Leaving - and Grieving - the USA

An English writer packs up his California dream and head back to London

Boxes are packed and furniture wrapped, FedEx is due, and tomorrow we fly from Los Angeles to London.

It’s been a sharp turnaround. We bought our apartment here in Santa Monica last December, have had it remodelled, and were fully expecting to lock in the California dream.

The first red flag was the Palisades fire, which fringed our neighborhood and blasted through much of what we love.

And then the new Administration unleashed itself. Even under previous Presidents my entry into the US was never easy – I’m regularly placed in ‘secondary inspection’, locked into a hall with others, phone usage banned, held for many hours pending an interview. Plans this time were to go for a Green card. Many of those in government who process Green card applications have lost their jobs. And since I was always detained at the border before, I’m doubtful I would even get through next time.

In the UK I have health coverage. In the US I have none. Eventually I should have become entitled to Medicare coverage, with hefty premiums, but who knows if that program will be available in future. Property taxes are high and iniquitous – an annual percentage point of the purchase price. Which means a young couple taking out a mortgage to buy a small condo will be paying higher taxes than those with multi-million dollar mansions who bought long ago. We reckoned we would need $50,000 to cover the cost of my insurance and property taxes.

And so we are letting the dream of California living go.

The grieving? This is a beautiful country with open-hearted people and we have made great friends. Rather than judging me and finding me wanting, people are ready to celebrate me for being myself. Santa Monica is one of the sweetest cities on Earth, with walkable tree-lined streets and a golden stretch of the Pacific coastline. Palm trees soar into blue skies.

I will sorely miss all of that.

A topic of conversation among American friends is how to acquire another passport. I am sad for the shame they feel for their country, and their worry that if they travel abroad they will be hated. Artists have lost public commissions and retirees have seen their investments plunge. Some find hope and community in mass protest. I fear that such protests will spark the imposition of martial law. Those who keep the country running, working the fields and the construction sites and maintaining people’s homes, face deportation. Agencies that monitor and mitigate the effects of climate change are being eviscerated. I fear the country will be ever more ravaged by fires, floods, hurricanes and droughts. The rule of law is being attacked at every level. I grieve for the harm that will be caused and the good that could have been done and those who are already afraid of speaking what they know to be true.

I had a happy book tour of California around Easter, from La Jolla and up to Danville and Corte Madera in the Bay Area, and then to Santa Barbara, alerting people to My Head for a Tree. The Bishnois have the message America needs just now (and forever). The image for this post is of a second growth Redwood forest near Oakland that I took in on my trip, from Skygate; a marvellous walk garlanded with birdsong. James and I walked the shores of Santa Barbara (where the name ClientEarth was coined) and Carpinteria, a town we’ve known well for thirty years and still the perfect beach town. “Tell me again, James,” I’ve always said while walking its beach, “why aren’t we living here?”

A purpose of coming to the US back in 2021 was to set up the Americas office of ClientEarth. That has been gloriously achieved. If you want to find hope and strategy for navigating the planet’s way out of crisis, look into the work of these astounding young lawyers.

London will be our base for looking out on the new world order. As the US empire collapses and the country fractures its power will seep away. The rest of the world will realign and hopefully strengthen its own set of values. President Trump’s aspirations for owning Canada have already changed the political make-up in that country and look like doing the same in Australia. James has a new position as an Oxford Professor and keeps finding inspiration from how China is forging sustainable models of planetary living. Watch his recent Mack lecture at the Walker Gallery in Minneapolis for his own guidance on how to find hope now.

So it’s so long to the hummingbirds at our feeder, and the palm trtees we see from our bed. And a returning hello to our London garden with its foxes and bluetits.

I’ll be in touch from there!