Posted by
Steve on Monday, October 19, 2009 4:15:52 PM
This past weekend, I was able to go to San Francisco with my wife. She was attending a meeting with a textbook publisher and took me along as her “guest”.
San Francisco has a special place in my heart and that of my family. We go back a long way into San Francisco lore. My first ancestors arrived there in 1848. They eventually settled in the Santa Rosa area, north of San Francisco. They owned a ranch up until the turn of the century. Periodically, members of the family would move to San Francisco and get involved in civic affairs.
The part I know best is that my father’s dad was born in Santa Rosa. After World War I, he moved to San Francisco to become a city policeman. Though, my father was born in Santa Rosa, he was raised in San Francisco. He was a regular policeman his entire career.
My mother’s father immigrated to the United States from Sweden when he was 17, just in time for World War I. He found himself in the same military unit as my father’s dad. They became friends during their military service for America. After the war, my grandfather, became a San Francisco Deputy Sheriff. He rose high enough to be involved in many of the high profile cases in the late 1940’s and 1950’s. He does tell of hiring in the 1930’s during the depression. There was a height requirement at the time for Deputy Sheriff’s. Those who were just under the requirement would have friends carry them from their home to the hiring station on a stretcher so they would maximize their height.
When my parents married, their first apartments were in San Francisco. I was born there. About 6 months later, my father got a job in the Visalia area and never really returned to San Francisco, except to visit.
Today, San Francisco is a cosmopolitan city. On Friday, I did not hear a word of English unless the person was talking to me when I was walking around the city. The rest of the weekend, English was not the most common language.
At the dinners with the group from the publishing company, I was able to hear the liberal side of various issues. I kept quiet, so that I would not endanger my wife’s position with the group. It was interesting to hear that they completely misunderstood everything about the support for proposition 8 in California. They attributed the support to fear of gays or discrimination. They discounted all the arguments in favor of proposition 8 as just fear tactics by the supporters. They did not give the supporters of proposition 8 any acknowledgement that their position might come from a value system that was different than theirs. They also totally support Barack Obama with no reservations. Barack Obama happened to come to San Francisco this weekend and some of the people at this meeting were unhappy because they could not attend his speech. I have heard supporters of Obama talk before, but never in such glowing terms as at this event.
My trip was worth the time and cost. I was able to reconnect with my roots in a small way. I did get to smell the salt air. That always makes me feel great. At times I felt like I was like Daniel in the Lion’s Den. But, I did get to see and hear how the other side thinks. That is always a valuable lesson.