Mountain Views News          Saturday, April 2, 2016

14

OPINION 

 Mountain Views News Saturday, April 2, 2016 

Mountain 
Views

News

PUBLISHER/ EDITOR

Susan Henderson

CITY EDITOR

Dean Lee 

EAST VALLEY EDITOR

Joan Schmidt

BUSINESS EDITOR

LaQuetta Shamblee

PRODUCTION

Richard Garcia

SALES

Patricia Colonello

626-355-2737 

626-818-2698

WEBMASTER

John Aveny 

CONTRIBUTORS

Chris Leclerc

Bob Eklund

Howard Hays

Paul Carpenter

Kim Clymer-Kelley

Christopher Nyerges

Peter Dills 

Dr. Tina Paul

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

Pat Birdsall (retired)

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR


UUT, THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN POVERTY 
AND MODEST MUNICIPAL RESPECTABILITY

Dear Editor:

re: UUT, the difference between poverty and modest municipal respectability.

We have lived here over 25 years. I can remember when we were so poor that 
when we needed to replace a police car we were reduced to considering a used 
car from another jurisdiction. I can remember when we couldn’t afford to pay 
the bill of the mechanic who repaired the fire trucks. It is only about 3 years ago 
that our street got paved, work that should have been at least a decade earlier.

 I remember when we first got paramedics, I believe the last city in the county 
to do so. You know that normally over 3/4 of calls to the fire department are 
medically related. Previously we were served by volunteer EMTs. I remember 
that at the time a long time volunteer fire fighter/EMT was asked if he felt badly 
about the new paid paramedics; he replied that if he were to have a heart attack 
he would far rather have a trained paramedic come than an EMT like himself.

 Voting “no” on the UUT is like trying to “save” money by firing the gardener 
and letting the front yard go. You will lose far more in the loss in value of your 
property. Similarly if we “save” money by cutting out the services that make us 
safe and the type of community that other people admire we will pay the price 
many times over in the loss of property values.

Eric Olson

Sierra Madre

From An Informed Citizen:

There was an egregious math error made by Michele Davenport in her editorial 
a couple of weeks ago.

 She stated that the unfunded pension liability was $9.7 Million or $6,754 per 
household.

 According to cited documentation, the unfunded actuarial liability is 
$9,665,477. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, there are 5,113 households 
in Sierra Madre. The per household calculation is simple, divide the liability by 
the number of housing units.

 The answer is $1,890.37 not her $6,754. Her number is 257% too high!!!

 Thank you for considering Ms. Davenports egregious error and setting it 
right.

MVNews


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LEFT TURN/RIGHT TURN 

HOWARD Hays As I See It

MAKING SENSE Michael Reagan


DON’T DUMP ON THE 
PRIMARY PROCESS


“It’s the old African 
saying . . . If you want 
to go fast, go alone. 
But if you want to go 
far, go together.”

- Sen. Cory Booker 
(D-NJ) on HBO’s 
“Real Time with Bill 
Maher”

 

 This came from Bill 
Maher’s interview with Sen. Booker at the 
opening of his show last week. I always tune 
in – I enjoy the left-right diversity of the 
guests and find myself agreeing with Maher 
on most everything. But in this interview he 
sounded more like Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX); 
frustrated that Sen. Booker refused to attach 
the modifier “Islamic” to the “terrorism” 
they were discussing. There’s a big difference 
between mere ambivalence and outright 
hostility towards religion. Maher saw the 
discussion as an opportunity to knock 
Islam, while Booker insisted that in fighting 
terrorists, if we want to “go far” we need to 
“go together”.

 A PBS “Frontline” documentary on Saudi 
Arabia showed youngsters studying their 
Sunni Wahhabi textbooks which call for 
death to Christians and Jews – but also to 
Shia Muslims, who themselves have suffered 
most from terrorism in the name of Islam. 
It showed official “vice” patrols physically 
attacking women wearing make-up and men 
playing music. Victims punished for such 
heresies no doubt have their own personal 
commitment to their Muslim faith. But as 
the documentary made clear, the underlying 
purpose of such brutal state-sanctioned 
zealotry was not to protect any religion but 
rather to protect the power of the ruling elite.

