To Glendale, with love

Facts Over Fear: What can we dream beyond this moment for ourselves and for each other?

Jun 11, 2025

I was in Los Angeles a few months ago to moderate a panel following a performance focused on the Catholic Church’s feeble attempt at retribution for all of the years of systemic abuse that they inflicted on children and young adults. It was a powerful one-man show called Unreconciled by Jay Sefton.

(That’s me and Jay after the performance).

I stayed in Glendale, which was not far from the theater and spent the weekend in L.A. I took the train to Santa Monica where my husband and I spent most of the day sightseeing and walking the beach. You could still see the remnants of the fires along the hillside, a reminder of the very recent trauma that this part of our beautiful nation just emerged from.

Oddly enough, if perhaps we were pushing out truth over lies, we would have acknowledged the climate crisis on a large-scale level and started working on meaningful change to combat it, so that fires like the ones that broke out in L.A. earlier this year would stop occurring — but I digress.

I didn’t realize how BIG Los Angeles was. I had visited a while back but hadn’t ventured out much past West Hollywood. This time around, since I was staying in Glendale, which was about a 30 minute train ride from Little Tokyo — which was about a 20 minute Uber ride from our motel, it was clear that I had underestimated the vastness of this beautiful, eclectic and exciting part of our country.

Los Angeles is one of largest cities in the country, and with an estimated 3,878,704 residents within the city limits as of 2024, it is the second-most populous in the United States, behind only New York City. Los Angeles has an ethnically and culturally diverse population, and is the principal city of a metropolitan area of 12.9 million people (2024).

More fun facts: Did you know that the City of Glendale has decided to end its agreement with Homeland Security / ICE to house federal immigration detainees as of June 8? “This local decision reflect our core values: public safety, transparency and community trust.” You can read the full statement HERE.

It became obvious to me that while I was in Glendale, there were people from all different backgrounds who lived and worked there. And of course, as the nebby (Pittsburgh for nosy — but in a fun way!) person that I am, I had to get to know the Uber drivers, the baristas and the community members I was meeting along the way.

One thing that stood out: No one that I talked with wanted to claim Trump.

One of my Uber drivers, who was a middle-aged man and immigrant from Mexico, told me that he didn’t understand why any of “his people voted for that clown.” He assured me that he did not understand why anyone would, especially because of the immigration issues and the fact that “Trump was a madman.” He also went on to share that he not only works as an Uber driver, but also owns a trucking business.

Because of the rising cost of goods, he’s hardly making ends meet. He makes $60,000 a year from Uber and about the same from his company. The cost of a one-bedroom apartment in Glendale runs him almost $3,000 a month — not including utilities. He has a daughter and pays child support.

All he does is work, he said. “Pretty sad considering how much money I make. I should be more comfortable, but Glendale is now pricing people out.”

My other Uber driver was a 23-year-old Black man who picked us up from dinner in West Hollywood. It was an expensive ride back, but gave us a lot of time to chat. He was a very jovial person until we started talking about the cost of living in L.A. He said, “I told myself I was only going to do this job for a year leading up to my 21st birthday to make some money. It’s now been more than that.” When I asked him what he wanted to do outside of this, he said, “Nothing. There’s nothing to look forward to.”

“That’s pretty bleak,” my husband said, to which he responded: “I hope when I die there is nothing. I don’t ever want to come back.”

He’d like to make music but said the cost of living is too high and he is stuck in a cycle of debt that he feels he will never get out of.

This was the consistent theme of most of the conversations I had with people I chatted with. They have dreams and goals for themselves and their lives, but the math ain’t mathin’.

As I reflected on these conversations alongside the backdrop of the recent fires and now the ICE raids and crackdown on protestors, our right to free speech and the right to peaceful assembly, I kept coming back to this:

We don’t have to live like this.

A simple statement, I know, but one worth meditating on.

Let’s imagine for a moment a country that valued the lives of the people who live here. All of us. Regardless of immigration status. As we fight for the heart and soul of this nation and stand together against fascism — even when it comes carrying a Bible and wrapped in the flag — what could things look like on the other side?

Campaign finance reform and an end to Citizens United. We cannot have any of the things we deserve unless we get money out of politics and instead fund our elections with public money.
Protect and expand our voting rights.
Climate protections. We are in a climate crisis and it is time we acknowledge it and create meaningful action to save ourselves from ourselves.
Healthcare for all. Medical debt becomes a thing of the past that our grandkids read about in history books with incredulity.
Access to abortion care. The details and reasons remain between a patient and doctor.
Paid leave for all. You should never have to choose between your job and your health, your family or your safety.
Affordable or free quality childcare as well as home healthcare for our aging population. (Did you know Medicare doesn’t cover assisted living?)
A living wage. Not a starvation wage. If we kept pace with inflation, a living wage today would be about $32 / hour. If you are against this idea or think it is “too high”, ask yourself this: “Who is pushing propaganda that would make me think someone is undeserving of a living wage. Who would benefit from that?”
Universal basic income so that people who are disabled or unable to work for whatever reason do not have to live in poverty. This will become more important as AI takes over more sectors of our job market.
Speaking of AI…we need to regulate it now, not in ten years.
Housing for all. Period.
Equal pay for equal work. COVID set women in the workplace back an entire generation. Once a year, The World Economic Forum (WEF) publishes a report on the current state of gender parity. The 2021 publication revealed that we are still 257.2 years away from closing the gender gap in “economic participation” and “opportunity”.
Robust pandemic readiness plans need to be ready to activate and an educational marketing campaign should be a part of that to reduce the harm that disinformation causes. How many people died needlessly from COVID-19 due to a lack of education around this virus? And are we prepared for the possible impact of bird flu? We know the answer.
Free quality education. An educated population is a healthier one. A more compassionate one. A population more willing to invest in each other and in a functioning democracy.
Addressing our system of mass incarceration in a meaningful way and reimagining it as a system focused on rehabilitation.
Robust public funding for the arts.
Robust public funding for journalism.

What did I miss? I could go on (trust me). Use this as a thought exercise to examine which ones you agree with and which ones you don’t. Where could we find common ground? What could we start with that would do the most good, the fastest?

To Glendale, with love

Facts Over Fear: What can we dream beyond this moment for ourselves and for each other?

We don’t have to live like this.

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