at the galleria

The Sherman Oaks Galleria is up the street from me. On one corner, the Black Lives Matter folks stood with their signs. Across the street, the conservatives stood with their flags. People honked and gave a thumbs up. I’m not sure who the honk love went to but one thing was certain; folks were peaceably protesting and it was nice to see.

Spaceship JNET welcomed a visitor to LaLaLand. D @derekrichardson from SoCal Hive was in town and what better adventure is there than take photos of good ole Americans exercising their First Amendment. We dove right in and people posed with their signs. Most were friendly looking while a few had their angry-I-hate-the-system-let-it-all-burn-to-hell look. Maybe they thought I was a tourist. I wouldn’t have felt as bold if it wasn’t for D keeping me company. I wasn’t wearing a mask and meandered through the crowd. I was glad no one played mask police. A person with a black umbrella followed me around. Umbrella Person’s pack of friends looked very Gotham meets Clockwork Orange. It was an eclectic solemn crowd.

Across the street, the conservatives worn red, white and blue. They played music. No one on this side of the street wore masks. They smiled. Hardly the menacing white extremists that Republicans are touted as. They were sweet and goofy which is always shocking. It’s been on repeat FOREVER that these folks are hateful, mean and extremely racist. I’ve crashed a few conservative events where friends feared for my life. Daredevil JNET still alive and have not found any scary Republicans.

R: “They let you take photos of them?” The lady at the conservative table of stickers and red, white, and blue wares asked incredulously.

JNET: “I’m not a liberal nor a conservative. And I like to take photos. I recommend everyone consider anarchy and never trusting the government.”

She imagined anarchists to be a certain way and quickly put away her bias and listened. She was nice. D clarified that I was an anarcho-capitalist while the folks across the street were probably more anarcho-communist. I wished I could’ve sat down with the BLM crowd and shared the virtues of not wanting an authority figure to validate one’s existence but that crowd seemed keen on shaking fists and being angry. Liberals are a tougher crowd. I’m still recovering from debating my friend over crypto and it’s mining effects on the environment. He thinks governments hate crypto because governments care about climate change and protecting people. Government is a big party with too many tables, seats, and false friends that crave power. It’s a racket. Hardly an altruistic organization.

I’m okay with people exercising their right to think and say their peace. It’s a free country. People with creative ways of sharing their grievances get noticed.

California is in bad shape and party bias creates blind spots. Party bias also makes the koolaid extra strong. We have two years of Covid drama and I’m still mostly teaching online. My democrat friends tell me I’m safest staying home and avoiding people as I’m unvaxxed. They’ve been telling me that I will die soon unless I do what the government and experts says is best for me. It amazes me that civilization managed to make it this far without hospitals and governments coming about at the Big Bang. According to the current “science”, I’m alive strictly by luck.

I live life on my terms. I venture out of Spaceship JNET for the occasional adventure. Since I’ve chosen to not participate in the dystopian terms and get infected by the groupthink, I guess I come across as a visitor. Everything is novel to me. People are mostly nice to visitors.

This is a piece of my California in Sherman Oaks at my neighborhood mall where I used to go to the movies (pre-Covid vax pass days). On Friday afternoons, if you fancy a drive, go to Sepulveda and Ventura Blvd. Park at a meter and take photos and strike up a conversation. People are there to say their peace. Give them a listen.

That could be really tough if you’ve assigned yourself to a party especially in California. Some have taken some sort of weird sacramental vow to not talk to anyone of the other party. Heck…it is grounds for divorce here.

What a paralyzing way to live…may I recommend anarchy perhaps? 😬

Peace!

JNET