some solace in California

Soul searching in a state that encourages it, is certainly better than the alternative. I realized this yesterday thanks to Bill Maher. Check out his diatribe on California from last week's episode of "Real Time with Bill Maher" on HBO. He tells us why California is getting it right on several fronts these days (not perfect, but functional for sure dude). He points out that here in California we've turned our deficit into a surplus by cutting spending and raising taxes (go figure), we care about the air we breathe, gay marriage is legal, medical marijuana is legal, we now allow undocumented people to get a driver's license, we proactively continue to address gun control laws, and so on. I have to say thanks to our Governor Jerry Brown and some common sense humane non-ego-driven leadership on his part, the golden state is living up top its name. And guess what, we're the 8th largest economy in the world, it's not likely we will allow any right or left wing extremism to bring us down anyway. Ultimately, I think it says that California is more about people than politics. We also respect nature as we are frequently reminded by the earth itself that life is bigger than any one of us — and most of us understand that we need each other to survive and thrive. Maybe that's why there are so many of us that live here, because we put people first and somehow we all realize that we are better off at least attempting to create a world that works for everyone, yeah, everyone.