1971--The big Sylmar earthquake, 6.6 on the Richter scale, rocked the San Fernando Valley where I lived. The I-5 overpass north of the valley collapsed for the first time and Granada Hills neighborhoods adjacent to the earthen Van Norman Dams were evacuated, which meant a family of seven bunking with us in a three bedroom home already housing five people.
Interesting times to be sure but what does that have to do with today? I'll tell you in my own twisted manner. Finding a place of refuge was a challenge amid a ruckus that naturally comes with ten kids jostling for space under one roof, but my older sister and I managed to find it once in a while in our bedroom. Trouble was, peace wasn't exactly part of the prize as far as I was concerned.
The Last Days of the Late Great State of California
Some may recall that just before the February shaker a new book had hit the stands--The Last Days of the Late Great State of California. My sister and my best friend (though I may have to rethink that title after all these years) had a number of hearty belly laughs over my response to their reading aloud from the book while we sought a little "peace and quiet." They reveled in baiting me with all the potential tragic events the author, whom I've long since forgotten, detailed in the fictitious tale of massive earthquakes splintering the California landmass into two, the fissure point being the San Andreas Fault.
As much as the hypothetical destruction scared the pants off of me as they read excerpts during each aftershock, looking back, the idea of the Left Coast plunging beneath the waves of the Pacific Ocean, or at least becoming a separate island, might not seem so horrific.
Day after day members of the California state legislature prove themselves to be stupendously stupid bullies pushing through law after law that threatens citizens with jail time for the most banal actions like addressing a physical man with the title "Mister" or having the audacity to drink from a cup using a plastic straw.
Considering that the mayor of San Francisco defends drug abusers having safe zones to shoot-up amid an opioid crisis, and is funneling millions to clear off human feces from city streets rather than rationally dealing with the homeless who are using the streets as their toilets, is a separation wish really all that odd? Add to this insanity the governor weighing commutation of sentences for hundreds of lifers and death row prisoners, his cure for feckless governance being worse than the disease.
It doesn't stop there, however. With all the foolish decisions sweeping executive offices in California, the legislature has just passed a bill to implement the most restrictive version of Net Neutrality within the Union. Resulting from Governor Brown's probable signing this into law would be further restriction of free speech by those who disagree with all the foregoing examples of legislative absurdity.
No longer are liberals chipping away at the republic, in California they're bulldozing it
No longer are liberals chipping away at the republic, in California they're bulldozing it, making certain that conservative voices are stigmatized and essentially shut down. It can't be forgotten that the social media moguls are mostly based in the Silicon Valley, which, by the way, lies west of the infamous fault.
Now that most of California republicans reside on the right side of the fault zone (literally and figuratively), maybe it's not such a bad idea to wave buh-bye to the Left Coast and let it stew in its own steaming mountains of manure just waiting to breed every manner of disease that was once eradicated by civilized society. Even the gated homes of the Hollywood and media elites can't stave off air and waterborne pestilence.
The fact that California liberalism (brought west by resettled New York liberals) has managed to infect the whole Left Coast, plunging Portland and Seattle into the depths of progressive hell, it's almost lamentable that the San Andreas doesn't encircle those cities as well.
But it's only a fantasy, much like climate change fanatics railing about man's control of earth's weather cycles--because that's fantasy too.
There is something we can do to change the direction of California and this nation's downward spiral. We can vote conservative individuals into office and we must regain control of elections from liberal comptrollers and registrars, forcing them to properly count ballots (which didn't occur in Arizona's Maricopa County) and purging voter rolls of dead, ineligible, illegal, non-citizen and multiple registrants.
Vigilance and action are our tools. Use them to good advantage and California just might have a chance to keep it's coastal plain intact.
The rest of the country need take note. No state is immune to the disease spread by liberal lawmakers. The symptoms are already present.
Former newspaper publisher, A. Dru Kristenev, grew up in the publishing industry working every angle of a paper, from ad composition and sales, to personnel management, copy writing, and overseeing all editorial content. During her tenure as a news professional, Kristenev traveled internationally as a representative of the paper and, on separate occasions, non-profit organizations. Since 2007, Kristenev has authored five fact-filled political suspense novels, the Baron Series, and two non-fiction books, all available on Amazon. Carrying an M.S. degree and having taught at premier northwest universities, she is the trustee of Scribes’ College of Journalism, which mission is to train a new generation of journalists in biblical standards of reporting. More information about the college and how to support it can be obtained by contacting Kristenev at cw.o@earthlink.net.
ChangingWind (changingwind.org) is a solutions-centered Christian ministry.
1971--The big Sylmar earthquake, 6.6 on the Richter scale, rocked the San Fernando Valley where I lived. The I-5 overpass north of the valley collapsed for the first time and Granada Hills neighborhoods adjacent to the earthen Van Norman Dams were evacuated, which meant a family of seven bunking with us in a three bedroom home already housing five people.
Interesting times to be sure but what does that have to do with today? I'll tell you in my own twisted manner. Finding a place of refuge was a challenge amid a ruckus that naturally comes with ten kids jostling for space under one roof, but my older sister and I managed to find it once in a while in our bedroom. Trouble was, peace wasn't exactly part of the prize as far as I was concerned.
