Mountain Views News          Saturday, February 12, 2011

13

OPINION

 Mountain Views News Saturday, February 12, 2011 


WHEN IS ENOUGH 
ENOUGH?

All of our children--native born and 
immigrant alike--are receiving a poorer 
education as a result of the federal 
government passing the cost of its 
immigration law enforcement failures to the states. The 
implications for the coming generation of workers, our 
future economy, and our long-term competitiveness in the 
world cannot be ignored. 

Illegal immigration is a drain on our schools, roads, and 
other public resources. Many pay little or no income taxes. 
Illegal immigrants are in this nation via illegal means and 
that makes them criminals by law. Our schools roads parks 
and hospitals were created and built with tax payer money. 
Secure our borders and end this seemingly endless flow of 
illegal aliens. Wean big business off of cheap labor.Its just 
too costly for legal Americans.

In California $12 billion dollars are spent each year on 
primary and secondary school education for children here 
illegally. It isn’t even necessary to quote facts and figures 
about government debt, unemployment and the trade 
deficit in order to convey how badly America is decaying. 

The truth is that millions of Americans can watch America 
rotting right in front of their eyes by stepping out on 
their front porches. Record numbers of homes have been 
foreclosed on and in some of the most run down cities as 
many as a third of all houses have been abandoned.

Unemployment remains at depressingly high levels and 
the number of Americans on food stamps continue to set 
new records month after month. Due to severe budget cuts, 
class sizes are exploding and school programs are being 
eliminated. In some areas of theU.S. schools are even going 
to four day weeks. 

With little to no funding available, bridges are crumbling 
and street lights are being turned off in many communities. 
In some areas, asphalt roads are actually being ground up 
and turned back into gravel roads because they are less 
expensive to maintain. 

There aren’t even as many police available to patrol 
America’s decaying cities because budget problems have 
forced local communities across the U.S. to lay off tens of 
thousands of officers.

Due to extreme budget cuts, school systems across the 
United States are requiring their students to bring more 
supplies with them than ever this year. In Moody, Alabama 
elementary school students are being told to bring paper 
towels, garbage bags and liquid soap with them to school. 
At Pauoa Elementary School in Honolulu, Hawaii all 
students are being required to show up with a four-pack 
of toilet paper. School districts can no longer afford to give 
free supplies to poor student. Where they are available, 
they are being purchased by teachers.

According to the American Association of School 
Administrators, 48 percent of all U.S. school districts are 
reporting budget cuts of 10 percent or less for the upcoming 
school year, and 30 percent of all U.S. school districts are 
reporting cuts of 11 to 25 percent.

If the federal government remains unwilling to undertake 
serious enforcement of United States immigration laws, 
it will eventually be forced to provide massive federal 
education funds to the states. A far more logical and cost-
effective alternative--and one with considerable pay-offs in 
other areas as well--would be to substantially reduce and 
eventually eliminate illegal immigration. 

I believe that all government aid to illegal immigrants needs 
to be stopped immediately, including but not limited to 
free schooling, free ERs, food stamps, subsidized housing, 
all aid. Companies and individuals should be stopped from 
hiring illegal immigrants. If need be heavy fines and loss of 
business licenses could be used to enforce our immigration 
laws.

Without a serious commitment to doing just that, the open 
borders and lax enforcement that allow millions of illegal 
aliens to enter the U.S. each year--and obtain driver’s licenses 
and other official identification documents with virtually 
no fear of the law--will continue to undermine confidence 
of our government, overburden our communities’ financial 
resources, and imperil our children’s future.

RICH Johnson

Mountain 
Views

News

Publisher/ Editor

Susan Henderson

City Editor

Dean Lee 

Sales

Patricia Colonello

626-355-2737 

626-818-2698

Art Director

Allison Kirkham

Production Assistant

Richard Garcia

Photography

Jacqueline Truong

Lina Johnson

Contributors

Teresa Baxter

Pat Birdsall

Bob Eklund

Howard Hays

Paul Carpenter

Stuart Tolchin

Kim Clymer-Kelley

Christopher Nyerges

Peter Dills 

Hail Hamilton 

Rich Johnson

Chris Bertrand

Mary Carney

La Quetta Shamblee

Glenn Lambdin

Greg Wellborn

Ralph McKnight

Trish Collins

Pat Ostrye

Editorial Cartoonist

Ann Cleaves

Webmaster

John Aveny 

HAIL Hamilton My Turn

VALENTINE RULES OF 
ENGAGEMENT

Considering the upcoming Valentines Day celebration, it seems to 
me nothing could be more important than offering guys help and 
understanding on maintaining good relationships with gals. 

 Bearing that in mind, let us review the 17 sacrosanct rules of engagement 
that exist between men and women:

1. The female ALWAYS makes the rules. 

2. The rules are subject to change without notice. 

3. No male can possibly know all the rules. 

4. If the female suspects the male is close to knowing all the rules, she can immediately 
change some of the rules. 

5. The female is NEVER wrong. 

6. If it appears the female is wrong, it is because of a misunderstanding on the part of 
the male. 

7. If Rule #6 applies, the male must apologize immediately for causing said 
misunderstanding. 

8. The female can change her mind at ANY time. 

9. The male must NEVER change his mind without the express written consent of the 
female. 

10. The female has every right to be angry or upset at any time. 

11. The male must remain calm at all times, unless the female wants him to be angry or 
upset. 

12. The male is expected to read the mind of the female at all times. 

13. At all times, it must be understood what is important is what the female meant, not 
what she said. 

14. If the male cannot abide by the rules, it is because he can’t take the heat, lacks 
backbone, and is a wimp. 

15. If the female has PMS, all the rules are null and void, and the male must cater to her 
every whim. 

16. Any attempt to document the rules could result in bodily harm. 

17. If the male at any time, believes he is right, he must refer immediately to rule #5. 

Let me conclude with some timely thoughts by others on love and marriage.

