Travels With Charley II: What We Saw In Big Cities—Not Too Nice

By Frosty Wooldridge

August 31, 2023

Part 3: These travels are almost a polar opposite to Steinbeck’s observations in the 1950’s. Our big cities exhibit severe decay.

“This journey has been like a full dinner of many courses, set before a starving man. At first, he tries to eat all of everything, but as the meal progresses, he finds he must forgo some things to keep his appetite and his taste buds functioning. ” John Steinbeck, Travels with Charley

One of the aspects of travel during my life continues: education. Travel also brings a sense of gratitude for my good health, good life, and good fortune. When you’ve traveled through the countries that I’ve traveled…you get down on your knees and thank God for being an American. Our freedoms and opportunities vastly outdo another 100 third world countries. Our rule of law provides our freedoms. Our sense of ourselves as Americans gives us bigger choices for our wellbeing and our self-worth.

But what we saw this summer broke our hearts.

You cannot help but travel in California to see 170,000 homeless people wandering the streets of the big cities. Los Angeles must be the new capital of human misery, followed by San Francisco. Ironically, both cities are governed by equity, inclusiveness and diversity. The minority leaders and police forces have turned those cities into human ghettoes no better than Mumbai, India. It’s either by their design or by their incompetence.

In Los Angeles, black and Asian gangs “smash & grab” $900,000.00 in loot within minutes while they vanish into the night. Supply trains see youth gangs cut bolts and steal everything inside. Trash everywhere in the streets, rivers, highways and they even toss trash into the national parks. You ain’t seen graffiti until you see Los Angeles.

We personally watched a “smash & grab” in San Francisco across the street at a hotel. They stopped, smashed the windows of an BMW SUV, grabbed three suitcases, camera and handbag with 30 seconds…and pulled into traffic. Their tactics are so fast, so smooth, so no one gets arrested, or if they do get caught, they’re back out onto the streets within hours per Mayor Creed of San Francisco. The police suffer total paralysis without any help from the mayor and city council of that city. We visited where Whole Foods departed after only one year on Market Street. The trolleys run with 1/3 the tourists because no one can leave their cars on the streets for fear of a “smash & grab” of their belongings. Many big-name stores closed because of shoplifting on a scale unheard of 10 years ago. Twenty Walgreen drug stores pulled out of the “City by the Bay.” They were shoplifted to death.

You cannot comprehend human waste in the streets until you visit San Francisco. Then, you see them dropping their pants and defecating on the curb in broad daylight. Same in LA! Needles everywhere…provided by the city council. Drugs EVERYWHERE! It’s a collection of the lowest levels of human degradation found in America.

We heard a dozen languages other than English. Just south of San Francisco, two towns are 100 percent Chinese. They speak Chinese, signs are in Chinese, and well, it’s non-American in every respect. From what we could see, they live here, but do not identify as Americans.

In Portland, Oregon, it’s a total disaster. Homeless live under the expressways. Worse, they live in tents and tarp cities inside the clover leafs of the expressways. They endure diesel truck traffic roaring past them 24/7. They stagger around drunk, drugged or mentally out of their minds.

If you travel to Chicago, and we did: what a complete disaster for America. You hear the mainstream news report on one white guy shooting three black people last week. Al Sharpton stood up telling everyone that America is a nation full of “racist” and “White Supremists.” Ironically, two dozen black people shoot two dozen black people every weekend in Chicago. Some weekends, over 40 people are shot. Sometimes, 10 or 15 die while the others hang on for dear life in the ICU’s at local hospitals. Nobody notices because it’s so normal. Of course, the same shootings continue nightly in St. Louis, New Orleans, Detroit, New York City and another dozen big cities.

What Steinbeck saw in the 1950’s as America stood proud and strong after WWII, we now suffer internal wars with our own citizens killing one another in over-packed, over-loaded, overwhelmed, and overpopulated cities. Our cities are SO BIG, there is no way to address or solve any of their problems.

Have you heard what happens when you pack too many chickens into a pen on those massive chicken farms? Answer: they peck each other to death. The same thing happens when you place too many mice or rats into a small enclosed prison. They just kill each other.

So, is there any sanity left in America? Answer: yes, small towns. When we traveled through 10,000 or less populated town, we enjoyed local diners where we chatted with locals in English. We didn’t have to use any special pronouns. We ate at fine restaurants with great homemade apple pies. In small towns, girls were girls and boys were boys. Men were men and women were women. They used restrooms separately for women and for men. Thank God!

We chatted with friendly police. We saw lots of American flags, tractors on display, and young folks working at local stores or out in the fields mowing hay, baling, and piling it on wagons. Where do our kids learn “common sense?” Answer: in a rural community.

We discovered that we felt sorry for all those kids growing up in concrete jungles with nothing more to do than play with their cell phones eight hours a day. They’re all suffering from “text neck” and will suffer more in the years ahead from poor posture.

Are we ever going to get back to the Norman Rockwell “America” that I witnessed in my youth? That’s a heck of a loaded question. I’m not too optimistic that we will even maintain America if we continue on our present course of mass immigration out of the third world, endless crime, lack of education for our minorities, meaningless existence for inner city youths, and the sheer numbers that are projected to be imported into the USA within 25 years. In reality, we are destabilizing our country at incredible speed. What do you think?

This video graphically and dramatically illustrates America’s immigration-population crisis as well as the world’s. I wrote it and narrated it. Tim Walters of Cleveland, Ohio directed and produced. Please forward it to all your friends, networks and beyond. Place it on FB, Twitter, Linkedin, Parler and more. Just click the link below to see the video.

Immigration, Overpopulation, Resources, Civilization by Frosty Wooldridge

Share these videos all over America:

In a five minute astoundingly simple yet brilliant video, “Immigration, Poverty, and Gum Balls“, Roy Beck, director of www.numbersusa.ORG, graphically illustrates the impact of overpopulation. Take five minutes to see for yourself:

“Immigration by the numbers-off the chart” by Roy Beck This 10-minute demonstration shows Americans the results of unending mass immigration on the quality of life and sustainability for future generations: in a few words, “Mind boggling!” www.NumbersUSA.org

E-Mail Frosty: frostyw@juno.com