California here I am gone

I actually sang the old song “California Here I Come” when I crossed over into California from Arizona vicinity of Needles. The time was circa 1960 I seem to recall. We were moving there on military orders, and came from Tennessee.

Since then I have lived in southern California off and on about 6 years. All my trips to northern California were as a tourist and a camper. Northern California is a pretty place. But on the USA map it is one place, California.

And somehow I could read the handwriting on the wall, as I saw it, and chose to end up elsewhere. Now this post is not about elsewhere, it is about California. I voted with my feet.

Now when I read about the brouhaha about some California governments trying to boycott Arizona businesses three things come to mind.

Is there an adult in charge? Will some elected Califronia politician step up and say something like, let’s think about all this? After all much of southern California’s present electricity and water comes from Arizona, on purpose and driven by past politics in California.

Next, the old idea of as California goes, so goes the USA. Things like Japanese cars are a good example. But bad examples can be like the city of Los Angeles going bankrupt, whatever that turns out to mean. To me it means a lot of people are going to suffer.

Last, an awful lot of people who don’t live there seem to be willing to tell those who live there how to live. Now that bothers me, since where I live on the Cumberland Plateau in Tennessee I would prefer to vote locally, and have that idea help me. I really don’t know what is going on in this Arizona/California region, though I believe I do.

I guess there is a kind of fourth general idea. How about that true ideas trump all. We collectively are living with enough ignorance and emotion to be disappointed in what our politicians may do these days. As Jack Webb said in a long ago TV series “Dragnet”, “just the facts mam”.

Now I hear enough pundits say what they think, to where I recognize they have not done their homework about where other Americans live. When I think about all this, I think these pundits are not as much lying as just reverberating some idea they believe to be true. And still, most are outsiders from the area they "pundit" about.

For example, USA citizens who live on the Mexico and USA border area also expect basic government security like police protection on their land. Now they do pay taxes, and have some expectation of getting their governments to do the basic things, like security. I also expect the same kind of thing where I live.

Hence California, here I am gone. The people there and the politicians they elected at all levels had their chance, over decades I would say. And as California goes, so goes the USA. I hope the rest of Americans are smarter than this. I sure hope so from my vantage on the Cumberland Plateau in Tennessee.