Mountain Views News, Combined Edition Saturday, April 27, 2019

11

OPINION

Mountain View News Saturday, April 27, 2019 


OUT TO PASTOR 

A Weekly Religion Column by Rev. James Snyder


Mountain Views

News

PUBLISHER/ EDITOR

Susan Henderson

PASADENA CITY 
EDITOR

Dean Lee 

EAST VALLEY EDITOR

Joan Schmidt

BUSINESS EDITOR

LaQuetta Shamblee

PRODUCTION

SALES

Patricia Colonello

626-355-2737 

626-818-2698

WEBMASTER

John Aveny 

DISTRIBUTION

Lancelot

CONTRIBUTORS

Mary Lou Caldwell

Kevin McGuire

Chris Leclerc

Bob Eklund

Howard Hays

Paul Carpenter

Kim Clymer-Kelley

Christopher Nyerges

Peter Dills 

Rich Johnson

Lori Ann Harris

Rev. James Snyder

Dr. Tina Paul

Katie Hopkins

Deanne Davis

Despina Arouzman

Jeff Brown

Marc Garlett

Keely Toten

Dan Golden

Rebecca Wright

Hail Hamilton

LAZY DOES HAVE ITS ADVANTAGES

As a young boy, my father 
tried drilling into my brain 
that laziness was not acceptable 
in his house. If I 
wanted to be lazy, I had to 
go outside. He provided a 
wonderful role model for me because if my father 
was anything, he was not lazy. He tried to 
encourage me not to be lazy.

Laziness, according to him, was an attack on 
common decency and energy. After all these 
years, I have tried to live up to his standard. And 
yet, I must confess that I have found that laziness 
may have an advantage or two. I’m leaning 
towards the two.

It was my fortune to marry a young lady who 
did not have an inkling of laziness in any of her 
bones. I thought when I first married her; she 
was trying to impress me with how active she 
was and how much she could get done. I have 
discovered, however, that that certainly was not 
the case. La-ziness and she have never met as far 
as I understand it.

I have tried not to be lazy and to a certain extent, 
I have succeeded. However, as I get older I begin 
to appreciate the opportunity of laziness. It does 
not have the bad connotation I was taught down 
through the years.

Everything has its good side and its bad side. 
The great joy of life is trying to find the good 
side in everything. This includes laziness. Anybody 
can point out the bad side to laziness, but 
it takes a genius to discover the good side of 
laziness. I am not pretending to be that genius, 
but I can say that I have discovered a good side 
to laziness.

The good side of laziness occurred to me recently. 
My wife loves to put together “Honey-
Do-Lists” for her husband. That would be me, 
of course.

Let me say that just because it’s called a “Honey-
Do-Lists” does not mean that there is any 
sweet-ness to it. In fact, from my own personal 
experience I have yet to find any sweetness in 
that activi-ty. I call it an activity because I am 
supposed to actively do everything on that list.

It was a Monday morning and as usual, the Gracious 
Mistress of the Parsonage handed to me 
her weekly “Honey-Do-List." As usual, the list 
was quite long and in great detail.

“Make sure,” she said rather seriously, “that you 
do everything on that list as soon as possible.”

One of the things I have often wanted to ask 
my wife is what is her meaning of “as soon as 
possi-ble”? It seems that I have not the faintest 
idea of what it really means. As a well-seasoned 
husband, I smile most graciously as she hands 
me that list and say, “Yes, dear.” Her list comes as 
close to a novel as anything she does.

It takes several days for me to read that list and 
try to understand what I am supposed to do 
with it. But, with my experience, I do the best I 
can and there have been several times, not many, 
that I have finished her list to the last point.

It was about Thursday when I was going over 
the list and saw several things that had not been 
checked off. I sighed very deeply, and with determination 
planned to get back in the saddle 
again. I find it very hard to juggle what I want 
to do with her “Honey-Do-List.” It is always a 
struggle be-cause I know I have to do her list, 
but in my mind, I really want to do my list.

I was drinking some coffee and looking over 
this list to see what my next assignment was. At 
that time, the Gracious Mistress of the Parsonage 
came into the room and said, “Did you do 
the 12th item on my list?”

At the time, I was a little startled because I did 
not know what she was getting at. I did not know 
if this was a quiz or if I was being evaluated by 
my work. I was a little concerned because there 
were some little nuggets of lazy that had peppered 
my week up to this point.

Looking at her I said, “No, I haven’t got to number 
12 yet. I’m still working on number 10.”

She sighed such a deep sigh of relief that it 
frightened me a little. I was afraid if I said I had 
not ac-complished number 12 I would be in serious 
trouble. After all, it was on the list and I 
was supposed to do everything on the list.

“I’m so glad you didn’t do that. It was my mistake 
and I would’ve been in serious trouble had 
you done it.”

