From Santa Cruz to Fresno: Follow Our Road Trip Toward Renewal — Youthful Ingenuity and American Diversity on Full Display as We Drive the Hopeful Route to National Recovery
There is someplace like home. Its not Santa Cruz or Fresno, its Capitola. The dogs were very eager to see all the tourist attractions.
Jump in the car with us and glimpse a vision of hope in these dark, disorienting times. Our quick trip to Santa Cruz and Fresno reminded us that renewal is still possible — that decency, creativity, and community can take the wheel again if we choose it.
What we saw on the road convinced us that we don’t have to be trapped in the chaos manufactured by people who profit from division. Instead, we can step away from the noise of national and global politics and reclaim the power of living locally — doing more with less, building stronger communities, and trusting the ingenuity of a new generation that refuses to bow to the old forces that held us back.
There is a rising independent spirit out there, visible in classrooms, workshops, small businesses, and roadside conversations. It’s a spirit that doesn’t wait for permission, doesn’t fear change, and doesn’t cling to the old kings who never had the courage to do what was right. In fact, this often‑seen new generation carries enough clarity and backbone to crush the influence of those tired old kings — the ones who were always too cowardly to fight for anything but their own comfort.
This new generation is already shaping the future — and it’s a future rooted in resilience, fairness, and the belief that we can turn this around together.
DEI — Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion — is one of the great, distinctly American values, and on this trip we saw it everywhere. We’ll show you great places and great people, and we’ll remind you of the old values worth bringing back: keeping our money local, trusting our communities, and not being so afraid of our own bodies and our own humanity.
DEI will win. Hate will lose. Come see for yourself.
Across the West, we met conservative folks who are now horrified to realize they didn’t vote for common sense, hard work, or solutions — they voted for White supremacy dressed up as “toughness.” And they’re waking up fast. That old playbook is collapsing under its own weight.
Meanwhile, the West is full of young people who embody DEI in everything they do — inventive, collaborative, unafraid, and determined to build a future that leaves no one out. They are the ones shaping what comes next.
Our nation has gone all the way to Hell, folks. The door is open right now to turn away from it or go on in. This is the moment where we decide who we are — not in speeches or slogans, but in the choices we make every day.
We can still choose the path that leads back to decency, fairness, and community. We can still reach for the best of our American values: Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, compassion, and the courage to care for the people right beside us.
These destructive forces will lose. History has never been kind to movements built on fear, cruelty, or division. Let’s take a clear look at how — and why — common sense and basic morality are already beginning to make a comeback.
Common sense is not gone. Morality is not gone. They’ve just been drowned out by noise. But the volume is dropping, and the truth is getting harder to ignore.
Linda and I took the dogs on a week‑long workation to Santa Cruz and Fresno, with a little work tucked in along the farm trails of Mendocino, Sonoma, and Marin Counties. We’re sharing moments from our trip, hoping you’ll be as moved as we were by the people we met — folks from every political background, all living out the greatest of American values: DIVERSITY, EQUALITY and INCLUSION!
You say Fox News and the MAGA movement hate DEI — and they’ve made that clear. But movements built on exclusion and fear don’t last. They will lose, because Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion are values rooted in strength, fairness, and the future.
The fact that the modern GOP has embraced an ideology that elevates White supremacy over Diversity, Inequality over Equity, and Exclusion over Inclusion should be enough to make anyone step back and reconsider their allegiance. This is a moment to walk away from destructive systems — not to switch parties, but to imagine a future that isn’t controlled by either political machine. And before we can build that future, we have to confront and stop the extremist forces that have taken hold inside the GOP and are steering it away from basic American values.
We tooled through Mendocino and Sonoma Counties on our way to Santa Cruz — three regions that wear their liberal, DEI‑rooted values openly. Then we crossed the great California heartland to Fresno, a more conservative place that, ironically, was built by Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion and still depends on those values today.
The Internet was supposed to unite us in a global community. Instead, it floods us with civilization‑killing levels of cheap trash and fuels the anger that keeps us divided. Fresno knows this story well: once hollowed out by national chains, it’s now experiencing a revival powered by local food, local business, and local pride — the same direction our own coastal economy was heading before national‑level division drowned out the localism movement entirely.
We can be powerful again, but only if we start small: knowing our neighbors, choosing local businesses over Amazon, and pulling our money out of the giant Wall Street banks that have never cared about towns like ours. We can’t keep living like this — disconnected, angry, exhausted, and wondering why everything feels hollow.
And while we must speak up and push back, those of us from the older generations also need to step aside a little. We’ve made our share of mistakes. We’ve left a mess. But the new generation of American dreamers is ready — imaginative, courageous, unafraid, and determined to build something better than what we handed them.
So let’s see what they can do.
And now — come with us.From Mendocino to Sonoma, from Santa Cruz to Fresno, meet the faces, places, and moments that reminded us that the American spirit isn’t dead at all. It’s alive in the fields, in the workshops, in the small cafés, in the hands of young people who still believe in Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion — and who are already shaping the future.
Scroll on.The story continues in pictures.
