Mountain Views News          Saturday, August 13, 2011

11

OPINION

 Mountain Views News Saturday, August 13, 2011 

HAIL Hamilton My Turn

Mountain 
Views

News

PUBLISHER/ EDITOR

Susan Henderson

CITY EDITOR

Dean Lee 

EAST VALLEY EDITOR

Joan Clayton-Smith

SALES

Patricia Colonello

626-355-2737 

626-818-2698

PRODUCTION 

Richard Garcia

PHOTOGRAPHY

Lina Johnson

Ivonne Durant

WEBMASTER

John Aveny 

CONTRIBUTORS

Jeff Brown

Pat Birdsall

Chris Leclerc

Bob Eklund

Howard Hays

Paul Carpenter

Stuart Tolchin

Kim Clymer-Kelley

Christopher Nyerges

Peter Dills 

Hail Hamilton 

Rich Johnson

Chris Bertrand

Ron Carter

Rev. James Snyder

Bobby Eldridge

Mary Carney

La Quetta Shamblee

Katie Hopkins

Deanne Davis

Despina Arouzman

Greg Wellborn

Dr. John Talevich

Meaghan Allen

Sean Kayden


Keeping the Faith in the Face of Insurrection Politics

I didn’t expect 
the angry email 
I received from a 
reader about last 
week’s “Thrown 
under the 
bus... AGAIN!” 
Moreover, this 
particular reader is a friend of mine 
who is not easily angered. Nevertheless, 
she was incensed by my use of the word 
“black” in my editorial: 

I just read your article and while I 
disagree with it the only part that pisses 
me off is in the last paragraph. What the 
hell does Obama being black have to 
do with anything? Anyone who voted 
for the president Because he was black 
should have kept their vote. He has 
always been a centrist but does have a 
deep commitment to most of the issues 
of the far left. You should have voted for 
him because he was the best candidate for 
the job. Your disappointments should be 
based on what he is capable of doing not 
on some ridiculous notion that because 
he is black he can perform miracles. In 
addition references to the President’s 
race only invite comments like the recent 
Tar Baby remark.

Most hurtful is the allegation that my 
“references to the president’s race only 
invite comments like the recent Tar 
Baby remark.” This, of course, refers to a 
remark made by Rep. Doug Lamborn (R-
CO) in the heat of last week’s debt-ceiling 
debate. He said that being associated 
with President Obama would be similar 
to touching a “tar baby”. 

(The term “tar baby” is a reference 
to 19th-century Uncle Remus stories 
about Br’er Rabbit but has taken 
on a negative connotation towards 
African-Americans.) 

A Lamborn spokeswoman Catherine 
Mortensen says the comments were a 
misunderstanding and he apologizes.

The fact is I only used the word 
black twice in the entire article: first, 
when I identified Rep. Emanuel 
Cleaver (D-Missouri) as the chair of 
the Congressional Black Caucus; and 
second, when I described Obama as our 
first black president.

I particularly resent the implication 
that I voted for Obama for any other 
reason than I thought, at the time, that 
he was the best man for the job. His race, 
or more correctly his mixed ancestry, had 
absolutely nothing to do with my choice 
to vote for him. 

But I do understand my friend’s 
frustration and anger. Obama has gotten 
a raw deal since the earliest days of his 
term. His character has been defamed, 
his patriotism questioned, even his place 
of birth and right to be president has 
been disputed. The far right has likened 
him viscously to Hitler and disparagingly 
depicted him as a monkey. All the while 
Obama has reached out to Republicans 
time and again, only to be rebuffed and 
humiliated. But this was--or should have 
been--expected. 

Demonizing Democratic presidents 
didn’t start with Obama. Racism makes 
the Obama attacks uglier, but the attacks 
on President Clinton were plenty ugly, 
too. Leaving aside the sex scandals, 
Clinton’s civil rights history earned him 
the animus of Arkansas right-wingers 
while he was governor. 

When Clinton became president, 
Jerry Falwell and friends promoted “The 
Clinton Chronicles,” a “documentary” 
claiming he’d run an Arkansas 
racketeering operation responsible for 
cocaine smuggling, bank fraud and 
murder. He was accused of having a hand 
in the suicide of his friend Vince Foster; 
the Wall Street Journal demanded an 
investigation into whether it was actually 
murder. Sen. Jesse Helms warned him 
that if he visited military bases in the 
South, “He better have a bodyguard.” 

