Mountain Views News          Saturday, August 4, 2012

17

OPINION

 Mountain Views News Saturday August 4, 2012 

A message from the Editor:

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

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


TWO WORDS

 THANK YOU! Yes, those are the words that I want to say 
over and over again. Publishing this paper since 2007 has 
been a wonderful experience, but I would never have been 
able to do so without the encouragement and support of 
the contributors and readers. You’ve helped us through 
extremely difficult times and kept us motivated. Thanks 
go out to all of you, even those who can only be critical of 
the paper. Your criticism inspires too. 

 There is absolutely no way that we would have grown 
from a 16 page large font weekly to a 24 page newspaper 
full of information for our communities without extraordinarily 
committed contributors.

 I took a moment to look over the first edition - August 4, 
2007 before starting on this issue. Elaine Aguilar had just 
been hired as our City Manager and we are glad that she 
is still here with us. Steve Tobia, who sold me his MVN 
Newsmagazine has gone on to publish a very fine monthly 
magazine - THE Magazine. Thank you Steve! And to Dean Lee, Rich Johnson, 
Hail Hamilton, Paul Carpenter, Kim Clymer, Bob Eklund, Peter Dills, Chris Bertrand, 
Pat Birdsall, and Jeff Brown who were there from day one. Thank you. And 
to those many others who choose to remain behind the scenes....Thank You. But 
most importantly, thank you to my family who puts up with the 24/7 demands of 
publishing the Mountain Views News. You are the best.

 In my editorial on August 4, 2007 I told you that we would welcome “diversity 
of opinion” and we have. I also committed to keep this publication a true community 
newspaper, and we have done that too. And we have only been able to accomplish 
that because of you, our readers. Thank You and Happy Birthday to Us!

IS IT MY IMAGINATION?

 Have you noticed that people seem to be getting angry more 
frequently? Maybe I’m the cause, but lately I’ve been having some 
very unpleasant exchanges with some very dear old friends. A few 
days ago, after playing a round of golf in the heat I stopped by an 
old friend’s house just to chat and to talk about this cooking class 
that I had been talking about taking together with her sixteen year 
old son.

 We carried on some innocuous chit chat for a while and were onto the subject 
of group loyalty. I said something like “perhaps group loyalty explains why police 
reports are often exercises in creative fiction wherein the writers of reports attempt to 
protect one another”. I did not even intend this to be a controversial statement, as in 
reading police reports for over forty years I have never seen a report which described 
excessive use of force by an officer, notwithstanding the fact that independent 
objective witnesses saw the matter differently

 Really, thinking back on it now, it is not surprising that my ex-friend would 
take exception to this statement; but to say she took exception would be a gross 
understatement. She screamed; she yelled; she made faces; she called me names and 
said that I was calling her, and all other police personnel, liars. She screamed that all 
police were better people than I am and she threw me out of her house and ended a 
thirty five year friendship.

 Another incident occurred within the last week that has troubled me greatly. 
Again there was involved an old friend dating all the way back to High School. I had 
not seen much of my old friend and his wife, another old friend, for over a year and 
arrangements were made for us to meet at the Getty and view the exhibit there. All 
right, now that I think about it, the reason we had not seen each other for awhile 
was that the last time we had been together there had been a dispute concerning the 
sensitivity of teachers to economic differences within their classroom. I recounted 
how terrible I used to feel during Community Chest Drives, during which I was 
unable to make a contribution. My friend’s wife, an Elementary School teacher, 
defended her profession and said that the problem must have been mine. The evening 
did not end comfortably and my wife and I approached this new meeting with some 
trepidation.

 I promised my wife that I would do my best to avoid controversial subjects. This, 
of course, is a shame because I love controversy and discussion. At dinner it was 
mentioned, I guess by me but I’m not sure, that we had heard that my friend had 
just learned that he had been adopted by the man whom he had lived with all during 
his childhood and whom he thought was his biological father. All right I made the 
mistake of asking how does that feel and my friend got crazy. My wife thought he 
was going to hit me. I did not have that kind of fear but just felt horribly sad as he 
said, “What’s the big deal! Why do people think it’s important? I don’t feel anything.” 
Meanwhile, I just sat there wanting to cry.

