Sikh parade!

sikh
Originally uploaded by becklerg.

This Sunday is the annual Sikh parade in Yuba city. Yuba City has about 10,000 Sikhs, and 40-50,000 people are expected for the parade, many of them Sikhs traveling from other parts of the country. It starts at 10:00. There will be 100,000 free meals served. I am going to try to go if a family obligation doesn't prevent it. I think that such a display of diversity will cheer me up after tripping on our new evangelical monoculture. Also, Yuba City has good thriftstores. When I was a kid growing up in Lincoln we would always go to Yuba City and Marysville to see bargain matinees because they had the closest movie theaters. Now, Roseville and Lincoln are practically connected because of sprawl, so Lincolnites can just go there.

Which brings me to my next topic. Tuesday, during the elections, when they would flash the local election results I saw the name Short for Lincoln City Council. I guessed that it was Spencer Short, a guy I went to high school with who was the best, and I was right. When I googled him I found out he has already served as mayor of Lincoln (I think in Lincoln the mayorship just rotates between city council members). He's only 29! It's weird, because he has been mayor and on the council during the time when Lincoln has been turning into a strip-mally piece of shit. He had a statement about his family living there for 60 years and how he wants to preserve his hometown, but I wonder if it's just lipservice. Perhaps I will email him.

Speaking of sprawl, the Sacbee is reporting that local voters approved all three growth measures on the local ballots, which will lead to tons of new development and environmental damage. Good job, confused voters. And way to strike down the three strikes initiative and approve the DNA database. Don't the people of California know anyone who deals weed? Do they realize that their friendly neighborhood weed dealer could be at risk because of these initiatives? Great, let's collect sperm from every person who has ever been caught with a little bit of meth (speaking of Yuba City) but god forbid someone should tax your cell phone. I give up.