Mountain Views News          Saturday, August 7, 2010

8

OPINION

 Mountain Views News Saturday, August 7, 2010 

STUART TOLCHIN ..........On LIFE

HENDERSON SUSAN 

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John Aveny 

The Stealthing of Sierra Madre

Stealth (adj.) intended not to attract attention

 Several years ago as I was 
playing golf, a big shadow 
covered the area and everyone 
looked up to see if the 
Martians had landed. It was 
a weird feeling, being covered 
by a huge shadow that came 
out of nowhere, but in a few 
seconds, the shadow passed and we could see one 
of our country’s magnificent flying machines. The 
sight was quite moving but the thought that it was 
upon us before we even knew it, was unnerving. 
Not a sound and bam…there it was. Well, in 
recent weeks we have learned that Sierra Madre 
experienced something quite similar. We were 
suddenly covered by a dark cloud that we didn’t 
see coming and by the time we recognized it, many 
were shocked and disappointed. It was like the plot 
of a B rated movie. The town had been ‘stealthed’. 

 The very organized ‘protest’ movement that 
collected signatures in an attempt to defeat the 
proposed water rate fee hike was nothing more than 
a political campaign that few people recognized. 
Many of those who were recruited to submit their 
‘protest’ were not aware of anything more than the 
‘misinformation’ that they were given. They were 
not aware that the ‘organizers’ of this ‘protest’ were 
actually a group of residents with a craving for 
dissent regardless of the issue. Involved and/or 
supporting this organized effort was every single 
candidate (except Bill Tice), that lost the recent 
election and their ‘slate mailing buddy’ who sits 
on the current city council. And, based upon the 
pronouncements of our City Clerk, it even included 
her, an involvement that many call inappropriate 
and perhaps illegal because of her responsibility to 
tally the protest documents.

 Yet, on the other side of the coin, those who did 
not object to the fee increase, were not aware that 
there was a campaign against it going on. Yes, the 
stealthing of Sierra Madre was done very efficiently, 
designed not to draw attention to it. (Stealthing….
new word, not from Sarah Palin but from me. 
“Stealthing as in flying under the radar like a stealth 
bomber.)

 Using the tried and tested dirty tactics method of 
instilling fear by suggesting that people would be 
paying unconscionable rates for water, signatures 
were collected very often, unscrupulously. 
Example: When one rate payer (business) signed 
a protest based upon a dispute with the city that 
has been unresolved for years, they noted an 
objection not to the increase but to the unresolved 
issue on the form. Within minutes, the signature 
gatherer could be heard soliciting support for the 
protest by invoking the name of the previous signer 
without disclosing the real reasons for gaining that 
signature. The business owner was quite upset.

 Now, I do not make this up. I spent a considerable 
amount of time reviewing the ‘protests’. So, when 
I saw the preprinted letters soliciting protests that 
were distributed (one from Former Councilman 
Don Watts - the only letter that had a name on 
it, the others were unsigned. It was also the only 
letter that had the correct amount of the proposed 
increase.), I was shocked. One letter that was 
mailed to residents actually said, in bold letters, “If 
this rate hike goes through, in five years your bill will 
be 140% of what it is now”, implying that the rate 
was going to increase by 140%, which is simply not 
true. You do the math:

 If your current bill is: $50.00 - A 140% 
increase will make it (in 5 years) $120.00

The Truth: If your current bill is: $50.00

the most your bill could increase is 37% (in the 
highest category) thus making your maximum bill 
in 5 years $68.50. 

 There is a big difference in thinking that your bill 
is going to jump to $120.00 compared to it possibly 
jumping to $68.50. Big Difference. Big Lies. 

 What was even more egregious is that these letters 
were sent selectively to residents and property 
owners that the ‘organizers’ obviously thought they 
could fool, and they went to extraordinary lengths 
to gather signatures from owners who don’t even 
live in town. So while many thought they were 
participating in a local, door to door protest effort, 
it was much more than that.

