So: There are actually Democrats here?

By JOHN VAN DOORN - Staff writer | Monday, August 4, 2008 12:17 AM PDT ∞

It's hard enough trying to observe people, dogs and the fast lane, then form bulletproof opinions, without having to go back over the once-observed and once-sternly-opined-upon because there is new "evidence" or some such.

What is required, if I believe the latest communiques, is a certain flexibility. One must exhibit a willingness to take the views of others into account, to listen closely, and then, perhaps, to alter in some way one's cool and detached opinions, one's observations, and come to the point of ---- I can't believe I am saying this ---- changing one's mind.

But it's come to that.

In this newspaper, thanks to a writer of ours named Gary Warth, I learned on Sunday that the number of Democrats in San Diego County is catching up with Republican numbers. They're thisclose.

Curses. For years Observer has written, probably because he paid too much attention to the narrow and the pinched in various local governments, that San Diego as a whole was a one-way place, leaning to the right.

It was hidebound conservative Republican, as he said so many times, filled with tycoons and mink-clad nieces, plus Chamber members and retired military men and women (who in most cases arrived at their viewpoints the hard way).

Democrats, if there were any, Observer led himself to believe, met in rooms with the curtains drawn, and spoke in whispers.

They dared not show themselves in public, was my solid viewpoint, lest rich or violent or traditionally misinformed Republicans, from every reach, village and hamlet in North County, would hurl epithets or smite them with bags of water and force them back to their caves.

I am threatened now by the spectre of Opinion Adjustment.

Gary Warth had to get involved with his smarty-pants reporting, his numbers and other reliable bits and shards of information, such as actual party rolls, to show that the split, countywide, is about even, with Democrats closing pretty fast.

For an event of such great moment, Observer is going to take his time. He is not an ideologue, as is widely known, but he is not given to haste, either. Don't look for an immediate switcheroo.

Still, if the numbers of Democrats and Republicans are now just about the same, chances are Observer will soon phone friends and family in the East and say to them: "Come hither. I was misled. It's not as one-sided out here as I have described it. There seem to be significant pockets of liberals ---- well, Democrats ---- in San Diego."

They will be stunned.

But they don't call me "Old Ethics and Flex" for nothing.

Gestures

What distinguished her was a red hat, once fashionable but now forlorn. It set her apart because in gatherings of homeless men and women, red hats ---- particularly those with wide brims ---- are not the norm.

She was at a daylong picnic for the homeless of North County. It is more precise, perhaps, to say that she was near a picnic, and she was one of the homeless.

Most of them had fit right in after a bit of uncertainty. But not the woman in the red hat, a woman of 50 years or more, the blue shirt and the paisley print slacks.

She couldn't seem to gain a foothold, a seat, a nod, or a welcome.

She flitted for more than an hour from group to group, like a hummingbird in search of nectar. But each time she dashed away, rebuffed, rejected, unwanted ---- all in her mind, but as real as hunger. She simply couldn't connect.

Finally, she turned, walked to the northeast corner of the park and sat down on an old blanket with two homeless men who were park regulars and of indeterminate age.

She said nothing. But one of the men got up and walked, a bit unsteadily, toward the vast picnic and the tables laden with grand food.

He piled two paper plates high, turned and wove his way back to the blanket. With a certain elan, a butler's grace, a father's affection, a gesture out of time, he gave a plate to the woman.

She didn't look up.

Head down, she wept out her thanks.

He mumbled, "No, no, that's OK, that's OK."

Homeless people are merely without homes; they keep soul and humanity in tattered backpacks, for special moments.

Contact columnist John Van Doorn at (760)739-6647 or jvandoorn@nctimes.com.

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