 As you can imagine there have been other episodes but my intent is not to recount 
the numerous social mishaps of my recent past. Instead I want to utilize the language 
sent to me by a reader of my last article. That article involved my discussion of the 
horrible Colorado shootings at the Batman midnight show in Colorado. My reader, 
who identifies himself as a practicing psychoanalyst, describes the shooter as “another 
example of someone projecting their own internal chaos, conflicts, turmoil, and 
fragmentation onto the outside world”. He adds that “Freud’s idea is that all human 
psychology is about discharge. The human mind has to find some way of discharging 
its tensions or it risks becoming extremely depressed, anxious, crazy, or having some 
kind of physical illness.”

 Right now, in my view, the world is falling apart. The economies of Europe and 
the United States may well be teetering toward a great depression. Medically we are 
all in danger of the occurrence of plagues resistant to all antibiotics. Meanwhile, we 
continue to use fossil fuels and to destroy the habitability of the planet. Perhaps we all 
want to ignore this information. Maybe it is best to hold on to our group affiliations 
and to deny all problems.

 I disagree; but for right now my only suggestion is to take good care of our children 
and assist them to develop a healthy, aware mind right from the start of life. One 
more thing. BE CAREFUL OUT THERE. 

 

Susan Henderson,

Publisher/Editor

I OWE MITT AN APOLOGY By Tina Dupuy

Presumptive nominee Mitt Romney is 
seemingly fixated on apologies. He's obsessed 
with apologies like Bristol Palin 
is obsessed with teen abstinence—like 
BP is obsessed with clean energy—Marcus 
Bachmann with curing homosexual 
men ...

Mitt's book is titled "No Apology." He's 
convinced the problem with Obama is 
that he apologizes for America. Because 
Mitt is so engrossed by apologies—he 
sees apologies that aren't there.

Mitt, he'll tell you, doesn't apologize for 
America. But he's had to apologize for 
himself plenty. Aside from all the recent 
gaffes and gauche statements that managed 
to incense America's closest allies 
in Europe, earning him the nickname 
"Mitt the Twit," Mitt's ever-changing 
policy positions are, for all intents and 
purposes, apologies. It's saying his previous 
stance on, say, women's health, 
was wrong. For example: when Mitt 
said abortion should be legal because 
a close family friend had died from an 
illegal abortion. He's now saying he's 
righting (ahem) his stance on the issue 
and declaring his vigil for his family 
friend to be over. He's saying his 
crowning achievement as governor of 
a state, Obamacare, nee Romneycare, is 
now a plague on humanity and must be 
repealed.

A man who "retroactively retired" as 
CEO of Bain Capital can effortlessly 
adjust his positions. For a candidate 
who's disgusted by apologies in his opponents—
who hurls the accusation of 
apology as if it were a disqualifying offense 
to all that is wholesome—he sure 
walks back from, amends and revises 
the stuff he says a lot.

So since apologies are so important to 
Mr. Romney, I'd like to offer mine. I've 
said on numerous occasions (some of 
them broadcasted) that Mitt has been 
running for president for 20 years. I 
figured somewhere around 1992, Mitt, 
having witnessed his father's failed run 
for president and his mother's failed 
run for Senate, was watching the first 
Baby Boomer president (Bill Clinton) 
being sent to the White House. It was 
then he resolved that he, too, was going 
to run for president.

Now if that were true and his planning 
began the year Pope John Paul issued an 
apology for the Inquisition's banning 
Galileo, Mitt would have made some 
different choices. His business practices 
would have been, candidly, more 
patriotic.

He wouldn't have laid-off American 
workers, outsourcing jobs overseas, 
and then expect those same American 
workers to vote for him. He would have 
built something, instead of destroying 
corporations and getting rich off 
the charcoal. If Mitt Romney had been 
planning to run for president for 20 
years, he would have anticipated releasing 
his tax returns (his father pioneered 
the practice) and made sure everything 
on there was something he could be 
proud of; returns he would happily release 
to the public.

