I had the opportunity to visit Black Rock City this year. I’ve always wanted to see the artwork and creative endeavors in person and a friend invited me to his camp. We were prepared for excessive heat and dust and were rewarded with mild temperatures and occasional mud.
The mainstream media overhyped the “humanitarian disaster in the works.” When they couldn’t find photo opportunities of burners huddled on shipping containers waiting for rescue by boats and helicopters they showed a picture of an orderly line of cars waiting to enter a two-lane desert highway with limited capacity. This is how the event was expected to end and port-a-potties were available at the lines. The federal infrastructure is simply unable to handle tens of thousands of cars entering the highway system at the same time, so multiple lanes are set up and observed by the Black Rock citizens returning to their homes.
Observe the massive chaos and riots as vehicles line up and observe the lightly marked traffic lanes. Oh the Humanity!
I’ve seen fights break out at the end of concerts and sporting events because of cutting in line at exit lanes. There was no chaos or violence at Burning Man. Most participants prepared for the worst and hoped for the best. Long lines were expected when entering the low capacity desert roads. Personally, I’d take mud and moderate temperatures any day over dust and deadly heat. An extended rain and party in place was a damper on the scheduled events, including the popular daily port-a-potty cleanouts, but it was entirely manageable. Most camps had the tools and capability to build arks if things got worse.
I went to Burning Man to see what it was like when people weren’t glued to their phones and open to conversation. I took advantage of the high percentage of Californians at the event to canvas the neighborhoods and talk to folks about the open Senate seat and my campaign running for all the people of California. While I am a registered Democrat, I am not a partisan and consider myself open minded. Whether you are right-wing or left-wing, I consider all Californians human beings and pledge to wholeheartedly embrace the oath of office to support the Constitution over my party. However, I don’t consider corporations people or money speech and champion an constitutional amendment to clarify the issue for the Supreme Court and allow the return of bipartisan campaign finance reform.
Most Black Rock City residents were open to touching on politics (there is “Hell yes” consent required for touching any sensitive parts at Burning Man), and my Democracy Awareness symbol was well received . A symbol is worth an unlimited amount of words. The Star Spangled Infinity sticker illustrates the birth of our nation (13 stars for 13 colonies) during a dark period where we had to fight for our independence. We won the war and established three branches of government to represent our democratic ideals (3 stripes for the Legislative, Judicial, and Executive branches). As our nation enjoys long periods of peaceful and productive governance, we inevitably return to dark periods where sparks of conflict and stellar ideas emerge. We renew our democratic experiment with amendments or new deals and continue with productive governance until we eventually return to a dark period again. I believe we are in a dark period today that can only be resolved by renewing our constitution with new amendments.
The Democracy Awareness Project that I founded encourages all Americans to vote, be better informed, and to end the effects of big money in politics by passing a new amendment. While my Senate campaign is a long shot, it is the best choice for instilling change. If elected, I have the Systems Engineering and Project Management skills to implement change and would have an unprecedented mandate elected by the largest state in our union to drive change and pass a new amendment to let our nation emerge from the dark place and renew our democracy.
I hope you all vote, whether or not Californians, and together we can make our democratic experiment thrive as we head into our 250th anniversary in 2026.
