My first "coffee shop" post, across the street from a college (SRJC), maybe this really is the start of a new existence for me. A non-Philly way to live that is also decidedly non-old-time-CA (which I am actually trying hard to accomplish). My old-style CA existence was not nearly as much to my liking as my Philly way. I mean, things certainly are different this go around; I'm living in a situation that is far different from anything I've done since the early 1970's, I'm blogging for the first time ever, I'm back in school again, I just landed a fun gig massaging at Santa Rosa Junior College (albeit a volunteer position), and I'm in a coffee shop with $1 refills and jalapeno bagels with jalapeno cream cheese typing! It's magic! I was wandering around the college thinking, "maybe I could take one or two classes once I've finished with my massage school" - it's a neat college, I no longer need to worry about ever graduating (having done it 4 times already, if you count high school), it's like the ideal way for me to be in school! Plus I might be able to get contacts that could allow me to get an adjunct professor job (then I could insist on everyone calling me "Professor", just like on Gilligan's Island)...
OK, enough about me and my petty life. How I had wanted a grand life, but this seems to be what I have: grand in the small way - I affect a few people grandly, and I always thought that I'd affect many people grandly. I guess that's still possible if I ever write something worth reading (clearly not this blog), and only time will tell, since I have not yet done so. 
The news is, of course, all about how they are not inditing that cop in Ferguson, MO. I am amazed that anyone thought that he was going to get indited, but I guess hope springs eternal. However, I do not think crucifying one white cop who shot a black teenager is actually going to have a positive effect on race relations. What needs to happen, is the huge, disenfranchised population needs to become enfranchised, and the powers that be are working as hard as ever to prevent that. The only question is, will they yet again succeed in maintaining the status quo, or will something eventually happen to change stuff? There is not a lot of hope among the people of color who I know that things will be a-changing anytime soon - at least not without a full scale and rather bloody revolution. And currently, the powers that be seem to have everyone convinced that it would not be in their best interest to revolt. And maybe they're right. But as the marginalized population grows, and their marginalization becomes increasingly perverse, it may yet happen. I wish for a different outcome, but I don't see action in the circles of power working towards a non-violent solution to our social inequality. Come on, guys in power (and you few women, too) - see the world how it really is (not how you wish it were), and try to make it just a bit more equitable. really.