8.12.2003

My folks took off for home, home again to California. Here in Oregon you might could see a bumpersticker that states "Don't Californicate Oregon" and that's a pretty strong sentiment. My Dad's saddened by what has happened to his home, and is sad about what's going down now with the governor recall, and he wants to leave Caligonecrazy and live someplace without 34 million other people according to the census so probably closer to 35 million people if you count all the people sleeping in parks. 34 million people unable to afford the houses built on what once was prime farm land, so instead they have to live in apartments 80 miles from their place of employment.

Me, I'm happy here in Oregon, even with its unemployment rate & my own business tanking and leaving me in debt. I read about the child hunger rate and I also read about the highest rate of child obesity in the nation and wonder how that's possible and what do those statistics mean anyway. I know lots of kids and I don't know any fat hungry kids. I know lots of poor people and I know people who grow everything they eat in their gardens and they share with their neighbors. I know homeless people who left home to wander, become modern-day gypsies, because you can do that and still survive here. You can hitch-hike or ride your bike with a rifle across your back on the Interstate here. I know tree-sitters and I know people who have been laid off work because a Georgia-based logging company cut its employees in order to make record profits. Lots of big businesses left Oregon this year without paying their taxes and if an individual did that, the federal government would come repo their property, be it a house, car, boat, etc. and hold them accountable. I know the Federal Government wants Oregon to bend the knee because of the medicinal marijuana and the graceful death laws and I know the Oregon state motto is "She flies with her own wings."

People of California, plant a community garden this year. We're going for a ride, baby. It's like that click-click-click of the roller coaster at Santa Cruz Boardwalk, the Giant Dipper, the big old wooden one that creaks and rattles and you get on at the station, swing down through the tunnel, and then climb climb clickety climb......... and what goes up must come down.

Tony