Mountain Views News          Saturday, June 16, 2012

14

OPINION

 Mountain Views News Saturday June 16, 2012 

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

HAIL Hamilton My Turn

Mountain 
Views

News

PUBLISHER/ EDITOR

Susan Henderson

CITY EDITOR

Dean Lee 

EAST VALLEY EDITOR

Joan Schmidt

SALES

Patricia Colonello

626-355-2737 

626-818-2698

PRODUCTION 

Richard Garcia

PHOTOGRAPHY

Lina Johnson

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

HOW DO 
WE BEST 
PROTECT 
OURSELVES?

 Recently, 
I’ve had a couple 
of disturbing 
conversations relating to funerals and 
memorials. People that I respect have 
explained to me that they simply do 
not attend these events because there 
is simply too much sadness present on 
these occasions. Another person has told 
me that she does not even allow herself 
to read tributes regarding deceased 
friends and she simply does not want to 
go through any more sadness. She’s had 
enough of that sadness already in her life.

 Currently, it seems very much 
in vogue to talk about the importance 
of surrounding yourself with happy, or 
at least outwardly happy people. We are 
told that being around depressed people 
depresses us. Put a smile on your face 
and act as if you’re happy and presto you 
will be happy. Perhaps this explains the 
phenomena of people spending billions 
for cosmetological improvements. For 
whom are they trying to improve their 
appearance? I guess this answer is they 
just want to look in the mirror and see an 
attractive person and lead themselves to 
a better general overall feeling.

 Probably the same thing is 
going on when people move to gated 
homogeneous communities. It feels 
good I guess to be in a place where all 
the homes are spacious and all the lawns 
are manicured and all the troubles of the 
world can be locked out. Of course, we 
all know that the fences and the gates are 
not that strong and that no matter how 
high the walls stress and trouble still 
manage to squeeze their way into every 
life.

 Recently I have been doing a lot 
of reading about the lives of the Jewish 
population living in Vienna at the time 
the Nazis took over the country. No, 
I was not reading this material to find 
something else to be sad about. Rather I 
was interested in the paintings by Gustav 
Klimt that had been taken from Jewish 
families by the Nazis and, now, after 
prolonged legal battles had been returned 
to a living Jewish relative residing in 
Beverly Hills. There is an even closer 
connection to me in that the book I am 
now reading entitled Lady in Gold was 
inspired by a Law Review Article written 
in conjunction with a friend of mine. I 
was led to purchase the book partly 
because of that connection and what did 
I find; Descriptions of the plight of the 
extraordinarily rich and seemingly secure 
Jewish families that lived in Vienna in the 
early 1900’s.

 Like many of our contemporaries 
these privileged people had worked hard 
to construct a way of life designed to avoid 
unpleasantness. The formed a subculture 
which included gatherings of the most 
interesting and able people of the times. 
Freud, Rodin, Mahler, Wittgenstein—
the great painters, sculptors, musicians, 
scientists, and philosophers coming 
to meet in the homes, of wealthy 
Jewish industrialists. These homes 
were more like castles and the Jewish 
wives and daughters who attended or 
even organized these salons were like 
mystical fairy princesses. Of course there 
were rumblings of possible problems 
connected to a take-over of Austria by 
the Nazis but many of the Jews simply 
ignored these rumors or considered 
them to be of little importance.

 Looking back on it now we 
wonder how people with alternatives 
could have ignored the problem for so 
long. Many of this rich and privileged 
people met their deaths in the German 
concentration Camps. Some of those 
executed had convinced themselves that 
they were simply being moved to a resort 
of some kind and it was necessary that 
reservations be made to secure the best 
rooms. Why had they done nothing to 
protect themselves or even bothered to 
keep themselves reasonably informed 
about what was really happening. The 
Lady in Gold Book explains that people 
living the wonderful protected life filled 
with well-manicured, interesting friends 
and weekly celebrations simply refused 
to acknowledge the actual reality of what 
was going on around them. Refused to 
acknowledge it until it was too late—
perhaps going to their death expecting a 
shower rather than an execution. 

 Am I saying that people today 
who spend much of their life refusing to 
acknowledge the sadness which is a part 
of life are on a path that leads to the Nazi 
Death Camps? Yes that is a bit extreme 
but really I often have that feeling. Many 
of us give lip-service to the economic, 
ecological, and political problems of our 
world but, really, we do the best we can to 
push it to the backs of our mind and to 
simply go on partying. Think about the 
Occupy movements. Many of us were 
sympathetic but few of us participated. 
It was all too uncomfortable, too dirty, 
too late at night: really just too plainly 
inconvenient. On page 1400f The Lady 
in Gold a simple question is asked, “How 
could the comfortable and prosperous 
Viennese Jews be expected to give up 
their lovely existence”. A similar question 
might well be asked of us comfortable 
Sierra Madreans.

