OpEd: Taking Action When It’s Not Easy

OK, so my car got broken into yesterday and, because I am a big-brained organism, I am trying to make sense out of it and to put it into perspective.  Not having much luck there.

Mainly I am angry, hurt and sad – and little ol’ me really feels like I could punch someone in the face (many times) over this…  And this surprises me because I am really a peace-love-liberal.

Where is this hate coming from?  I think it’s fear, because I have this horrible stomach-clenching feeling that this may just be what happens when you reach middle-age: that after the joy of youth, life slowly turns and begins to beat you down. Is it my fate to simply become tired, mad, and cynical?

Of course not, I live in Davis!

So, I keep trying to sort out my feelings and find something positive to ferret out of this experience, some message I can share that will carry me over… as I wait on hold with the insurance representative who just told me that I have one deductible for the car damage and another one for the items that were stolen, ensuring that I will never be made whole the way the guy with the trusting smile says you will on TV.

Besides, no one can ever give me back the pictures still fresh in a camera that was carted off yesterday (with my coat and other personal items) of my daughter Monica’s beaming face as the 8^th Grade Harper girls won the YCAL championship this weekend… Go Huskies!

Well, it may comfort my fellow Davisites to know that this incident happened in big, bad, Sacramento – in a parking garage that didn’t happen to have an attendant because it was President’s Day — Honest Abe, Washington’s cherry tree and all that, how ironic.

This was made more insulting by the fact that the Sactown police would not come out for a car break in and I could not even drive to the police station to report it myself because it was a holiday and their office was not open to the public.

I guess I can blame my employers for making me work on a holiday…

So, why were we working, on a state holiday, you say?  Was it because we are private sector insensitive capitalist jerks simply out for the precious almighty dollar?

No, it was because my firm was crazily preparing a conference for school districts that has suddenly become a grass-roots rally on the Capitol over scarce resources available for California schools.

And this made my big-brain think more about the budget situation.  I read with interest this week about the inmates being let out early from California jails and prisons because of the state’s fiscal situation.

At the time I thought (liberally), well, they are mostly small time crooks, and drug offenders, probably won’t be a problem – maybe they will be grateful for their freedom and “fly right”.  I saw them hugging their families in the photo with the article in the Bee – Yay!

And then I found my car window shattered and my precious pictures gone…

I thought some more, about the fact that persons who are let out of incarceration are not going to find a welcoming environment.  Not because the rest of us don’t care.  We do care,  just not enough to take action.

People of Davis, understand me when I say that not being a “hater” does not mean we are going to be protected, there is no karma in this crisis.  Poor and disabled people are losing what little they have.  And Congressmen are quitting left and right.

So at the same time that people who work in the city kick ourselves for being stupid enough to leave the Garmins we got for Christmas on the dashboard, we will also blindly change our behavior to hide our things in the future, or take them with us…without asking the “whys”.  And the growing population of desperate people will have to look elsewhere for stuff… like the suburbs and trusting college towns.

Cynical and fear-mongering, you say?  Well then, let’s continue to blame others (like the government) for our problems and do nothing – becoming the worst kind of victim – a cynic that angrily fades away.

OR – (here comes the epiphany) – we can kick it in gear and make demands of ourselves and those people we elected (because we KNOW them, they served in the “right” local offices and shook our hands while we willingly contributed our campaign money) – to finally look at the problems we are facing and tell us the truth.  Let’s ask them nicely, but firmly, to work collaboratively with whoever has a good idea to fix these problems going forward.

And let’s start with the budget – We know the system is broken and needs to be structurally fixed, term limits were a REALLY bad idea and the 2/3 vote adds to the entire mess – so what do we DO about it?  Can we agree that we may have to look at new taxes for a while if they work to fix this monster so we are more fiscally sure in the future?  Let’s ask.

Locally, we all know that we can change lives through education and, if you don’t have kids, think about your home values.  We all know these two things are symbiotic.

We also need to start fundraising for our schools – and I’m sorry if I make some people angry or uncomfortable about that.  I know you all give, A LOT.  But we can all do something, big or small, and it doesn’t have to be about dollars.  It can be about time, energy, and creativity…

And if you have none of that – IT IS OK.  But please don’t grouse about the ones who can and want to.

And finally, greatness is measured by our actions in a crisis.  Let’s not point fingers and scream at each other.

I am still on hold, but I won’t be held back.  Will the only prosperous industries emerging from this time in history be insurance agents, security systems, and private schools?

I hope not in Davis.