We arrived about 9:30 in the morning after an overnight flight from Sydney. All uneventful. I read about half of Dan Brown’s new book, The Lost Symbol. I recommend it highly.
We picked up our rental car and went to the Days Inn where we were booked but they weren’t resdy for us so we decided to drive to the beach. We took Manchester west until it hit the coast a bit south of Marina del Rey. From there, we worked north to Venice Beach and then we parked for a look around. We liked it and rented two bikes and took a ride all up through Venice Beach to the Santa Monica Pier and back again. What a fun, insane and interesting area.
We came back and checked into our room and I called my friend, Charles, whom I’ve known since University days. He came and took us to a Brazilian restaurant which had great food and, best of all, it was quiet so we could talk easily.
Charles has been involved with politics for many years so talking with him is always a pleasure. He said several things which gave me pause for thought.
He said that the first thing to realize, if you are a liberal, is that the other side are not doing what they are doing from greed. They are genuinely doing it because they believe it the rights of the individual.
He also said that one of the reasons why many poorer folks in the USA vote for the Republicans is that Americans, unlike many other peoples, vote based on their asperations rather than on some pragmatic equation resuting from their actual circumstances. So, they vote for the interests of the rich because they hope to be rich someday.
And he said that the way change comes, politically, is not the way most of us would hope it would come. But it comes. Decades ago, civil rights and women’s liberation and the pill and all of that were on the edge as subjects. Now, we largely take them for granted.
So, today’s discussions and complaints by the Occupy Wall Street movement people in which they question why there is such a huge disparity between the richest and poorest of us may become part of ever man’s consciousness and thus part of the national thinking about what’s fair and right – rather than a strange idea – as it seems to currently be percieved to be.
A lot more was discussed as it always is when old friends get together. I’ve known Charles for nearly 40 years now.
Today, we’re going to drive north up the 405 and cross over on the 2 into the Beverley Hills area for a look around. Then we’ll continue through West Hollywood, north of downtown L.A., proper, and then swing around and begin heading south to my son, Dan’s, place in Irvine down in Orange County.
It’s November but the weather’s very comfortable here in Southern California. 22C/72F and sunny and dry. Perfect.
dennis
How I miss these sort of articulate, thoughtful, well-informed discussions!
Hey Dennis, You’re in Tony and my old haunts. Sounds wonderful… raining here in Dunedin…sigh… Enjoy some authentic Mexican food for us!~ 🙂 Cheers!
@Joel – I’ll be in your area soon! @Mary – I’ll have some in your honor!