Mountain Views News          Saturday, February 19, 2011

13

OPINION

 Mountain Views News Saturday, February 19, 2011 


Mountain 
Views

News

Publisher/ Editor

Susan Henderson

City Editor

Dean Lee 

Sales

Patricia Colonello

626-355-2737 

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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

The Real Reagan Legacy: Part I

Random reflections about the Reagan Revolution

 

 Ronald Wilson 
Reagan (February 
6, 1911 -- June 5, 
2004) was the 40th President of the 
United States (1981--1989), the 33rd 
Governor of California (1967--1975), 
and prior to that, a well known film 
actor. Contrary the myth-makers, 
“the Gripper” was not the man conservatives 
claim.

 I have nothing personal against 
President Reagan, but he wasn’t the 
icon conservatives, and Republicans 
continue to make him out to be. Despite 
what his supporters say, Reagan 
did raise taxes, rubber stamped 
everything business wanted, all at 
the expense of the middle class. He 
should have been impeached for 
selling weapons to Iran, and using 
the profits to finance the Contras in 
Nicaragua. At home he was a union 
buster and proponent of unregulated 
free enterprise. 

 As I say, I have nothing personal 
against Ronald Reagan, but he 
was not the great President a lot of 
people think he was. He was an actor 
who fooled every body with his 
Hollywood background; Like Nixon 
before him and the Bushes who were 
to follow, Reagan was the product of 
Madison Avenue; and like the warning 
about believing advertisements, 
“If what is being offered seems to be 
too good to be true, it probably is.” 

 The 11 tax increases were incredibly 
small or utterly irrelevant to the 
budget and general revenues as compared 
to his two huge tax cuts for 
the wealthy or else the tax increases 
would have prevented the tripling of 
the national debt. The truth is that his 
tax increases fell disproportionately 
on people who had little to tax while 
his cuts were directed disproportionately 
to the benefit of those who 
could have paid far more and who in 
the hands more fiscally responsible 
administrations did pay far more. In 
the end he was a fiscal disaster. 

 His foreign policy was also a disaster. 
He managed to set up the death 
of far more service men and women 
in Lebanon during his first two years 
than died under the direction of 
Jimmy 
Carter 
throughout 
his 
four years. His unquestioning support 
of Israel and Ariel Sharon was 
a disaster for both the US and Israel. 
We lost almost 300 Marines in the 
barracks attack. Israel eventually retreated 
from Lebanon after sponsoring 
the atrocities at Sabra and Shatila 
refugee camps and inadvertently creating 
Hezbollah. 

 His Latin American policy was utterly 
disastrous. His attempt to topple 
the Nicaraguan government, prop up 
the criminal regimes in El Salvador 
and Guatemala as well as Argentina 
and Chile, etc., etc. was illegal in most 
cases and completely wrong, resulting 
in the deaths of thousands of innocent 
people. His Iran-Contra scandal 
was one of the more egregious, 
short-sighted and stupid efforts by an 
administration up to that point. 

 The greatest lie about Reagan is 
that he supposedly single-handedly 
won the Cold War. Every president 
since Truman had a hand in fighting 
the USSR. Reagan just happened to 
be president when the war ended 
with the Soviet collapse. I suppose it 
could be argued that his enormous 
increase in Defense spending 
pushed the Soviets over the edge 
into insolvency, but in reality they 
were already dangerously close to the 
collapse when he took office. 

 Of course, Democrat Presidents, 
overall, haven’t been much better. 
But it is amazing how a Republican 
President can take this country down 
a few serious notches, then hand it 
over to a Democrat President who is 
blamed for taking this country down 
a few serious notches. Just like now. 
Obama inherited a failing economy 
and two illegal wars in Iraq and 
Afghanistan from Bush, yet Barak is 
taking the blame. Too bad Obama 
doesn’t have a little of that Teflon 
that served President Reagan so well.


Please understand I have been forced at 
something slightly less than gunpoint 
to come up with words of wisdom for 
women in how to understand men. (Like 
it’s really important?) But I have to assuage the anger of my 5 
male readers who demand fair and balanced coverage. (Fair and 
balanced? Where have I heard that before?)

By the way it’s no typo that all the rules are numbered one. They 
are numbered that way on purpose.

1. Learn to work the toilet seat. If it’s up put it down. We 
need it up, you need it down. Do we complain about you leaving 
it down?

1. Sometimes we are actually not thinking about you. 
Live with it. 

1. Sunday equals sports. It’s like the full moon so let it be.

1. Ask clearly for what you want. Subtle hints do not work. 
Strong hints do not work. “Obvious” hints do not work. Just say 
it.

