Lost Coast July 4th 2008

6/28/08

We made it through incredible smoke from statewide fires, all the way from the Bay Area to the Mattole River. The smoke didn’t go away until we got a sea breeze, for our first clean air in a week. We hiked near 7 miles on tough substrates, with major poison oak all around, ticks as well, saw lots of Steller sea lions, the lighthouse at Punta Gorda, neat driftwood structures festooned with buoys. I lost my coffee at a snack stop, it fell out behind some driftwood. I later saw the lost coffee in a picture. Spent some time napping in the tent, in a nice area shielded from the wind. Saw river otters in the surf.

Mattole Campgound       July 4^th 2008

At the campground the difference between educated and uneducated, urban and rural, is apparent enough. First let’s look at the vehicles: Mercedes camper van, brand new JEEP Rubicon with toy rack on the back, BMW mini SUV, Volvo station wagon, Toyota RAV4, Chrysler Sebring sedan, brand new Dodge truck with full-over camper, my Toyota Tacoma with commercial camper, three 4x4 Chevy trucks, one Dodge 4x4 with ATV, wife with Isuzu Rodeo and one old F-150 with really old full-over camper.

The old F-150 people got drunk, cursed loudly, vainly tried to get cell phone contact and blasted nasty rock-n-roll. They sobered up after a while and quieted down. The Dodge 4x4 people came in late, rode their ATV all around the campground. The woman cursed and yelled loudly at her 4 year old, “get back here you fucking asshole!” Everyone else was absolutely quiet by 9: PM.

These are people who don’t seem to know or care how to behave in public, with little sense of decorum or manners. On the opposite end is the aristocrat with the Mercedes camper with airs of superiority and haughtiness. To him even I am white trash, a working class servant to do his bidding and by no means an equal. I suppose all I have done here is to notice and establish a pecking order.

We talked about if Obama could really win? That he is black could be the reason he loses? And so the whole red state/ blue state, educated/ uneducated, rural/ urban divisions comes into play. On what basis will people vote?

I think Obama just makes sense with his ideas and opinions, regardless of race. But as with a lot of things, minds are already made up and it will be the swing states, a small segment that gets to say who wins. Obama will get New England, the Mid Atlantic, Illinois and the upper mid west, the West Coast, McCain will get most of the south and interior. States like Florida and Virginia will make the difference.

To me, McCain, while respectable, represents the continuation of the arrogant American empire. Obama represents a voice of reason and moderation on the international stage. He is somebody with threads to the liberal past, the New Deal, state activism and social consciousness above the free market.

You can see that the market above all, has been kind to a lot of folks here, with their fancy, status symbol vehicles. I’ve learned from living in the Bay Area, that rich liberals can be as snotty as anybody. The free market, the every dog for himself economy has not been so kind to our local rednecks judging from their vehicles and public behavior.  These folks would as likely never vote for a black as they would be to ever realize how the very people they vote for are like foxes in their own henhouse. They’d vote for McCain because he was a tough guy, because he said all the stuff about no taxes. I doubt these locals here are representative of the Christian Right; they wouldn’t care one way or another about reproductive rights. For them, McCain would be as likely to open up more ATV roads, have less controls on motors and pollution and allow people to do what they wanted, versus the tired perception of Obama as just another tax and spend liberal.

It’s stereotype soup! Political positions get boiled down to knee-jerk one liners that require no thought or reflection. Who are these candidates anyway? There is so much spin and handling that you get the sense they are scared to be who they really are. It’s all about the perception of the message and not about what you might actually do.

The Dodge 4x4 guy just started his truck at 6: AM, big loud mufflers disturbing the early seashore quiet. The wife is loud, right next to the sleeping Volvo people. The truck is just idling and he’s sitting in there. I see no reason why the truck needs to be making such noise, shit, out on a jacket if you’re cold. Wow, he’s going to start a fire and there is a full fire restriction and half the state is on fire already! Uh oh, a head peeps out of the Volvo-land tent…a clash of cultures and values, just across from me.

Where’s the ranger? Where’s the law? Who will stop these heathens from disrupting the public order? The truck idles on loudly; the flames go up.

Well I guess we all make our own rules when it suits us, and to stand in judgment would be to stand as a total hypocrite. These are my fellow human beings who carry on as they see fit and use what they feel they need and it’s all OK. Who am I to say, “have no fire, have no ATV, don’t cuss at your kids?” I am just a different flavor of the same thing. I break rules when it suits me.

The French woman across the way, who looks just like Gunnila Kraft, looks over at the Dodge 4x4 people with the loud engine and fire and she says to Kim, “what are they doing?” How can people act like that? Welcome to rednecks.