On the internet there are pictures from 
the makeshift camps in Greece of Syrian 
refugees expressing solidarity with victims 
of the Brussels terrorist bombings. We hear 
local law enforcement, national security 
and international intelligence officials warn 
how anti-Muslim rhetoric feeds the terrorist 
propaganda - aiding their recruitment and 
alienating the very people whose cooperation 
is needed most in helping combat the threat.

Now we have Bill Maher and Sen. Cruz 
feeding the ISIS propaganda machine; 
with Maher condemning an entire religion 
and Cruz calling on authorities to “patrol 
and secure” Muslim communities in our 
own country – along with barring refugees 
from places like Iraq and Syria. (None of 
the identified attackers in both Paris and 
Brussels had been refugees; all were European 
nationals born and raised there.)

 Going alone with those sharing a particular 
“faith” might help one go fast in mobilizing 
a base but, as Republicans are finding out, 
it won’t get you far in getting things done. 
The GOP used to rely on big business going 
together with “social conservatives”. But in 
its post-mortem following the 2012 election, 
it realized it had to de-emphasize the latter 
in order to expand the party’s base. Now, 
however, as both here and in the Middle 
East “religion” is being used to divide people, 
that plan’s gone out the window – while big 
business (and big sports) try to salvage what 
they can of their party.

 Two years ago, Arizona’s Gov. Jan Brewer 
(R) vetoed a “religious liberty” bill which 
sought to give legal cover for discrimination 
against gay folks, under pressure from her 
business community – and also to assure her 
state could host the then-upcoming Super 
Bowl. Last year, Indiana Gov. Mike Pence (R) 
had to re-jigger a similar ordinance after the 
NCAA made clear there wouldn’t be a Final 
Four in Indianapolis under a cloud of state-
sponsored bigotry.

 In North Carolina, Gov. Pat McCrory 
(R) and his Republican legislature remain 
determined to go alone; separated not only 
from those who don’t share their bigotry 
but from their own local governments. 
The state now prohibits localities, perhaps 
acting on their own religious convictions, 
from banning discrimination against gays. 
Rev. Franklin Graham calls it a matter 
of “the protection of our citizens” and 
“morality”. The state’s Attorney General 
Roy Cooper (a Democrat set to challenge 
McCrory for the governorship) calls it 
a “national embarrassment”. The NBA 
calls it a reason to maybe pull next year’s 
All-Star game from Charlotte (which 
had passed its own now-nullified non-
discrimination law).

 Georgia’s Gov. Nathan Deal (R) recently 
vetoed his state’s “religious freedom to 
discriminate” law. But that doesn’t mean 
religious zealots in his state aren’t going 
fast in getting stuff done by going alone. In 
Cobb County (largest city Marietta), they’ve 
succeeded in halting their schools’ efforts to 
combat stress and encourage “mindfulness” 
by offering yoga in the classroom, This 
included students’ holding palms together in 
front of their hearts and saying “Namaste”. 
That word refers to “peace, honor, and 
respect for human being”, as does the “heart-
centered” placement of hands.

 But no matter – to the Evangelicals it 
represents some heathen Eastern religion which 
cannot be tolerated. In their crusade to ban yoga 
they are not going alone, but in fact are going 
far throughout the world by going together with 
another group intent on banning such Hindu-
based practices. The “Christians” of Georgia are 
going together with those who seek to ban yoga 
in Malaysia, Indonesia and other areas under 
their influence as incompatible with Sharia law. 
In this those Evangelical Georgians aren’t going 
alone, but are going together with ISIS, the 
Islamic State. 

 I might amend that African saying 
quoted by Sen. Cory Booker; that while you 
might go far by going together, it might also 
be a good idea to consider who it is you’re 
travelling with. 

The Republican Party establishment 
wants to dump Trump.

 Jeb, Marco and Carly wanted to dump 
Trump. Ted and John still hope to dump 
Trump. So does Mitt.

 Everyone in the GOP is on the same 
anti-Trump page. They all want to dump 
him – and they’ll use every trick play in 
the primary book to do it.

