By Susan Thistlethwaite
Republicans have been criticizing Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris for her “California values.”
What’s wrong with California values? From protecting the environment to respecting ethnic diversity and sexual diversity to valuing critical thinking, California has a lot of great values.
Since we moved here last year, I have come to really respect the values of my California neighbors up and down the state.
Values are rooted in both culture and practice. The culture of California is very diverse, connected to its roots in both Mexico and Spain. California is an international gateway to the United States and is shaped by various cultures of Asia as well as Latin America.
We live in a midcentury modern house designed by a Japanese American architect. It is open and airy with a beautiful view of a redwood forest.
The long struggle to protect the redwoods and other natural treasures of California has embedded environmentalism into the fabric of the state. John Muir, the famous Scottish American naturalist and philosopher left a profound legacy as he articulated the spiritual meaning of nature and bequeathed it to California as well as to the world. “The clearest way into the Universe is through a forest wilderness,” Muir wrote.
I have also found Californians like critical thinking, which is probably why it boasts the preeminent research university system in the country that employs more Nobel Prize laureates than any other institution in the world.
Critical thinking and the ability to read whatever books you want is also on the ballot this fall. The Harris/Walz ticket is solidly behind not banning books.
Many novelists have lived and worked in California, notably John Steinbeck. Steinbeck’s runaway bestseller, “The Grapes of Wrath,” won the National Book Award, the Pulitzer Prize and the Nobel Prize in literature. It poignantly portrays the struggle for decent working conditions for farmworkers in California. It was almost immediately banned.
“The Grapes of Wrath” is still one of the 15 most banned books in the U.S.
California has the largest LGBTQ (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer) population in the country, and it has been in the forefront of LGBTQ rights. I believe this more tolerant culture evolved through the adventurous spirit of the Gold Rush as well as through “red light” districts and bars on the Barbary Coast.
Another contributing factor is when the U.S. military cracked down on “homosexuality” after World War II, many gay men who were discharged on the West Coast gravitated to San Francisco. Despite police persecution, the LGBTQ community continued to grow.
In November 1977, Harvey Milk was elected as the first openly gay politician in San Francisco, and he became a member of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors. He was assassinated the following year.
His election and death have strongly influenced the open and affirming culture of California toward LGBTQ people.
I have flown out of “Harvey Milk Terminal No. 1” at the San Francisco Airport. Once a society starts naming airport terminals after prominent LGBTQ people, you know the culture has evolved.
Both Harris and Walz have strong records on protecting LGBTQ rights.
These kinds of values are not universal throughout the state, it is true. But there is a vibrancy to the public debates here about values.
I believe “California values” as identified above will lead this country out of the vicious polarizations that have characterized the past eight years and into a renewed commitment to democracy.
At least, I hope so, and as Harvey Milk said, “Hope will never be silent.”
Susan Thistlethwaite is the retired president of Chicago Theological Seminary as well as a retired tenured professor. These days she writes mystery novels. She and her husband live in Santa Cruz.