As it turned out it was her doctor’s appointment, 
which was scheduled for next month. She 
got the date wrong. I do not think I could have 
fooled her doctor into thinking I was her.

If it was not for my laziness at the time, I am not 
sure who would have been in more trouble, her 
or me.

I was reminded of a verse my father liked to 
quote. “He becometh poor that dealeth with a 
slack hand: but the hand of the diligent maketh 
rich” (Proverbs 10:4).

I wish my father was here because then I would 
tell him that sometimes the situation needs “a 
slack hand.”

Dr. James L. Snyder is pastor of the Family of 
God Fellowship, and lives with the Gracious 
Mis-tress of the Parsonage in Ocala, FL. Call 
him at 352-687-4240 or e-mail jamessnyder2@
att.net. The church web site is www.whatafellowship.
com.


Mountain Views News 
has been adjudicated as 
a newspaper of General 
Circulation for the County 
of Los Angeles in Court 
Case number GS004724: 
for the City of Sierra 
Madre; in Court Case 
GS005940 and for the 
City of Monrovia in Court 
Case No. GS006989 and 
is published every Saturday 
at 80 W. Sierra Madre 
Blvd., No. 327, Sierra 
Madre, California, 91024. 
All contents are copyrighted 
and may not be 
reproduced without the 
express written consent of 
the publisher. All rights 
reserved. All submissions 
to this newspaper become 
the property of the Mountain 
Views News and may 
be published in part or 
whole. 

Opinions and views expressed 
by the writers 
printed in this paper do 
not necessarily express 
the views and opinions 
of the publisher or staff 
of the Mountain Views 
News. 

Mountain Views News is 
wholly owned by Grace 
Lorraine Publications, 
and reserves the right to 
refuse publication of advertisements 
and other 
materials submitted for 
publication. 

Letters to the editor and 
correspondence should 
be sent to: 

Mountain Views News

80 W. Sierra Madre Bl. 
#327

Sierra Madre, Ca. 
91024

Phone: 626-355-2737

Fax: 626-609-3285

email: 

mtnviewsnews@aol.com

HAIL HAMILTON

JOE GUZZARDI


WHAT IS AG BARR SO AFRAID 
TO SHARE WITH THE AMERICAN 
PUBLIC?

 

 The federal grand jury that a month ago submitted the findings of 
Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s 22 month investigation of the Donald 
Trump’s campaign alleged “conspiracy” or “collusion with Russian 
intelligence operatives to interfere and sway the 2016 Presidential 
Election in favor of Republican Trump’s electoral college victory over 
Democratic Candidate Hillary Clinton, while his losing the popular vote by nearly 3 million 
to Clinton’s 65.8 million votes.

 Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s grand jury had 23 members of which a minimum of 16 
had to be present to have a quorum. Whether all 23 grand jurors or only 16 were present, only 
12 votes are needed to bring a true bill of indictment.” However, the Special Counsel statute 
Mueller was working under, prevented him from indicting a sitting president. 

 The 448-page report submitted to U.S. Attorney William Barr on March 22 and has 
been in his custody until last Thursday, April 18, while he made what he said were necessary 
“redactions to protect “national security,” and “sources and methods” used to acquire the evidence 
to support its findings. More curious are the AG’s reasons why the un-redacted report 
has been withheld by AG Barr and the suspicious timing of the release of the redacted report 
just days before congress’s 10-day Easter Recess. 

 Since members of the House Intelligence, Judiciary and Ways and Means Committees 
have sufficiently high security clearances to read the un-redacted report, and even if there 
any real security concerns remained, these could have been resolved by referring the original 
un-redacted report an independent review by a Washington, D.C. federal district trial judge, 
or by referring it to the U.S. Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (FICA) which is its job 
to do.

 It is up to congress, the House and the Senate, to set the standards for Impeachment 
by the House, and Trial, Conviction, and Removal from Office by the Senate. That standard 
should at least “Clear and Convincing,” and the Articles of Impeachment should be related 
in some fundamental way to the president’s abuse of power while campaigning or serving as 
the nation’s Chief Executive. 

 The 1998 Office of the White House Counsel Memorandum, enumerates certain criteria 
for any Articles of Impeachment makes clear: “Impeachment is a constitutional remedy addressed 
to serious offenses against the system of government. It is not controlling whether 
serious crimes have been committed. What is controlling are constitutional wrongs that subvert 
the structure of government, or undermine the integrity of office of President and even 
the Constitution itself, and in the sense that the words “High Crimes and Misdemeanors” 
have been used for centuries in English common-law impeachments [where the phrase originated]. 
. . .” 

 One commentator observes, “The Mueller Report, together with what is already known 
from public sources, supports at least nine articles of impeachment. 