All that on top of $100 million spent on 
fruitless investigations into Whitewater, 
“travelgate” and allegations of improper 
Chinese fundraising -- and then 
impeachment for lying about having sex 
with a White House intern.

Over the last four decades, the 
Republican Party has transformed from a 
loyal opposition into an insurrectionary 
party that flouts the law when it is in the 
majority and threatens disorder when 
it is the minority. Obama is just the 
latest victim of this sort of right wing 
insurrection politics.

Republican operative Grover Norquist 
said it best. He was once quoted as telling 
his friend Deval Patrick at a Harvard 
reunion during the Bush administration 
that on the off chance another Democrat 
ever became president, “We’ll make 
it impossible for him to govern like a 
Democrat.” Norquest and friends did 
their best with Clinton; they’ve succeeded 
with Obama, with terrible consequences 
for the country.

Keeping the faith in the face of 
insurrection politics is not easy. But 
when has change--even incremental 
change--ever been easy?


RICH Johnson

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

PHYSICS ANYONE!

The Wistaria Restaurant


Had dinner at the new 
Wistaria Restaurant and 
Bar the other night. You 
know, the location we used 
to know as Lozanos. The 
food there was terrific. My 
friend and I had the corn 
chowder which is a cream based slice of heaven. 
It even had little bacon bits sprinkled on top. 
Then we split a pork chop which was great. 
And the butterscotch pudding was the Piece 
de resistance accompanied by two homemade 
pecan shortbread cookies. Oh, and don’t have too 
much of the pudding as the scotch part is real. 

A note on sticker shock. The prices are a little 
higher than most in town. But the food is worth 
it. The ambience is classy. The server, Chris was 
the consummate professional and manager Erin 
made it spin like a top. Now, if only we can get 
them to make us banana cream pie. What a way 
to go!!!

I recently heard what may be the first fairy tale 
ever told aimed at little boys and not little girls. It 
involves a fighter pilot and a beautiful princess.

“Once upon a time, a Fighter Pilot asked a 
beautiful Princess, “Will you marry me?” The 
Princess said, “No!!”

…and the Fighter Pilot lived happily ever 
after. He rode motorcycles, flew many combat 
missions, got good promotions and was 
deployed at exotic locations all around the world. 
He hunted and fished, and raced cars. He never 
heard ceaseless complaining, never paid child 
support or alimony. He never had to leave a 
party just when it was getting fun, could sleep on 
top of the bed spread. He was never cheated on. 
His family and friends thought he was too cool. 
Finally, he had tons of money in the bank and left 
the toilet seat up.

The end.

Finally in this mish-mash of information I 
will end with a glance of how spell checkers on 
computers may not always be reliable:

Eye halve a spelling checquer, it came with my 
pea sea.

It plainly marques four my revue, miss steaks 
eye kin knot sea.

Eye strike a key and type a word, and weight 
four it two say

Weather eye am wrong oar write, it shows me 
straight a weigh.

Have a good week all.

As I have mentioned several times in earlier 
article,s one of the main objectives of my college 
career was remaining alive and avoiding the 
Draft related to the Viet Nam War. In order 
to successfully achieve this desired ends, it was 
necessary that I obtain acceptable grades as 
an Undergraduate so that I would be eligible 
for admission to a reasonably priced Graduate 
School. Consequently, I, like so many males of my generation, 
studiously avoided taking any classes that seemed to promise the 
possibility of a below average grade. Yes, I am talking about Science 
Courses. We all know these are hard, require something called Lab 
Work and are generally full of weird words that cannot be learned 
in the two days before the test, which I generally set aside for study.

I tend to make fun of my Undergraduate days at Berkeley, but 
honestly the academic classes were the smallest part of my overall 
Undergraduate experience. You know the era, Free Speech 
Movement, girls, music, football, ushering in San Francisco on 
weekends, Haight-Ashbury. Honestly, forty-six years later I 
remember more about incidents which occurred at my Work-Study 
dishwashing jobs than I remember about my classes. An exception 
to this was a Statistics class that I mistakenly thought I could breeze 
through. The class, like many Berkeley classes, was taught by a 
teaching Assistant, which was fine except for the fact that he spoke 
a kind of heavily accented English that could not be understood (at 
least by me). I have memories of the Teaching Assistant speaking 
and the entire class kind of looking around at one another and 
chuckling because clearly no one understood anything. The subject 
matter of the class was difficult and I worked very hard and actually 
purchased the books and kept up with the assignments, trying to 
prepare for the classes in which I understood almost nothing that 
was said. There was a lot of writing on a board but I seldom got to 
class early enough to be close enough to the front of the class to be 
able to read the Blackboard. (I think that year I was in the process 
of going through Student Health to obtain a pair of glasses to help 
with my nearsightedness which I didn’t believe I had). Anyhow, 
the class was graded on a curve. I received a 35% on the final, or 
something like that, and it was a B plus. Really, no one understood 
anything.

