California Dreaming - State Legislature commissions study on happiness
Alpine County may be the happiest place on earth
Little did I know in recent days and weeks as I type away at the kitchen table that the State of California, through its duly-elected legislature, was diligently studying ways to make me happy.
Or in my case "happier," since I already consider myself as the luckiest, and thus happiest, man on earth.
At this very moment, I'm looking at all 29 pages of the California State Assembly's final report titled "Select Committee on Happiness and Public Policy Outcomes."
The report, I am told, is "Presented by Speaker Emeritus Anthony Rendon," but prepared by Katie Talbot, with special assistance from Justine Chueh-Griffith.
I presume that Anthony, Katie and Justine are all enormously happy now that this report has finally been put to bed.
"Emeritus." I've always loved that word, even before I had any idea what it meant. Imagine naming your first-born "Emeritus."
The report utilizes a bit of plagiarism on the first page when it notes, "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness."
I've always thought that the choice of the words "Pursuit of Happiness" was a bit odd for such an esteemed and high-sounding document as the Declaration of Independence, meaning that they were chosen over such noble words and phrases as "Justice" and "Freedom" and "Free Beer."
One can assume that none of the hundreds of thousands of slaves living (and working) in the 13 colonies at the time were asked if the "Pursuit of Happiness" was appropriate for such a document given the extreme lack of certain inalienable rights in their lives.
"California has passed countless laws to support the lives and liberties of its people in an enormous variety of ways," the report notes.
The Chinese Exclusion Act and the forced "relocation" of Japanese-Americans during World War II come to mind, but I guess those were federal programs that nevertheless directly and dramatically affected our Golden State.