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California: Golden State Tarnished
Dear politician, your halo is on fire
“Eureka”, meaning, I have found it. The simple one word is the motto of the Golden state. One word to describe the largest state on the Pacific coast. The name reflects the initial surge of migrants to the West Coast, the California gold rush. Dreams were realized, not only in golden nuggets, entrepreneurial spirit. Many were blinded by the prospect of vast wealth. Immigrants around the world, swelled through the golden gate. Before there was a bridge spanning the strait, the three-mile entrance to the San Francisco Bay, thousands spilled onto the rough streets of the biggest boomtown, San Francisco.
That was the 1850s. The diversity of peoples, ecology and wildlife makes the state a wonderland. I am a first-generation Californian. Native. Growing up in a land hailed as one of the best places to live, who was I to argue. It felt accurate to me. We lived less than an hour to the Pacific Ocean, a few hours to many of the world-renowned destinations, Lake Tahoe, Big Sur, Yosemite, the Mojave Desert.
Talk about being spoiled, we have three global cities with their own unique character, San Francisco, Los Angeles and San Diego. Small rural hamlets, tucked in rolling hills, bucolic. Rugged primal mountains scrapping the heavens, blistering hot deserts and lush primeval forests. Diversity in its purest…
