Mountain Views News          Saturday, April 13, 2013

17

OPINION

 Mountain Views News Saturday, April 13, 2013

 Thank goodness: March Madness is finally over—of course, it’s 
already the second week of April but who’s counting? Frankly 
I’m relieved that I don’t have to watch College 
Basketball for awhile.

 Speaking of College Basketball, this year I went to a UCLA 
game at Pauley Pavilion mainly to see how they had refurbished 
the place. I had gone to the very first game held there which was 
I think in 1965.

 At the game I attended this year the half-time ceremonies 
involved the honoring of a famous UCLA player of the past, Keith 
Wilkes - now known as Jamal Wilkes. Seated in the front rows 
were other UCLA greats of course, including Lew Alcindor, now 
known to all as Kareem Abdul- Jabbar. There, too, were other 
UCLA legends like Bill Walton and over on the other side was the 
coach of the opposition Oregon State Beavers, Craig Robinson, 
the brother-in-law of President Obama. Sure, all these men have 
pretty interesting stories but the guy I’d like to know more about 
is Craig Robinson and the rest of his family.

 Craig and Michelle Robinson (Mrs. Obama) were both raised in 
South Side Chicago, just like me. Believe me, that was not an easy 
place to grow up. As I’ve written before, my mom and Dad were 
in the grocery business operating a market aptly named Stuart 
(that’s me in case you forgot) Food Mart. Maybe being the child 
of a grocer or a retail merchant has some importance. Margaret 
Thatcher was the child of a grocer while Ronald Reagan’s father 
owned a shoe store. Perhaps being the child of hard-working 
retailers who often work 12 hours a day asserts a certain kind 
of influence on a child? I was one of the few white kids in my 
class and, by the time I was in the fifth grade, I had already been 
double-promoted twice. I’ve always thought that there was some 
strange motivation behind the School skipping me because I was 
potentially so disruptive in the class. I was pretty friendless, I 
think, and tried to connect in the classroom by frequently raising 
my hand to question the teacher. I have three questions I would 
say, and the second question has 4 parts. Today I still have 
questions that have many parts and I have defended the oppressed 
for most for most of my Legal career.

 I am certain that all of the experiences we have while growing 
up have a great deal to do with who we become as adults. From 
my own experience I can say that South Side Chicago Schools 
were not very good and most kids just didn’t take school very 
seriously. It was probably the same at Michele and Craig’s school 
also. Nevertheless, Craig and Michelle both were superb students 
and were later star performers at Ivy League Colleges. What 
experiences lead to their success? I have always assumed that 
their mother, Mrs. Robinson and the example of their crippled 
father, who kept working despite his disability, were strong 
positive influences.? Mrs. Robinson now lives in the White House 
and receives little publicity, but she is there to help raise the kids. 
How will Sasha and Malia turn out, and how important is the 
influence of mothers and grandmothers? I have always thought 
that parental influence is incredibly crucial and that the best way 
of judging an individual’s character is to see the way their children 
turn out.

 Today I am in the midst of reading this book, The Soul 
Code, In Search Of Character And Calling authored by James 
Hillman, which completely refutes this idea. Hilton notes that 
contemporary psychologists and educators all seem to agree that 
parental influence is extremely important—they are all wrong 
he says. The book presents his “acorn theory” which states as a 
metaphor, I think, that there exists at birth; or even prior to birth, 
an acorn within each individual that contains the true destiny 
and talents of an individual. Life is about resisting all the outside 
influences like education and parents and media and friends 
which distract one from their true calling.

 As I present the theory it may sound silly, but Hillman keeps 
talking about the tiny acorn that controls the destiny of the 
mighty oak and it’s very convincing. Experiences along the way 
are also important in the same way that the amount of sunlight, 
the type of ground and the amount of rain influence the growth 
of the tree. The book asks the reader to drop all preconceptions 
and judgments and through an examination of many biographies 
makes the point that most everyone is blocked and misdirected 
by the misguided efforts of parents and Education, which obscure 
one’s consciousness of true destiny. This is the reason we take 
drugs, get divorced, waste time watching frivolous sports, keep 
fighting senseless wars while ignoring pressing environmental 
problems and are on the path to a kind of total destruction.

 I find the book so disturbing that I have trouble finishing it , 
but I haven’t given up. There is still time to find some answers and 
perhaps Mankind can survive for a few more millennia. I wonder 
if that’s our destiny. 

