India!

India began voting this week.  Nearly a billion people exercising their freedom.  Seeing long lines waiting their turn took me back to when I was living in India (60 years ago) and witnessed this process firsthand.  It was a moving experience then and it is moving now as I remember.

That was a long time ago and today's India is in many ways a very different place, not all of which is positive.  But setting aside the Hindu-first politics and authoritarianism of today's leaders, much is for the better or endures.  And an example of what has endured is peaceful democratic elections.

Inspiring! 

Crime in the City!

In the last few years we keep hearing how messed up San Francisco is.  Crime.  Homelessness.  Drugs.  And more, all bad.  Yes, there are problems that need to be addressed.  But is it as bad as the critics say?  My instinct tells me that it is not.  But every day when I read the local press I see that the negativity receives a lot of attention.  It becomes a self-fulfilling reality.

Here are some headlines in the stories from the San Francisco Chronicle today.  All this in the first few pages of the main section:

Mystery problem stopping Coit Tower elevator service

Hate crime victim advocates for empathy

Man charged with hate crime in vandalism of S.F. mosque

Woman badly injured in S.F. Tenderloin beating

Man convicted of murder in 2021 BART shooting

EPA fines East Bay cities, utilities for releasing sewage into S.F. bay

S.F. police say they have adopted reforms

Biotech firms to lay off more than 500 workers

Richmond man charged in fatal shooting

San Jose State student faces charges in string of arsons on campus

That's just today's stories.  It is like this every day.  No wonder so many think our wonderful city is not a great place to live.