SAHAR KAMALI, San Clemente
Recent letters to the editor earnestly espouse the importance of ascribing to some limited school of “political” thought. They attempt to assign values and meaning to the two parties, which supposedly align with “conservative” and “liberal” thought.
With all due respect, and I do mean all due respect exactly the way Ricky Bobby said it in Talladega Nights, this is as about as useful as (breasts) on a bull. You can’t assign deep philosophical values and ethos to our dual-party political system, because there are none.
The parties are behemoth, meaningless, serve corporate overlords and institutional and generational wealth, and do not serve the common person. The less we focus on duality, or assume there is an either/or in every situation, the sooner we can practice living in community with one another, seeing the person next to us as a human being, and being grateful for their presence.
We are deeply, social animals, and we need each other as much as we need food, water and shelter.
Let’s practice the politics of 10 yards. Worry about your teeth! Worry about how you’ll pay for your mom’s long-term live-in care or maybe an ADU so that she can live right next to you. Worry about whether your neighbor has enough to eat and somewhere to go during the holidays.
Each of us forms the city’s present and future. San Clemente was my dream town for years, as I drove past on the 5 Freeway and looked down wistfully at the red-tiled roofs against the Pacific Ocean backdrop.
Now I live here, and I’m stoked every day. It has a specificity of place that so many towns the world over have lost. We have neighborhood beaches, corners and pockets and streets in San Clemente with so much soul and character, and I hope we never lose it.
I live in San Clemente, the best damn town in America, and just like the late Fred Swegles, I want to read and write about the people and places here, things that keeps this place ticking: its art, music, food, history and everything else. Who’s with me?
