2/27/2024

Home. Red Bluff, California. Almost 22 years to the day, back in February 2002, my family first moved here. I still remember that move quite well. Prior to living here, my family had always lived in cold, snowy places throughout the American West and Midwest. But as we drove across Nevada, past Lake Tahoe, and dropped into the Sacramento Valley, a new reality took hold in my life – a reality where green fields, flowers, orchards, and palm trees could exist in the month of February. A reality where I could run outside and enjoy the outdoors year round without needing layers and layers of clothing. For me, a nerdy, punk, cross country/track and field type teenager, it was heaven on earth.

The town back then was SO safe and quiet. The nightly news didn’t have much that was bad to report at all. We had a nice river park that was enjoyed by the community, a wonderful Catholic school overlooking that park, restaurant variety galore, etc. You could feel safe letting your kid wander about the town at will. As I started high school here, students were curious why my family would choose to move to a boring place like “dead bluff.” Being the Midwest boy that I was, I remember always retorting to the students that they had it all wrong and that this place was awesome – it had mountains, lakes, palm trees, you could go wherever, do whatever, and it was so warm! Perfect for running! The students just didn’t understand how good they had it in life.

I won’t delve deep into all of the politics and reasons, but just as with many other small towns in the United States, time has not been kind to Red Bluff these past two decades. What was once a safe, quaint small town in a beautiful part of the country is now a place struggling with widespread homelessness, crime, drug problems, and businesses doing everything they can (God bless them) just to stay afloat and make ends meet. You wouldn’t dare step foot in the river park these days, unless you felt like risking life and limb. The nice Catholic school overlooking the park is now gone, and the restaurant variety is more limited these days than it was in days past. People have been fleeing Red Bluff and California in general to seek refuge from this overall downward spiral and feeling of decay and stagnation in a state gone bad. In fact, I too fled the place back in 2021. It led to a well-blogged about spirit journey taking me through the entire country and landing me in Marquette, Michigan in service to the Diocese of Marquette.

The past few years serving that Diocese, and living in that four-season paradise of Marquette, rejuvenated my sense of hope, faith, and spirit. Yet, as I grew stronger there in fortitude, an ever-increasing calling arose within me, this time telling me to go right back to where I started – back to California to be the lawyer I was trained to be and to fight hard, politically even if needed, for my clients, community and the soul of my State. Because ultimately, as I have discerned these past few years, that’s the job of a lawyer – not to join the exodus when times get tough politically, but to remain in the trenches, fighting and working hard to solve the legal and political issues facing your community. And when you’re doing that while also trusting God in full, well it becomes noble work too.

And so I am here, back in my hometown of Red Bluff, ready to fight legal and political battles with righteous fury and zeal, ready to walk the path of the warrior and seek samurai justice for my kinsmen, ready to act as a stable professional and pillar of the community in service to my clients, and ready to do my best to restore my hometown to the sort of safe, pristine place that I remember it being when I first moved here and fell in love with it 22 years ago.

Cheers,

-Rob