Appreciating home as the year comes to an end
The year 2006 is drawing to a close and I started going through my columns this past year to get a sense of where we’ve been and perhaps where we are going.
The central overwhelming event of this past year has been the war in Iraq. It’s insinuated itself into every aspect of American life. It’s clearly become very unpopular and the overwhelming majority of Americans-left, right and center-now believe it was an expensive mistake, that has unnecessarily cost us many American lives, a vast amount of our treasury, and a good part of our international reputation and goodwill. Additionally, it doesn’t appear to have made us any safer from terrorism; in fact, it may have made it easier for the terrorists to recruit new people.
This general view of the war in Iraq has permeated every portion of the American body politic except, unfortunately, the White House, which seems to exist in a cocoon of unreality. When the bipartisan Iraq Commission released their report recently, it represented the combined judgment of some very experienced and cool heads with foreign policy, intelligence and military experience. It could have provided the covering fire to allow the White House to change position without appearing to be retreating, which all presidents are loath to do. The White House accepted the report, thanked everyone for their work, and apparently threw the report up onto the shelf and continued along blithely as if nothing has changed.
So the American public went to the polls last month and took change into their own hands. The House changed hands and the Senate changed hands. The major issue in this seismic shift was, according to the post election polls, the war in Iraq.
The president is now asking for more troops in Iraq and $100 billion to cover the costs. The last two years of Bush’s presidency is going to be spent trying to make a bad decision better, and it is absolutely apparent to me that he will fail. We could double our troop strength and we still couldn’t stop what is essentially a civil war. When we leave, and be assured we will leave, the civil war will probably continue on for years with Shia against Sunni against Kurds, tribe and clan against tribe and clan, warlord against warlord. The sad part is that the 20 Americans killed each week will continue and at the end of the two years 2,000 more young American men and woman will be dead, billions of dollars will have been spent and wasted, and we will be in exactly the same position we would be in if we left tomorrow.
To a certain extent we all live in a cocoon, which, for most of us, is a really good thing. Life in California and Malibu goes on as if there were no outside world and for most of us 2006 was a good year. The economy was good and that produced some extra dollars for the state so we could take care of some running problems.
It was a year when the governor and the Legislature actually got together and started passing some legislation that made some sense for our state. And most voters were happy and relieved, and re-elected the governor and most of the legislators. We passed $43 billion in new bonds, which means over the next decade our roads will improve, new schools will be built and old ones upgraded, a levee system that is more than 100 years old will be fixed, some affordable housing will be built, and some water and park resources protected. All and all we did a good thing for ourselves, but an even better thing for the next generation or two.
Our hometown Malibu had a good year also. We managed to buy the Chili Cook-off site, all 20 acres, and within a few years we’ll have a central park with grassy knolls, streams and small ponds and, as an added bonus, we’ll be cleaning up Malibu Creek, the lagoon, the surf line and the ocean.
Up on Bluffs Park, the land under the ball fields now belongs to the city, so the fields are there to stay and we no longer have to worry that one day the state will push us off.
On a personal level, our Malibu real estate has pretty much held its own despite a general slowdown, and the local economy, although growing progressively pricier, seems to be perking along. The vistas and the weather are still magnificent.
Christmas morning, Karen and I took a walk along the Malibu Lagoon and out onto the pier. The sun was shining, the air was clear, kids were out surfing and the lagoon was filled with birds. It brought back to me why I had left the winters of New York to come here to California. I can remember sitting in an apartment in Brooklyn and watching the Rose Bowl on TV. I don’t remember who was playing, but I do remember seeing the sun shining in January and people sitting around in shortsleeves, looking happy. That hasn’t changed and I can’t imagine a better place to live than right here in Malibu.
Have a good New Year and all the best in 2007.