I am touring California. What a place! Every conceivable type of scenary - mountains, valleys, deserts, seasides, forests, farm lands, towns, cities, villages. And all is beautiful. I have visited the state many times and now that my youngest daughter lives in San Francisco I will probably come more often.

I remember when I returned from my Peace Corps stint in Eritrea (then Ehtiopia). If I had not joined the Foreign Service I would have moved to California. In fact for many years it was my “home leave” address which is the place the State Department would send you between assignments. I really enjoy the place and tell all that I have never found a place I didn’t like in the state.

Thus it is particularly sad to see that the state is suffering the highest unemployment rate in the USA save for poor little Rhode Island. The official unemployment rate is 12.6% which is about one percent higher than that for my current home state, Florida.

The state is also suffering from an accute shortage of funds at all levels of government. The state is making employees take unpaid “furloughs” to cut costs. University students protest massive cuts in school budgets and higher fees. And the general public laments the loss of many public services.

Perhaps the most symptomatic issue is the fight over public employee pensions. Many believe these payments are excessive, especially in the current economic doldums. The mayor of San Francisco has taken the extreme measure of firing thousands of employees and then rehiring them as part time employees to lower costs for wages and benefits, read here pensions. The city of Vallejo has applied for bankruptcy in order to lay off all its staff and rehire fewer of them with lower pension benefits.

And this is the “Golden State,” the great shining mecca for so many Americans. I pray that the nightmare soon ends.