California went and had a committee look over the idea of reparations for blacks, and a 492-page report is set to be issued....sometime in mid-July. Some folks got an advanced copy, and I looked over three of the suggestions in the reparations listing:
1. Something called 'shade equity'.
Basically, the idea is that in black neighborhoods....there's no trees....so no shade.
Under this gimmick, the state would create a program to plant trees (lot of them) in black neighborhoods.
I paused over this. Personally, I've been a pro-tree person for most of my life, and I wouldn't have a problem in supporting more shade trees....period.
However, I would point this out about California....it's one of those states with limited rainfall....so about 90-percent of the type of trees you'd plant in South Carolina or Alabama....wouldn't make it. So you are mostly limited to fur/pine type trees. They aren't exactly known for being shade trees.
Who wrote this shade idea into the 492 pages? I'm guessing a person who probably hasn't lived much in California or knows much about trees.
2. Some paragraph suggests that fast-food places need to be curtailed/lessened....while Whole Foods/Farmer Markets need to be expanded....in black neighborhoods.
This agenda, if you think about it.....is mostly about good health habits and dissolving bad eating habits.
Now....if you went to a hundred black folks and said you were going to dissolve Burger King or In-and-Out Burger joints....a bunch of people would get all peeved, and then they'd notice that this was only going to happen in black neighborhoods....while the 'whitey-guys' got to keep their Bojangles or Zaxbys.
If you ask me....within a five-year period....a bunch of blacks would pack up and move to white neighborhoods....because of this fast-food gimmick.
3. Finally, there's this suggestion to create a state-apparatus....that would funnel state money (tax revenue) to black-owned business development and enlargement, while just doing nothing for Latino or Asian, or Indian business operations.
Unfairness index? On a scale of one to ten....it's probably a nine.
The funny thing here....you could be a Congolese guy....fresh off the plane....to find yourself a graded-up person for this funneled state money for your new business idea....while Juan (4th generation Latino-American) gets nothing.
As much as some folks feel a need to hand out something for reparations....most everything involves heavy taxation and funneled revenue to only selected members of society. It'd give more reason for people sticking it out in California....to plan an exit-strategy.
Last Saturday, we celebrated my sister's Fiftieth Wedding Anniversary at their church in the mountains east of Sacramento.
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Then, I spent two days with my old SCUBA chums in Loyalton, California, population 3,000.
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Each person I met, including the koshers at the filling stations, was up-beat, warm, open, friendly.
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Oddly, during the twelve-hundred miles and eight days, not one person characterized the outside-California-looking-in 'those Californians are self-absorbed and angry' stereotypes.
I had someone around 20 years ago explain California....that there's the bubble (SF, LA, SD) and there's the rest of the state. The bubble has become 90-percent Democrat and has generated a fake reality (going beyond politics and public safety). The rest of the state is mostly conservatives or libertarians (maybe like 75-percent).
ReplyDeleteIn present time....rather than trying to stay or resolve the mess, I think the bulk of the non-bubble crowd are giving up and leaving for some better life.
Just a humble view, but Latino immigration will eventually figure out less jobs....vacate the state (as illegals), and some decade-long crisis period will arrive.