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During the 1992 Riots in Los Angeles (the Rodney King Riots), I watched my hometown burn on television. I was in San Mateo / San Francisco and it was on TV 24/7. I called my friend Gavin to see if he was okay - expecting the answer - yes, we're fine. Instead he told me he was on his roof with neighbors watching the city burn. Someone had a gun to protect their condo from ... whatever.
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| Vermont in Koreatown. There is a great Mexican Restaurant, El Cholo, just blocks from here. USC is less than 1 mile away. |
I wanted to be there in order to define LA as something better than we saw on TV. I watched every single elected official, ever clergy member and anyone else the TV crew could find, express sadness, disappointment and desire to get past the riots - to heal. Even the looters, sometime later, seemed disgusted and wanted to rebuild my city.
I think about that after the carnage in Charolettesville 10 days ago. Charolettesville is a beautiful city, designed by Thomas Jefferson and dedicated to higher learning. It is a warm and welcoming town. But after it erupted, the President called the White Supremacists - those that marched with clubs, shields and semi-automatic weapons - "many good people, many fine people"."There is blame on both sides."
Our President and his party loath so many Americans. There is no call to greatness. He can't say anything positive without running down his predecessors (Democrats mainly, but Republicans too). He doesn't call Americans to a better future, he calls to hate and to tear down out common institutions. And our Congress endorses him through silence.
And, I don't blame President Trump, persay. He is the symptom, not the cause. He was elected by Americans. Between 65 and 85% of the people that voted for him then, still think he is doing a great job. There is no "Let's make LA / America a better place..." with this group of people.
Our President and his backers want to remove anyone they don't like: the jews, the blacks, the Mexicans, the fags, the feminists, the leftists, the elites, the globalists... The list of who they hate goes on and on. And our President endorses these ideas. Not just tacitly (like Congress) but actively, loudly and often.
That is why I have to leave the forum of ideas. My beliefs are worthless or laughed at. There is no "LA" for me to rebuild in this America. Much of the (television) clergy agree with this President and his hateful rhetoric. The majority of the Senate and House agree with this President (albeit, all elected by a less than majority of the nations voters - but that is our electoral dynamic).
I know that leaving, mentally or physically, doesn't change this dynamic in America. But hopefully it changes a dynamic in me - removing, at least temporarily, the heartbreak of watching my country give in to the riots and the hate and the (metaphorical) looting of the American dream.