 So why is everyone in the party so 
angry about the way the primary process 
is going? This is the process.

 It’s really pretty simple.

 If you want to be the Republican 
Party’s presidential candidate for 2016, 
you have to reach 1,237 delegates to win 
the nomination.

 It’s not who gets close to 1,237 
delegates. It’s who gets that number or 
more. That’s the way the system works.

 In the Super Bowl, we don’t say to a 
team that if you get to the five-yard line 
you get six points. Or if your field goal 
goes just a little bit wide, you get three 
points.

 You have to cross the goal line and get 
into the end zone. You’ve got to split the 
uprights. Those are the rules.

 Whether you’re Donald Trump, Ted 
Cruz, John Kasich or a candidate-to-be-
named-later at a contested convention, if 
you want to win the game you have to get 
the necessary number of delegates.

 What’s going on now in the GOP 
primary is perfectly normal. Cruz and 
Kasich are both trying to do whatever 
they can to stop Trump.

 The people calling for Kasich to drop 
out so Cruz can go head-to-head against 
Trump are wrong. What makes them 
believe all of Kasich’s voters will move 
over to Cruz? 

 What Kasich said the other day is 
absolutely true. If he had dropped out 
before Ohio, Trump would have won 
that state’s 66 delegates and be even 
closer to reaching 1,237. 

 So what if Kasich can’t possibly win 
on the first ballot? It’s good that he is still 
running. 

 He’s the last sitting governor left in the 
race. We also have a first-term senator 
and a billionaire celebrity businessman 
who’s never been elected to anything. 

 What’s wrong with that trio? If there’s 
a contested convention, Republicans get 
to choose one of them or maybe someone 
else. 

 Trust me, the struggle to deny Trump 
the nomination on the first ballot is not 
anything to be upset about. It’s part of 
the process.

 In 1976 what do you think we Reagans 
were trying to do 
at the Republican 
convention?

 We were 
trying to prevent 
President Ford from winning the 
nomination on the first ballot by busting 
up the New York delegation.

 We were also trying to bust up the 
Pennsylvania delegation. That’s why 
my father named liberal Sen. Richard 
Schweicker of Pennsylvania his VP 
choice before the convention started.

 Our plans didn’t work. We lost. I was 
there, so I know how that felt. But by 
losing we Reagan Republicans actually 
won in the long run.

 If my father had become president in 
1976, he would not have been able to do 
what he did in the 1980s to defeat the 
Soviet Union without firing a shot.

 Winning the presidential primary is 
always a rough and tough process. Some 
Republicans want you to win and some 
don’t want you to win.

 The most important thing is, at the 
end of the day you’re supposed to gather 
around the party’s choice -- whoever it is 
-- and move forward.

 Democrats do that well. Republicans 
don’t. They keep looking for reasons not 
to support their nominee.

 If evangelicals and conservatives had 
supported and voted for Mitt Romney in 
2012, instead of staying home out of spite 
because their favorite guy didn’t win 
the nomination, the Republican Party 
wouldn’t have a Trump problem today.

 The GOP establishment, the Tea 
Party crowd, the evangelicals and the 
libertarians will need to unite and work 
hard this fall if they hope to prevent 
another President Clinton.

 Even if they fail to dump Trump.

——-

 Copyright ©2016 Michael Reagan. 
Michael Reagan is the son of President 
Ronald Reagan, a political consultant, 
and the author of “The New Reagan 
Revolution” (St. Martin’s Press). He is 
the founder of the email service reagan.
com and president of The Reagan Legacy 
Foundation. Visit his websites at www.
reagan.com and www.michaelereagan.
com. Send comments to Reagan@
caglecartoons.com. Follow @reaganworld 
on Twitter. 

 Mike’s column is distributed exclusively 
by Cagle Cartoons newspaper syndicate. 
For info on using columns contact Sales at 
sales@cagle.com.

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Mountain Views News 80 W Sierra Madre Blvd. No. 327 Sierra Madre, Ca. 91024 Office: 626.355.2737 Fax: 626.609.3285 Email: editor@mtnviewsnews.com Website: www.mtnviewsnews.com