 You also had, and this is where it really gets 
strange, the ‘organizers’ of the protest, an otherwise 
an anti-development crowd, using the help of the 
most controversial developers in town –the owners 
of 1 Carter. Yes it is true, when those who organized 
the protest bragged about the signatures they had 
collected against the rate hike, they were proud to 
have the support of the owner of 1 Carter, which 
signed 30 protests, giving them more power than 
any other rate payer or land owner in town. I guess 
we won’t have any more protests about the size, 
shape or burden that 1 Carter will put on the city 
from them since they are now best buddies.

 Fortunately, when the final tally was done, the 
stealth campaign didn’t fly. This time. However, if 
we aren’t careful, at the very next opportunity, there 
will be another such disingenuous, dishonest and 
deceptive attempt to gain the public’s support.

 I know that the intent of many people who signed 
the protest was not rooted in the ‘sore loser’ syndrome 
or the ‘I must protest everything’ syndrome. Many 
were just led by people they trusted but really didn’t 
know. And perhaps that is the problem. 

In Sierra Madre, which sometimes has a reputation 
that it does not deserve due to the shenanigans 
(their favorite word) of those who have an insatiable 
appetite for chaos, we have to all take more personal 
responsibility for learning what is really going on in 
town. We have to actually open our mail, read it 
and question anything that the author refuses to put 
their name on. Dissent is a valuable tool in making 
sure all sides of an issue are heard, but as residents, 
we have to recognize what the real issues are and 
draw our conclusions based upon fact.

 There is one good thing that came out of the 
stealthing of the city. City officials recognized 
that it is an absolute necessity to improve the 
communications between the public and City Hall. 
The other good thing, I hope, is that we now know 
to watch out for that dark shadow when it flies over 
our heads.


A View From Mount St. Helens

 Well, here I am in Portland Oregon, composing away and 
hoping through some technological magic that this article 
will fly through cyberspace and find its way to the Sierra 
Madre news stands on Sunday. My wife and I are here for a 
wedding and thought we could rent a car and travel around 
the northwest for awhile. No such luck! These days, I’m 
afraid, must be well planned in advance. Almost no rental 
cars are available, or are only available at outrageous prices 
As part of the wedding party we had reserved a room for 
a couple of days at this fairly high-priced, at least for us, hotel. There was 
some sort of group discount and the price didn’t seem too steep. After the 
wedding the discount disappeared and it was time to find another hotel; or 
so we thought. 

 Coincidentally, my wife had just purchased a small lap-top computer 
(which I am using now for the first time) and she attempted to find a more 
reasonably priced hotel. Eventually, she found one which was still a little 
pricey. Before making the change she checked the comments about the hotel. 
The comments were as follows: Holes in the door; narrow scary hallways, 
blood on the floor, dirty toilets. NO,NO,NO. We agreed with the assessment 
and decided to stay in our old overpriced hotel. As a result of this decision or 
indecision my own viewpoint about quite a number of things have changed 
and this change, I think, is the point of this article.

 First the hotel. All right it costs $179 per night with credit toward discounts 
that I don’t understand. I thought the price outrageous, but we’re stuck here. 
Guess what? It’s kind of wonderful. Every day there is a free buffet-breakfast, 
a free soup and salad, and dinner with free drinks including wine or beer. 
There is a free shuttle that takes you anywhere within the city and the free 
Portland streetcar that stops right by the hotel and whisks us off to more 
distant locations I think I’ve learned that life is not always about bargains; it 
may be more about noticing what you already have. Now - no friends and no 
car. What to do?

 Luckily someone in the hotel told us about Powell’s bookstore. We hopped 
on the free Portland streetcar and in ten minutes we were at Powell’s which 
happens to be the largest new and used bookstore in the world. The place is a 
revelation. It is so gigantic that they give you a map when you walk in so that 
you can find your way back to the front door. The place is a maze of rooms 
identified by color. I bought a couple of fairly esoteric books at discount 
prices and purchased a paperback copy of the’ Girl with the Dragon Tattoo’ 
for my wife. As you probably already know, a movie has already been made 
of this book, along with its sequel and a third book has already come out. On 
our trip up to Portland it was necessary for us to change planes in Sacramento. 
I noticed several people reading the book in a surprisingly engrossed state in 
the airport. All right, I bought the book but I certainly would not read such 
popular nonsense.

