Desecrating our Heritage

As I often do when I have friends from out of state, I brought a friend from Mexico to the site of Gold Discovery at Coloma. I know all of the politically correct arguments about Coloma - Sutter was a business failure. The miners exploited Native Americans and Chinese. Most people were not successful in the gold rush. Mining is not a very clean industry and the miners wreaked havoc on our pristine eco-structure. There are even probably more. But those issues not-withstanding (and a lot of them are covered in the interpretive displays) Coloma is an important part of the state's history.

Our motto is Eureka! (I have found it - allegedly from the incident where Archimedes stepped into his bath and discovered that his body displaced an equal amount of water - and then he ran through the streets naked to inform his fellow citizens of Syracuse.) But a fundamental principle of the state has always been that risk taking is rewarded. A diverse group of writers - most notably Kevin Starr in his Americans and the California Dream series - have described in great detail this characteristic. There is a reason why a significant portion of the venture capital that is raised in the world goes to California. So preserving a symbol of that risk taking spirit should be important.

In the last few years, through a couple of Governors, the parks system has been allowed to falter. Coloma looks a bitt seedy these days. The replica of the original lumber mill where James Marshall discovered the nugget that brought my namesake to California looks a little rough for the wear.

Does that mean I support tax increases to solve that and a host of other problems? NO. But it does suggest to me that as Californians, if we are not prepared to increase our tax burden even higher (and there are very good reasons why we should be very cautious about raising tax rates in the state)- we should be getting creative about how to fund the things that are important to us as a state. That might mean privatizing some of the functions that previously were done by the state. Indeed, it seems time to revitalize E. Clampus Vitus (the Clampers)- a band of people who have helped to preserve and commemorate California history. Or if they are not the right group, to establish a more vibrant support group for those parts of our history that help to define us.