So I was wrong. Mitt hasn't been running 
for president for 20 years. He made 
money in a way that's legal but now is 
embarrassed (think apologetic) about 
how little he's paid in taxes, or what he's 
made off his investments to show his 
tax returns to voters. He's taken advantage 
of tons of loopholes, parking his 
money in foreign bank accounts. With 
his business record, he'd be a controversial 
presidential appointee, let alone a 
presidential candidate himself. Sure it's 
legal. But it's not ethical. Not for public 
service. Especially not for the most 
powerful position in the country.

So, Mitt, I'm sorry. I had been saying 
something about you that just wasn't 
true. You haven't been running for 
president for two decades. You haven't 
been paying attention to what would 
play best to get yourself sworn into 
office.

You've been paying attention to your 
money.


Mountain Views News 
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OUT TO PASTOR 

A Weekly Religion Column by Rev. James Snyder

SO, THIS IS SUMMER, IS IT?

 It was just 
another day and 
I was indulging a 
carefree moment 
of complaining 
about the weather. “I can’t believe it’s so 
hot today,” I muttered. I thought I was 
talking to myself but obviously, I had an 
audience.

 Have you ever said or did something 
not realizing somebody was watching 
you?

 Every time I am in a restaurant eating, 
I endeavor to remember there is an 
audience and try my very best not to spill 
the soup on my lap. Although, I must 
admit that that kind of lap dance always 
gets a vigorous round of applause from 
the audience. Don’t ask me how I know.

 I thought, in my own special way of 
thinking, that I was alone, only to find out 
the Gracious Mistress of the Parsonage 
was within earshot of my remarks. I 
must say she is rather remarkable. Those 
“earshot moments” are quite extensive. I 
will not go as far as to say that she can 
read my mind, although I think she 
can, but she seems to know what I am 
thinking even before I go through the 
effort and labor of thinking.

 I do not know why I even spend the 
energy thinking on my own. Even when 
I do think up a thought of my own and 
go so far as to express it, I am always 
challenged. The challenge is, do not 
think that way. The challenger is my wife.

 Life would be so much easier, not to 
mention less stressful, if I just would quit 
thinking my own thoughts. It is when 
I am thinking my own thoughts that I 
get into trouble. Life would be so much 
easier if I allowed someone else to think 
my thoughts for me. After all, isn’t that 
why men get married? Why women get 
married still baffles me.

 Getting back to my moment of 
complaining. “I can’t believe,” I muttered, 
“it’s so hot today.” To which, my wife 
said, “Don’t you know it’s summer? And 
don’t you know that it’s supposed to be 
hot during the summer?”

 I did know that but it did not make 
the heat any more bearable. Then she 
said something that rather confused me. 
I have been confused before. Confusion 
is a familiar territory to me. But this 
confusion was different.

 “If,” my wife said rather sternly, 
“you can’t stand the heat get out of the 
kitchen.”

 What the kitchen had to do with it 
being hot outside is way beyond my pay 
scale. There was a brief moment when 
I almost threw caution to the wind and 
asked my wife what she meant by that 
comment. Boy, am I glad I didn’t.

 I make it a practice to stay as far 
away from the kitchen as possible, 
especially when my wife is present. 
There is something about a kitchen that 
makes me rather nervous to the point of 
dropping her favorite cup and having it 
break all over the floor. I stay out of the 
kitchen, heat or no heat.

 “If I remember correctly,” my wife said 
as she stared at me rather intently, “a few 
months ago you were complaining about 
how cold it was.” She was right. It was not 
but a few months ago, I was complaining 
that it was so cold outside that I just 
could not bear it.

 “You’re going to have to make up your 
mind.” That was a serious admonition 
from her. For her to tell me to make up 
my mind sends some very contradictory 
messages to me. After all, she is forever 
making up my mind for me. She seems 
to know exactly what I want at the 
restaurant and before I can get a word in 
edgewise or otherwise, she has ordered 
for me. I’m not complaining. She knows 
exactly what I want.

 “Either,” she continued, “it’s too hot or 
it’s too cold. Now make up your mind.”

 I smiled demurely in her direction and 
nodded in the affirmative. Not wanting 
to further the conversation I whispered 
very gently, “Yes, dear.” It concluded our 
tête-à-tête.

 Later on in the evening, we were 
watching television. It was the local 
news and special report of the day had 
to do with the record heat wave across 
our country. “It’s been a long time,” the 
weatherman said, “since we’ve seen 
temperatures this high. Boy, is it hot out 
there.”

