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The Time Machineby Kevin Raymond, CCPOA Negotiations Team Member Ever since I was a young lad running around with laser guns made from sticks, I have been enthralled with the idea of time travel. I loved the original movie, The Time Machine (circa 1960), based on the H.G. Wells 1895 novella. The things one could accomplish if this bending of time and space was possible are infinite.Just think about it. You could jump in the machine and see for yourself just how they built those Egyptian pyramids so many, many years ago. You could drop by George Washington's winter camp for a visit. You could dial up Germany in the late 1930s to explain why old Adolph may not be the way to go. Or take a little trip to Dallas and the infamous grassy knoll. Then, of course, maybe a trip not back in time, but rather back to the future. Lottery numbers for next Saturday night, please. Oh, the good times we could have! Though, the obvious, glaring problem with time travel is whether or not it would actually be worth it. Would you be bored watching the construction of the pyramids? What if you found good old George Washington to be nothing more than a conceited ass? Or, what if no one in Nazi Germany gave a damn about what you had to say, Hitler's over-the-top moustache notwithstanding? As for traveling into the future, would you really want certain information, such as when and how you are going to die? That being said, just having fantasies about time travel may not be enough. How, then, do you make it a reality? Being the epitome of the GED guard The Sacramento Bee is so familiar with, I can't figure it out. So, I'd have to jump on board with popular ideas theorizing that time travel is nothing more than the bending of light and so forth. Under this theory, the down side would be that if time travel were actually possible, you would only be able to travel back as far as the moment the first time machine was turned on, establishing the conduit, if you will. But, even after you've figured the trick to it, you have to ask yourself: Is time travel really necessary at all? After all, time seems to march tirelessly on in some areas, yet remains stagnant on many different planes of reality. For example, I recently examined a document issued by the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, which stated in a nutshell that the Department could reduce crime, staff assaults, recidivism, overcrowding, etc. if they offered programs and rehabilitation to the inmate population at large. Some insightful member of one of the governor's strike teams must have written it. Or was it the work product of the ever-popular Blue Ribbon Panel? If not one of those, surely the all-seeing, all-knowing Legislative Analyst must have penned it, as it sounds all too familiar. Well, you may be surprised to learn that none of the aforementioned authored the document. In fact, the document in question was dated 1985, addressing the prison building boom of more than twenty years ago. Yet, it could have been written this morning. Let's see now, Rod Hickman, Jeannie Woodford, James Tilton, and now Matthew Cate. And that's just recent history. How far back would you have to travel in time to find one or all of those individuals in charge of the Corrections Department? How about just under three years? They come and they go. Yet, time stands still on our plane of reality. The faces and names change but the catch phrases live on. You know the ones, Evidence Based Programs, Parole Models, Rehabilitation Models, the Pathways to Rehabilitation Project, and my personal favorite, any word that comes to mind with Reform added to it. These eloquent phrases spew from the mouths of these illustrious officials as if they were one, like water over Niagara Falls. Again, time stands still and nothing has changed. In 2003, faced with a budget deficit of billions of dollars, the people of California decided it was time to recall Gov. Gray Davis, as over the horizon, Hollywood action hero Arnold Schwarzenegger rode into Sacramento on a white horse, promising to blow up the boxes. Remember? We don't have an income problem, we have a spending problem. Armed with a cache of dumb movie quotes, he promised us the world, and all of his past indiscretions were forgiven. Welcome to California, where time goes to die. Five years later, the state is again billions of dollars in the red and it's going to get worse–partially due to the federal court overseeing the medical department. Why? Because Arnold didn't care–"Let them take it." We are still billions in debt, the doomed boxes still exist, and the sands in the hourglass are wedged tightly in the narrow passage between the fragile glass bulbs. Perhaps when all is said and done, this isn't really about time travel. Maybe, just maybe, we are stuck in some vicious time warp, as on Star Trek, where time just flows in a perpetual loop. Perhaps my limited intelligence concerning the laws of the universe doesn't allow me to see the light. "Damn it Jim, I'm a guard, not a Highway Patrolman!" For the record, I am also a fan of the original Star Trek, and its travels through time and the final frontier. Although, I will confess, I was recently watching an episode with my 3-year-old grandson, Andrew, who informed me that Captain Kirk and friends wear the same uniforms as The Wiggles. He's a smart, observant kid who just may be the one to bring an end to this cycle of inactivity some day. Lord knows we'll probably be in the same place when he's old enough to do so.  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