 After we left the bookstore we waited in line for almost an hour to buy 
donuts at this place called Voodoo Doughnuts. I don’t even like donuts, but 
I saw this long line of people waiting at a hole in the wall store. I bought a 
dozen donuts and had fun giving them away to other people who knew about 
the donut, but couldn’t face the wait. I felt like a hero. My wife didn’t think 
wasting time on such a sunny day was such a good idea and stopped talking to 
me. Once we got back to the hotel, just to show her, I started her book. Now, 
I can’t put it down. Still I thought I was missing something about the book. 

 I found out something new about the book on this unforgettable tour we 
took to Mount St. Helens his morning. Right! No car, so we had to go on a 
tour, normally something we avoid. We were the only Americans on the tour 
and had these amazing and surprising conversations with people. A Korean 
man asked why there are so many smart famous Jewish people. Never had I 
been asked that question--it’s not politically correct you know. Another man 
asked why Americans buy German cars. These questions were combined 
with the viewing of Mount St. Helens and conversations with people who had 
lost loved ones in the tragedy that all happened in a few seconds. Suddenly 
homes, business, even forests and lakes were gone.

 The thing that surprised me most, though, was when the man from Sweden 
noticed the book I couldn’t put down and informed me that the original name 
of the book was ‘Men Who Hate Women’. Suddenly my understanding of the 
whole book changed.....and so

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Left Turn/Right Turn

GREG Welborn

Clarifying The Election 
(Part I)

HOWARD Hays 

As I See It

 
We are just about 3 months from 
the mid-term elections, and I think it 
would be helpful to look at some of the 
clarifying issues that will most likely 
be decided by this next election. The 
most basic of these issues is at the heart 
of the current debate about whether to 
let taxes increase in January, as they are 
currently scheduled to do. In deciding 
this issue, we are essentially deciding 
who we want to control many aspects 
of our lives.

 Right now, the world scene 
presents American voters with two 
diametrically opposed models. The 
one is epitomized by Europe. The 
continent is struggling under the wave 
of debt that has been incurred to pay 
for the cradle-to-grave nanny state 
that has been carefully constructed 
over the last 50 years. 

 Citizens in Europe may work just as 
hard as their American counterparts, 
but they see the vast majority of their 
pay taken from them in the form of 
income taxes, value added taxes and 
other levies. They receive copious 
“benefits” from the government, 
including healthcare, childcare, 
mandated vacation, etc. But the issue 
here is that the government is deciding 
how the workers get to spend and 
enjoy the fruits of their labor.

 Unfortunately for them, that 
system isn’t working like it used to. 
Leaders, like the new Prime Minister 
of England, are now having to tell 
their people to expect decades of 
austerity to pay for what has been put 
in place. There simply aren’t enough 
tax revenues collected to pay for what 
has been promised to too many of the 
voters. The result is sluggish growth, 
declining living standards and now 
social unrest.

 The other model is the one being 
offered by many of the emerging 
economies of the world. Workers 
are being allowed greater flexibility 
in where they can work, are being 
allowed greater latitude in negotiating 
for their rate of pay, and now finally 
being allowed greater freedom in 
where they can spend their wages. 
Workers get to spend and enjoy the 
fruits of their labor.

 America is at a fork in the road. 
Historically, we have believed in the 
freedom model. But our current 
president has made no bones about 
his desire to fundamentally transform 
America. The healthcare bill was just 
an opening salvo in this effort. We can 
debate the financial implications of the 
bill later, but if it is fully implemented, 
at its heart it shifts control over 
healthcare decisions from the patient 
and doctor to the government. The 
Financial reform bill was the second 
salvo. The government has now 
usurped the power to decide which 
company presidents can be fired, 
which contracts can be honored or 
abrogated and who will get a student 
loan and who 
won’t, among 
other things.

