Mike Fitzgerald begins his Stockton Record column this weekend with an invocation of the artist formerly known as Cat Stevens.

To live in the Valley is to live with the din of the old leaders’ bones. Pick your issue, the old ideas are beating a fierce tattoo, often drowning out wise new voices

 

While Fitzgerald gives three great examples of that phenomenon in Stockton: Water, the state’s drive to site three more prison facilities outside Stockton and blight in downtown Stockton, his message could apply almost anywhere, not just to Stockton or the San Joaquin Valley.  In particular, there is maybe something else to glean from his conclusions.

An essential part of the Valley experience is the battle to admit new ideas, and to separate the valid conservative ideas from the dead ones propping up the status quo.

It wouldn’t be a problem if the dead ideas stayed dead. But, like zombies, they always come back to bite us.

Replace the word conservative in that quote with the word progressive and recognize that we must continually challenge and re-think our own assumptions of how the world works.  Case in point, laurastrand’s comments on Free Breakfasts for yesterday’s open thread.