Mountain Views News          Saturday, July 19, 2014

B4

OPINION

Mountain Views-News Saturday, July 19. 2014 

 

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

626-355-2737 

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WEBMASTER

John Aveny 

CONTRIBUTORS

Chris Leclerc

Bob Eklund

Howard Hays

Paul Carpenter

Kim Clymer-Kelley

Christopher Nyerges

Peter Dills 

Hail Hamilton 

Rich Johnson

Merri Jill Finstrom

Lori Koop

Rev. James Snyder

Tina Paul

Mary Carney

Katie Hopkins

Deanne Davis

Despina Arouzman

Greg Welborn

Renee Quenell

Ben Show

Sean Kayden

Marc Garlett

 LEFT TURN/RIGHT TURN

GREG Welborn


HOWARD Hays As I See It


HERE WE GO, AGAIN!

“Are folks more 
interested in politics or 
are they more interested 
in solving the problem?”

 - President Barack 
Obama, upon arrival 
in Texas

 I can’t imagine 
condoning a loved one, a child, embarking 
on a hellish 1,500 mile journey with 
limited probability of survival. Nor can 
I put myself in the shoes of that 17-year-
old girl I heard explaining through an 
interpreter and through tears how she 
made it from Honduras after her brother 
was killed for refusing to join a gang, and 
she herself was threatened with the same 
unless she agreed to join up and become 
their “property”.

 (San Pedro Sula in Honduras has the 
highest murder rate in the world at 193 
per 100,000. In NYC it’s 5.1.)

 It’s hard to pass judgment sitting home 
in Sierra Madre. But I can ask myself, 
as suggested by the president, if I’m one 
who’s interested in the problem, or in 
simply playing politics.

 I gave that some thought, and figured, 
“Well, yes and no.”

 To understand the problem, we need 
to be clear on what it’s not. In Greg 
Welborn’s column last week, he suggests 
it’s a matter of “border security”.

 The current problem has nothing to 
do with “border security” (other than by 
having to divert personnel). Deportations 
by ICE at the border have increased every 
year since President Obama took office 
– from 134,451 in FY 2008 to 235,093 
in FY 2013. A decreasing percentage of 
deportees have been children, with an 
increasing percentage being those with 
criminal records.

 The thousands now making the trek 
to the Rio Grande Valley from Central 
America aren’t trying to sneak through, 
but are readily turning themselves in to 
authorities. These aren’t illegal border-
crossers, but refugees.

 Greg blames us for “enticing the world’s 
masses with the promise of ample benefits 
upon arrival”, though there’s no evidence 
of any such “promise” playing a role. 
There’s the 2008 law passed unanimously 
under Bush which guarantees a hearing 
before any deportation to those under 
18 from places other than Canada and 
Mexico. The DREAM Act’s come up in 
the debate, but that only affects those who 
grew up here, were educated here and 
who call here home.

 For root causes you could go back 
thirty years when under Reagan we 
sunk $5 billion into supporting the 
military and landowners in El Salvador 
– fueling a conflict that cost 75,000 lives, 
proportional to the number we lost in our 
own Civil War.

 We could look to the streets of L.A., 
where kids displaced by that war came 
and established the Calle 18 and Mara 
Salvatrucha gangs. Later deported back 
to their home countries, they picked up 
where they left off – in a country awash 
with weapons bought with our $5 billion.

 Five years ago under President Obama, 
we stood aside as the democratically 
elected government of Honduras was 
overthrown by a military coup. The 
oligarchs felt threatened by advocates 
for higher wages and increased access to 
education – and by a people given hope. 
Honduras was the original “banana 
republic”; now, it’s the most lethal one.

 This problem has roots in events under 
Reagan, Bush and Obama. But for the 
politics, it’s got to be all Obama’s fault.

 Greg complains the administration’s 
$3.7 billion proposal would “allocate 
not one thin dime to additional border 
security”. What the president has chosen 
to do instead is address the problem, not 
the politics.