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

HAIL Hamilton My Turn

Mountain 
Views

News

PUBLISHER/ EDITOR

Susan Henderson

CITY EDITOR

Dean Lee 

EAST VALLEY EDITOR

Joan Schmidt

BUSINESS EDITOR

LaQuetta Shamblee

SENIOR COMMUNITY 
EDITOR

Pat Birdsall

SALES

Patricia Colonello

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WEBMASTER

John Aveny 

CONTRIBUTORS

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

Katie Hopkins

Deanne Davis

Despina Arouzman

Greg Wellborn

Dr. John Talevich

Ben Show

Sean Kayden

Jasmine Kelsey Williams

This is the third in a series 
of articles about President 
Obama’s proposed Comprehensive 
Immigration 
Reform and why Americans 
should oppose it. It is based on information 
from a variety of sources including the Cato Institute, 
Center for Immigration Studies, Federation 
for American Immigration Reform (FAIR), 
NumbersUSA, and Pew Hispanic Center.

Former Attorney General Ed Meese III concluded 
his March 24, 2006 New York Times Op-Ed, 
“Amnesty by Any Other Name is still Amnesty...” 
with some very wise advice to President Bush and 
future administrations:

“The fair and sound policy is to give those who 
are here illegally the opportunity to correct their 
status by returning to their country of origin and 
getting in line with everyone else. This, along with 
serious enforcement and control of the illegal inflow 
at the border — a combination of incentives 
and disincentives — will significantly reduce over 
time our population of illegal immigrants.”

As I said last week, If President Obama really 
wants to reform our immigration system he 
should end “Chain Migration” and the “Visa Lottery” 
before any kind of immigration reform, 
comprehensive or otherwise, is even considered.

End Chain Migration 

NumbersUSA defines Chain Migration as “the 
endless and often-snowballing chains of foreign 
nationals who are allowed to immigrate because 
the law allows citizens and lawful permanent 
residents to bring in their extended, non-nuclear 
family members. It is the primary mechanism 
that has caused legal immigration in this country 
to quadruple from about 250,000 per year in the 
1950s and 1960s to more than one million a year 
since 1990.”

One bill currently being considered by Congress 
is “The Nuclear Priority Act” (H.R.692) Introduced 
by Rep. Phil Gingrey in February 2011. 
H.R.692 would end chain migration (as recommended 
by the bi-partisan Barbara Jordan Commission 
in 1995). Rep. Gingrey’s bill would::

“Eliminate the extended family visa categories 
(e.g., siblings, married sons and daughters of citizens, 
etc.);

“Eliminate the parents category and instead create 
a renewable 5-year visa class for parents of 
U.S. citizens;

“Require U.S. sons and daughters to provide satisfactory 
proof that they can financially support 
their immigrant parents and include proof of 
health care coverage for the parents while they 
are residing in the United States;

“Reduce the annual number of family-sponsored 
immigrant visas by 111,800.”

Another key element to Rep. Gingrey's bill is that 
“immigrant parents residing in the United States 
through the renewable 5-year visa would not be 
eligible to work in the United States.” 

End Visa Lottery 

The Visa Lottery Program is managed by the Department 
of State and awards up to 55,000 permanent 
resident visas a year to applicants from 
countries with relatively low rates of immigration 
to the United States compared to other countries, 
based on data from the previous five years.

According to FAIR, the Visa Lottery grants visas 
“based on pure luck to people regardless of family 
ties, skills, or education, exposing the country to 
national security threats such as espionage, terrorism, 
and criminal refuge.”

In 1995, the bipartisan Barbara Jordan Commission 
recommended:

”The elimination of the lottery, since it serves 
no national interest. Yet it remains on the books 
today!”

There are bills offered in both the House and the 
Senate that would eliminate the Visa Lottery.

Rep. Bob Goodlatte (R-Va.) has introduced the 
“SAFE for America Act” (H.R.704) that would:

“Reduce overall legal immigration numbers by 
approximately 50,000 per year.”

Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) has introduced the 
“Strengthening Our Commitment to Legal Immigration 
and America's Security Act” (S.B.332) 
that would:

“Require the Department of State to submit recommendations 
to the House and Senate Judiciary 
Committees detailing changes to the Visa Lottery 
program that would reduce fraud and abuse;

“Eliminate the Visa Lottery unless the changes 
are made to the program per the recommendations 
of the State Department's report.

“Potentially reduce overall legal immigration levels 
by up to 50,000.”

Do not be fooled. Amnesty by any other name 
is still amnesty. Comprehensive Immigration Reform 
is amnesty -- pure and simple.

MARCH MADNESS 
IS OVER SO HOW 
COME THE WORLD 
STILL SEEMS CRAZY?


