What is it that makes a California? We’re of a different stock, people who decide not just to choose the Western coast of this country, but to choose the lifestyle that accompanies it.

Now I know that there are vast differences between northern Californians and Southern Californians, Coasties and the Inland Imperials, Mountain Kids and Valley Kids, but I have been around a bit and realize that there is something in either the air, the water or just in our blood that makes us who we are.

What drives people to want to live here? Could it be the sunshine and the waves? Well, Arizona has more sunshine than us and Florida has more waves. Could it bet the stars and the magnetic pull of Los Angeles? The same can be said for Boston, Philadelphia or especially New York City. What is it that causes this effect? Why is it that our coast causes people to sigh contentedly while the Atlantic drives people to act and move?

So many points in California’s history have we pushed toward something amazing while still reserving a sense of inner calm, which guides our efforts.

During the Gold Rush prospectors flooded this state looking for gold, but the men and women who made all the money were the ones servicing those diggers, not the diggers themselves.

When industry took over California and pushed us toward manufacturing and shipping we built out and up, growing such great cities as Monterey, Oakland, Los Angeles and San Diego.

When technology was brought out to what would become the Silicon Valley, it grew to what is now the center of the technological world. At the forefront of this movement were people who certainly had drive, but also had this immeasurable “chillness,” which embodies our credo.

We are the new land of invention. Our state motto is “Eureka!” We should be proud of this fact and our history because it sets us apart as the final destination. This is where you go when the going got good.

I ask you Californians to stand up together, to settle old disputes between north and south, east and west, high and low and every other thing tearing us apart.

We are facing one of the toughest times in the state since bandits were hung in a little sleepy mountain town called Los Gatos.

If we can pull together and get through these tough times of financial crisis and unemployment, we can show the rest of the country what it means to be Californian.

California as a whole has more money than all but the eight richest countries in the world, according to the Greyhill Advisors, publishers of the Gross State Product chart.

That means that if we can pull it together, stop wasting money and finish fixing our economy, we can throw out weight around.

This doesn’t mean that we should throw out our government, as right now they’re trying to do exactly what we hired them to do. If you aren’t happy with what the government is trying to do, please send them letters and let them know what is wrong. They want to know your opinion.

You can resume your bickering once we have this fixed. Until that point though, remember that we are a state united, and no one else in this great country can say that they are better than us.