 But the most 
significant and 
potentially far 
reaching battle is 
the overall budget battle. The current 
administration has not just presided 
over, it has actively caused, the largest 
deficit we have ever seen with even 
more red ink planned. This isn’t 
just an issue of financial prudence. 
These deficits are being caused 
by government-issued promises 
to an ever-increasing number of 
constituencies. Every one of these 
promises tends to be embraced by 
its recipient once it goes into affect, 
and every one of them requires tax 
revenues to be raised.

 There will be a point when the 
deficits become so large that we will 
be forced to increase existing tax rates 
and to impose additional taxes and 
levies as has been done in Europe. 
That is what liberal “progressives” are 
counting on. Get the programs passed 
now, the recipients dependent on the 
aid, and the necessity of raising taxes 
is all but guaranteed.

 My fellow Americans, don’t forget for 
one moment that with each promise 
and tax increase, more of what you 
earn is being taken from you and then 
returned in the manner determined by 
some government bureaucrat. A little 
bit of your freedom disappears each 
time.

 Come November, the competing 
visions for America couldn’t be 
more opposed. It is not a difference 
of visions over healthcare, financial 
regulation, environmental policy 
or any of the other justifications 
which have and will be offered. The 
November election decision will be 
about whether we, the citizens, get to 
decide how to spend what we earn or 
whether they, the government, get to 
decide how to spend what we earn.

 The new Director of Medicare was 
refreshingly honest when he said that 
only the smartest leaders can design a 
social system for the rest of us. If we 
elect leaders who will allow taxes to 
increase in January, we will be giving 
them more control over our lives. If 
we elect leaders who maintain or lower 
taxes, we will be taking back control 
over our lives. In Thomas Jefferson’s 
immortal words, this is about the 
pursuit of happiness. Who is going 
to decide what we can pursue – us or 
them? Choose well America.

 About the author: Gregory J. 
Welborn is a freelance writer and has 
spoken to several civic and religious 
organizations on cultural and moral 
issues. He lives in the Los Angeles 
area with his wife and 3 children and 
is active in the community. He can be 
reached at gregwelborn@earthlink.
net.

 Last week I wrote about 
efforts to keep us divided 
against one another. Less 
than three percent of the 
wealthiest Americans (I 
chose that number because 
it represents those who’d 
benefit from the $680 billion extension of the 
Bush tax cuts) feel they can fend off intruders 
at their banquet if we’re kept fighting amongst 
ourselves for the crumbs allowed to fall from 
the table.

 As Barack Obama put it at the 2004 
Democratic Convention; “It’s not the 
Red States, it’s not the Blue States, it’s the 
United States of America.” On a more 
somber occasion, 26th District Democratic 
congressional candidate Russ Warner noted 
in a Memorial Day address that regardless of 
the backgrounds and ethnicities of the fallen, 
crosses marking their graves are all the same 
white color, and they all fought for the same 
red, white and blue.

 Because individuals sent to represent 
us in Washington come from different 
regions, with different interests and diverse 
ideologies, debate is expected and welcomed 
on controversial issues. On other matters, the 
need is so clear and agreement so universal we 
expect them to come together and do what’s 
best for our country.

 There’s help for small businesses, for 
example. There was (not enough) debate 
about the $700 billion bailout of the Wall 
Street players who brought us to the brink of 
a second Great Depression. There’s no debate, 
though, on the role small business plays in 
driving our nation’s economy and creating 
jobs here at home. As candidate Warner 
points out, “The country’s economy has 
always been saved by the middle class, who 
aren’t afraid of rolling up their sleeves and 
getting the job done - more than the upper 
classes would ever do.”