 That $3.7 billion includes:

$1.8 billion to HHS for care of children 
and refugees

$1.5 billion to the Dept. of Homeland 
Security for “detention and removal” 
of adults, extra pay for ICE and Border 
Patrol agents, the Border Enforcement 
Security Task Force, air surveillance and 
targeting immigrant smugglers

$300 million to the State Dept for 
“repatriation, strengthening foreign 
borders, addressing root causes of 
migration” and media campaigns in 
Mexico and Central America

$64 million to the Justice Dept for 
additional immigration judges and legal 
assistance

 Some Republicans suggest cutting funds 
for the children and spending instead on 
National Guard troops (who couldn’t stop 
or arrest anyone, anyway).

 Others won’t support anything, seeing 
this as not a problem for the nation but 
for President Obama, “who owns this 
problem and created this problem”, 
according to Rep. Randy Weber (R-TX).

 Sen. Richard Shelby (R-AL) suggests the 
cost “be offset from Obamacare.”

 (In the meantime, the House just passed 
the “bonus depreciation” corporate tax 
break, adding $287 billion to our deficit 
over the next ten years.)

 Greg assures that Conservatives “stand 
ready to negotiate a comprehensive 
solution”, but can’t find “reliable 
negotiating partners.”

 The president last December endorsed 
$46.3 billion over ten years for border 
security, adding 20,000 Border Patrol 
agents with “24-hour surveillance” of 
border areas and 225 more judges to 
help with the backlog. This was part of 
the comprehensive immigration reform 
bill produced by “reliable negotiating 
partners” from both parties, which passed 
the Senate with bipartisan support.

 It also appears to have majority support 
in the House. Rep. Donna Edwards 
(D-MD), however, said last week it’s 
stalled because of opposition from 
eighteen Republicans, and Speaker John 
Boehner (R-OH) won’t let it come to the 
floor for a vote. You can’t risk having 
an accomplishment Democrats might 
campaign on in the mid-terms.

 The 17-year-old mentioned above, 
through the translator and through tears, 
told how “kids are dying along the way; 
they drown, they’re murdered” and “The 
only thing I would beg is, please give me 
a chance to stay here, so I can fulfill my 
dreams, so I can take care of my family.”

 In a Times story, 800 volunteers in 
McAllen, Texas have served some 3,000 
immigrants at their “hastily organized” 
immigrant relief center. Food donations 
have overflowed “in a region where 
many residents live in shacks and trailers 
without electricity”. 

 Then there were the several dozen in 
Murrieta banging on buses carrying 
women and children, shouting “Send 
them back!”, spitting at counter-protesters 
and forcing the buses back to San Ysidro. 

 This doesn’t solve any problems. It isn’t 
politics, either. It’s just shameful.

The world stands on the brink of yet another war between Israel 
and the Palestinians. The accepted wisdom is that the Jews have 
once again pricked their neighbors and ignited the powder keg. 
But, is it really just a matter of the Jews behaving themselves and 
dealing fairly with their neighbors? If only the Jews would give 
up some land – see the legitimacy in the Palestinian cause. The 
problem with this scenario is that it assumes the Palestinian 
cause is simply to obtain a homeland for themselves and to then live peacefully with 
their neighbors. Were that the true Palestinian cause, we would have had peace long 
ago.

 It is beyond ironic that the accepted wisdom retains credibility at a time when 
Israel’s coalition government has openly accepted the recognition of a Palestinian 
state. Israeli opinion has moved over the years to the point where there is a strong 
national consensus for a two-state solution. In fact, Benjamin Netanyahu became 
the first prime minister to agree to a settlement freeze. 

 Netanyahu froze settlements for 10 months, inviting Mahmoud Abbas, Chairman 
of the PLO, to negotiate the border lines, terms and conditions. Abbas boycotted 
the talks for 9 of those months, showed up in the 10th, and then walked out when 
the freeze expired. That’s not good faith, but it is consistent with the long history of 
Palestinian actions.

 In 2000 at the Camp David meetings, Israeli Prime Minister, Ehud Barak, 
offered Yasser Arafat a Palestinian state including the unthinkable – the division 
of Jerusalem. Arafat refused without any counter offer, returned home and then 
launched a terror campaign which cost 1,000+ Israeli lives.

