Palo Alto, California

Together again with Gerard and Pennie, I've come full circle!

Northern California wetlands

Gangsters

On my train rides, I met many nice folks, but I also met a bunch of
gangsters, and it scared the heck outta me that these people are so
widespread in our society. These guys, from rival gangs, considered
the train "neutral ground", so were able to converse with each other
and with me. They talked about how they rotated in and out of prison,
about dealing drugs, about how there was only one way into a gang
(blood) and one way out (death), about how most of their "friends"
were either in prison or in the grave, about how the only way for a
kid to survive on the street in the hood was with a gang (leaving poor
kids with little choire but to end up in one). Seeing so many of these
folks at large in our society was disturbing. They talk big about
"respect", but they don't respect the lives or livelihoods of anyone
but themselves. Is our society really at such a state of decay?
Without any other sense of community, the only thing that seems to
reform these folks is religion, and it's the convicts-turned-preachers
who seem to be able to teach them respect for life and others, through
a respect for God. Without any other mechanism for building community
amongst Americans, churches, mosques, temples, synagogues, shrines,
seem to be the key to our society's salvation, even for us secular
folks.

Sacramento train station

Some majestic railway stations still exist in the US, and this is one of them.

Chris Bach in Sacramento