The American Spectator

p> CALIFORNIA’S EDGE br> Re: Lawrence Henry’s Not Enough Edges : /p>

I left Mass. for California 21 years ago at the age of 32. I had long held a sense that Mass. was a closed system with no room for people like me not already in the established group. Frankly, I was intimidated by the people on top because I felt toyed with and I did not believe that I would ever be allowed inside. It is also a fact that I never really liked that group anyway. My solution after much trepidation was to accept a job opportunity in California. The reason for the trepidation was that my family had a long history in Mass. (more than 300 years) and I liked the beauty of New England. I planned to follow the Red Sox by newspaper and by attending all their games in Anaheim.

The difference in life in California was noticed immediately. Everyone was busy and moving to get ahead. New businesses were starting up all around you. It looked to me like Lapalma Avenue in Anaheim had more businesses happening than I had noticed in over 30 years of living in my formerly beloved Worcester and Worcester County. Lapalma Avenue was really nothing special. It was really just one avenue of thousands just like it. That is the point. Small areas in California without even trying were way outperforming whole regions of Mass. Immigrants were flourishing and everyone was optimistic. An immigrant family in California will surpass a ten generation family in Worcester in less than 10 years.

Here is an account of my progress after 21 years in California. I have been involved in a leveraged buyout of a corporate division which later resulted in a lucrative IPO. I now own my own small company which is doing well and has growth potential. We are blessed to own 5 homes, 3 of which we rent out. I do not claim any credit for any of this because God is the author of our lives. I do know that a vibrant place like California allows God to work in a much more promising environment than Mass.

The January 28 article by Lawrence Henry is the best explanation I have ever heard for the stagnation of Massachusetts. The same old group running things the same old way will continue to get the same old results forever. People living currently in Massachusetts are very homogeneous in their thinking and will likely never change. The group in power is almost exclusively Democrat and anti-evangelistic in their view towards God. Republican governors being only a minor exception to the rule due the subconscious hope that they may curb some degree of excesses visited upon the people by the same old power group. Think Ted Kennedy and, for that matter, John Kerry. How can anything get better with the likes of those two around for life. When will the people of Massachusetts ever wake up? The answer may lie in Mr. Henry’s article. Young people, immigrants, and time may be the answer but it will take a long time.

p>Thanks for the excellent article. br> — Ken Corman br> Anaheim, California /p>