 In 2001, the Clinton administration negotiated an even better deal for Palestinians. 
Both sides needed to swallow hard and release long-held demands. The Jews did; 
Arafat did not. Again, the Palestinians walked away from their “cause”.

 In 2005, Israel was actually convinced to give up Gaza. They withdrew all forces, 
dismantled 21 settlements and forcibly evicted 9,000 of their own citizenry from 
those settlements. This was then followed by a 2008 Israeli offer to give up 100% 
of the West Bank, acknowledge Palestinian statehood, and again divide Jerusalem. 
The Palestinian response? A steady increase in Palestinian rocket attacks on Israel.

 An honest observer can see that the Palestinians have repeatedly been offered 
success for their “cause”: land, statehood, and an equal claim to Jerusalem. Each 
time, they have rejected the solution because each time the solution didn’t address 
their true cause. Each offer contained in it a requirement that the Palestinians accept 
Israel’s right to exist. Each offer was meant to be a final peace, but the Palestinians 
have no interest in a final peace; they have no interest in allowing a Jewish state to 
exist.

 Land for peace was the basis for peace with Egypt; it was the basis for peace in 
Jordon. In both cases, Arab leadership had a real interest in peace, accepted fair 
deals and, at least to date, has honored the agreements. Not so with the Palestinians. 
Palestinians are animated by a hatred which knows few boundaries, and that hatred 
is nurtured by both Hamas and PLO leadership which are united in a visceral hatred 
of Israel and will take any excuse to translate that hatred from ugly words (“pigs”, 
“apes”, “rabid dogs”, “non-humans”) into real sticks and stones (literally thousands 
of rockets).

 This time around Hamas jumped on the murder of a Palestinian teenager. 
The murder of any person, especially a child, is a gruesome act and warrants an 
appropriate response. But waging a war is not an appropriate response by any 
stretch of domestic or international law, or even of a properly tethered imagination. 
First of all, the Palestinian’s murder was in response to the Palestinian murder of 
3 Jewish youths. That is NOT justification, only context. If murder is a legitimate 
cause for war, then Israel is 3-times more justified in warring against Palestinians. 
More telling, the different public responses to these murders reside on unequal moral 
planes. Israeli citizens, Jewish authorities and leading Rabbis have all condemned the 
murder of the Palestinian – several of the Rabbis calling for the death sentence. The 
response among Palestinians to the kidnapping and murder of the 3 Jewish youths 
was celebration. The mother of one of the Palestinian suspects commented that “if 
he did the kidnapping, I’ll be proud of him”, while the mother of another Palestinian 
terrorist celebrated the “martyrdom operation” which cost her son his life. 

 What kind of people celebrate the purposeful murder of innocents? What type 
of people celebrate the death of their own child, who was trying to kill and maim 
hundreds, if not thousands, in his “martyrdom operation”? The answer is, not 
people who truly want peace or with whom you can negotiate peace in good faith. 

 So what’s left for Israel to do? Sadly, if Israel wants a fair, lasting, “final” peace, it’s 
going to have to attack the root cause of war. That is not Jewish settlements or any 
amount or location of land. Israel will have to destroy Hamas as a viable political 
entity and as a military power even in the face of the inevitable calls for restraint or 
proportionate response. This does not mean the purposeful targeting of citizens – 
even the accidental killing of whom Israel takes great pain to avoid. Even now, Israel 
is warning citizens of Hamas to leave the area. This is what a great moral power 
does. Putting military targets next to school yards, hospitals and residential areas – 
as Hamas routinely does – is what a cowardly and evil power does.

 The world will be better off if the Jews will wage this war until Hamas is destroyed. 
Secondarily to that, the region will achieve long-term peace when Arabs of all 
political and religious affiliations come to recognize Israel’s right to exist. When 
that happens, peace will happen.

About the author: Gregory J. Welborn is a freelance writer and has spoken to several 
civic and religious organizations on cultural and moral issues. He lives in the Los 
Angeles area with his wife and 3 children and is active in the community. He can be 
reached gregwelborn2@gmail.com 

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OUT TO PASTOR A Weekly Religion Column by Rev. James Snyder

”LET IT GO, LET GO, LET IT GO”

 
This year I celebrate my 20th year as a practicing grandfather. 
I am not sure that after 20 years I know anything more about 
being a grandfather than I did before. I have not found any 
books written on how to be a grandfather, maybe I should write 
one. I have enjoyed those 20 years and it just seems to be getting better.