1. We don’t remember dates. Mark special events on a 
calendar and remind us frequently beforehand.

1. ‘Yes’ and ‘No’ are perfectly acceptable answers to almost 
every question.

1. A headache lasting 17 months IS a problem. See a 
doctor.

1. Anything we may have said 6 months ago is 
inadmissible in an argument. All comments become null and 
void after 7 days.

1. If you think you’re fat, you probably are. Don’t ask us. 
We refuse to answer.

1. Ask us to do something or tell us how you want it done. 
Not both. If you already know best how to do it, do it yourself.

1. Please strive to say whatever you have to say during 
commercials.

1. Christopher Columbus and Marco Polo did not ask for 
directions. Neither will we.

1. Men see in only 16 colors. Peach, for example, is a fruit, 
not a color. Pumpkin is also just a fruit. And who knows what 
mauve is?

1. If IT itches, IT will be scratched.

1. If we ask what is wrong and you say “nothing” we will 
act like nothing’s wrong.

1. When we go somewhere, absolutely anything you wear 
is fine. Don’t ask. 

1. Foreign films are best left to foreigners. Unless it is a 
Bruce Lee or war movie.

1. I’m in shape. ROUND is a shape.

Men, if you put this column up on the refrigerator and end up 
sleeping on the couch simply say the following: “I don’t really 
mind, cause it’s like camping.


RICH Johnson

Men Have 
Rules Too

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

LIFE ALWAYS SURPRISES ME

 The 
first book I 
purchased 
after my 
mom’s death 
was Ron 
Reagan’s 
memoir about his father 
entitled “My Father At 100”. 
Although I have always 
loathed and despised Ronald 
Reagan, something about 
the red cover of the book 
grabbed my attention and 
reminded me of my mother. 
There is Reagan on the cover 
in a white tee shirt sitting on 
the front of a car. He’s about 
the same age as my mother, 
born just a few years earlier 
and is from the same State, 
Illinois, as my mother and 
myself.

 Reagan was the subject of 
my first political debate with 
my son Aaron. When Aaron 
was about 9 or 10 we were 
watching Reagan on TV and 
I was making my usual nasty 
comments. “Dad, you ought 
to stop. He’s the President 
and I can tell he’s a good 
man.”

 “Aaron, you’re wrong. 
He’s not a good man. When 
he was governor he closed 
the mental institutions and 
put people on the street 
that needed to be helped. 
Now he’s firing Air Traffic 
Controllers who are people 
who have really hard jobs 
and are entitled to higher 
wages.”

 “Dad, you’re wrong. If 
he was mean to people it’s 
only because he didn’t know 
them. I can tell he really likes 
to help people he knows.”

 This all occurred during 
a difficult period for Aaron. 
He couldn’t quite get the hang 
of abstract ideas. Instead 
of talking about dates, we 
would talk about pages on 
the calendar. When talking 
about distances, he couldn’t 
quite get the concept of miles; 
instead we talked about the 
number of freeways between 
one place and another. As 
I write this I think about 
Aaron last week at my mom’s 
funeral. Aaron was the 
last one to speak and stated 
simply that his grandmother 
was his best friend. He told 
everyone about how he had 
trouble learning things and 
reminded everyone how his 
grandmother had pointed to 
different animals on the wall 
paper and had taught him 
the names of the animals. 
He had brought a picture of 
himself at the age of eight or 
nine and asked if he could 
place that picture inside the 
coffin with his grandmother. 
The mortuary staff person 
who was officiating said that 
he guessed that would be 
okay and opened the closed 
coffin. Aaron took one 
last look at his ninety-five 
year old grandmother and 
placed his picture with her 
right before she was lowered 
into the grave. It was a real 
goodbye, nothing abstract 
about it, and to the rest of us 
assembled at graveside, the 
moment was unforgettable.

 A few days later, as I read the 
book about Reagan, I thought 
again of Aaron and my mom. 
Reagan’s son describes his 
father as “tenderhearted 
and sentimental in his 
personal dealings, he could 
nevertheless have difficulties 
extending his sympathies to 
abstract classes of people”. 
Maybe Aaron and I were both 
right about him. Reagan 
describes his father as a kind 
of permanent Lifeguard. 
From the age of 15 through 
the age of 22 the future 
President had worked as a 
Lifeguard. He had carved 77 
notches in a log, each notch 
representing a life saved. The 
notches remind me of Aaron, 
nothing abstract about them. 
The notches also remind me 
of one of my generation’s 
favorite books, “The Catcher 
in the Rye”. Remember 
Holden imagining himself 
saving the kids as they were 
about to fall over the cliff. 
Really, nothing motivates me 
more than a desire to help 
others. I don’t know why but 
I will do things to help others 
that I will never do to help 
myself. My mom was the 
same way.