Italian immigrant sculptor Clement Renzi created this Yokuts figure in 1974. “Yokuts” means “the people,” and they were unusual among California tribes — each group had its own name, language, and territory. They never farmed Fresno’s rich soil but were renowned seed gatherers, with botanical knowledge equal to any modern PhD. Today they’re centered at the Santa Rosa Rancheria. Renzi is one of the Central Valley’s great artists, also known for the Stations of the Cross at Christian Brothers Winery. His family lost their farm in the Depression, and he later served as a WWII Naval officer, drawing inspiration from Native people he met while stationed on a remote Hawaiian island. The dogs were mildly embarrassed, but the Yokuts man demanded a full inspection. Some folks may hate immigrants — I’m too much of a patriot for that.A little challenge for the day: go somewhere, greet a stranger, and see if they’ll talk with you. Start with a smile — no nose‑touching on the first encounter.And if they do agree, learn their reality. These days you can’t always be sure people are real — but at least you tried. Nose Bump Freely Now this is a real Santa Cruz–style dispensary. Years ago it might have irritated me — now it gives me hope. In a time when conformity and obedience to authority feel higher than ever, it’s refreshing to meet someone who isn’t afraid of his own shadow. We need more real Americans like this — people who aren’t terrified of everything. Millions of MAGA folks seem afraid to resist anything these days, but this kind is chill and not afraid. There’s a lot of noise out there telling folks to fear their rights or stay silent, yet this guy is calm, grounded, and unbothered. We could use a lot more of that steady courage.Fresno was a latecomer to California’s great cities, winning its place as county and economic center by building its own local banking power. This bank funded the railroads and farms that made the region thrive. Fresno still carries that wisdom today with a strong community bank — also called Security Bank — locally owned and focused on local people, not national corporate giants. And honestly, any “liberal” still banking with Wall Street might as well hang up the protest signs and go fishing.This 220‑foot tower is now fully occupied with offices, lofts, a renowned French restaurant, and a rooftop bar. A century old and still evolving, it proves the power of standing on the shoulders of the past — and not being afraid to innovate. It just turned 100.This Courthouse Square statue honors the South Vietnamese allies who fought beside Americans in Vietnam — many of whom later settled in Fresno and helped build the city. It’s a monument to the real courage behind DEI. Fresno may lean conservative, but it proudly celebrates the Armenians, Mexicans, Italians, Black families, Native peoples, and Asian communities that shaped it. With a Latino majority and large Asian populations, Fresno shows how diversity strengthens a place — and why communities built on contribution, not exclusion, are the future.For more than a decade, on every trip through Anderson Valley, I’ve stopped to photograph this antique car — likely a 1911 Chevrolet — still perched where someone left it long ago. The creek has eaten away the bank so much that its wooden wheels now hang over open air. When this car was parked, America was the most innovative nation on earth. Today we rank 26th in upward mobility, and we keep sliding whenever policies favor wealth concentration over opportunity. The only thing keeping us from falling further is the sheer size of our national economy. The United States is no longer the automatic land of opportunity — yet immigrants still arrive hoping to help rebuild it. If we choose policies that expand opportunity instead of shrinking it, we can make that hope real again.Nothing feels more wrong to me than the Great Redwood Trail as designed — a scheme that funnels rail commerce from Cloverdale to the Bay while leaving Mendocino County with nothing but consultant reports and no local benefit. This corridor was meant to reach Willits, where a real railroad could actually help rebuild our economy.This mysterious stone archway in Geyserville or Healdsburg has been abandoned by the property owner in favor of a new road entrance. I have to know its history. We need senseless artistic indulgence again, penny pinching art, writing and our future has made us psychotic as a culture.Fit for King! But king who?Below Philo ancient lumber equipment was being used as part of a more frugal and careful lumber economy. There was stuff from 100 years ago in use. After we leave the picket lines, we need to support this kind of local local innovation. I guess I didnt get the old stuff in this photo. I want to go back, its truly amazing to see.The giant art of Geyserville is truly amazing, perhaps a bit too accessible to get rave reviews from more than me. Horses were illegal immigrants from Mexico but made America their own and this spirit here is America, no doubt. If people would just turn off Fox and think about how much of our fast declinging greatness comes from DIVERSITY we could stop the slide, Dump the GOP forever and get back on track. Im not a Democrat lover but the GOP has to go.The egg from space and the circle goddess are newer additions to the Geyserville Sculpture Trail. Wouldn’t they look great along the Coastal Trail?? We are being eaten alive by “AI” right now. Art, Faith, love REAL creativity and sexuality are all that can save us from AI.Citizens United and its fabricator, the worst judge in history, Sammy boy of the Supereme Court, must GO! The first time you see a plane landing on Hwy. 101 in northern Marin County, you are likely to think its a plane crash. But its actually Gnoss Field, hidden airstrip right along the highway. California Air Commuter offered passenger flights to Ukiah, Little River, Ukiah and other places, unthinkable in the money money money world we now live in. None of this kind of business goes on now. Why? Everything maximizes only immeidate profit, not the overall