ARIZONA VS. CALIFORNIA: A CONTRAST

​Sorry for the one-week delay on this post. I disappeared from the ‘civilized’ (Online) world to celebrate my niece’s 2020 virtual high school graduation from Williams Field High School in Gilbert, AZ. Or, maybe I was away continuing my master’s degree at Arizona State Online to become a teacher and help guide children towards the ‘Russian’ point of view. Since I don’t want to influence anyone, I encourage everyone to pick the best answer that suits them. 😉

What I want to talk about is my five-day experience in Arizona. I found the trip which occurred between May 18-23 quite refreshing.

You may ask yourself, “Why the hell would you find 90-100-degree weather at the end of May refreshing?”

The answer has nothing to do with Phoenix’s ungodly and hellish summer heat. It has everything else to do with the people who live in this massive, sprawling city and their personal points of view. As everyone in the world knows, we have all lived under some form of a lockdown since mid-March due to COVID-19. Since I live presently in Temecula, CA, the governor of my state as well as county and school officials have had us under one of the ‘strictest’ stay-at-home orders in the nation with some aspects starting to lift slowly as we head back to a ‘normal’ society. As an example, my daughter’s university has already pushed her Summer and Fall 2020 classes online. My son’s school was moved online until June 5th when summer break hits, and he goes back for 4th Grade on August 12th. I absolutely have no faith that this starting date will not be adjusted or modified in the near future. Non-essential businesses are still mostly closed. Despite this, that independent California spirit has come back, and many people are just ignoring the government’s orders. Recently, Riverside County officials struck down the mandatory mask rule (Enforced till June 15th) and the police are openly defying the law to ticket people who do not wear masks. People have been gathering in parks and stores again while ‘mostly’ honoring the social distancing rules and you mostly only see masks on people in stores that require them to enter. Despite this, California still has a long way to go before it returns to normal. The aura of fear is still quite prevalent here which makes any debate about the efficiency of these lockdowns and the tragic loss of 38 million jobs to our economy impossible to discuss.

Arizona still has many of these same rules even though more businesses are opening up and many social and church gatherings are getting back to normal. The one thing that Arizonans have over Californians is a “lack of fear.” Despite the mainstream media ‘fearmongering’ us every day with stories that are exceptions to the rule while doing the bidding of our state or federal government officials (And the Arizona media is just as guilty as any other state by engaging in this), people in Arizona do not seem afraid of this virus anymore. Everywhere I went (Since restaurants and bars are open again with a limited 50% capacity), people were not wearing masks and celebrating the fact that life is going back to normal. This attitude was so refreshing in contrast to the terrified Californians I deal with on a daily basis. Going to AZ Wilderness Brewing and Nando’s Mexican Cafe while sitting with family and enjoying craft beer could not have been a more pleasurable experience. People were friendly. Everyone seemed excited to be social and active outside their homes once again. People even flocked to the local lakes and rivers in record numbers. It was a pleasure to be able to live my life to its fullest once again.

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