Colleen O’Connor: Get your own gang, California

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The recent political, economic, and geological earthquakes rattling Sacramento, San Diego, and every other city and county in California, set me thinking about the writer, Kurt Vonnegut, Jr. and a winning slogan for the next Governor’s race, regardless of party affiliation.

To set the stage, let me first provide some clarity.  I am a native San Diegan, educated at our best private schools and public universities, a retired college history professor, and in the late sixties, a Peace Corps volunteer in Turkey.  I also worked as a Legislative Fellow in the California state legislature and as a Legislative Aide for the County Board of Supervisors.

I pay my taxes and do my jury duty.  Hence, I have some familiarity with the difficulties we face.

And also, like most Californians, I am dumbfounded by the State’s paralysis.  “How,” I ask myself, “can a state with the natural wonders and intellectual resources, be in such a mess?”

California is a paradise blessed with a fabulous climate, gorgeous beaches, and a cultural/historical richness, second to no other state.  Why, then, are we in danger of failing?

That is when I thought of Kurt Vonnegut, Jr.’s advice—“Get your own gang.”

Shortly after the government’s fumbling of intelligence reports that justified the second Iraq War were swamped by news of the Hurricane Katrina debacle, Kurt Vonnegut, Jr. warned Americans that they were on their own—that they should, “get their own gang.”

Simply put, he cautioned, don’t count on governments, insurance companies, the health care industry, police, bankers or any public institutions to help.  They have already collapsed.  You need to get your own gang to help you and your family.  Enlist your friends that might be bi-lingual, (should you need to escape south) medically savvy, (should you need to treat injuries) and able to fire a gun, (obvious) or drive a hot-wired car or boat.  Get anyone that can help when the next big one hits—be it fire, flood, earthquake, swine flue epidemic, or economic meltdown.

The reason that Vonnegut’s advice is beginning to resonate so deeply is that it echoes one’s own personal realities. Navigating disasters has become the newest “must have” on a personal resume’ or a friendship calling card.

Put even more simply, Californians already know that the posse is not coming.  Government does not work that well.  Neither do the traditional underpinnings of a strong, civilized society—be it churches, schools, hospitals, or pharmaceutical companies.  Listing the state and national scandals has ceased to be fun—for anyone, save perhaps the “shout TV” hosts.  The rest of us survive inside a bubble of numbness.  Rage, we have found, has its limits and the level of disbelief in our state’s current morass of trouble defies measurement.  We are all jaded.

Those who still believe in the common good keep trying, but the strain has become too great, the scaffolding too weak, the demands too large, and the greed and corruption too enormous to grasp, let alone rectify.  Few humans can match Mother Therese’s holiness, who, when confronted with doubts and darkness in her own faith, kept tending the “least among us.”

Those “least among us” are now us. “Fortress California” in 2009 no longer refers to unbending isolationism, but rather to the gated, privately guarded, heavily armed and hugely rich communities that have already purchased their own “gang.”

In the midst of America’s Manifest Destiny careening into a weak Third Act, and taking California down with it, let me offer that winning slogan for what currently ails us and what might return us to a passing acquaintance with our better nature.

I give this slogan, free, to anyone with the brains to adopt it, and the political will and moral clarity to implement it.  Let me give voice to those who sense that America, in general, and California, in particular,  has been diminished in stature— politically, militarily, financially, spiritually, and culturally— by investing so many resources in alternately bombing, bribing, and building up countries abroad, while neglecting pressing needs at home; be it falling bridges, broken levees, depleted pensions, or collapsing finances.

To all of the above, I say fix what ails us, “Now—In California.

This slogan is easily adaptable for every stump speech in every town or city in the state.

For example:

•    Hire, train, recruit and reward more nurses, teachers, firefighters and police, “Now—In Los Angeles.”
•    Rebuild our schools, overhaul Medical, and salute our veterans, “Now—In San Diego.”
•    Honor the Constitution, follow the law, and apply it fairly, “Now—In Modesto, San Francisco, Santa Barbara, etc.”
•    Fix the bridges, “Now—-in Mendocino.”
•    Fix the levees, “Now—in the Central Valley.”
•    Fix the roads,  “Now—Everywhere.”

Add your favorite refrain, your biggest complaint, and your own home town.  This list is endless and irresistible.  If no Lincoln, Washington, Jefferson or Roosevelt emerges to find his or her voice in time to help us, then follow Kurt Vonnegut, Jr.’s advice and “Get Your Own Gang—Now in California.”  Otherwise, go to the beach, watch the sun set, and remember the good times.  Oh, and don’t forget to pay your taxes!

Colleen M. O’Connor is a former college history professor, the director of the “Faces of San Diego 2000″ family photographic history project and co-editor of Eleanor Roosevelt: An American Journey.  She is an SDNN political columnist and can be reached at CoConnor15x(a)Yahoo.com

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This entry was posted on Monday, June 1st, 2009 at 7:05 am and is filed under Columns, Local News, Politics & Government . You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.