society. Its a drastic change. We need to develop loyalty to our community, not strive to do everything to the penny or we lose our souls, not to mention getting a housefull of Chinese trash.We started our trip in the Anderson Valley by visiting one of my most beloved friends. My favorite vegetable on earth is this giant redwood on a public park created by a timber company on their lands . Its unlike any redwood I have seen with deep grooves for bark, which seems to have allowed it to survive several fires. I never cease to be amazed when I put my big hands in its groove. There is so much innovation in genetics INCLUDING OUR OWN, if only we can not limit our visions with “AI” and not destroy their and our opportunities to be different.The amazing genetics allowed my fellow giant to survive many fires. I can put my whole hand into these grooves, which create miles more fire resistant bark to protect with wood below.You can see tiny mushrooms living off the water and communicating with this earth father.Don’t you just want to drink that martini and suck on that 120-year-old cherry at the bottom? Immigrant Vincente Belli built this hotel in 1906, right after leaving SF and the great earthquake. It is a beloved local bar in Firebaugh, a town where one guy remembered my first big news story, lol, more later!. It is no longer. motel but the bar, that locals call Cheers is one of those dives along the road I’d love to see. It was too early. More on the news story later, if I live that long, its still not told and they want it to be. MAGA and the GOP can hate immigrants all day, I love them and their stories. The owner named the establishment after fellow Italian immigrant Domenic Paganucci who was the ferry boat captain, businessman, a bar tender and eventual owner of the business, a Mr. Firebaugh of his time, who spoke Italian and English with equally fluidity and could tell jokes in both languages.A Fresno mural that’s actually working. Fentanyl deaths fell sharply in 2024 and again this year — not because of whoever happened to be in the White House, but because of local movements like this. One Fort Bragg family brought enormous light and education to the issue here at home. Yes, terrible things can get better. When we work together and care enough about our neighbors — and even strangers — to spare them from losses we already know too well, change happens. We can push back against this crisis too, if we come together locally and tune out the national noise.She was just a tiny speck until I zoomed in with the Nikon P1000 — and then the Golden Eagle appeared. I can’t help wondering whether she ever looked up from her phone long enough to see him. We’re missing so much of the world right in front of us, drifting further from our own humanity and sense of reality. Escaping back into nature — not just in body, but in attention and spirit — might be the only way to find our way back.More than once on our trip, I startled people while working with my camera — downright scared some others. Many of the workers I encountered were hiding, not because they were dangerous, but because they feared being targeted despite filling jobs this country depends on. Employers who knowingly hire undocumented workers rarely face consequences, yet the workers themselves carry all the risk. One man finally stepped out to talk with me, friendly and open, and it was clear what was happening. It’s heartbreaking to see how far we’ve let this situation deteriorate. Years ago, a bipartisan, comprehensive immigration plan had broad support and could have reshaped this system for the better, but it never reached a vote. We’re still living with the consequences of that failure.Over the years of coming here for my federal work, I’ve watched Mexican‑owned businesses take off like lightning. This part of the economy is growing, real, and powerful — built by people investing in their communities, not shouting into the void online. If you want to see the future, it’s right here in the storefronts and family enterprises that keep expanding despite every headwind.Alongside the small‑town festive markets, old Fresno is alive again thanks to an incredible mix of Asian and Mexican businesses. On this one street alone, I counted six Mexican clothing shops — everything from Vaquero gear to high‑fashion boutiques to this polished Western‑wear store. Nothing in my size, alas, but fantastic places for all ya’ll regular‑size folks.We kept stumbling onto memorials in the strangest places. This one sits off a busy exit at the end of a short dead‑end road between two gas stations — nearly twenty small crosses gathered in a tight cluster, as if whispering to one another. It felt like a message meant for anyone who happened to wander close enough to notice. I found myself wondering whether this is a cultural tradition I’ve never learned, something outside my experience and far beyond the reach of Google. People forget that Google Search holds only a sliver of the world. I’ve witnessed major California events — lived them, reported them — that never made it online at all. There is SO MUCH you aren’t being told, not because it’s hidden, not out of conspiracy, but because the digital record is tiny compared to the real world record.Another example of the world getting better — filled with hardworking immigrants, ethnic communities, and longtime locals, all as diverse and powerful as the Statue of Liberty’s promise. Strip malls used to garbagify the landscape when I was growing up. Now many of them have turned classy and vibrant, with real food and real shops that serve the needs of hardworking, diverse communities. This is Dublin. All along the way, good food has been replacing the fast‑food poison of our generation — though there are still far too many chains hanging on. Stop going to those now and support the places that actually nourish a body and a community.We had the incredible luck to choose between a homemade Chinese pancake spot, a sourdough sandwich shop, a Tandoori chicken place, and a Katsu eatery — just four out of nearly thirty packed