Published in Far West Almanac, September 2009.

Perhaps I have been watching too much Al Jazeera, but that, along with the film Blue Gold: World Water Wars, has got me worrying about folks down in LA. I honestly still can’t believe that Arnold Schwarzenegger is really the governor of California—I keep wondering when I will wake up and find that I have somehow gotten stuck in a chapter from Robert A. Heinlein’s book Job: A Comedy of Justice. In a parallel universe this must be a big joke. It seems that Los Angeles in particular is at the forefront in showing the world how the United States of America handles our economic difficulties. I have recently rediscovered long lost friends from my high school days in Pasadena via facebook, and I wish I had more answers for establishing sustainable community under the difficult conditions of LA.