PART III: “AMNESTY BY ANY OTHER 
NAME IS STILL AMNESTY...”

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OUT TO PASTOR 

A Weekly Religion Column by Rev. James Snyder

WE NEVER NEEDED ARMED 
GUARDS, WE HAD MRS. AMMON

The Gracious Mistress of 
the Parsonage and I were 
watching television listening 
to a news report and I 
simply broke out into laughter.

"What are you laughing at?" my wife asked.

"I'm just thinking of Mrs. Ammon. When I went 
to school we didn't need any armed guards, we 
had Mrs. Ammon and nobody crossed her."

The news report went on to say how they were 
trying to put armed guards at every school in our 
country. I suppose that is a good idea, I do not 
know all the ins and outs of the politicalness of 
that report. Everything these days seems to have 
some kind of a political angle to it. Now that political 
angle is intruding itself into the public school 
system.

This is all an attempt to protect our school children. 
I am all for that.

I was thinking, however, that when I was a youngster 
we did not need that sort of thing. We had 
Mrs. Ammon and her infamous hickory stick. 
Very few people remember a time when a teacher 
had, as one of her tools for education, a hickory 
stick and knew how to wield it, and wield it they 
did.

Somebody may ask how I know about that. Very 
simply. I am the product of a teacher wielding 
the hickory stick. It is hard now to remember 
the occasion that called for the application of 
that hickory stick. Actually, there was more than 
one occasion calling for such teacher and student 
interaction.

The old saying was that our teacher would apply 
the "Board of Education" to the "Seat of Learning." 
Believe me when I say, I earned a degree in 
that.

Somebody will say, "Things have changed."

I will agree that things have changed, but most 
things have not changed for the better. Back in 
"the day" when I was a member of the public education 
system, the teachers were in charge. A basic 
rule in our house prevailed, "If you get a paddling 
in school, you get a paddling at home." It 
was assumed the teacher was right.

I distinctly remember my first interaction with 
my teacher in this regard. How can you forget 
such a thing?

At that time, teachers were too busy to put up with 
any kind of fooling around in a classroom. Do not 
get me wrong, my teacher made it fun most of the 
time. For the ones who, like me, took it too far, she 
knew how to stop it dead in its tracks.

"Mr. Snyder," the teacher would say in a very stern 
tone of voice. "Is that you making all that noise?" I 
knew what was to follow.

"Mr. Snyder, please go to the principal's office and 
I will join you shortly."

Oh boy. Those familiar words bring back haunting 
memories of my visit to the principal's office. You 
can be sure; Mrs. Ammon would not come into 
the principal's office, spank you and then go back 
to her class. On some occasions, I would have preferred 
her to spank me and get it over with.

The first thing she had to do was explain to me 
why what I did was wrong and disruptive to the 
class. Then, she had to explain to me how this 
paddling I was about the cat was going to hurt her 
more than it did me.

For the life of me, I could never figure out where it 
hurt her more than it did me. I knew exactly where 
it hurt me and for the rest of the day it would be 
quite difficult for me to sit down in my chair. Not 
only did my posterior glow in pain, but the snickers 
of my fellow students were even worse.

At the time of the application of the hickory stick, 
I really did not like Mrs. Ammon. Looking back, I 
have a different perspective. I now know that she 
really had an interest in me as a person. She was 
trying to discipline me in ways in which I needed 
discipline from someone like her.

Years later, I went back and visited my old teacher, 
Mrs. Ammon. I took to her some books I had 
written and published. She said she remembered 
me, I really do not know if she did or not. I had to 
do one thing and that was to thank her.

"I want to thank you, Mrs. Ammon, for teaching 
me to read and to write." Then I handed her my 
books. She seemed to be so very happy, but not as 
happy as I was. This teacher made a difference in 
my life that I did not realize until I was older.

One thing Mrs. Ammon taught me was that I 
should not get away with anything. There is a moment 
of accountability everybody must face. Mrs. 
Ammon was making sure 
that I was facing up to the 
realities of life before I did 
too much damage to my 
life.

It is sad that the politics 
have taken over our education 
system today. It is sad 
that we do not have any 
Mrs. Ammons with their 
hickory sticks.

When I think of Mrs. Ammon 
I think of what Solomon 
writes, "He that spareth 
his rod hateth his son: 
but he that loveth him chasteneth 
him betimes" (Proverbs 
13:24 KJV).

It is my opinion that we 
need more Mrs. Ammons 
in our school classrooms 
and less, a lot less, politics.


Mountain Views News

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