storefronts. Young, diverse workers were pouring in after their shifts, grabbing real food made by real people, while the online crowd in their underwear kept calling them lazy. We went for the pancakes — fast food, but the good kind. If this is the future, let’s lean into it and help shape it.This cracked me up — like, what on earth is this about? Generation gap, folks. It was a joy for us Fort Bragg oldsters to watch thousands of ethnically and gender‑diverse young people pour out of offices at 5 p.m. and dive straight into their fads. This one’s a hit: a delicious “Japanese” food craze. Boba tea has taken over the world, and you can find every kind of Asian and African hot pot along with it. These young people will live their busy lives and, I hope, outlast this rough era. It encourages me to see so many choosing something better than fast food. Progress keeps pushing forward — we just can’t give in to those who want to divide us..People from India are among the smartest and most successful business owners in the Central Valley, building everything from tech firms to family‑run shops with remarkable skill and resilience. Their influence is growing fast, reshaping the region’s economy in ways that are impossible to ignore. Many are rethinking old political assumptions as they build their lives and businesses here — a shift that says a lot about where the future is heading. The right wing is losing many of them right now Who could have guessed that white supremacy from the president would not appeal to them?. Hope for the future!I love Jesus, but parts of the modern Evangelical Church have failed us by trading depth for spectacle and turning faith into merchandise. When I looked up the advertised “Jesus Is Lord” website, it wasn’t about our Lord at all — just bling, magnets, and trinkets. The “testimonials” section didn’t speak of grace or transformation, only how buying the magnets had changed lives. It broke my heart. I pray the Lord forgives the ways people have twisted His name for profit.I thought I had a real winner here — a lone surfer in the ocean below the Santa Cruz Surfing Museum. Cool shot, even if plenty of others have snagged it too. The old lighthouse, still owned by the federal government, has become a kind of hallowed hall for generations of dudes and dudettes. History meets the future all over again on this cliff. We can do it.Santa Cruz is what people picture when they imagine California. From our window we could watch beach volleyball at sunrise — the sun rising in the west above the boardwalk and beach!!, lighting up the sand and the athletes in motion. These beautiful & powerful players make you look, not out of vanity, but because they remind us of something we’ve forgotten: we need to see each other again, and stop fearing our own beauty. All humans are beautiful. These athletes just embody something the rest of us have been taught to hide. Bodies are meant to be lived in, not shamed or erased. And YES, the sun rises in the West in Santa Cruz.Downtown Santa Cruz is where palm trees actually look super cool. But blanket them across Fresno County and they turn downright silly — and, sorry, they’re a little goofy in Fort Bragg too. Some things just belong in their natural habitat, and Santa Cruz is as chill as the wide Pacific.The original roller coaster (not pictured here) and the even older carousel are still spinning away on the boardwalk, joined now by a whole lineup of newer, much screamier rides.The beach‑ball planters were a hit — the dogs were absolutely fascinated. And don’t go assuming some other pup had peed on them. That’s fidotyping.The Bay Area is full of dog parks — an idea people once swore would never work, predicting daily dog fights back in the 1980s. The prophecy never came true in any large sense. Dog parks are a mixed blessing, sure, but they’re 90 percent positive and have helped countless dogs stay social instead of aggressive. If dogs can learn their community, know it, and love it, there’s hope for us too
You know they see as much — maybe more — than we do. Dogs read the world in layers we’ve forgotten how to notice: scent‑stories carried on the breeze, emotional weather patterns shifting between strangers, the quiet truth of who’s safe and who’s hurting. Their noses are just the doorway; it’s their togetherness that does the real seeing. They move through the world assuming connection, not suspicion. They trust first, observe deeply, and forgive faster than we can process. They remember what we’ve unlearned — that community is sensed, not argued; that presence is a language; that love is a kind of navigation.When the Dublin dog park opened, they decorated the fence with silhouettes of the regulars — the dogs who made the place what it was. Most of those old friends have crossed the rainbow bridge now, but their shadows still keep watch.Jimmy Buffett knew: The journey of life is sweeter when traveled with a dog. He wasn’t being cute — he was pointing to the creatures who greet the world with unfiltered presence, who don’t hoard grudges, who find delight in the ordinary. Dogs remind us of the part of ourselves that hasn’t been numbed by hurry or fear. They carry the lesson in their bodies: joy is not a luxury, it’s a way of perceiving.People really are made more “joyous” by the psychic joy of dogs. They broadcast it without trying — a kind of emotional Wi‑Fi that lifts the whole room. Dogs don’t just feel joy; they radiate it, and we tune into that frequency whether we mean to or not. Their happiness is contagious in the oldest, most biological sense: a reminder that connection is instinct, not theory. When a dog is joyful, the world around them brightens, and we remember, briefly, how to be human again.Of course, we see this sort of thing at home every day — just with the dogs, not the sea lions. And honestly, the dogs do it better. They patrol the neighborhood like furry monks, studying the breeze, decoding invisible gossip, and reminding us that half of life is paying attention. They don’t just notice the world; they mentor us in how to belong to it. Sea