I’ve been making a good bit of fun of San Francisco during and since our recent visit there. (And why shouldn’t I? The little south Alabama town where I grew up had much more diversity [note the absence of quote marks] of opinion than, apparently the entire swath of California that stretches from Mendocino to Sacramento to Carmel. And yes, San Francisco, Berkeley, and Palo Alto, that includes you.)
But it’s not fair of me to say that the whole region is of one mind. Helene and I did spend a little time with a delightful fellow, Rick Palmer, who doesn’t fit the San Francisco mold. Of course it’s no accident, as we conspiracy theorists say, that Rick is a Discriminations reader, which is in fact how we met him (and how we met Joanne Jacobs on previous trips, who also doesn’t fit the mold). Indeed, one of the nicest benefits of blogging (it certainly beats the pay) is the opportunity to meet readers and fellow bloggers.
Although Rick seems perfectly happy, he is stranded in a sea of blue and thus needs some company. Accordingly, I encourage you all to stop by from time to time and take a look at his blog, Endnote. His recent post on “Conversations With My Sister” is a nice discussion of, and analysis of, the sort of conversations we’ve all had with family members or close friends who look at and listen to the world through the eyes of the New York Times and the ears of NPR.
After that, scroll down a post or two and look at his truly eloquent picture (with pictures) of Memorial Day on the Presidio.
ADDENDUM
Well, now I’m feeling a little guilty. I think all of us, Reds and Blues alike (I know that at least some Blues lurk here, and I encourage others to do so and even speak up) … all of us need to fight against the tendency to stereotype and even demonize the other side. Thus I should have said that although the Greater Bay Area (that “swath” I described above) does seem to be strikingly of one mind, those minds can be quite sharp and some of the people to whom they are attached quite nice. I had a nice visit last June with one of them, Andy Lazarus, who does speak up quite effectively in comments here, and I’m sorry I didn’t get a chance to see him this time. Alas, he has a day job.
Wouldn’t the bay area make a great independent country? I suspect America will ultimately resolve issues of diversity and minority rights by breaking up into ten or twenty smaller countries. Sometimes divorce is better than fighting all the time, eh.