By Charlotte K. Jarmy
Ah, no road noise, no lawn mowers, no loud music! But what we do have is a full view of Bodega Bay, a suite with a fireplace, colorful flowering shrubs, a big pool with a Jacuzzi and a lovely restaurant with views of cruising sea lions and gliding birds. We have escaped charming Los Altos for an equally charming but smaller place. Only two days, but no front-page news about immigration conflicts or Iraq-related dilemmas in Washington, D.C.
May fills my life with family celebrations: Ron’s birthday (”Don’t you dare tell them my age, Mom.”); our tenth anniversary (Where did all those days and months go?); Mother’s Day (lunch upgrade with Ron picking up the check); and the sad realization that Charlie would have been 52.
It’s better to focus on today and give thanks for the spring that finally burst into our gardens with bright sunshine and the reappearance of robin redbreasts. Many organizations, as well as schools, close up next month, deservedly taking vacations from fund-raisers and SAT worries for kids.
Even in secluded Bodega Bay, I sense that underneath it all is the drumbeat of worldwide concerns: the fear of bird flu pandemic becoming more real every day, along with the utter misery of Darfur, the African version of Katrina but caused by droughts and governmental carnage that brings shouts of genocide. If we are truly a global community, all of us should rally to the cause of millions who cannot help themselves. We should be in the streets as the protesters were earlier to show we care about human rights. Today’s news brings a possible breakthrough in a nation-to-nation attempt to help.
I suffer my usual conflicting reactions to the huge protests by immigrants, mainly from Mexico. Mexican President Vicente Fox and President Bush must accept their responsibilities to negotiate some more workable answers than a huge wall at the border. Driven by a poverty-filled life at home, thousands cross our border, often disappearing into the populations of their kin.
We can no longer make decisions based on politics or red/blue state loyalties. Like others who are first-generation Americans born to immigrant parents, I hold for acceptance of American values, including the use of the English language, for all immigrants who wish to become American citizens. This seems to be the time to think as unhyphenated citizens. Today we are truly citizens of a global community. As the barriers come down, we must care about others but still keep our deepest loyalty for our country and our hard-won democracy.
We need a respite from the shouts and turmoil currently disturbing our desire for peace and harmony.
Driving 2-1/2 hours to the bucolic loveliness of Bodega Bay was worth the “panic at the pumps.” There’s a resemblance to my younger years when I left the Bronx and luxuriated all summer in Waterbury, Conn., where my aunt lived. Passing small, older homes there, beckoning with comfortable front porches and well-tended gardens that made me inhale deeply, memory now can make the past so real that I could feel the vigor of the town that was once small yet vibrant.
Perhaps we must get away from our worries to survive the often brutal onslaught of the war of words and roadside bombs. When last I looked, 2,410 Americans had been killed in Iraq.
Charlotte Kaye Jarmy
is a Los Altos resident and longtime contributor
to the Town Crier.