lions bark, but dogs? Dogs deliver sermons in sniffs.Somehow when you see something on vacation, it’s just cooler. The same thing at home barely earns a glance, but on the road it suddenly feels cinematic. .Travel doesn’t change the thing you’re looking at; it changes the part of you that’s doing the looking.Sure, she looks like an angel… but don’t let the wings fool you. Halo optional, mischief guaranteed.I sure had a cute date for the trip — artist Alan Burris’ 1986 pyramid, revived from salt‑death more than once and still looking good enough to take out on the town.Linda scored a happiness‑making bathing suit in Capitola… only to discover the new Hyatt in Fresno doesn’t even have a hot tub. Timing is everything.MLK, a personal hero of Linda’s, is among the DEI figures some political voices have tried to sideline, minimize, even remove in our national story. But his legacy isn’t something that can be erased. His vision of unity isn’t just a dream to admire from afar — it’s a blueprint we can choose to live out, build, and make real.Linda made it 64 years without ever touching snails — escargot, if we’re being fancy — but she tried one for me. She said the fears were gone… but thanks, NO — she didn’t want another one.She’s no escargot aficionado — but on a road trip she’s pure charm. Sexy, adventurous, and willing to try.Linda let her hair down from our motel room so we could climb up — a roadside Rapunzel moment, minus the castle but with way better lighting.If you roadtrip with Linda, she’s the driver. Some guys I knew in Texas thought it was unmanly to let a woman drive — I think it’s perfect for napping and picture‑taking.The thing I love about journalism — and hate about AI — is that when you go looking for facts, it’s never what the encyclopedic databases think it is. Back in the ’80s, more and more crows started pouring into Yuba City, thousands of them lining wires and trees above people just trying to sleep. Everyone assumed something terrible was happening in the environment. The studies finally came in, and the big revelation? Nothing was wrong. The crows had simply decided it was cool to party in town. They’re flock creatures, after all — unlike their close cousins we have here, the ravens, who prefer a quieter life. The crows literally talk to each other and tell each other stories about great hangouts-on telephone poles.There are miles and miles of hoop houses with no plastic between Santa Cruz and Bakersfield. I couldn’t tell if they were abandoned pot farms or something else entirely — but most of them seem to be raising some kind of berries now. California agriculture never stops reinventing itself, even when it looks half‑finished from the highway.Black sheep arise and lead us back to sanity!You won’t find Jakl on ChatGPT or Google Search — but every tagger knows the name. A ghost, a rumor, a signature in motion. Lead us, Jakl.Almost every freight car was tagged. The railroad must allow this, right? It actually seems like it would benefit them — the cars are more visible, more colorful, and it’s hard to imagine it does any harm, unlike tagging on private buildings. And somehow, out of a hundred tankers and boxcars, I didn’t see a single gang tag. There must be some unwritten code or quiet filtering going on, because the art is everywhere, but the threatening stuff is nowhere.The ancient brick walls along East Oakland have stood there since the 1950s, when the Nimitz Freeway sliced the city in half. In the early 1900s, these were working cotton mills, back when the neighborhood was called Jingletown. They look terrifying now — leaning, cracked, ready to crumble — but engineers have studied them. They even stayed upright in 1989 when the Nimitz itself collapsed just blocks away. And still, somehow, taggers reach them. HOW do they get to these spots and pull this off? t’s like gravity, fences, and common sense don’t apply to them.There’s still such a thing as gravity and such a thing as too much rebellion, even when the cause is noble or funny. This Mad‑Max‑Road‑Warrior‑worthy school bus came barreling past us with a giant, non‑aerodynamic wooden shed teetering on top — looked like someone’s bedroom strapped to a dare. One good gust and the whole thing will be sawdust. We’d pulled over to check out the windmill project when the monstrosity whizzed by. Wait till you see the next photo.The fact that this wooden box can stay attached while crossing California is stunning to me — and yes, I still believe in the laws of physics. Through the bushes you can spot the old car trailing behind it. We were pulled off on the roadside, so I only had a couple of seconds to grab the shot. Easily one of the strangest rides I’ve ever seen.Hanging out the back of the bus was a pretty cool early‑1960s car, just casually riding along like it belonged there. And I’ve got to think whoever rigged this rolling circus isn’t the type to cheer on brutality or look the other way. There have to be some good old boys out there with real backbone — the kind who stand up for people instead of siding with power.Another wind‑energy set. Farmers out here can tap into a wind‑solar combo, a smart hybrid that keeps their operations running. But the president doesn’t want any more wind power. Trump canceled the Humboldt County offshore wind project — a project slated to host the biggest, most powerful turbines on earth, and one that would have delivered a major economic boost and a local source of clean energy for our region.These windmills stand above Dublin, a place made fun of and overlooked as a bland surburbia, but they are innovating in so many ways. The freeway was stopped solid for some car crash so we explored from 4-7 p.m, a place that didnt sound that interesting to explore but was. We know so much less about everything REAL and local thanks to the Internet and social media.We still need oil. It was an industry that helped the country grow, powered entire eras of development, and played a major role in winning wars. But it’s also something that needs to be eased into the past — not turned into the only option