Sacramento, you've never been better. See ya!

By Mark Drolette

Having been a Sacramentan for 42 years, I've seen the old hometown undergo a change or two. Raised in Land Park and then afterward spending much of my (alleged) adult life in Curtis Park, I've been a downtown resident since March 2005, four easy blocks from work.

I love it here. Downtown Sacramento, chock full o' writers, musicians and artists of all sorts, has a wonderful creative energy, a buzz one can acutely experience on a Second Saturday or while digging a rich music scene. Additionally, new quality restaurants open regularly (some even sans pretentious valet parking), finely crafted Victorians abound and, of course, who doesn't thrill at our famous trees? Great weather, lots of parks, two rivers … the list is extensive.

As I've been out and about in recent months, thoroughly enjoying this thoroughly livable place, I've been struck frequently by this thought: There's never been a better time to reside right here in River City.

Which is why it'll be even harder to leave it come April.

That's when I move, permanently, into my new house in Costa Rica. Despite Sacramento's myriad seductive attributes, the one thing I cannot abide about it is that, unfortunately, it is still part of the United States, and I decided almost three years ago that I could no longer live in a war-loving nation whose government is run by corporations.

Call me kooky, but I'm afraid I've just never been all that fond of fascism.

I distinctly remember, upon deciding to high tail it outta here, how weird it was to think I'd be leaving America for political reasons. However, given that nothing has happened in the interim that's made me rethink my position – on the contrary, one dismaying event after another has only reinforced the personal necessity of my choice – now, weirdly, it's not so weird at all.

But if you want weird, I'll give you weird: Between the United States and Costa Rica, pick the one that has universal health care, a renewable energy rate of 99 percent, verifiable election results and a freer press (per Reporters Without Borders press freedom index).

Hint: It's the one whose president doesn't typically speak English. (Whoops, sorry! That could apply to either.)

Some folks have implied, some gently and some not, that the "patriotic" thing to do is not to flee one's birth-nation in time of trouble but rather to stay and fight the good fight. Laying aside the can-of-worms topic of what constitutes a "patriot," I will say this: If I were going to remain and continue tackling the country's corporatists-in-charge, there could hardly be a better place in which to do it than Sacramento. A rock-solid cadre of dedicated, long-time activists exists here, and I have been privileged to hang around with many of them for sometime now. (Hell, one is my girlfriend. No, I didn't expect to fall in love before my departure, but that's another essay. Or book. Or maybe screenplay!)

All I can say in response is that it's not like I haven't tried to do my good American bit, but, wouldn't you know it, all my letters to the editor, guest comments, scores of political essays, e-mails and phone calls to my "representatives," attendance at protests and arguments with pro-war, support-my-president-no-matter-what dunderheads have neither stopped the Constitution's shredding nor the slaughter in Iraq. Plus, if President Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney get their way, despite the nixing of Iran's purported scariness by the recent National Intelligence Estimate, they'll still find a way to attack yet another (oil-rich) country that threatens America not a stitch.

I hear it from the other side, too. "Hey, Mark, quit talkin' up Costa Rica," I've been admonished in jest (I think) by expatriates in my future country of residence wary of a headlong influx there. "Say something bad about it, will ya?"

All right, then, here goes: Costa Rican defense industry sales have been flat for 58 years.

Then again, Costa Rica hasn't had defense industry sales for 58 years. (Its military was constitutionally banned in 1949.)

Imagine: a country that claims it loves peace – and then proves it. Lived in one of those lately? Well, neither have I, and I'm excited about the prospect of doing so, especially in one as welcoming and beautiful as Costa Rica.

But, still, there remains my "Sacramento problem." As in, how to handle the difficulty of leaving this lovely town that's a part of me (and vice versa), a vibrant city that overflows with life and people I will miss dearly, but that is also, unfortunately, tethered to a rogue administration hell-bent on imperialistic domination.

Hey! Think the City Council might consider a proposal to secede?

(Published originally in The Sacramento Bee.)

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