 One of the interesting things about a grandfather is spending time with the 
grandchildren, especially when they are trying to watch a movie.

 I enjoy a movie every now and again, but when it comes to little girls, they do not 
seem to have the same taste in movies as their grandfather. This is something I will 
never understand. What is a grandfather to do? The only way to get them to sit still 
and be quiet is to show one of their movies.

 One of the movies so important to little girls these days is the movie called 
Frozen. As it happened, we had to have a special night set aside to watch this movie 
with the granddaughters. I figured, how hard could it really be?

 I consented on this movie because I thought this would give those tired, 
overworked little gray cells upstairs a chance to relax and not work so hard. After 
all, how can you think when you are watching something like a movie for children?

 I also thought it would be nice to rest my body as well as my eyes, if I can get 
away with it. After all, who wants to follow the plot, if there is any such thing, in a 
children’s movie.

 We had settled down to watch this exciting little girl’s movie, I was half dozing 
and then I began to think about the manuscript I was working on. I had been 
having trouble with a certain aspect of that manuscript and as I sat there, I begin 
to think about how I could fix that problem. It almost came to me, but then I 
heard, ”Grandpa, grandpa, grandpa look at that, look at that!”

 The cheering granddaughters brought me back to the land of the living and the 
reality as they were watching it. Both of them at the same time begin to explain 
to me what it happened and what was going to happen. Between the two little 
chatterboxes, I had no idea what they were talking about. What is a grandfather 
to do but smile broadly and pretend you are listening. After all, they are only little 
once.

 They soon quieted down and were fixated on the screen watching 
the movie unfold. I sighed a deep sigh of relief and went back into 
my previous stupor. I try to follow the movie, but then I remembered 
that in the afternoon I had to write a column for my newspapers. 
As of yet, I did not have an idea what that column would be. I like 
to start with the title and then following that develop a story line. 
As yet, I did not have an acceptable column title. As I mused about 
this, thoughts were beginning to gel and that little light bulb began to 
flicker. Thoughts were beginning to come into place, and then I heard 
some loud screaming and clapping and two little girls were jumping up and down 
singing, ”Let it go, let it go, let it go.”

 I sat up in my chair, looking around trying to figure out what in the world they 
were trying to let go. It is at this point that grandmothers are no help to grandfathers. 
Grandmothers can say, ”You girls watch the movie with grandpa while I make 
supper.”

 Personally, I do not think it is fair. I would like to make supper one night while 
grandma joins the little girls watching a movie. The problem is, nobody would eat 
the supper that I would prepare, not even Yours Truly.

 What these little girls were all excited about was something I was trying to figure 
out. It did not make any sense to me, but as I watched the little grandchildren, 
they were excited, laughing, shouting and singing. Of course, it is hard to tell the 
difference between shouting and singing, especially in today’s musical world. They 
were absolutely enjoying themselves and I tried to focus in on the source of their 
enjoyment.

 ”Grandpa,” both of them yelled at me in absolute delight, ”sing the song with us.”

 What grandpa’s go through while entertaining their grandchildren.

 I made a deal with them at that time, ”I will sing with you, but I certainly will 
not dance with you.” A grandfather has to draw the line somewhere. And so, 
I joined in singing, ”Let it go, let it go, let it go.” I got those words down pretty 
good, but the rest of the song was a mysterious blank to me. They were excited 
about singing it and soon I was excited about watching them sing it.

 That evening when the little ones were snuggled into bed, I remember what 
David said. ”For his anger endureth but a moment; in his favour is life: weeping 
may endure for a night, but joy cometh in the morning” (Psalms 30:5).

 In the Hebrew, so they tell me, the word ”joy,” also means singing. My faith in 
Jesus Christ has brought me to a wonderful place where I can sing, ”Let it go, let it 
go, let it go.”

 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 or website www.jamessnyderministries.com.

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