There was a Physics 10 class which was Physics for Liberal Arts 
majors like me, who were given this one-time chance to learn some 
science. Unfortunately, this gigantic Survey class was taught by 
Edward Teller, the father of the Hydrogen Bomb, who at that time 
I thought was the most evil man on Earth and I avoided the class. 
Of course, I am now limited by my lack of any scientific background 
and know that I am not alone in the possession of this glaring 
educational weakness. Really there are many so- called educated 
people with a similar weakness. LET US NOT GIVE UP HOPE! 

At a party this week-end I met this retired Physics Professor, Keith 
Miller. We talked a little about physics and quantum mechanics, 
enough for him to realize probably that I had read many books 
but understood just a little about what we were talking about. We 
talked about him teaching some sort of Physics Class for seniors 
in which the students could learn some basics and have an expert 
available to answer any questions we might have.

For example, I have a great deal of trouble with the idea of 
randomness. I want things to make some sense, to have some clue 
as to the direction a life should lead. I just watched the Television 
show that attempts to explain how something (this universe ) could 
be created from nothing, and I read Hawking’s book about it and 
I went to a lecture at Cal Tech by Hawking’s co-author, and I still 
don’t get it. Maybe it shouldn’t be such a big deal, but I’m up in the 
middle of the night wondering how a proton can suddenly appear 
from nothing and become hydrogen then helium, then Cleveland. 
It’s all too weird. I don’t want life to be the Creation of meaning, but 
desire that there be a meaning, a purpose out there that can be and 
should be discovered.

If there is a meaning out there for now, it probably can best be 
understood in the language of mathematics and Physics; I want 
to learn more of that language. If you are at all interested in this 
attempt or have some ideas of your own that you would like to share, 
please contact me at my e-mail address noeltraust@earthlink.net. I 
will then try and put something together with Professor Miller and 
we will be on our way. 

Mountain Views News 
has been adjudicated as 
a newspaper of General 
Circulation for the County 
of Los Angeles in Court 
Case number GS004724: 
for the City of Sierra 
Madre; in Court Case 
GS005940 and for the 
City of Monrovia in Court 
Case No. GS006989 and 
is published every Saturday 
at 55 W. Sierra Madre 
Blvd., No. 302, Sierra 
Madre, California, 91024. 
All contents are copyrighted 
and may not be 
reproduced without the 
express written consent of 
the publisher. All rights 
reserved. All submissions 
to this newspaper become 
the property of the Mountain 
Views News and may 
be published in part or 
whole. 

Opinions and views 
expressed by the writers 
printed in this paper do 
not necessarily express 
the views and opinions 
of the publisher or staff 
of the Mountain Views 
News. 

Mountain Views News is 
wholly owned by Grace 
Lorraine Publications, 
Inc. and reserves the right 
to refuse publication of 
advertisements and other 
materials submitted for 
publication. 

Letters to the editor and 
correspondence should 
be sent to: 

Mountain Views News

80 W. Sierra Madre Bl. 
#327

Sierra Madre, Ca. 
91024

Phone: 626-355-2737

Fax: 626-609-3285

email: 

mtnviewsnews@aol.com

OUT TO PASTOR A Weekly Religion Column


The secret to a great 
marriage

Rev. James L. Snyder

 This week the Gracious 
Mistress of the Parsonage 
and Yours Truly, celebrate 
our 40th wedding 
anniversary. This week 
as I pondered our life 
together it occurred to me, I might be taking 
some things for granted. Doing this, especially 
when it involves another person, is dangerous. 
I decided to take a little stock of myself and my 
relationship with the Mistress of the parsonage. 
What makes our marriage so great?

 The first thing I had to do was check with her to 
make sure our marriage was indeed great. Much 
to my relief, she too agreed with my conclusion. 
This borders on the miraculous. Whenever we 
agree 100 percent on anything, watch out!

