Here at FELTG, given the nature of our work, we get a lot of feedback and we generally appreciate it, whether it’s good or bad. Last week, I heard from a class participant who suggested that I had “San Francisco values.” Being a citizen of that great city (I will trade my property tax bill for yours sight-unseen), I thought that might be a compliment. Then, I decided to look it up. I see that the term is “often used pejoratively and as an ad hominem phrase to refer to cultural, social and moral attributes associated with the city of San Francisco’s liberal politics and pluralist culture.” After then looking up “pejoratively” and “ad hominem,” I see that the guy actually was not giving me a compliment after all. Ha ha ha! After looking up “pluralistic,” I see that he thinks we San Franciscans believe in the coexistence of different values. Well, we do. With 8,000,000,000 people on Earth, some of us are going to have different values. And if we’re not going to kill each other, we probably are better off by choosing to coexist. So I have decided to wear the label as a badge of honor, thereby reducing the sting of the intended critical feedback. There are a lot of deficiencies in my character, but being accepting of others is not one of them. Yep, I am from San Francisco! (But, what happens when people find out I live on “Russian” Hill?)