“You know of the governor?”
She nodded. “His administrative decisions are the major reason my father moved his law firm from Newport Beach in California to Las Vegas in Nevada. And he’s not the only one to do so. You know, Vegas is only a few hours away from Los Angeles. Many choose to move there and travel back and forth when need be.”
I was stunned.
“As it turns out, however, moving to Las Vegas wasn’t quite enough for my father. Los Angeles has become such a cesspool that he doesn’t even want to go back...not even for an hour. It’s just as well. I wanted him here for when the baby comes, and now, that’s precisely what’s going to happen.”
“I had no idea things were that bad over there.”
“Dad is also tired of representing good, honest hard-working people who repeatedly get ripped off, only to have the criminal get a slap on the wrist...if that.”
“I don’t understand what you mean.”
She rolled her eyes and sighed. “Turns out that, in California, under the right conditions, crime pays. You can steal hundreds of dollars’ worth of merchandise and get...nothing. No consequence. No jail time. How can a society survive such a thing?”
She let out a light laugh. “We don’t really discuss state government much out here, but anyone who has dealings with California in particular is aware of the odd policies, strangulating regulations and confusing leadership.”
“It’s hard to comprehend how a leader could make it more difficult for people to live in his state. Why would he do that? He must have some reason.”
“You should ask that to the thousands...nay, the hundreds of thousands of people who have left the state. I mean, there’s been a veritable exodus. People who just can’t survive anymore. Property taxes are ridiculous. Gas prices are unbelievable.He wants to censor free speech.Billions of dollars meant for the homelessness crisis suddenly disappear.There was the horrible wildfires that destroyed beautiful cities like Palisades and Malibu, yet the millions of dollars raised to help suddenly disappeared, but was discovered to be funneled into the governor’s wife’s non-profit allegedly.So much corruption that people are calling it out finally, and the federal government is looking into it.” She turned to look pointedly at me. “But he’s just added extra taxes on top of all that.The corruption runs so deep, they’ve rigged elections so it is only one party so it’s like a total dictatorship.Californians who are hard-working and who pay taxes have left.Voting by moving.A friend of mine moved her small production company out of Hollywood, California and brought it to Hollywood, Florida.”
“And...?”
“While she’s doing the same amount of work, charging her clients the same rate and paying her employees the same salary – yes, they all followed her out of the state – well, she now has forty percent more of her own money in her pocket and her team is also living better and easier. She was able to buy a house twice as large as the one she had in California and this, for nearly half the price.”
“You’re adding even more to the story than Kenneth had shared with me. He’s specifically perturbed by the migrant worker situation. I thought we were beyond this. I thought that we...the West...we were past treating people so shabbily.”
“We’ve got a long way to go still.” She smiled. “I can understand why Matt’s brother wanted to share all this with someone. It’s all so unbelievable that you need to say it out loud.It’s all unbelievable that even a fellow Brit-turned-American citizen who have been living in California by the name of Hilton is so fed up, he’s now running for Governor.”
“Wow,” I said.“Kenneth was telling the truth.”
Keely patted my hand and said, “The way to help him get better is to be supportive of him.And to pray.Dealing with the truth can be difficult, especially a truth like that, and confronting his own father with it.Pray for Kenneth.Pray for Matthew.Pray for their father to do the right thing, and pray for California.”
TEN
Keely
