In 1949, the great historian Carey McWilliams portrayed Californians as blessed with “a spirit of great independence and a self-reliance bordering on truculence.”
That independent spirit was demonstrated anew this week, when Governor Jerry Brown signed a watershed “death with dignity” law, making California just the fifth, and by far the largest, state to adopt such a measure.
More significantly, it is notable that long before Brown’s action, Californians favored strongly the right of mortally sick and suffering people to receive life-ending medications — in sharp contrast to the contemporaneous views of most Americans.