Mais oui, bien sur

Last year around this time, I was fantasizing about moving to France.
That's right, last year, before the election, before the campaign
started up in earnest, before the dollar had fallen even farther to the
dungeon depths it's at now. I'd recently gotten back from a Thanksgiving
vacation with my sister in London and saw an article on Lille, France.
Lille sits in Western France and is on the rail line that goes directly to
London.

Land and houses were cheap by California standards and I was ready to go.
My sister, my partner and I were scheming...how could we pull off buying a
house in the country that recalled our own national creeds (liberty,
equality, fraternity) ? The French, while not perfect (they do smoke like
chimneys and there is that current backlash against foreign born peoples of
the sub Saharan region), seemed to have developed a better, if flawed
society that features socialized medicine, incredible food, timely and
budget conscious building of beautiful bridges and a healthy regard for
women over 40.

Those plans ultimately fell by the wayside (Lille, we discovered had some
very distinct disadvantages, like its' industrial pollution and higher
poverty rates), I still pine for France...or actually any modern
country in which my values are considered normal, not radical. The deep
indigo region that I reside in is precious to me...but living here is not
without it's minuses...just like Lille would have been.

Yesterday afternoon, two individuals had the audacity to strip a stolen
car, right next to our house. They did this in plain sight of the
neighbors, even bumming a cigarette off of one neighbor lady who
courageously came over to ask them what they were doing. When the police
finally arrived, 20 minutes and five neighbor alert calls later, the
half-wits were still pulling parts off the purloined vehicle...completely
clueless. It never occurred to them that such activity would invite
prosecution.

What's the solution (and when I say solution, I selfishly mean my solution,
not the sots who were doltishly stripping the car)? Well, being rich
helps. Most progressive enclaves have areas where the very rich and
tolerant crowd can congregate to the exclusion of idiot thieves or violent
criminals. But I'm not rich and am not likely to become rich working for
Megabucks Industries. I tried contributing to change through
volunteerism (which left me tired, overwhelmed and not a little frightened
of the human race) and ballot box activism (voting for social program after
social program designed to solve the problems of institutional poverty,
educational segregation, etc.). Both efforts have made no appreciable
changes...as the afternoon escapades so clearly indicate.

If one eliminates the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the solution...according to Sherlock Holms, Dr. Spock and Commander Data. So...what's an improbable solution? Moving to France, although perhaps not Lille. Still, impossibly, I like it.