Beachcombing

Wanna know what makes my blood boil? See Cheyenne Elizarraras’ page 6 story about the CSULB Daily Forty-Niner changing its name to Long Beach Current, despite the fact that a minority (27.6 percent), favored any changes to the CSULB branding. I strongly doubt the objectivity and accuracy of a 2019 poll taken on the topic by students, which resulted in the Prospector Pete statue being moved to lower campus and the adoption of a shark mascot. Allowing amateurs to dictate the branding of an entire institution is bullshit.

All of this was precipitated by the college, founded in 1949, following the Gold Rush theme of 1849, which involved the genocide of several hundred thousand natives and newcomers seeking gold. This later evolved to California becoming known as the “Golden State.”

It has been said that you can’t change history. “These things happened the way they did. What you can change is how you look at it and how you understand that it takes the good moments and it takes the difficult moments to move forward.”

Stated otherwise, those who change or ignore history are destined to repeat it. In short, they are fools.

Hopefully my 350,000 or so fellow alumni will respond according and ignore the college’s annual beg for financial support for murdering Pete. My spare change is going elsewhere.

Last year I accomplished a long-sought-after, bucket list goal of visiting Italy, along with my son, daughter, sister, niece and great niece. A fun time was had by all as we celebrated my 80th birthday.

Next spring I’d like to take advantage of Amtrak’s promotion of a 30-day pass for $499. Its USA Rail Pass allows riders to book 10 one-way tickets for coach seats on more than 500 Amtrack destinations nationwide.

I’ve seen America numerous times by car and outside the window of an airplane. Rail trips have been limited to the Blue Line, Pacific Surfliner to San Deigo and the Williams Train to the Grand Canyon.

It takes no more than three days to cross America by rail. I think it would be a hoot take a circle route with stops in Denver, Chicago, Boston, New York, Washington, Atlanta, Memphis, Dallas and Phoenix. Selected stops en route would include a few hotel stays with Uber used for ground transportation.

I’ve suggested this to members of the Waynesboro, Penna., High School graduation class of 1962 as a fun way to hold a class reunion as members come on board from their homes throughout the United States.

Have you ever tried this? I’d love to hear about your experiences as well as any recommendations you might have.

Important facts to remember as we grow older:

• Death is the number 1 killer in the world.
• Life is sexually transmitted.
• Good health is merely the slowest possible rate at which one can die.
• Give a person a fish and you feed them for a day.
• Teach a person to use the Internet and they won’t bother you for weeks, months, maybe years.
• Health nuts are going to feel stupid someday, lying in the hospital, dying of nothing.
• All of us could take a lesson from the weather. It pays no attention to criticism.
• In the ’60s, people took LSD to make the world weird. Now the world is weird, and people take Prozac to make it normal.

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