Writing For Change

I was once asked if I wanted to move back to California where I grew up. My answer was that I couldn’t as my California no longer existed. This seemed to be confusing, but shouldn’t be.
My California had miles of open country and meadows between Los Angeles and San Diego. We could go to the beach and be the only ones there. We could go hiking in the mountains and meet no one.
There was a dairy with cows and a small bottling plant not ten miles from home where you could watch your milk put in a bottle and buy it. As children, we could play outside while our parents played canasta until midnight safely.
Time marches on. My California is now in the past. I can not go back except in memory.
As writers, authors have golden opportunities to bring that past to life for those who will never see it. Yet we should never present this as someplace we can return to. We can’t and we shouldn’t.
Why not return to those times? Because those times had ugly sides to them too. It was a time when people couldn’t use a rest room, a drinking fountain, be out after dark, live in a house they chose because of who they were. It was a time when many children couldn’t get a decent education or expect to get a decent job because of who they were.
As writers, authors can encourage people to look at the past honestly. We can encourage people to take a good look at themselves, their lives and see that some things need to change. We can show people ways to change by introducing them to people and places they might never otherwise encounter.
The hardest part is meeting those people and seeing those places ourselves. How can we ask others to change when we ourselves are unwilling to change?