I'm lucky, I guess. Born in California, the oldest child of an Air Force officer, I went to elementary school in Ankara, Turkey in the 60s while my dad kept the computers running for the NATO missile silos. Or something like that. The experience of living in a Muslim country has given me a lot of perspective on our current situation - but this diary is not about that.
As an adult I've remained an international citizen, living for extended periods in Asia and Europe. I heard Bush was installed by the supreme court in 2000 while walking down the street in Bangkok. Less than a year later I found out about the World Trade Center on 9/11 in a tea shop in London. After almost a decade of wandering I came home in time to vote for Obama in 2008. But this diary isn't about the wonders I found out there... It's about the wonder I found back home.
I've met so many different people, sat in so many coffeeshops, chai shops, juice stands, bus stands, you name it. But there is something unique here in California. I found it at the In-N-OUT Burger in Alameda in the San Francisco bay.
Stay with me.
Alameda is an island created by a man-made estuary which separated Oakland (shout out to Oaktown!) from, essentially, the US Navy. Bygones. By which I mean to say the Navy bugged out several years ago. Bye. Gone. Now Alameda is small-town USA, bay style. Retired military living next door to rainbow flags. Churches and schools and 100 well-equipped police officers (do NOT come speeding onto the island!). Quaint Victorian homes and tree lined streets and all solidly democratic. None of the street cred of Oakland, just across the bridge. But fewer potholes (I keed, I keed! Alameda, and SF too for that matter, are empty calories without the cultural nutrition of Oakland).
The phenomenon I spotted has, in truth, been creeping up on all of us. Once I spotted it at the IN-N-OUT Burger I started seeing it everywhere. But it was while waiting for my double-double that I first noticed.
The place was packed. The table next to us was a family of Indian descent. I noticed a table of scarf-wearing Muslim women, giggling. Several Hispanic families, too. As I looked around I had one of my most optimistic moments in a long time. Korean-Americans, Filipino-Americans, Chinese-Americans, Japanese-Americans, all grabbing a burger. Same room. Light din of happy conversations.
Right now you might be thinking, "well, I see that sort of thing all the time!" And I believe you, especially if you live in California or most larger urban areas. But what you might not know.... is that this sort of thing is very rare on planet Earth.
Yeah... it's a very good thing. Proof of something.
Whatever it proves, I don't want it to stop. My "single issue", the thing that got me to the polls, has always been peace. But now I add immigration. Trump has introduced a dangerous idea and while he will surely flame-out the idea, now affirmed in the minds of the bigots, that we can "fix" things through mass deportation will live on. God help us.