I live in a tiny part of the US, called Kern River Valley (California). Here you can hear a waitress calling out loud to her coworkers, while you dine (or try to) on fine table settings, yelling, "I SLAPPED HER IN THE FACE!" Someone around her must've asked Why, because she added, "SHE DESERVED IT!" I didn't look to see who'd said that.
I live in a tiny part of the US, called Kern River Valley (California). Here you can hear a waitress calling out loud to her coworkers, while you dine (or try to) on fine table settings, yelling, "I SLAPPED HER IN THE FACE!" Someone around her must've asked Why, because she added, "SHE DESERVED IT!" I didn't look to see who'd said that.
That's just one of several shocks received here. There's the guy at a meeting of Keepers of the Kern, a volunteer cleaning crew for picking up trash along the River. He announced he'd like to wait at a certain sharp curve in the road and shoot the people who dump trash there. Huhh???
That was the end of that group.
I've wondered endlessly how this valley came to be. I'm confident that widespread illiteracy has been a big force here. But it's much more. Hollywood filmed here for several generations. Their example surely fired up the loudmouth bravado that crime thrives on. And the gossip! Without any reading public to counter it, gossip creeps into insanity.
"Next door" is CLNAWS, China Lake. I was in a Danny's (solo) directly behind a booth of 4 men, apparently officers of CL. Couldn't escape their conversation. One asked, "When the epiphany comes, what's going to happen to all those preachers who lied to us?" EMBARRASSED SILENCE ALL AROUND. I waited, then left.
I wonder, does ignorance fester in an atmosphere of blind authoritarianism? (Uh, it's maybe the same question as what bears do in the woods?)
If that's the main contributor to ignorance, what can we do to counter it? I'm for parents helping out by volunteering in their kids' classrooms, and re-upping the American PTA organizations. They've all but vanished here. Home "schooling" has taken over.
In my youth (I'm 67 now), I was an L.A. kid and used to visit some people in the Kern Valley who had left our circle of friends and were trying to fit in. I am not sure they ever did, but they were there for work. So, my heart is with you.
I now live in a purple area of Oregon, which is slowly going more blue. But some of the crap that I hear people say in public is mind-blowing.
I live in a tiny part of the US, called Kern River Valley (California). Here you can hear a waitress calling out loud to her coworkers, while you dine (or try to) on fine table settings, yelling, "I SLAPPED HER IN THE FACE!" Someone around her must've asked Why, because she added, "SHE DESERVED IT!" I didn't look to see who'd said that.
That's just one of several shocks received here. There's the guy at a meeting of Keepers of the Kern, a volunteer cleaning crew for picking up trash along the River. He announced he'd like to wait at a certain sharp curve in the road and shoot the people who dump trash there. Huhh???
That was the end of that group.
I've wondered endlessly how this valley came to be. I'm confident that widespread illiteracy has been a big force here. But it's much more. Hollywood filmed here for several generations. Their example surely fired up the loudmouth bravado that crime thrives on. And the gossip! Without any reading public to counter it, gossip creeps into insanity.
"Next door" is CLNAWS, China Lake. I was in a Danny's (solo) directly behind a booth of 4 men, apparently officers of CL. Couldn't escape their conversation. One asked, "When the epiphany comes, what's going to happen to all those preachers who lied to us?" EMBARRASSED SILENCE ALL AROUND. I waited, then left.
I wonder, does ignorance fester in an atmosphere of blind authoritarianism? (Uh, it's maybe the same question as what bears do in the woods?)
If that's the main contributor to ignorance, what can we do to counter it? I'm for parents helping out by volunteering in their kids' classrooms, and re-upping the American PTA organizations. They've all but vanished here. Home "schooling" has taken over.
In my youth (I'm 67 now), I was an L.A. kid and used to visit some people in the Kern Valley who had left our circle of friends and were trying to fit in. I am not sure they ever did, but they were there for work. So, my heart is with you.
I now live in a purple area of Oregon, which is slowly going more blue. But some of the crap that I hear people say in public is mind-blowing.