I HAVE NO EXPECTATIONS
Of what will happen next Tuesday. Expectations are the mother of all misery.
Many I know are biting their nails and watching their hair fall out, getting really nervous at the thought of incumbents both local and national returning for another round of damage, maybe the coup de grace for democracy, the planet, our city. But as my dad always wisely advised, don’t cry till you’re hurt.
But let’s say you get your worst result possible. I see lots of people playing the “where can we go?” game. New Zealand is the first place that comes to my mind. Canada is an obvious choice, but I always say the words “cold” and “fun” never belong in the same sentence. Bali is beautiful, I hear, and would isolate you pretty well from Trump’s Amerika.
But it is just a game. Americans are considered toxic because of our runaway coronavirus infection and are not allowed into most countries in the world right now. Albania will take us. Belarus. Brazil (has a wannabe Trump president and an infection rate nearly as bad as ours.) Dubai. Egypt. Ethiopia. Haiti. Malta. North Macedonia. Rwanda. Serbia. Turkey -- another fine dictator. OK, there are more, but it is a list for tourism, not relocation, and always requires a clean bill of health and a 14-day quarantine.
My first choice, New Zealand, is out for me anyway because to emigrate they require you to be under 55, healthy, and of good character -- strike three. But if some newspaper needs a caustic columnist (they speak English there! -- after a fashion), I could get a Working Holiday Visa good for one year. Then swim to Bali.
‘CAUSE I AIN’T COMIN’ BACK
Till Trump and Pence, Terry O’Day and Gleam Davis, are history.
Seriously, although many longtime residents have fled Santa Monica the last couple of years because of the politically-induced severe deterioration of the quality of life here, most of us want to stay until the ship goes down. It’s listing (all those tall, wide buildings are pretty heavy, even without any parking spaces), but still has a nice view off the bow, if you don’t look behind you.
But really seriously, every problem is just an opportunity in disguise. And I am so encouraged by what I see coming out of America’s new “silent majority” -- silent only because they could hardly get a word in for all the angry noise coming from the right. Silent no more.
I’m especially proud of the young’uns. Millennials often get an unfair bad rap, but my daughter is one and she and her friends are stellar -- informed, passionate, visionary, moral, and willing to march and work for desperately needed change.
And they are plenty pissed off, as well they should be. For all the chaos ensuing from Trump’s unthinkable words and actions concerning race, democracy and justice, climate change has taken a back seat. But for her generation (as it should be for all of us), it’s number one, because a racially just world that’s going to burn up or fall under sea level in 20 years is just wasted effort. That’s their world more than ours, and they’re not going to stand for it. We’ve got to pitch in and help.
MILLIONS MARCH
All those millions of people, all over the world, who have been marching all these months for racial justice -- they’re not going to stop until they get it. We’ve almost forgotten about the brave Parkland kids and the bereft Sandy Hook parents, who are still campaigning for common sense gun laws to stop the savage gun slaughter in America. We’ve seen marches and movements before but this time it’s different. They figure 400 years is pretty much the limit on waiting. (Longer, for indigenous peoples.)
Yes, it will be so much more difficult if the Republicans maintain power, but the Democrats are no slam dunk either. Some of us have found it hard to understand the distrust and rejection of good ol’ Joe Biden by the younger voters, but they feel he is part of the bought and paid for establishment that got us nothing but endless empty promises. Joe is a good man, who has served his country for a lifetime, and there is no comparing him to Trump. Trump is toxic and has to go. The overwhelming majority who don’t care for Biden will vote for him anyway, because they are not stupid. If Trump works his Electoral College trickery again (that part of the Constitution has GOT to go with him), the job becomes that much more difficult for the next four years. But I believe good people who have had enough will just work that much harder, no matter who’s in Washington.
I really believe things are going to change. I think we all got an unexpected glimpse of what we had lost sight of, where we could and should be, when the pandemic ground business as usual to a halt. Interdependence rather than cutthroat competition. Our alikeness more important than our differences. Putting people and experiences ahead of working to death for more wealth, taking long walks, working from home if possible instead of commuting, spending more time with family, valuing contact with friends even if remotely, far fewer cars on the road, cleaner skies, wildlife returning, taking time for reflection and art instead of filling every moment with empty activity, less screen time and more nature time, recognition that everyone deserves health care, enough to eat, an education, and a place to call home.
It’s not a Utopian dream. It is a matter, now, of survival.
Charles Andrews has lived in Santa Monica for 33 years and wouldn’t live anywhere else in the world. Really. Send love and/or rebuke to him at therealmrmusic@gmail.com