• obstruction of justice. 
• contempt of congress. 
• offenses against the government. 
• political crimes against the state. 
• serious assaults on the integrity of the process of government.
• such offenses as would stain a president as to make his continuance in office dangerous 
to public order
• wrongdoing convincing established [and] so egregious that [the President’s] 
continuation is intolerable.
• malfeasance or abuse of office, bearing a ‘functional relationship to public office, 
• great offense[s] against the federal government, and acts which, like treason and bribery, 
undermine the integrity of government.” 


 So, regardless of Trump, Barr, and his hardline supporters are saying, the Mueller Report 
shows impeachment IS appropriately political in nature, and that the Mueller Report has 
conclusively shown more than enough impeachable offenses to remove Trump from office.

EARTH DAY 2019: SINCE MOON 
LANDING, GLOBAL 

POPULATION HAS DOUBLED 

Fifty years ago, in 1969 when astronaut Neil Armstrong 
became the first person to walk on the 
moon, the world’s population was 3.6 billion; in 
2019, it’s 7.7 billion. A half a century ago, the U.S. 
population stood at 208 million; today, it’s 329 million 
and growing at the unsustainable rate of one 
net person every 17 seconds, a total calculated by 
the sum of births minus deaths, plus net migration.

April 22, 2019, marks the 49th anniversary and 50th observance of Earth 
Day intended to raise awareness and appreciation for the earth’s natural 
environment. A massive oil spill off the Santa Barbara, California, coast 
that generated a slick large enough to encompass Chicago provided the 
catalyst for the first-ever Earth Day, celebrated in 1970, and currently recognized 
in 193 countries.

At the time, there was an understanding of the impacts of polluting and 
overpopulating our planet. While the former continues to be the driving 
element for environmentalists and climate change activists, such is not 
the case for overpopulation. But the challenges to achieve U.S. population 
stabilization remain, and they are daunting, even if unmentionable and 
not addressed.

To the exclusion of a sustainable country, the U.S. government is committed 
to endless growth, a policy that congressional leaders have embraced 
for decades, and is perhaps the most significant roadblock to population 
stabilization. Nobel laureate Steven Chu of the University of Chicago’s 
Energy Policy Institute said at a recent forum that “the world needs a new 
model of how to generate a rising standard of living that’s not dependent 
on a pyramid scheme,” a reference to increasing immigration.

The former Secretary of Energy under President Obama also referred to 
the idea of replacing aging persons with younger immigrants as an ecological 
Ponzi scheme that leaves future generations to deal with the life-
altering consequences. Young immigrants will eventually grow old, and 
true to a Ponzi scheme’s formula, another immigrant wave will be needed 
to replace the aging migrants, etc. ad infinitum.

An inconvenient truth in the effort to achieve sustainability is that immigration 
policy is the leading single factor in the destruction of open space. 
Each year, the U.S. admits more than 1 million legal immigrants who, over 
time, petition an average 3.5 of their family members to join them. The 
blame lies not with the immigrants, but with Congress for refusing to defend 
the natural environment of America. Logically, immigrants, just like 
most Americans, want and need more urban development for housing, 
schools, health care, governmental services, streets, parking, waste handling, 
workplaces, shopping, arts, recreation and worship.

In a 2001 interview with the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel, Earth Day 
founder Sen. Gaylord Nelson said that the larger the population, the more 
serious problems become. From crime and health care shortages to infrastructure 
issues, no problem is helped by adding ever-more people. To 
no avail, Sen. Nelson during his lifetime urged Congress to responsibly 
address the population issue.

Americans will have to wage the fight for environmental stability on their 
own. Congress is determined to raise immigration levels, and the President 
seems to be plotting to join them in the name of economic growth. 
Environmental groups long ago abandoned reducing immigration as the 
first step toward ecological constancy. Journalists also refuse to connect 
the dots between immigration-driven overpopulation and the loss of key, 
irreplaceable natural resources in a discouraging failure from the Fourth 
Estate.

The nation’s battle should begin with cutting carbon emissions which 
have reached record highs. The International Energy Agency reported 
that U.S. oil demand grew at its fastest pace in a decade while China and 
India burned more coal. The “spectacular growth” of the U.S. economy 
is, according to the IEA, the main culprit in the carbon emissions spike.

Since population stabilization is crucial to America’s future, and will determine 
how residents live, a thoughtful conversation that includes immigration 
as a crucial variable must take place soon. Refusing to engage intelligently 
means the status quo will continue, as will the loss of America’s 
precious land and resources. Joe Guzzardi is a Progressives for Immigration 
Reform analyst who has written about immigration for more than 30 
years. Contact him at jguzzardi@pfirdc.org. 

Mountain Views News

Mission Statement

The traditions of 
community news-
papers and the 
concerns of our readers 
are this newspaper’s 
top priorities. We 
support a prosperous 
community of well-
informed citizens. We 
hold in high regard the 
values of the exceptional 
quality of life in our 
community, including 
the magnificence of 
our natural resources. 
Integrity will be our guide. 

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