 The senate bill contained input from both 
sides of the aisle, and was endorsed by the U.S. 
Chamber of Commerce. It eliminated the 
capital gains tax on small business investment 
and created a lending fund to be administered 
through community banks. Leadership 
agreed to the consideration of at least three 
Republican amendments. Here’s something 
everybody could come together and agree on, 
right?

 Maybe not. Republicans refused to allow 
passage if they couldn’t debate amendments 
dealing with nuclear funding, Bush’s 
millionaires’ tax cuts and brown hordes 
encroaching our southern border. Isn’t it 
better to have no bill at all, rather than one 
that doesn’t address the needs of mom-and-
pop nuclear reactors, with no opportunity to 
bash Democrats as weak on “illegals”? Sen. 
Mary Landrieu (D-La) responded, “Eighty-
one percent of the jobs lost in America are 
from small business - so when the other side 
complains and complains and just flaps and 
flaps all day long about it’s a jobless recovery, 
we put a bill on the floor to create jobs for 
small business and they say no... They can 
color it, paint it any way they want, that’s what 
it was.”

 Apparently, help for small business is too 

controversial. But if we can come together 
and agree on anything, how about making 
sure the heroes of 9/11, rescue workers who 
continue to suffer long-term respiratory and 
other ailments from exposure to the dust at 
ground zero, are taken care of? You’d think 
this would be a real come-together moment, 
but some Republicans decided instead to turn 
their backs and let the rescue workers suffer - 
including our own Rep. David Dreier. 

 I wanted to know the reason, so I put in 
a call to the congressman’s office. I was told 
not to doubt Rep. Dreier’s commitment to our 
9/11 heroes, because he supported the original 
aid bill - just not this subsequent version. Did 
I miss something? When did this original bill 
come out? In 2001, I was told; nine years ago, 
but presumably sufficient to establish his bona 
fides as a real 9/11-heroes-supporter.

 Unless it’s Pentagon spending or tax 
breaks for millionaires, Republicans insist 
that legislation be “paid for”. Wasn’t that 
taken care of here? “You shouldn’t have tax 
increases during tough times”, I was told. 
But I didn’t see any “tax increases” in the 
bill, which would be paid for by closing the 
loophole allowing foreign trans-national 
corporations to avoid paying taxes on their 
U.S. income by incorporating in offshore tax 
havens. American small businesses, those 
that provide American jobs, pay taxes on 
their income like most of us do; why should 
we be giving a break to foreign corporations 
that close factories and move thousands of 
jobs to China and India? “It’s a tax increase.” 
And if it’s employment we’re concerned about, 
there’s that job fair Rep. Dreier is sponsoring 
in Monrovia.

 I was told Dreier’s opposition stemmed 
from his desire to “protect” taxpayers. The 
bill could be funded instead by eliminating 
“waste, fraud and abuse” in other programs. 
Did he have anything specific in mind? No. 
There was not sufficient oversight in the 
program as outlined in the legislation. What 
changes would the congressman make? 
Didn’t know. The voting procedure didn’t 
allow for amendments to “improve” the bill. 
Were there any amendments the congressman 
wanted to see introduced? No idea. We know 
that Dreier was following the party line, what 
Rep. Anthony Weiner (D-NY) described as 
“Republicans wrapping their arms around 
Republicans rather than doing the right thing 
on behalf of the heroes.” We know David 
Dreier voted to protect those at the very top 
of the income ladder at the expense of those, 
as NYC Mayor Michael Bloomberg put it, 
“whose health has fallen apart because they 
did what America wanted them to do.”

 Democrat Russ Warner asks, “After 30 
years in office, David Dreier is rich. Are you?” 
A question I neglected to ask when I called his 
office was, rather than ducking out as he has 
in past elections, will the congressman finally 
show up to debate his opponent and answer 
to his constituents on the issues facing our 
community and our country? Regardless of 
ideological differences, political leanings or 
party affiliation, I think we could all come 
together and agree that such a debate and 
discussion would be most welcome. 

Mountain Views 
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