Don't Assume You Know How I Think

My zip code does not define my world view, and certainly not my politics. Yet if one lives in the self-proclaimed Progressive Capitol of the World, the San Francisco Bay Area, people assume they know how the residents think.

Stand in line at the grocery store and the person in front of you will invariably turn around to make a disparaging remark about Trump. Conversations in front of Peet’s Coffee, (BLM posters plastered in the windows), often involve similar accusatory proclamations about the President. I could challenge their statements but there is no benefit. There is, in fact, possible retaliation.

Several months ago I received a call from a Nancy Pelosi campaign worker asking for donations to defeat Trump because of all the horrible things he has done. How did you get my number? I asked. The person said I must be on a list of democrats. I said I was not. He continued that it must have come from another concerned democrat who cared about the future of this country. At that point, I stated that if Nancy was so concerned about the country, why had she remained silent when they tore down statues in San Francisco? Where was her voice regarding all the violence and looting? I waited a second, got no reply, and hung up.

Last week I got a letter from Nancy’s office. Opening lines: Someone had to do it. Someone had to stand up to the bully in the White House…

Apparently, Nance thinks she is a hero and deserves your money for Standing up to Trump. She included a postcard of her having a tantrum when she stood up and pointed at him during a meeting a year ago. I believe that was right before she stormed out of said meeting like a petulant child.

The entire letter, filled with Democrat talking points, could be easily countered should any of the True Believers care to listen. Nancy continues on in her letter to say that, …Trump “cannot do Vladimir Putin’s bidding.” It would even be laughable were it not that most everyone in this town still believe Trump is an agent of the USSR.

Nancy goes on to bring up the ACA, gun control, the environment, women’s rights, tax cuts for the rich. Who honestly believes all her misrepresentations? To me, this is what is so shocking; in this university town, populated by Nobel Laureates and Intelligentsia, no one seeks the truth.

Possibly I am wrong. Possibly people here actually do the research to find out where the truth lies. But I doubt it. This has become a town full of lemmings. They drive cars, ride bikes, and walk in the park all masked up twenty-four hours a day. Businesses and schools remain closed after more than six months.  I can only conclude that their concept of self-determination got lost in a haze of weed and commune mentatlity. 

How I long for the days when one could debate topics that impact our society, a time when people accepted another’s point of view without screaming at them and calling them names. Regrettably, I am unable to envision a time in my life where I will ever be able to do this. At least not in Nancy Pelosi’s California.

 

People's Park 50th Anniversary

It has been nearly 50 years since the People's Park protests in Berkeley, California. The National Guard took over the streets, along with law enforcement from throughout the state, all stemming from a small patch of University owned land.

Berkeley, CA 1969

Teenagers in Berkeley protested alongside university students and the city.
People's Park & 4 Teenagers     This article is included in the HeyDay Press upcoming book
The Battle for People's Park, Berkeley, 1969

And then there's the fictional account of Letty White, who also took part in the protests while still a student at Berkeley High School. (before the CIA recruited her.)

Release Date 25 March 2019

Ancient Roman streets, superb coffee, excellent clothes, and lush sea breezes; Naples, Italy has it all. Letty may just have found the perfect place to retire after a hectic life with the CIA and Interpol.

She’s enjoying her new life when, out of nowhere, a photo of her as a teenager in 1969 winds up on a dead body. How could the People’s Park protests of fifty years ago, in Berkeley, California have anything to do with her life now? And why are so many Russians after her?

It’s clear that the answers to her questions lie in the picture taken decades in the past. Her high school years of protests, sit-ins, and civil disobedience are so far from her life as a CIA agent, that she doesn’t know where to begin.  

Luckily, former agents and friends, Taylor and Jim, step in to assess the situation and protect her from an ever-increasing number of bad guys that are bent on doing her harm.

Hoping to get back to a restful retirement, Letty must revisit that long-ago life to figure out what in the world is happening now, half a world away. 

Quiet Before the Storm

Tonight, at 7pm, Ben Shapiro will speak at Zellerbach Hall on the UC Berkeley campus. I would have liked to have been in Sproul Plaza to document the Antifa thugs that I am sure will be there. However, I don’t want to be out there at night so I went down to see what was happening this afternoon.

Where Free Speech Started: Sproul Hall

They have already blocked traffic to Bancroft Avenue, which runs by Zellerbach Hall, and the crowd barriers are already up. At 3:30, they will start to restrict entrance into the heart of the Free Speech Area, Sproul Hall Plaza.

For now, there are a few people out with the requisite tables and flyers protesting the right of anyone with a conservative viewpoint to speak, and referring to them with vile labels. I had no intention of getting into a discussion with any of these folks, but my inner flower-child took over.

Crowd Blockers

One non-student, surrounded by Cal students, was getting quite worked up about an Yiannopolous poster announcing his coming speech. He had ripped it off a wall, insisting that it was offensive. The students he was addressing were adamant that Yiannopolous had the right to speak. Granted, “Yiannololous is cumming” is rather crude, but not compared to what was scrawled in chalk on lower Sproul Plaza in front of Zellerbach. At this point, I could no longer keep my mouth shut. I said to him, “Sir, what is offensive to me is the Fuck the Police that is written on the ground.”  And then I walked away.

Next, I stopped by the big table and big posters set up on the Northside entrance to Sproul Plaza. I certainly did not want to get in any sort of conversation with them. But then I walked around the other side and started to listen in to a conversation that an older man and woman, most likely UC profs, were having with the Resistance table-minders.

They kept asking the resistance folks to clarify what exactly was a fascist and why they thought all conservatives were fascists. One young man started to spout something nonsensical that was so convoluted I can’t recall anything other than it was not a definition of the word. They only thing that did come across is that the likes of Ben Shapiro, Steve Bannon, and Anne Coulter did not have the right to speak at CAL.

Bancroft Ave 

Once more, I couldn’t keep my mouth shut. I said that I had grown up in Berkeley, that I had protested in the 60’s, and that back then we respected the right to have differing views. I said I was sad seeing what had happened to my city, that tolerance for differing views was no longer acceptable.

The woman explained that she followed Shapiro, and that he was not all the ugly names the resistance people called him. To which she got the response, “You’re wrong so I’m not even going to talk to you.”  To which I added, “She is not wrong, she just has a different opinion.”  The guy walked away.

Zellerbach Hall 

I turned to the man and woman – both had accents so I assume they had grown up in another country. I said, “These kids have no idea what it is to live in a country where you do not have rights. They do not realize how lucky they are and do not understand the freedom of speech.”

I said a few other things to the resistence-ers regarding the error in labeling people with different opinions as white supremacists, and left after one of them was getting into why Antifa had a right to bash heads. …They all really have drunk the Kool-Aid.

While walking through the area, I made sure to thank every police officer I saw for protecting the people and the city. They were truly appreciative of my words, especially when there were anti-police sentiments chalked into the ground where they stood.

There will be trouble tonight. I only hope it is nothing too serious.