One Wonders

When I hear Professor Elizabeth Warren talk about "you didn't build that", I wonder if what we are hearing is echoes of stories from her Aunts and Uncles who left Oklahoma and went to California in the 1930s and 1940s, the people who helped make Southern California the thriving place it was in those and following decades?  From my time in LA and Orange Counties, it the 1940s, 50s and 60s, and into the 70s, the State of California was staying ahead of the curve in terms of infrastructure and education.  For example, I recall my Father complaining about the cost of education at what is now Cal State University, Long Beach.  He was complaining about $100 for my two Brothers.  Even allowing for inflation from the 1970s that is pretty cheap.  California, and especially Southern California, built highways—freeways—to stay ahead of the traffic, based on the idea that people should be enabled to move around and conduct their business.  And then it ended.

Part of the reason it ended was taxes and the move to cap property tax (sort of like our "two and a half" limit here in Massachusetts).  The other was the idea that urban sprawl and all that was bad; bad for the environment, morally bad, a blight upon a "living" nature.  This attitude was best captured for me by a letter to The Boston Globe, where the writer said, of fixing the interchange at I-93 and I-95 at Woburn, that if we fixed it it would just encourage more drivers to use it.  OK.  That is a "I've got mine, Jack" attitude.  I will skip my tirade against "Limo Liberals" at this point.

So, perhaps Professor Warren remembers older relative, back in Oklahoma for a visit from their homes in Long Beach and Compton and Pasadena, bragging about the infrastructure that made 1960s Southern California what it was.  A sort of "you build it and they will come."  I support that view.  It is something that one can see in Northern Virginia today.  It is not something I see much of here in our corner of the nation.

But, it is the way she puts it.  One thing that existed in Southern California in the day was the celebration of individuals and what they accomplished.  Gene Autry, born in Oklahoma, was an example.  He took his talents and made movies and TV shows and records.  He learned to fly and became an Army Air Force Flight Officer and flew the Hump during World War II.  He gave LA a baseball team during one of the expansions.  His success was celebrated by five stars on the Hollywood Walk.  His individual contributions were celebrated in other ways.  An individual.  Yes, the Nation works because the system allows the actions of individuals to be integrated into a dynamic whole.  But, we celebrate the individual and his or her role because we know we need that performance and we know we need to celebrate it.  It is the American way.

Regards  —  Cliff