I have mixed feelings about my homeland. The country elected Geo. Bush as President, so you know there is some major problems, but it is mostly the Christian religious fanatics who are responsilbe for that.
In the S.F. area, Bush backers are a very small minority, few of them would even have the nerve to say so of they voted for Bush, and everyone speaks quite openly against him without fear of someone contesting their opinion. Nobody speaks out in favor of Bush. And this area is so beautiful that some days it just blows my mind. If you take away the beaches in LOS, then the rest of the country comes nowhere near California in its natural beauty, and the beaches here are just as beautiful, but not as warm for swimming.
The problem with where I live is just that because it is so beautiful, there are people coming here from all over the country and all over the world bringing gobs of money with them and there's too many rich people. They have to sneak people in from Mexico to do all the work because everyone is so wealthy, and nobody else will do manual labor. All the construction crews are Mexican, all the workers in restaurants are Mexicans, the supermarkets and other stores are becoming more and more staffed by Mexicans, and gradually all the trades are going over to illegal labor except the most high paid ones. They are willing to work hard and live like beggars. For a white or black person who was born here, he can't pay the rent, taxes, and other costs of living here, and have a decent life, because it is all so pricey that they mostly move away to states where the prices aren't so high. A good friend of mine moved to Oregon this week.
So that's the problem here. The place has been overrun with rich people. The young people who were born here, but not to wealthy families, don't have a chance and are usually forced to move. Not so many normal people left, except those of us who bought in years ago, but one by one they sell out to the filthy rich, and move on. Some day I will probably do it myself, as I don't much care for rich folks. In the song "Working Class Hero," John Lennon said, "If you want to live like the folks on the hill, then you must learn to smile as you kill." The rich folks smile and act friendly, but you know that you can't trust them as far as you can see them.
Having said that, I am doing my best to get rich and leave here and move somewhere like LOS!
Maybe. This is a hard place to leave, but it just isn't like it used to be. That's why my feeling are mixed. It would break my heart to leave here now, but I suspect one day it will be so bad that it won't bother me to leave!
JayBee
