The Golden State
California has represented the bright future of This Great Nation of Ours ever since young men were told, “Go West, young man.” Pure Land Buddhists in China also say El Dorado is in the West; they take a short cut and go East to get to California. Now it appears that a Chinese navigator arrived in California long before a Caucasian barbarian set foot there, and he did not say “Eureka!”
Go West, young man, indeed! Today pundits say, “As California goes, so goes the nation.” The Golden State of course goes for the gold, as we can see in its golden state mineral, golden gate bridge, golden poppy, golden trout, and golden-orange garibaldi. Fortunately, by way of contrast, the Golden State has the California redwood, gray whale, and brown grizzly.
The prospect of going West for the gold alone is not so alluring to those who prize their integrity during the great American pursuit of happiness - all that glitters in the moral sphere is not golden. To begin with, the Golden State is a stolen state. To make a long story short, it is the most bizarre state in the union.