I was born and spent most of my life in California. Five years ago I was beyond fed up and moved to Reno. I wish I came here 20 years ago.
But the smoke (thanks, California!). What you experienced at Mono Pass has been how we've been living 24 hours a day for most of the last two weeks. And there's no place to go to get away from it.
I enjoy your pieces because I find I agree with you on much and the things I don't agree with you on, I still find your take interesting. I am conflicted by this "abandoning" California approach for two reasons. First, California is connected to the rest of the US. We need people to stay and clean it up, not abandoned it because the rest of us are attached to it. So unless we're going to build a wall . . . or put dynamite in the fault . . .
Second, I live in Montana. People "escape" California, come here, and bring all the attitudes that made California what it is with them. Let's take as an example the wildfire situation. This has been the first smokey summer in half a decade here. I can't quite figure out how California can have so much trouble with fire due to climate change when that same climate change does not seem to affect the rest of us in the same consistent way. Montana has been dry, but we're not on fire. So what is the difference? And if the difference is a realistic attitude in Montana toward conservation of forests and an understanding that while in the old days, when people lived in caves, it was quite fine to let the whole thing burn, but now that we live, well, not in caves, we need to keep forest clean of dead trees, then I don't want the California attitude of we must leave things as they are because "natural" imported to Montana.
I enjoy your articles because often you incorporate some semblance of a solution into your pieces, and the one thing I do differ with you on is calling the recall crazy, because it is a solution. The big problem with California is that it is a one-party state (I would say something similar about any deep red state). That leads to a lack of accountability and compromise. As crazy as it is, the recall is a way to demand accountability. That's actually an idea I wouldn't mind the resettling Californians bring to Montana. Too often politicians get in office and can do whatever they want because they think people will forget by the next election, and they often do. A recall process hanging over them would counter that.
I was born and spent most of my life in California. Five years ago I was beyond fed up and moved to Reno. I wish I came here 20 years ago.
But the smoke (thanks, California!). What you experienced at Mono Pass has been how we've been living 24 hours a day for most of the last two weeks. And there's no place to go to get away from it.
I enjoy your pieces because I find I agree with you on much and the things I don't agree with you on, I still find your take interesting. I am conflicted by this "abandoning" California approach for two reasons. First, California is connected to the rest of the US. We need people to stay and clean it up, not abandoned it because the rest of us are attached to it. So unless we're going to build a wall . . . or put dynamite in the fault . . .
Second, I live in Montana. People "escape" California, come here, and bring all the attitudes that made California what it is with them. Let's take as an example the wildfire situation. This has been the first smokey summer in half a decade here. I can't quite figure out how California can have so much trouble with fire due to climate change when that same climate change does not seem to affect the rest of us in the same consistent way. Montana has been dry, but we're not on fire. So what is the difference? And if the difference is a realistic attitude in Montana toward conservation of forests and an understanding that while in the old days, when people lived in caves, it was quite fine to let the whole thing burn, but now that we live, well, not in caves, we need to keep forest clean of dead trees, then I don't want the California attitude of we must leave things as they are because "natural" imported to Montana.
I enjoy your articles because often you incorporate some semblance of a solution into your pieces, and the one thing I do differ with you on is calling the recall crazy, because it is a solution. The big problem with California is that it is a one-party state (I would say something similar about any deep red state). That leads to a lack of accountability and compromise. As crazy as it is, the recall is a way to demand accountability. That's actually an idea I wouldn't mind the resettling Californians bring to Montana. Too often politicians get in office and can do whatever they want because they think people will forget by the next election, and they often do. A recall process hanging over them would counter that.