 

 There is no real need to 
analyze the motive. Maybe, 
like Holden Caulfield, we 
all just want to be super-
heroes. Almost until her 
nineties, my mom loved 
driving her friends to their 
appointments. When she 
was forced to stop driving, 
it was a tremendous loss. 
Aaron, too, loves to drive 
his disabled friends to their 
appointments. I guess I’m 
trying to say that I see some 
similarity between the ex-
President and my own family 
members. As different as 
we are, it seems that we all 
imagine helping others.

 If there is a purpose to 
these weekly articles it is my 
hope that an examination of 
my own life inevitably reveals 
some lesson that will be of 
some general help. Contrary 
to the popular myth, I believe 
that underneath it all we are 
universally pretty good guys. 
If we are given a chance to get 
to know one another we will 
all experience some desire to 
cooperate and work together. 
Yes, for the moment it feels 
like we are on the road 
to destruction. Really, 
though, if even I can learn 
to appreciate Ronald Reagan 
there really is a possibility 
that we poor humans may 
turn ourselves around and 
save our civilization. That’s 
all. Until next time! 

LOCAL LEAGUE OF WOMEN VOTERS CELEBRATES 
75 YEARS OF MAKING A DIFFERENCE 

The mission remains the same, only the faces change

Women in California won the right 
to vote 100 years ago – before the 
rest of the nation got on board. 
Civic-minded women in Pasadena 
banded together 25 years later to 
form a League of Women Voters 
chapter – just 16 years after the 
19th amendment passed. 

 The League of Women Voters Pasadena 
Area will mark its 75th anniversary 
March 6 with a celebration 
at the Caltech Athenaeum with 
other civic-minded leaders.

The event will be held from 4:00 to 
6:00 p.m. at the Caltech Athenaeum, 
with music, food and drink 
and brief remarks by Congresswoman 
Judy Chu and Pasadena 
Mayor Bill Bogaard. Admission 
is $75 and requires advance reservations 
available online at www.
lwvpasadenaarea.org/celebrate or 
by calling 626-798-0965.

PASADENA LEAGUE OF 
WOMEN VOTERS LANDMARK 
ACCOMPLISHMENTS

In the 1930s, Healed wounds of 
a nasty recall election over paving 
contract scandals and was instrumental 
in a “street trader law” 
that protected youths who hawked 
newspapers.

In the 1940s, did a “Know Your 
Town” study and joined other organizations 
to save the Pasadena 

Planning Commission.

In the 1950s, published “The Perfect 
City,” to help citizens understand 
the need for city planning and a

General Plan for growth and development, 
and also advocated formation 
of the Redevelopment Agency 
to address blighted areas. 

In the 1960s, supported a bond issue 
for a third high school in Pasadena 
and separation of the junior 

college from the Pasadena Unified 
School District. Also opposed 
Proposition 14, a measure that 
would overturn fair housing laws. 
(It passed but courts ruled it unconstitutional.) 
Officially became 
an area League.

In the 1970s, influenced establishment 
of the Pasadena Commission 
on the Status of Women and the 
Pasadena Plan to integrate the public 
schools. Also held numerous 
public forums on Proposition 13, 
the revolutionary Howard Jarvis 
measure limiting property taxes. 

In the 1980s, began promoting equitable 
campaign financing and 
supported a bond measure to finance 
a city police and jail building 
as well as a measure to retain the 
city council/city manager system in 
Pasadena. 

In the 1990s, advocated for community 
access stations as part of 
the cable TV franchise and focused 

on women’s rights, children and 
families and instant runoff voting, 
a system to avoid runoff elections 
and that upholds the principle of 
one person, one vote. (It has since 
been instituted in cities around the 
country.)

In the first decade of the 21st century 
monitored a task force on 
good government in Pasadena that 
resulted in a charter amendment 
revising the Taxpayer Protection 
Act, supported the Monterey Park 
Environmental Commission; monitored 
affordable housing in the 10 
League communities, and joined 
the state League in advocating for 
a redistricting commission. Redistricting 
remains a topic of interest. 

Mountain Views 
News

Mission Statement

The traditions of 
the community 
newspaper and 
the concerns of 
our readers are 
this newspaper’s 
top priorities. We 
support a prosperous 
community of well-
informed citizens. 
We hold in high 
regard the values 
of the exceptional 
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will be our guide.