 Well, that’s enough. I have 
to go run and vote in today’s primary 
election and then get back to work. 
That’s enough, isn’t it, to make me a good 
responsible citizen? Working and voting 
is all a person can really do, right? Of 
course not; there is so much more that 
could and should be done that it makes 
me uncomfortable to even think about 
it. I try and avoid such thoughts. Sounds 
familiar, doesn’t it? 


SOUTHERN COPS DO HAVE 
A WAY WITH WORDS!

 

A friend sent me this. It’s hilarious. I thought I’d share 
it with you. This not a work of fiction. These are actual 
comments made by South Carolina Troopers that were taken off their car 
videos. Have a good laugh. I did. However, if you’re from the South I offer 
the following standard journalistic disclaimer:

The names, characters, places and the incidents described herein are not 
products of the anyone’s imagination and are not used fictitiously. Any resemblance 
to actual events or locales or persons, living or dead, is entirely 
intentional. In other words, don’t waste your money trying to sue me for 
libel because what follows is the absolute truth.

1. "You know, stop lights don't come any redder than the one you just went 
through." 

 

2. "Relax, the handcuffs are tight because they're new. They'll stretch after 
you wear them a while." 

3. "If you take your hands off the car, I'll make your birth certificate a 
worthless document." (My Favorite) 

4. "If you run, you'll only go to jail tired." 

5. "Can you run faster than 1200 feet per second? Because that's the speed 
of the bullet that'll be chasing you." (LOVE IT) 

6. "You don't know how fast you were going? I guess that means I can write 
anything I want to on the ticket, huh?" 

7. "Yes, sir, you can talk to the shift supervisor, but I don't think it will help. 
Oh, did I mention that I'm the shift supervisor?" 

8. "Warning! You want a warning? O.K, I'm warning you not to do that 
again or I'll give you another ticket." 

9. "The answer to this last question will determine whether you are drunk 
or not. Was Mickey Mouse a cat or a dog?" 

 

10. "Fair? You want me to be fair? Listen, fair is a place where you go to 
ride on rides, eat cotton candy and corn dogs and step in monkey poop." 

11. "Yeah, we have a quota. Two more tickets and my wife gets a toaster 
oven." 

12. "In God we trust; all others we run through NCIC." ( National Crime 
Information Center ) 

13. "Just how big were those 'two beers' you say you had?" 

14. "No sir, we don't have quotas anymore. We used to, but now we're allowed 
to write as many tickets as we can. 

15. "I'm glad to hear that the Chief (of Police) is a personal friend of yours. 
So you know someone who can post your bail." 

16. "You didn't think we give pretty women tickets? You're right, we 
don't. Sign here."

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RICH Johnson


OUT TO PASTOR 

A Weekly Religion Column by Rev. James Snyder

 BOB JACKSON 

 

 What about Bob? I like Bob Jackson. If you know Bob, 
then you know why I like him. If you don’t know him, 
you need to meet him and shortly thereafter you will also 
know why I like him. You will like him too. 

 You can typically meet Bob somewhere in the vicinity 
of Kersting Court. He is the bespectacled guy wearing the 
uniquely labeled baseball caps. Bob is a retired Cal Poly Pomona faculty 
member. He specialized in teaching something or other. I do know I met 
him across the hearts table at Beantown. What’s a hearts table? A table, any 
table where a group of manly men and womanly women play the card game, 
hearts.

 Bob likes to spend a good portion of his evenings holding court right 
outside the Starbucks in, appropriately, Kersting Court. T’was there he 
witnessed the Friday Movie Night for kids. This is where the city blocks 
off the parking on Kersting Court, erects a giant movie screen and invites 
children and their parents to bring lawn chairs (in this case asphalt chairs) 
and experience a family oriented movie. There are 3 or 4 ice cream and 
yogurt places to provide instant refreshments for the kids. And Lucky 
Baldwin’s and Starbucks to provide instant refreshments for the not-kids. 

 Back to Bob. Bob was dismayed to learn, because of budget cuts, there 
would be only three Friday Night Movie opportunities. So, Bob embarked 
on a campaign to raise money to sponsor at least one more movie night. I 
know personally of his campaign to raise money…if you know what I mean. 
But it was worth contributing just to see the look on Bob’s face when he 
raised the requisite amount of cash for an added movie night. If you see him 
out there with a request for donations, he is trying to sponsor yet another 
night for families. Bravo Bob. 

 I asked only one favor of Bob. Since he is a retired smart guy (and by all 
accounts still smart) I have submitted a list of long time perplexing questions 
I would like him to ponder and get back to me on.

Bob: Why does a round pizza come in a square box?

Bob: Why are you IN a movie, but you’re ON TV?

Bob: Why does Goofy stand erect while Pluto is on all fours?

Bob: If Jimmy cracks corn & no one cares, why is there a song about it?

Bob: Why doesn’t Tarzan have a beard?

Bob: Is there ever a day that mattresses are NOT on sale?

Bob: Can you cry underwater?

Bob: How come you never hear father-in-law jokes?

Bob: Why is it that plastic bags won’t open from either end on your first try?

Bob: If people evolved from apes, why are there still apes?

Bob: What disease did cured ham actually have?