we’re allowed to pursue, which is what’s happening now.Basalt Hill rises from the valley floor a thousand feet above San Luis Reservoir, the kind of landmark you only appreciate when you’ve been on the road long enough for the landscape to start talking back. It’s that sudden dark shoulder of volcanic rock that pops up out of the golden grasslands and makes you sit up a little straighter in the passenger seat. One of those “pull over for a second” moments — the kind that reminds you California still has surprises tucked between the long stretches of highway.The San Luis reservoir was invisible due to fog it created. I Tule fog is the worst in the world and I was afraid. This wasnt tule fog, just a reservoir with a haridoI love spying on the mountaintops along the way with Mr. Superzoom — my quiet co‑pilot who never misses a ridge or a wrinkle. And it’s nice how they left the lone Live Oak standing, like a sentinel keeping watch over the pass.When Scottish immigrant John Muir walked across California, he wrote rapturously about the giant sequoia — but he also adored the elegant live oaks: Canyon Oak, Blue Oak, Valley Oak. They leaf out just as the hills shift from spring green to California‑gold, a seasonal handoff he noticed long before most settlers bothered to look. The Native people, fighting off attacks and fighting back for their homelands, watched this strange bearded wanderer measuring trees and scribbling notes. To them he seemed like a kind of wizard — a man who listened to the land instead of trying to conquer it.Fresno State’s main tower is impressive – it rises beside the old Save Mart Arena — a rare case where the name honors a real human story. Larry Shehadey was a high‑school phenom with a full slate of college scholarships, but he walked away to help his family. He built a successful business, then spent decades quietly writing million‑dollar checks to Fresno State athletics. He lived past 100, still watching, still rooting, still giving. We can change our dreams when we love our community.Shame, shame, and shame. So much work to do before we dig out of this. Across from Fresno State it’s a wall of fast‑food poison — three Wendy’s, every chain on earth, and only a couple of tiny local spots hanging on. Even Jamba Juice was as processed as Taco Bell. Locally made food gives you real options; this stuff is just the marketing killing us, a farce that robs us and the next generations. It wasn’t like this when I was a kid.This young man is a true Banana Slug — living Santa Cruz , dog‑loving, and obviously way too smart to touch fast food.Santa Cruz is definitely more body positve than Mendocino. It wasn’t even that warm.Fort Bragg won’t ever have.a surfer museum but we should have an interactive underwater photography museum! Fort Bragg is like Capitola, way more than I thought. Santa Cruz is a league of its own.The chairs on the cliff edge are a nice touch of hubris. Teh cliffs are more solid at the top and bottom with a beachy sandstone crumble where the Oreo goes. Most believe that ocean storms can be kept away now with rock revestment that has. gotten to be the better version of seawallsEvery house along Cliff way in Santa Cruz is different and many are designed by world famous architects. This one was our favorite and the crown jewel of a nearby architecture firm.Another view of our favorite. Its one of the newest houses there but it was very hard to find history, its owned by a SF investment company named for Leaksdale, Canada and the Shenondoah Valley, or so it appears. There is a fun story here for somebody in Santa Cruz While many of the homes have been built and rebuilt and sold for $5 million and up, this beauty is from 1984 and was purchased by the current owner for a mere $1.3 million in 2003. The amazing piece of art/house takes up almost the entire lot. The owner lives in nearby Scotts Valley. Wealth has always enhanced art, from the times of great art patrons, but wealth has gone crazy in our country just now.Almost all the homes on Cliff Drive in Santa Cruz are $4 million and up at this point. There are still some average shacks by the sea left but they get high offers from those who want to build one like this, I was told. Architects compete to design a house here. They say if your house is here and you werent on the cover of an architecture magazine, something is wrong. A Santa Cruz senior lives full time in this Vermont style granite home, built in 2007. Pretty much everyone admits that someday the houses, the art and the continent will lose to Poseidon.Santa Cruz started developing what is now the boardwalk for tourists in 1865. In 1907 the Boardwalk opened. Its the oldest amusement park in CaliforniaIts as if God built the seawall in Santa Cruz and waited for the beautiful people to come. I like all people myself and she does too.Caesar is getting the trip ofa. lifetime. There were literally like 10,000 of these boxes. A crew of young people, 8 men and one woman was unloading them and had clearly developed a roster of jokes for when anyone asked them what was inside. The manifest makes no sense. “You don’t want to know”. “We have to put you inside one if you told us” and “Trump is moving here from Florida”
Don’t let the turdburgers mock “woke” or DEI in front of you. That’s how the brainwashing works — sneer at the values built by people who actually sacrificed, the ones who stood up to feudalism, Marxism, fascism, and every other force that tried to crush human dignity. If you can peel the Fox‑crafted fake reality off your mind for even five minutes, you can see it: the DEI at work in both conservative and liberal corners of California is already dooming this little Klan revival now at its peak.
America the Beautiful isn’t theirs. It belongs to all of us — patriots, conservatives, socialists, libertarians, Greens, true red‑white‑and‑blues, and liberals. We outnumber the cult. We outlast the hate. Even the folks who fall for the temporary camaraderie of outrage TV eventually snap out of it. Cults built on foolishness always melt. They always have. They always will.
