a while, people are offended that you haven't responded. Everyone makes assumptions on Facebook. It is a grand experiment and, I love every moment there—the good, the bad and the ugly. I LOVE to communicate. And I am unafraid to do so.
So this dear friend, who writes an amazing amount of hateful comments regarding anything remotely conservative, often posts videos from his favorite network “MSNBC” and/or my other favorite The Huffington Post. I don’t think his biggest worry should be what Sarah Palin is reading or how authentic Glenn Beck may be. (I have yet to see any network counter the facts that Beck puts out by the way). Maybe that's why so many showed up on the D.C. mall on 8/28. Can't wait to see who Colbert and Stewart pull in. I think someone needs to tell my friend that the only people who still cling to MSNBC can’t handle the truth, which is why that network spends all of its time giving Fox News even more publicity with its “worst person of the week” feature with hysterically unflattering photos —predictably, always conservatives or pundits from Fox News. Perhaps someone should tell MSNBC that it might be driving more and more dumb people to Fox News. We wouldn’t want that, would we? Doh!
In his last post talking about the glorification of legalizing pot in California (my home state), I decided to challenge him by asserting that I was sad to see the marijuana signs all over Los Angeles the last time I visited. I mentioned that I didn’t want California to become Amsterdam and it was beginning to look a bit like Bladerunner. I didn’t call him a name. I just made my point as I always do, to counter his exhuberance over the Colbert/Prop #19 fervor. I even mentioned personal experience with the sign sightings. He denied any existed so I went to a link and posted it urging him to check it out. I was sincere. I hear they have cracked down on this practice but believe me, when I went there in May, they were everywhere. It's really easy to SEE things when you've stepped away from them. Remember Mary Poppins? "Sometimes people can't see past the end of their own nose?" Since moving to Texas, I have visited California nine times and every time I go back, I see the decline of western civilization. I feel the potholes more, see the traffic more, see the yellow air more, see the rude drivers more and, yep, see a lot of self absorption that I was told we had, but didn't see when I lived there because it was my only experience. He accused conservatives of being “ethnocentric” in his post. Now I know this once again refers to the “racist” issue. But I consider people who are this thin skinned about their own cultural issues while they lash out at others, the true ethnocentrics.
They want to believe that their viewpoint is superior to others and that they are living an ideal life as their city and their economy crumbles around them. They want their children in private school and dine at the finest restaurants while they want YOU to limit your showers, use less power and drive smaller cars. They travel first class. They cut in line. They get free swag but decry the unfairness of life for the "little people." They would never let their children near drugs but want to legalize them for yours. In many cases, the average Californian's mindset is that life just doesn’t exist anywhere else. I know. I am a native. I observed this attitude my whole life. New Yorkers hated California but tolerated it. Californians thought all southerner's were racist—thanks public education system. And midwesterners were boring. When I was a tour guide at Universal Studios, one of our trainers constantly emphasized that we taylor our spiel so the "Iowa" guest could understand us. It's funny now that I spend a lot of time these days arguing with people who weren’t even born in California, who want to marginalize me for MY views on my own state. I think I have earned the right to express my perspective—especially when the intent is to motivate others to get angry enough about it too so they will fix it instead of bury their heads in the sand. I also wonder if I were writing about California while still LIVING there, if I would be called a “California basher” or a modern day “Paul Revere.”
It’s hard to say. Here’s what I DO know. There are three types of Californians as I see it today. 1. Progressives—I’m talking the hardcore Haight/Ashbury, Cloward and Piven, dope smoking hippies who never grew up. This is the group that the democrat legislature is now wooing with the pot vote in order not to lose their seats this November–wake up and smell the hash! 2. The fingers in their ears saying “la la la la la” Californian who is so busy holding down a job, putting their kid in a lottery system for a charter school and enduring the 4 hour daily commute that you cannot blame them for self medicating with Dancing with the Stars and The Kardashians at night. Someone needs to let these people know that they must disconnect from the matrix and can no longer ignore the crumbling walls of Rome around them. 3. Finally, there is the “waiting for Superman” Californian, native or not, who has watched their state slip from the Golden State into a Golden haze but doesn’t really believe that they can make a difference. After all, every time they vote, the courts overturn their will and call them names in the process. It's not easy being a Californian today.
Barbara Boxer and Maxine Waters must go. California, do you really want Jerry Brown (Linda Ronstadt’s ex) to be your governor? Really, California. The nation’s future is in your hands. You were the 5th largest economy when I left. Now, you’re 7th. Your schools are teaching English as a second language and want all children to believe that illegal immigration is a-okay. I hope you don't believe that year round school is the solution as Arnie Duncan would have you believe. If you think your kids are endoctrinated now, just wait until the family has little or no influence over what they children are taught. The state will be happy to educate them to be "green citizens of tomorrow" so they can tell their parents "who don't know what they know" (thank you Al Gore) how many garbage bags they can use and what lightbulbs to buy." Please remember in November that your current governor (yeah, I voted for him) wanted to sell state landmarks to make money. He’s not a true conservative. We were all fleeced.
You don’t have “perfect” leaders running in this November race either. But they're all you've got. You MUST choose the ones with the most cost conscious conservative values possible regardless of their personal quirks and once and for all oust these corrupt politicians who have kept their own backsides warm, their pockets lined with your money, and who just cannot take enough from you as you serve them, for years! And remember that no Californian should ever call Barbara Boxer, ma’am. It is much too honorable a title for this senator. Remember Nancy Pelosi just a few weeks ago? She said that unemployment benefits were the best stimulous for job creation. Nancy Pelosi is worth 50 million dollars. Now, if this doesn’t give you hope that if someone this dumb can grow up to be speaker of the house, then surely, Californians are capable of saving their state. Send Nancy Pelosi back to San Francisco. Keep Gavin Newsome at home. If you want to call someone a racist, call out Maxine Waters, who on national television, used the word “tea bagger” repeatedly to talk about the tea party movement and mentions color every time she is in front of a camera. And never forget Nancy Pelosi’s giant gavel and “astroturf” comments in the infancy of the emerging grass roots movement that has so threatened Washington, D.C., that an angry and frustrated electorate are considered threats to national security. Can you see what is happening?
It is time for Mr. Smith to go to Washington—or at least to Sacramento. If you believe the sun rises and sets in your Golden State, then put your money where your mouth is and get involved. It MUST begin in California and work all the way across this great country. So as I ponder being unfriended over my friend’s offense that I saw a lot of marijuana signs in California that saddened me as “California bashing,” I say this. I didn’t leave California. California left me. I SAW where it was going. I was waiting for Superman to fix it too. I wasn’t that Superman. I hope someone there will step up and save this state. So please don’t hate when someone has the courage to point out the flaws of California, not because they hate the STATE but because they hate what the statists have DONE to it. My intent in anything I write about California is to squeeze some Visine into the bloodshot eyes of the dazed and confused public so they’ll wake up in time to clear the air. The politicians and progressives are blowing smoke up your behind. If Californans keep electing the same corrupt leaders (I use that term loosely) to rule in Sacramento, then Californians will not only get the government they deserve, but they just might finally need that marijuana for medicinal purposes. And between you and me, I think it’s exactly what this government wants. A medicated public is easier to manipulate. After all, there’s a reason it’s called dope.
