My 'Old friend Charlie' lives in the hills and comes into Sacramento to work. He has written a stunningly beautiful description of his life in response to my comments and emails about the global Jew Hate, particularly what I've documented about the mild Jew-lynching Swedes.
"Michael,
"It's a sorry situation, I'm sure of that.
"But I just don't hear anything up here or even much down in Sac about it -- I mean about the Gaza problem and all that. To me, it's a TV news thing. So I hear about it some by way of the internet or from NPR news, but there's sure no people around here demanding a boycott of Israel. I can't even imagine it.
"There's a local guy here we call "Swede" because he's from Sweden. He's a truck driver who was in the Swedish merchant marine before he met and married a girl who is from around here (Amador County). 'Swede' doesn't like life in Sweden, he likes the U.S. a lot better. Anyway, I don't see Swede all that often, but I'm pretty sure that he isn't worried about any issues with Israel and bears no ill will toward Jews.
"Down in Sac, people there maybe talk about ethnic stuff, I guess. Where we are in business -- South Sac -- it's a real melting pot. We have everybody coming in. We have people from India (Sikh and Punjabi), from Iran, from Japan, from Argentina, from Ireland -- but mostly they are always a mix, like father from Iran and mother from Philippines. There's a guy with a yarmulke too, except I think he moved to Colorado. He was a big help in the early days of the collective. People come and go and talk all manner of subjects, including talking trash. It doesn't matter that much about Hispanic or black, it's mostly by neighborhood and gang affiliation. The biggest war of all is the war of the sexes. As far as the business goes, and I think most people that we meet, everybody figures it this way: if you can't do business with Jews, who can you do business with?
"In Sacramento, it's all democratic party, and I think Obama's popularity is holding up. I'm not in Sac that much, but when I am there in connection with business, it seems to be mostly Chinese people that I talk to -- the lady that runs the little coffee shop (talk about the weather), the guy that runs the laundromat (talk about Bruce Lee and Jackie Chan). On our block, there's a storefront church of people who are mostly Guatemalan, I think, but I don't talk to them much -- they call themselves "Al Shaddai" whatever that means. Then there's a black barbershop complete with pool table. But if I get a haircut I go to the new Super Walmart, where I know a sweetheart young lady, very black and all positive, who works at the Style place and does everything, you know, shades and braids and waves and what have you. (Of course, her talents are wasted on me!)
"If you want to know what the politics is in South Sac, just read the Sacramento News and Review (free weekly tabloid), pretty good reporting and I think you can see it online.
"The only thing that's not too great about Sacramento, especially South Sac, is there's occasional drive-by shootings and sometimes innocent little kids get killed -- I mean kids like three or five years old. Most people are packing, you know. We had a holdup already (at gun point) and more than one attempted burglary. Also, don't forget to lock your car! I forgot to lock it last time I was there running errands and my new (used) iBook is gone (about $300 to me).
"But I'm mostly up here in Amador. People don't usually pack up here, but they damn sure are armored up. I think what people here are concerned about and talk about, especially with politics, is:"I hope you won't let all the negativity get to you."
- Global warming NOT (we just had an unusually cold winter up here, or so everyone says, followed by a late spring and rain in June!)
- Tea Party -- anti-abortion and anti-regulation
- Sarah Palin -- women like her and the guys do too, but for different reasons!
- The economy is still down, work is hard to find, but maybe getting a little better
- North Korea -- we should nuke them
- Everything is made in China
- And, of course, everything's going to hell in a hand basket -- that's a given