Marriage is not a word but a sentence. Author unknown (or chicken)

Marriage is the only way in which you sleep with the enemy. Unknown

If you want to read about love and marriage you’ve got to buy two books. Alan King

A man in love is incomplete until he is married. Then he is finished. Zsa Zsa Gabor

I was married by a judge. I should have asked for a jury. George Burns

And finally…”All men make mistakes, but married men find out about them sooner. Red 
Skelton

Happy Valentine’s Day.

P.S. All the previous performances of “Cinderella” at the Sierra Madre Playhouse have been 
sellouts. There is a reason for the sellouts. It is an extraordinarily fun play for people of all 
ages. There are two more performances coming up on Saturday, February 19th. One is at 
11:00 am and the other at 1:30 pm. Call 355-4318 and make reservations soon. Guys, take 
the significant gal or gals in your life. It will be worth it (wink, wink, nudge, nudge.)


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STUART Tolchin..........On LIFE

ARE YOU SUPERIOR, AND WHO CARES?

 I admit that 
I like going out 
to breakfast 
and ordering 
meals that I 
could easily 
prepare at 
home - or 
at least ask my wife to toast 
the bread and scramble the 
eggs. Really, I can only guess 
at my motivation but it has 
something, I think, to do with 
feeling of being taken care 
of and not being responsible 
to do the dishes. Anyway, it 
makes me feel good and so it 
was that my friend Gene and 
I went out to breakfast this 
morning. Gene has been here 
for the purpose of lending 
support to me as I deal with 
the death of my mother and 
we are using the time to visit 
our childhood friend, Steve, 
who is rehabbing after his 
third brain surgery operation. 
After my wife left for an early 
meeting I dragged Gene over 
to Andy’s Coffee Shop for 
breakfast. The Coffee Shop 
is right near Pasadena City 
College, about fifteen minutes 
away. Gene asked why we 
had to go so far for breakfast 
and I said the coffee shop 
was right next to the College 
where my wife worked and 
this trek somehow assuaged 
my feelings of guilt over the 
fact that my wife was working 
today and I was not.

 Actually this explanation 
made little sense even to me. 
The real reason I wanted to go 
to Andy’s was that there is a 
special booth there reserved, 
well not exactly reserved, 
for me. Next to one of the 
booths, pasted on the wall, are 
a couple of my columns and a 
picture of my son sitting next 
to a statue of Mark Twain. I 
know Mark Twain is a favorite 
of Gene’s and I thought seeing 
my columns on the wall 
would be a pleasant surprise 
for him. At the same time I 
felt kind of embarrassed at 
being concerned about such 
trivialities while our friend 
was in the hospital and I was 
only one day removed from 
my mom’s funeral. Still I 
concede that I wanted my 
friend to see my columns and 
picture pasted to the wall. 

 When we got to the 
restaurant there was a couple 
sitting in “my´ booth and 
they were actually reading 
the article. They looked at me 
and saw my picture with the 
article and very graciously 
volunteered to move to 
another booth behind us. 
Gene and I sat in my booth 
and I started up a conversation 
with these people and noticed 
the woman was wearing a 
name tag that identified her as 
being affiliated with hospitals. 
It turned out the man was a 
respiratory therapist and I 
shared the story of how my 
mother’s death had involved 
pneumonia connected to the 
use of a feeding tube. He 
explained the connection 
to me and I discussed my 
experiences of my mother’s 
last hours during which time 
I held her hand. He seemed 
to understand and said that 
for many relatives the last 
remembrance they have is the 
feeling of holding the hand of 
the departed.

 This all seemed like too 
much of a coincidence to 
me and I asked the couple to 
wait a second while I raced 
(yes, raced) out to my car and 
retrieved last week’s paper 
which included my mother’s 
obituary and my article 
entitled My Mother’s Hands. 
I gave them the article which 
they read and complimented. 
The woman said a part of her 
job was as a kind of liaison to 
the private Hospitals in the 
San Gabriel Valley and that 
she was going to make it a 
point to post my article on the 
wall of every emergency room 
in the Valley. Her husband 
said he was going to try and 
do the same thing in Orange 
County as my article dealt 
with a lot of issues faced by 
relatives of patients who were 
in the last stages of life. He 
said my article would be of 
help to a lot of people.

 I turned back to Gene and 
he said, “Well I can see this 
really makes your day.” I 
said something about hoping 
the article really went up on 
the walls and that I really 
would be thrilled if I was of 
help to some people. Gene 
scoffed at this and seemed to 
indicate that he believed all I 
really wanted was recognition 
and validation. This really 
made me mad, so mad that I 
wonder if deep down I have 
some doubts. Really, I don’t 
think it’s true. Still I admit 
I crave something or other 
from the world. Maybe it’s 
not recognition of superiority 
or entitlement or a desire 
for money or fame - but it’s 
something. It has to do with 
why I write these articles and 
why I do the work I do. All 
I can say is that I want to 
become the person I’ve always 
wanted to be and maybe 
validation and recognition are 
signposts that I’m on the right 
track. Are you familiar with 
this same road or am I alone 
in my never-ending search? 


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