I was angry today; angry at  the news, at the Wisconsin  republican senate, at the news from Michigan. I couldn't help but think that had we not defeated Meg Whitman's election here in California, we might be facing the same battles. We really DO have  a budget crisis, but no one is trying to declare  martial law over it.

I went for a walk. I don't live far from Venice Beach, and when the weather is nice, there isn't a better place to gain perspective.  I always take photos.  The unique thing about Venice Beach is that if any of the "characters" that frequent the area were to show up anywhere else, they would be regarded as dangerous or at the very least, odd. Taken all together, in the context of an animated street scene on a Thursday afternoon,  everything seemed to fit. 

I couldn't help but think of the intolerance that abounds now in our world.  If these people were to walk the streets of, say, Madison or Iowa City, they would likely be hauled in and at least questioned. But the tourists come here to see them, and it's all acceptance and smiles and will you take a picture with me. Kind of like a day at the Zoo.

But these are real people, most of them harmless, many of them making  an actual living, but they fit in nowhere else. They have their spot on the sidewalk, or they skate up and down playing any variety of musical instruments. There is very little police presence, although the police ARE there. I never feel unsafe. I don't think anyone does. Everyone does their own thing, and we all get along.

You can find anything here.  Cannibus "doctors", tattoos, jewelry, sidewalk art,  weird T-shirts, animal acts, Muscle Beach guys working out. Scattered among the  street people..are the other street people. The actual homeless.  They bother no one, and they are more accepted here than anywhere else.

 

And then I get to go home.   I get to leave it all there, return when the mood strikes me or when the weather is once again gorgeous. They are there, day in, day out.

I came home still angry--the news is still on,  the democracy our founding fathers thought they had nailed down over 250 years ago now in jeopardy.  I wonder how many of the people I just left behind on Venice  Beach even have a clue about that. 

  I wonder what the future holds for any of us.