Historical Snapshot #1

To

To celebrate the centennial of the Angel Island Immigration Station I planned to visit Angel Island with Zealand. We arrived at the Ferry Building in the middle of the day expecting to buy a ferry ticket to the island. Upon arrival we learned that there is only a morning ferry on Wednesdays. Angel Island will have to wait until next week.

With our original plan sunk I felt a little unmoored there on the dock. Zealand practically leaped from the carrier I had him in and raced to the railings to watch a ship arrive. He then raced back and forth from the railings to inside the building while I scurried behind him to make sure someone didn't step on him.

Inside I subdued him with his "ba" and browsed artisan cheeses for a gift for our new neighbors and my new good friend, Susannah. The Ferry Building is full of small shops full of high priced but truly yummy food - organic produce, wine, seafood, cheese, olive oil, and chocolates to name just a few. People congregate here to enjoy good food, restaurants, farmer's markets, and on Friday evenings all local vendors produce their best for an evening of music and meals that can fit on paper plates.

On our way out I wondered where we could go for our first historical hot spot outing. It was then I realized we were already there - the Ferry Building! Duh.

The Ferry Building represents an old hub of transportation for the city before cars overrode everything and the Bay and Golden Gate bridges were erected (1936 and 1937 respectively). At its height over 50,000 people commuted by ferry per day. A bulk of the passengers came in from the East Bay and Marin to work in the city.

Now there is cement and commercial space filling in what used to be a waterway for the ferries to enter the building to unload passengers.

Ferry service has been resurrected with regular trips to Oakland and Marin, among other places. Some people are even following in the footsteps of their historical predecessors by using the ferries to commute to work on a daily basis.

Zealand and I left the Ferry Building by bus down Market street. On the way home we started to hear murmurs of what will certainly become a historical day in the annals of law and civil rights. Federal District Court Judge Vaughn R. Walker struck down California's Prop 8 ruling it unconstitutional. Unconstitutional indeed. A big victory toward civil rights for same sex couples even though this will inevitably twist and turn through the courts for years, decades?, to come.

Exclusion and discrimination - two forces in human nature that we thankfully have a Constitution to address. This brings me back to Angel Island. Next week!