Thcolumns: It's the good old days all over again
"I feel so much safer now than back when Tehachapi was small."Why doesn't anyone ever say that?
Why, as we get bigger, aren't we turning into Utopia? Why don't we wish more people could move in so we would all be kinder to each other?
How come, when the number of cars on the road doubles, we don't become twice as nice?
Or at least stay as nice as we were?
I once read a study that looked at schools with hundreds of students and schools with thousands of students. Principals of hundreds, it ends up, know all the students' names. Principals of thousands don't.
Greater Tehachapi is already in the tens of thousands and when I buy my salami and hashbrowns, I usually don't see anyone I know.
Is that because I'm unsocial? Maybe it's because I'm trying to keep my son from eating batteries. Maybe it's just because I can't memorize 30,000 faces.
When Tehachapi was 600 people (an eon or so ago) and Mr. Pauley passed Mr. Jacobsen in the street, how likely was he to cut him off?
Now that Tehachapi's at 30,000, what are the chances of knowing that guy in the Excursion? Exactly. Nil. So go ahead and cut the jerk off.
But if this valley is going to stay — or become — the place we all want it to be, we'll all have to act like we know each other.
Start with not cutting off the Excursion. Let the pregnant mom ahead of you at the grocery store.
We can all be kind. We can all choose to live like there are only 600 of us. I'll start with me and you start with you.
But in the meantime, let's buckle our seat belts.
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