Brentwood Press - Index

Brentwood Press - OakleyPress_07.04.08 - Index

26A | THEPRESS.NET COMMUNITY JULY 4, 2008
“Best of Brentwood” Attorney
Retired Superior Court Judge
JOHN M. ALLEN
JOHN M. ALLEN
ATTORNEY AT LAW
Serving East Contra Costa County
• Personal Injury
• Business Litigation
• Real Estate
• Construction
• Wills & Trusts
• Mediation
• Arbitration
• Litigation
• DUI
1210 Central Blvd, Suite 115, Brentwood • (925) 240-2700
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commercial, industrial
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Ask us about our
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Ross Co. Realtors
779-1580 or 372-8400
WEEKEND HILLSIDE TO
DIABLO GOLF RATE SPECIAL
925.516.3400
BrentwoodGolf.com
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Our most popular special is BACK! Play
18-Holes Saturday or Sunday on our Hillside
to Diablo course selection between 7am and
8:30am for $50 (cart fee included) PLUS
receive a free sleeve of Titleist Pro V1 or Pro
V1X golf balls. Call 925-516-3400 to book your
tee time today!
MUST print and present this offer upon check-In. Exp 7/13/08.
FRIDAY NIGHT MUSIC ON THE PATIO
FRIDAYS IN JULY FROM 6-9PM
JULY 4 No entertainment, Happy Fourth of July!
JULY 11 NOTEWORTHY (Classical Rock)
Come enjoy the great view of the Cornfest
Fireworks while cooling off with a cold beer
from Black Diamond Brewery
Reservations always recommended
JULY 18 MADMAN (Modern Rock) and a
special tasting by Corralejo Margaritas
JULY 25 SATURDAY’S BLUES and a special
tasting by Sierra Nevada and BBQ on the patio
Outside from page 8A
for me, but I know now what I took
away from those exposures: America
is diversity.
Is the prime American virtue a
tolerance for diversity? Sounds like a
working defi nition to me.
My parents exposed me to another
kind of diversity, not of the people
who occupy this land but of the land
itself. Our family vacations might not
have spanned sea to shining sea, but
as a boy I saw enough of America
to be smitten by it as deeply as I was
smitten a few years ago by a woman
named Leia. The physical attraction
of America’s mountains and forests
and coastline is second to none among
the things that come to mind when I
contemplate the land of my birth.
We Americans disagree about
many things. One thing we can agree
on is the phenomenal diversity of our
country’s natural beauty. The briefest
account of it echoes the cadences of
the Book of Job: “Have you seen the
snowy crown of Mt. Shasta fl ushed
with the rose of dawn, or descended
the banded ancientry of the Grand
Canyon? Have the Everglades revealed
their sultry wonders to you, or have
you glided on Minnesota’s cerulean
lakes? Cliffs of ice crash into the
sea on Alaska’s coastline, and mists
enshroud the rainforests of Maui’s
Haleakala. Declare, if you have seen
all this.”
In fact, here in humble East
County we get to see quite a lot:
spacious skies over the San Joaquin,
amber waves of wild grasses undulating
along the Vaqueros hills, the
purple majesty at sunset of a mountain
called Diablo. And in July, as
we celebrate the fruited plain of East
County’s cornfi elds, orchards and
vineyards, it’s inarguable that God has
shed his grace on us.
Now, if we could only crown our
good with brotherhood, we’d have a
nation truly for the ages.
A three-hour drive east of East
County puts you in a place called
Yosemite Valley, its soaring walls of
granite unchanged for 14,000 years
– 8,000 years before the fi rst Native
American set eyes on them; 14,000
years, rounded off, before the United
States of America came into existence.
In my wanderings there I’ve
run across, shot the breeze with and
snapped photos of as many foreigners
as Americans. Like me, they all crane
their necks, rotate a slow 360 and say
“Wow” in their native tongues. At
those moments we become citizens of
the planet; our fl ag – as yet unsewn,
its sapphire orb adorned with clouds
and continents, fl oating on the black
ocean of the cosmos – an object
worthy of reverence. Maybe even an
international anthem.
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