And finally, Bob: How do those dead bugs get into enclosed light fixtures?

 Early notification that my 60’s-70’s music band, JJ Jukebox is fortunate 
enough to have been selected to perform at the Concert in the Park Series 
in Memorial Park. The date is Sunday, August 12th, from 6:00 – 8:00pm. 
Make plans to come join us and guest vocalists Jane Fuller, Amy Kafkaloff, 
and Lisa Bowman. Enjoy music from the Beatles to Roy Orbison to Nancy 
Sinatra to Johnny Cash to the Jefferson Airplane and much, much more.

IT’S NOT MY FATHER’S WORLD 
ANYMORE

 Celebrating 
another Father’s 
Day without my 
father I cannot help thinking how much 
has changed since he died. If he were to 
return today, he would find things quite 
different.

 In all reality, this is not my father’s world 
anymore.

 I might just as well say it. This is not my 
father’s country anymore, either.

 The country my father loves seems to 
have all but disappeared. During his time, 
a deep-seated patriotic pride permeated 
throughout our country. We were proud 
of what our forefathers had accomplished 
and we were willing to die to preserve that 
heritage.

 Today, it seems the past is simply the 
past and has no bearing whatsoever on the 
present. This may be why history books are 
being rewritten today. This, however, is 
a fallacy encouraged by those who do not 
know the right hand from their left hand. 
In our country today, you are either far 
right or far left and nothing in between. 
Whatever happened to people with 
common sense?

 Perhaps that ancient anonymous 
philosopher was right when he said the 
problem with common sense was that it 
really was not that common anymore. 
Perhaps the demise of the common man 
explains this phenomenon. Or it could be 
that most people today have been educated 
be on their common sensibilities.

 There was a time in my father’s country 
when people were proud of what they did. 
A few tried to get money without working 
for it. In my father’s country, there was a 
great deal of pride in working for what you 
had and not depending upon somebody 
with a handout. In my father’s country, 
there was a deep sense of accomplishment 
in earning what you had by the sweat of 
your brow.

 The only people sweating these days are 
politicians up for reelection.

 In my father’s country, there was no 
such thing as arbitrary handouts but 
plenty of hands out. It was considered our 
patriotic duty to help our neighbor when 
they were in trouble. Nobody looked to 
Uncle Sam to solve his or her problems. It 
was a community affair not a government 
mandate. In fact, if the truth were known, 
and an evidently it is not, they stayed as 
far away from Uncle Sam as possible, only 
communicating with him once a year on 
April 15.

 In those days, they saluted the flag, 
recited the Pledge of Allegiance and were 
right proud to do so. Not one of them could 
imagine anybody ashamed of doing that in 
public.

 Today a lot is being said about the 
separation of church and state. My father 
would not understand the way some people 
are interpreting it. According to what is 
going on today they are trying to keep the 
church out of the state but make good and 
sure, the state runs the church. Isn’t that 
why we had a revolution in the first place?

 In my father’s country, there was a 
separation between government control 
and people pursuing life, liberty and 
happiness. Oh, for those good old days.

 Also, in my father’s country baseball was 
a national sport, not a business. I am not 
quite sure when it became a business, but 
my father never thought it was. He often 
took me to the ball field on a Saturday 
afternoon to have fun, enjoy the game and 
eat the world’s most delicious hotdog. At 
least he said they were the world’s most 
delicious hotdogs.

 Our purpose in going was just to have 
fun. He did his share of making fun and 
harassing the other team’s fans but it never 
crossed his mind to physically beat one 
of them nearly to death. If I remember 
correctly, wedgies were the order of the 
day.

 When our team won, we celebrated and 
high-fived everybody around us. When our 
team lost, we determined with everything 
within us to slaughter them the next week 
on the field. When we said “slaughter,” we 
were talking figuratively.

 Credit was something my father’s 
generation frowned on. As a young person, 
I had in my mind to buy a bicycle. I took 
my father to the store to look at that prized 
bike.

 “Well,” my father stammered, as he 
looked the bike over. “How much money 
you’ve got saved for this bike?” I knew the 
lecture that was to follow. If you could not 
afford to buy something, you could not 
afford to have it. How many times have I 
heard that?

 Perhaps if my father could come back for 
a day we could send him to Washington, 
.D.C and explain to them this whole idea 
that if you cannot afford something you 
cannot afford something. It seemed to make 
sense to me and I was only a young person 
at the time. I guess when you get older you 
lose a lot of that good common sense. Then 
if elected and go to Washington DC, you 
leave all of that good common sense back 
home with your constituency, which then 
wonders what they elected you for.

 The verse of Scripture that was very 
important to my father was, “And let the 
beauty of the LORD our God be upon 
us: and establish thou the work of our 
hands upon us; yea, the work of our hands 
establish thou it” (Psalms 90:17 KJV).

 It may not be the same country my father 
loved, but I can still operate on the same 
principles that made him a patriotic father, 
and pray, “Establish thou the work of our 
hands.”

Mountain Views News

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