Hall of notable Californians is a few giants short
Reporting from Sacramento — One of the few fun things about Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's job these days is choosing new inductees for the California Hall of Fame. His wife, Maria Shriver, dreamed up the hall two years ago.
Actually, Schwarzenegger and Shriver both select the members, assisted by a small committee.
They don't come up with all the people that I -- and probably most historians -- would pick. It's less of a real hall of fame than a collection of the first couple's preferred prominent people.
But whatever it's called, the project is a worthy one. Notable Californians are honored and their lives displayed in the state history museum, hopefully inspiring some touring school kids.
Included in the displays are personal artifacts, such as actor Jack Nicholson's 2nd-grade report card. "He needs to show better self control," the teacher wrote.
Tonight 12 more Californians, including Nicholson, will be inducted in an annual event that smacks a bit too much of Hollywood for Sacramento. The honorees will trudge down a long red carpet that parallels some light rail tracks before entering the museum near the Capitol.
In Sacramento, a red carpet is usually a rug that has had some merlot or spaghetti sauce spilled on it.
There's only one true giant of California history in tonight's batch: Leland Stanford -- the state's first Republican governor, founder of the great university and one of "the Big Four" who built the Sierra leg of the transcontinental railroad. Included in his display will be the golden spike that connected the rail line and opened the continent.
There is a dearth of giants in the Schwarzenegger-Shriver "hall." Among the initial 13 picks in 2006, I'd count only Ronald Reagan and naturalist John Muir. Maybe farmworker union leader Cesar Chavez.
Schwarzenegger favors adding governors, but only one a year. In 2007, he chose Earl Warren, three-time governor and U.S Supreme Court chief justice. There are only two other indisputably great governors in my book -- reformer Hiram Johnson and builder Pat Brown -- so Schwarzenegger has time to finish the "must" picks before he's termed out at the end of 2010.
(For a complete list of past inductees, go to the website californiamuseum.org.)
No one would argue that any of the new honorees haven't been phenomenally successful and influential and don't deserve accolades.