 I glanced in her direction as covertly 
as possible and noticed she was staring 
at me, just daring me to say something.

 There is a time to say something and 
then sometimes something should not 
be said at all. I concealed my infectious 
grin as much as possible knowing that 
someone was watching me. Under my 
breath I whispered, “I can’t believe it’s so 
hot today.” After all, it is summer and it 
is supposed to be hot. I just believe that 
everybody has the right to complain 
about the weather. I also believe that 
some people have the right not to hear 
me complain about the weather.

 It is a well-noted mark of wisdom to 
know when to speak and when not to 
speak.

 Solomon in the Old Testament had it 
right when he said, “Even a fool, when he 
holdeth his peace, is counted wise: and 
he that shutteth his lips is esteemed a 
man of understanding” (Proverbs 17:28 
KJV).

 So, this is summer, but you did not 
hear it from me.

 Rev. James L. Snyder is pastor of 
the Family of God Fellowship, PO Box 
831313, Ocala, FL 34483. He lives with 
his wife, Martha, in Silver Springs Shores. 
E-mail jamessnyder2@att.net. His web 
site is www.jamessnyderministries.com

OLDIES BUT GOODIES

By the time you read this article there will be a week or less 
left until my band, JJ Jukebox is slated to perform at the 
Sierra Madre Concert in the Park. The date is Sunday, August 
12th from 6:00 pm to 8:00pm. I am thankful to the City of 
Sierra Madre, the Friends of the Sierra Madre Library, and 
the Kiwanis Club for giving us this opportunity. Plus a special 
nod to Ms. Susan Henderson with whom I am acquainted.

If you don’t know who or what we are, Barry, Steve, and I are 
the Oldies part of the evening: an oldies band of oldies doing oldies. (I exclude Mike 
because he really is a young whippersnapper.) The songs we do include “Kicks” by 
Paul Revere and the Raiders, “Love Potion Number Nine” by the Searchers, “Ring 
of Fire” by Johnny Cash and more from the 1960s and the 1970s. 

The Goodies part of the evening festivities consist of four guest female vocalists. 
Amy Kafkaloff is going to knock our socks off singing two Jefferson Airplane 
classics, “White Rabbit” and “Somebody to Love”. Lisa Bowman is going to get us 
bopping to Nancy Sinatra’s “These Boots Are Made For Walking”, and a surprise 
song. Holly Imler will thrill us with the Beatle’s Classic, “The Night Before”. And 
Jane Fuller will sing a classic song mixed in with one or two of her own.

A full and exciting evening to be sure. Come enjoy and dance to the oldies (and 
the goodies).

Music is such an integral part of our lives. Remember how a certain song can 
take you back to a big event in your life? Hopefully the memories are all warm 
fuzzies. It’s interesting how certain records come about. The Johnny Cash song 
“Ring of Fire”, highlighted by our own Barry Schwam, was actually co-written by 
June Carter before she became June Carter Cash. And the song had a different 
name, “Love’s Firey Ring”. The lyrics spoke about June’s inability to resist her future 
husband Johnny. When Johnny recorded “Ring of Fire” he decided he wanted it to 
have trumpets so he gave it “Tex-Mex” flavor to it. The song actually revived his 
career.

Another song the Jukebox will be performing is the classic rock tune “Kicks”, 
recorded by Paul Revere and the Raiders in 1966. The song was not written for 
the Raiders. It was originally written for a British Invasion Band, The Animals, 
but turned down by their lead singer Eric Burdon. “Kicks” was one of the first 
anti-drug songs and is ranked as number 400 in Rolling Stone Magazines “500 
Greatest Songs of All Time.” And this might surprise you. The Jefferson Airplane 
song “White Rabbit” written by Grace Slick, was actually an anti-drug song. Grace 
was criticizing parents who read these types of stories to their children (Alice took 
pills and became smaller, and drank unknown liquids). “White Rabbit” is ranked 
478 in “the 500 Greatest Songs of All Time.)

Hope to see you on Sunday, August 12th.


RICH Johnson

Mountain Views News

Mission Statement

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and the concerns of 
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