We’re living through dark times — the most frightening I’ve ever seen — with the future gone opaque, like a highway swallowed by tule fog at 2 a.m. You keep driving because that’s what the road demands, but the headlights barely touch what’s ahead, and every mile feels like a quiet dare from the universe.
Renzi’s most controversial sculpture shows a Catholic priest, a rabbi, and a Protestant minister on Fresno’s courthouse plaza. The ACLU argued it blurred the line between church and state, but Renzi’s intent was the opposite — three real men sat for him, and he carved them down to their shared essence while keeping their faces. A reminder that we’re the same at our core. I used to disagree with the ACLU on this, but watching what happens when political power and certain churches fuse has changed my mind. Maybe this piece would have been better across the street — because the sculpture is beautiful, but the boundary it tested matters even more now.
The way back is to reclaim our American values — Diversity, Equality, Inclusion. Wake up and stay awake. Courageous Americans right now must embrace our communities in all their forms: the artists, the weirdos, the homeless, the elders, the disabled. And we push back peacefully against the systems of money and corporate power that have hollowed out our towns. That’s the real work of loving a country.
These creeps will lose. Our little work‑vacation made it obvious why. Remember what they hate most:
Remember What they hate
EQUALITY
DIVERSITY
And INCLUSION
DEI is America — diversity, equality, inclusion are literally the country’s founding contradictions and its ongoing project. When someone rejects those values outright, they’re aligning themselves with an ideology that historically insisted America was “for and by” white people only. That’s the core idea behind groups like the KKK, and it’s why rhetoric that attacks DEI so often echoes older exclusionary movements.
We saw hard‑working people of every race on this trip — old Italian farmers, Armenian farmers, and Mexican laborers who were terrified of my camera, sending one brave soul to greet me and make sure I wasn’t a threat. Armenians helped build Fresno, yet their own history includes persecution and ethnic cleansing. The pattern is old, and America has its own: the genocide of Indigenous peoples, the enslavement of Africans, and the suffering created by modern immigration enforcement policies. None of this had to happen. Decades ago, broad bipartisan support existed for a comprehensive immigration reform plan — a workable path to citizenship for needed workers, enforcement for those who refused it, and accountability for employers who knowingly exploited undocumented labor. Think tanks across the spectrum endorsed it, universities from evangelical to progressive backed it, and many analysts note that early efforts toward reform were derailed by media and political pressure. The tragedy is how much human suffering followed. When outrage becomes a business model, hate becomes a product — and real people pay the price.
DEI is ME. DEI is America. I am so sick of white and straight supremacy. its filthy lucre.
The Islamic temple across from Fresno State went up in 1979, in the middle of the hostage crisis — a reminder that this country once handled fear without collapsing into hate. The Central Valley has long been home to Muslims, Hindus, and Sikhs, many of them traditionally conservative. But the rise of extremist white nationalist rhetoric has pushed whole communities away from the party they once supported. That’s how destructive movements break themselves: they turn on their own values. Good manners, ethics, and character aren’t loud, but they outlast the viciousness. Both Islam and Christianity were twisted by bad actors in that same era — yet the communities they tried to poison are still here, still building, still refusing to disappear. There are still way more good Christians, good Sikhs, good Hindus and good Muslims than bad.I love labor 100x after the autoworker wasnt afraid to lose his job to a turd who flipped him off. Almost nobody has courage in 2026. Hail to TJ Sabula! The Ford union man spoke to the president in the language our “leader” uses every day on everybody else and Trump couldn’t take what he dishes out
Liberalism, the Progressive Movement, the Civil Rights Movement, the women’s rights movement, socialism, free thinking — these are great American traditions, but they were never meant to become fortresses of fear or perpetual offense. And on the other side, the right has turned victimhood into an art form, a whole chorus of “boo‑hoo for us” from people who hold most of the power. The only way forward is to rise above all of it — to be fearless, forgiving, and, above everything else, empathetic.
Firebaugh was once named Firebaugh Ferry, being the place pioneers in on the Butterfield Overland Stage line crossed the San Joaquin River on the way to San Francisco during the Gold Rush. Murals are a big hit in recent years but this placard is from the 1950s. ,some guy from the town told me and he said it needs to restored. How about a new ferry for tourists? Blue economy? Not really, the San Joaquin water is sadly anything but blue now.The tourist dogs rush over to check out the ruins of the old Firebaugh Swing Bridge, built in the 1880s to replace the famous statecoach ferry and a key crossing spot in California until it was replaced a century later.The boss directs the crew on the falsework as they construct more and more housing in fast-growing Clovis. These people will only know all this ridiculous Trump filth from accounts in history books, like reading about other huge mistakes in American HistoryPerhaps the dumbest thing about California is that people planted millions and millions of Palm Trees everywhere. I know a country road where there must be 2000 of them in a row. The only business there closed decades ago, and they decorate a houseless, little-used highway. Why these non natives? Wasnt Cali cool enough without them?
