Over this past night, my dreams or daydreams centered on taking a train ride through the Central Valley of California.
For those who don't live in the Golden State, one way to visualize it is as three north-to-south strips: the coast, the valley and the mountains.
I've been to all the cities and most of the towns along the coast from Oregon to Mexico. I've been all over the Sierra too, but I've never done much cruising down the center of the state.
There are lots of cities there: Bakersfield, Delano, Tulare, Visalia, Kingsburg, Selma, Fresno, Madera, Merced, Turlock, Modesto, Manteca, Stockton, Sacramento, Yuba City, and Chico. Not to mention Lodi, the 132nd largest city in the state, where I actually did get stuck one time.
The only city in the valley I can claim any serious knowledge of is Sacramento, our state capital, where some of my kids lived for a while.
As for the rest of those places, the best I can say is I've passed through a few of them.
If I were actually to take such a trip, of course, residents would advise me not to do so in the summer; it's too hot out there.
Anyway, these days with Covid-19, most likely the trains are empty, and the towns pretty quiet. Those residents who can flee do so by traveling east to the hills or west to the ocean beaches.
***
There are topics it's best not to venture into lest the water get too deep, and those include politics, religion and which flavor of coffee bean tastes the best.
As a long-time journalist, I know these things. In that context, I should clarify why I would launch a pointed verbal assault on someone like Trump, because as a journalist I am neutral; every politician is equally suspect in my eyes. So why single him out yesterday?
First, I'm sure he is a charming fellow and I'd like to meet him in case there are any random medals of dishonor hanging around waiting for a recipient. But I take issue with him or anyone who uses thinly veiled code to play on the subconscious racial fears of white Americans. Politicizing border walls and voter fraud or the living conditions in Baltimore isn't honest debate of issues or ideas. It is manipulation.
I know the readers who stop by this page come from both the right and the left, and I love them all. The last thing I would ever do is to tell anyone how to vote, other to suggest that we all vote our conscience according to our deepest principles.
So when I criticize Trump for racist baiting, I'm not taking the side of Democrats, liberals or the "never-Trumpers" whoever they are. I'm standing up for one of my core beliefs -- that racism is the ugliest thing about America and you're either part of the solution or you are part of the problem.
My other beef with Trump regards the press. As a long-time press critic, I know as well as anyone the failings of my colleagues (and myself) and I've often spoken out about them. But claiming that the "media" is out to get you belies naiveté or an evil purpose.
There is no monolithic "media"; rather in the private sector there corporate-owned global corporations with agendas like Fox, MSNBC and CNN. Then there are all of the individual reporters and editors who work in those institutions.
I don't defend the companies, I defend the journalists. Big difference.
There's also public media like NPR, PBS and CPB. I've criticized them on occasion, too, but I stand with the journalists who work there.
Much of my career has focused not on politics but on environmental issues. I wonder what would happen if the whole battle to defeat Covid-19 boiled down to two highly partisan folks, one right, one left. And if the only way they could win this battle would be to abandon their positions and join in common purpose.
Given the current state of our politics, I wouldn't bet against the virus.
***
Feedback from readers here is welcome. Those who note I don't employ traditional structural conventions are spot-on. For me, writing is like driving a car is to one of my friends who moved into a new state recently. He's just getting to know it, and on Saturdays he sets out for points unknown...
Who knows what will happen along the way?
That reminds me of the time I was driving west from the Sierra on a Sunday afternoon. It was the end of a holiday weekend. (This was before GPS or Mondays being designated part of holiday breaks.) Seeking to escape the brutal traffic on the main route, I slipped off onto one of the little roads that were mere numberless squibbles on my old torn roadmap.
Inevitably I got lost and that was my one visit to Lodi so far.
"The man from the magazine
Said I was on my way
Somewhere I lost connections
Ran out of songs to play
I came into town, a one night stand
Looks like my plans fell through
Oh Lord stuck in Lodi again"
-- CCR
-30-
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