Of Elections and Demonstrations

Fort Bragg, California - I had my first taste of vote buying when I became the Little Princess of Guadalupe when I was seven. Back then I never understood the importance of parading in an open-top jeep while wearing a glove on one hand and waving to the crowd and bystanders. As I recalled, it was a fundraiser for the building of Guadalupe Church and somehow, I was catapulted to the stage as the crowned princess while the two other girls became my runners-up. Secretly, I envied their pink ball gowns because they looked fuller while my gown was sleek and silver. Hey, I got to dance with a handsome escort, all this because my dad bought all the ballots as his donation to the church.

My dad would religiously vote every election and was very supportive of the local barangay we lived in. On the other hand, I still could not see the point in voting every election, as if my blindfoldedly chosen candidate would make a difference in one elected term. Maybe I just haven't found issues worth voting for or against. As long as citizens do their part in making a better community, we can still afford to put titled dummies on their pedestal.

It was a quiet election day last Tuesday here at Fort Bragg, up until my environmentalist friends were rattling about the results and were skeptical about the implementation of Proposition 87, which would tax oil production in California to help fund the alternative fuel development in this state. The proposed tax is between 1.5 to 6 percent on the price of the oil per barrel will be shouldered by the oil companies.

This proposition is aimed to reduce petroleum consumption by 25 percent by the year 2017 with key supporters from Silicon Valley like Google and Sun Microsystems, and Hollywood mogul Stephen Bing and celebrities Julia Roberts and Ben Affleck to name a few, conferred to support the initiative.

Another issue was Proposition 83 aka Jessica's Law, named after a Florida girl who was killed by a paroled sex offender. This law prohibits most sex offender from living near schools or parks and requires them to wear Global Positioning Satellite (GPS) device for the rest of their lives. This monitoring scheme would cost around $100 million of continuous monitoring. Another reality show, perhaps?

My friend was just telling me how difficult it is to get employment after being imprisoned all because of defending a helpless acquaintance in a brawl. My friend used to tour in Ultimate Fighting games and his fighting skills were classified lethal in an ordinary college frat brawl. Later on, he learned why his acquaintance didn't fight back because of his Buddhist practices. Duh. That goes to show, mind your own business.

And speaking of GPS, my bank manager is being tracked by head office as he moves about town using GPS in his cell phone. Does that make him look like an offender? Or about to offend? The list goes on as there's this new craze in town called GeoCaching. It's a sport where you are the search engine. It is a game that allows people to participate in a treasure hunt worldwide. All they have to do is purchase a GPS device or use a GPS enabled mobile phone and log on to www.geocaching.com for your first cache hunt. Maybe this will allow citizens to hunt for offenders on the loose. Who knows?

Well, it was a crazy week as I held a demo for a group of chefs on how to make Almond Butter in a travel snack scenario. What more can I say about almonds? The nut in me just pretended that I was the captain and my assistant was the flight attendant as I rambled on about the history of almonds and its benefits. I wasn't even trying to be funny but everyone thought I was being my creative self.

Forget the almonds for a minute. I can still recall my conversation with J as he asked me what I do (professionally, I guess). I've always had a hard time answering a simple question like that so I simply told him that I go in and out of people's lives and touch people's hearts. And how do you do that? Basta J, I'm doing it and the results are priceless!

I spent my birthday with strangers who opened their hearts to become my friends. I feel so blessed and overwhelmed as people came up to me and told me how I exuded love and inspired them to be themselves that they had long forgotten. Through my little nut demonstration, I will continue to be known as the nut head here as I leave you with my "Almond Affirmation":

I am an almond tree

I have this nut in me

I love myself for being me

'Coz I am beautiful and free