Californians Are Mad!

An open letter to the rest of America:


America has engaged in some finger wagging lately because
California doesn't have enough electricity to meet its needs.
The rest of the country (including George W. Bush's energy
secretary Spencer Abraham, who wants Californians to suffer
through blackouts as justification for drilling for oil in
Alaska's Arctic National Wildlife Refuge) seems to be just fine
with letting Californians dangle in the breeze without enough
power to meet their needs. They laugh at Californians'
frivolity. Well, everybody. Here's how it really is:


California ranks 48th in the nation in power consumed per
person. California grows more than half the nation's fruit, nuts
and vegetables. We're keeping them. We need something to eat
when the power goes out. We grow 99 percent or more of the
nation's almonds, artichokes, dates, figs, kiwifruit, olives,
persimmons, pistachios, prunes, raisins and walnuts. Hope you
won't miss them. California is the nation's number one dairy
state. We're keeping our dairy products. We'll need plenty of
fresh ones since our refrigerators can't be relied upon. Got
milk?


We Californians are gonna keep all our high-tech software in
state. Silicon Valley is ours, after all. Without enough
electricity, which you're apparently keeping for yourselves, we
just plain don't have enough software to spare. We're keeping
all our airplanes. California builds a good percentage of the
commercial airliners available to fly you people to where you
want to go. When yours wear out, you'd better hope Boeing's
Washington plant can keep you supplied. There isn't enough
electricity here to allow us to export any more planes than we
need ourselves. And while we're at it, we're keeping all our
high tech aerospace stuff, too, like the sophisticated weapons
systems that let you sleep at night, not worried you might wake
up under the rule of some foreign kook. Oh, yeah, and if you
want to make a long-distance call, remember where the satellite
components and tracking systems come from. Maybe you could get
back in the habit of writing letters. Want to see a blockbuster
movie this weekend? Come to California. We make them here. Since
we'll now have to make them with our own electricity, we're
keeping them. Even if we shot them somewhere else, the labs,
printing facilities, editing facilities, and sound facilities
are all here.


Want some nice domestic wine? We produce over 17 million gallons
per year. We'll need all of it to drown our sorrows when we
think about the fact that no matter how many California products
we export to make the rest of America's lives better, America
can't see its way clear to help us out with a little
electricity. You can no longer have any of our wine. You all
complain that we don't build enough power plants. Well, you
don't grow enough food, write enough software, make enough
movies, build enough airplanes and defense systems or make
enough wine. This is your last warning, America. Lighten (us) up
before it's too late.


Love,
The Californians


"I love California - I practically grew up in Phoenix." -Dan
Quayle