 A recent Hollywood wedding got me thinking. 
According to the reports I have seen, that 
wedding cost more than one million dollars! 
Only in Hollywood! Given the way such things 
go in the west coast marital Mecca, it amounts to 
about $100,000 a month of married life. 

 Our wedding, 40 years ago, cost $97.73. It took 
us all summer to scrape and save for our

nuptial extravaganza.

 So far, our marriage has cost us 20 cents per 
month. The best 20 cents we ever invested. The 
amazing thing about this is, each month the cost 
goes down but the value goes up.

 The question I wanted to answer, at least in my 
own mind was what made our marriage so great? 
What is the secret of our marriage?

 As far as I can assess, there are four things 
about our marriage that has made it the great 
success it is today.

 The first is FORGIVE AND FORGET. She 
forgives me my mistakes and I never forget to 
thank her for it.

 Some couples carry grudges for years. Thanks 
to my memory-challenged mind, I cannot 
remember what I had for lunch yesterday much 
less a disagreement several years old. It takes an 
enormous amount of energy to REMEMBER 
things that happened years ago. I prefer spending 
that energy creating new memories.

 Another key to our marital bliss is TOSS AND 
TURN. She tosses everything out and I turn the 
house upside down trying to find it. This has been 
the most difficult for me. 

 I would not admit being a pack-rat, but each 
year they invite me to be their keynote speaker 
at their convention. I would go but each year 
my good wife tosses the letter out before I can 
respond.

 My wife believes that tossing away yesterday’s 
baggage and turning over a new leaf each day is 
crucial. As my wife is fond of saying, “Today it 
the first day of the rest of your life.” Sometimes 
she says it with a twinkle of menace in her left eye. 

 There is also, GIVE AND TAKE. This has 
proven beneficial over the years. She gives me 
a piece of her mind and I usually take it. My 
concern is, of all the pieces of her mind she has 
given me throughout the years, how can she have 
anything left? 

 Decision-making is not a one-way street in a 
marriage relationship. Thank God it isn’t. In every 
dilemma at least two sides need considering. 
When you find yourself in a dilemma, do what 
my wife does, go for de lemonade.

 When only one person makes the decision 
in the marriage, the whole relationship takes on 
a lopsided demeanor. There is nothing meaner 
than a one-sided decision.

 One last thing that makes our marriage great is 
PROFIT AND LOSS. This has taken a little more 
time to take root in my mind. Taking root in a 
vacuum is hard for anything. 

 I have discovered that a marriage runs in 
decades. For instance, the first 10-year period 
focuses on establishing the relationship. This is 
discovering who you are as a couple, but by the 
time this happens, tiny footsteps are heard in the 
hallway at night coming toward your bedroom. 

 The second decade centers on trying to raise 
those children and keep from going insane in the 
process. If I have any insanity, it is because I have 
inherited it from my children. 

 The third decade is the most important. Not 
many couples get this far. The third decade is 
devoted to rediscovering who you are as a couple.

 No longer are we Rachael’s mom or Jason’s dad 
or Sarah’s parents. We are discovering our own 
identity as a couple. And let me say, it sure is the 
best part of the wedding cake and we are eating 
it up. 

 The fourth decade, where we are right now, 
is relishing all those memories made in the first 
three decades.

 In this PROFIT AND LOSS stage, I have 
discovered that I profit greatly if I cause my 
significant other no loss of face. It is amazing how 
many single people are married and even live 
in the same house but go in separate directions 
and lead separate lives. Becoming a couple is a 
marvelous process taking years to mature.

 My wife and I have found the key to all of 
this. It is simply SUBMISSION. The Bible plainly 
states, “Submitting yourselves one to another in 
the fear of God” (Ephesians 5:21 KJV). 

 We can do this because we independently 
anchor our lives to that “rock that is higher than 
I” (Psalms 61:2 KJV). As a couple, we build our 
lives upon a common foundation — Jesus Christ. 

 To my wife: A happy anniversary to the best 
Mistress to adorn my parsonage. 

 The Rev. James L. Snyder is pastor of the 
Family of God Fellowship, 1471 Pine Road, 
Ocala, FL 34472. He lives with his wife, Martha, 
in Silver Springs Shores. Call him at 352-687-
4240 or e-mail jamessnyder2@att.net. The church 
web site is www.whatafellowship.com.

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 
quality of life in our 
community, including 
the magnificence of 
our natural resources. 
Integrity will be our 
guide.