Palm trees are that quintessential California phenomenon from Hollywood, take incredible beauty and dress it up. Lets cut back on the unreal stuff folks!Fresno was an early mural city but everyone is doing it now, we have great ones in Fort Bragg too.Tioga-Sequoia Brewing Co restored a 19th century facility to make its tasty brews and had a mural of the old steel Fresno sign that hung over the street (and I think is still there) . North Coast Brewing’s Mural is better and the beer has a much wider range.The old Tokyo Gardens was very early DEIThe youngsters look into the future through an ancient Fresno business, the Japanese restaurant, whose owners brought DEI to Fresno after WWII.Courthouses were once revered as the center of American Democracy. I dont trust the California courts, nor revere them since they gave up any attempt to be open and available to the public or the press. It’s a secret club now where nobody can challenge a DA with facts. The officers of the court have walked away from their legal obligation to have an open, public and trusted court system. I won’t do jury duty ever again. It’s not a public court system and one now doomed to corruption without light able to come in.High above the courthouse in the tippy top of the tree is a red-shouldered hawk who watched everything for an hour while we had fun with each other and the dogs.On the highest tree above Courthouse square, this redhouldered hawk watched for a half hour while we were there and the sun set.We watched a jury come out at the end of the day and mix with the crowd, enjoying the sunset. The jurors were the most diverse group of people ever. This is their county too. We don’t give the non-whites the same feeling in Ukiah.This courthouse was hated for its modern design when it was built in 1966, replacing a neo-classical courthouse from 1875. Now, Fresno plans to replace this one to the tune of $800 million. The California Judicial Council is the worst public agency in all California, wasteful, unelected and uninterested in any public access of any kind. YOu can be sure any new courthouse they approve will have zero opportunity for the public or press to review files.Capitola’s Venetian Village dates from 1924. These true beachfront colorful shacks now stage a typical battle, with the Air B and Bs having taken over much of this housing, home to workers and retirees for most of the century. A few are run down. A little elderly lady sat in her living room watching us tourists go by from her little living room. She didn’t speak until she saw Caesar, who talked back to her. I didnt butt in.This egret was like 1/3 the size of the egrets that come to our pond in Fort Bragg. Egrets seem much smarter than herons. One here on our pond made friends with our ducks and would put his head down to their level and they would waddle about talking to him for a couple years. Then he didnt come for a long time and when a white egret appeared again, they charged in joy. This scared the egret and he flew away in terror, not being their friend, just a Great White Egret.The Capitola egret came up on the pier even though there were lots of people and dogs around and took a nap.Birds spend a lot of time thinking and adaptingThis egret looked at the dogs and I for about two hours in Capitola. He was the only egret among hundreds of ravens or crows and gulls. He watched them all and seemed to be just enjoying his day. He grabbed a tiny white critter here and ate it, but napped and voyeured other than that.I was eager to photograph a sea otter and saw a dot way out on the ocean in Santa Cruz. He’s taking a nap!We talked to a few locals in Capitola. The pigeons were a sore point.Another egret, much taller joins the comorants along scenic W. Cliff DriveThe team was rapt while the coach gestured after practice. MIght be some sort of Olympic squad? Or maybe the UC Santa Cruz teamHis sunglasses were his way of being subtle. I took this photo and later watched all ten of the gals from the sunrise workout flip‑flop back to their apartment, laughing, glowing, loving life. They even posed for a picture, and I was the one who ended up embarrassed — they just laughed, petted the dogs, and kept moving. By then everyone was in shorts, the morning fog burned off, and face‑to‑face felt so much more real than anything online. I was one of a dozen tourists shooting the beach scene, but I had the two big dogs and the giant camera — just happy, healthy people in perfect shape, loving their sport, loving the morning, loving being alive. When you meet people face to face its very difficult to ignore their humanity. Online living dehumanizes more than watching through a camera. Too many clothes are ways of hiding. We are all beautiful and real!
Frank Hartzell has spent his lifetime as a curious anthropologist in a reporter's fedora. His first news job was chasing news on the streets of Houston with high school buddy and photographer James Mason, back in 1986. Then Frank graduated from Humboldt State and went to Great Gridley as a reporter, where he bonded with 1000 people and told about 3000 of their stories. In Marysville at the Appeal Democrat, the sheltered Frank got to see both the chilling depths and amazing heights of humanity. From there, he worked at the Sacramento Bee covering Yuba-Sutter and then owned the Business Journal in Yuba City, which sold 5000 subscriptions to a free newspaper. Frank then got a prestigious Kiplinger Investigative Reporting fellowship and was city editor of the Newark Ohio, Advocate and then came back to California for 4 years as managing editor of the Napa Valley Register before working as a Dominican University professor, then coming to Fort Bragg to be with his aging mom, Betty Lou Hartzell, and working for the Fort Bragg Advocate News. Frank paid the bills during that decade + with a successful book business. He has worked for over 50 publications as a freelance writer, including the Mendocino Voice and Anderson Valley Advertiser, along with construction and engineering publications. He has had the thrill of learning every day while writing. Frank is now living his dream running MendocinoCoast.News with wife, Linda Hartzell, and web developer, Marty McGee, reporting from Fort Bragg, California.
