Mountain Views News, Combined Edition Saturday, July 25, 2020

12 

OPINION:/LEGAL NOTICES 

 Mountain Views News Saturday, July 25, 2020 

MOUNTAIN 
VIEWS 

NEWS 

PUBLISHER/ EDITOR 

Susan Henderson 

PASADENA CITY 
EDITOR 

Dean Lee 

PRODUCTION 

SALES 

Patricia Colonello 

626-355-2737 

626-818-2698 

WEBMASTER 

John Aveny 

DISTRIBUTION 

CONTRIBUTORS 

Stuart Tolchin 

Audrey Swanson 

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 

Katie Hopkins 

Deanne Davis 

Despina Arouzman 

Jeff Brown 

Marc Garlett 

Keely Toten 

Dan Golden 

Rebecca Wright 

Hail Hamilton 

Joan Schmidt 

LaQuetta Shamblee 


STUART TOLCHIN 

THE COURAGE TO RECONCILE 

 
Yesterday, I waited until the heat died down before 
I took my customary walk around the canyon circle. I 
generally don’t like to walk alone as I am pretty old and 
afraid of falling. I felt myself very fortunate to meet up 
with my ten year old neighbor who because of the Covid 
restrictions I had not spoken to in a long time. I think 
he sensed that I needed a reassuring companion and 
we walked at a slower pace than his usual brisk speed. 
I believe he enjoyed the feeling of being of help to this 
old man and said to me quite directly that the last time 
we had talked I had said that I never had played a video 
game. I believe that the whole situation gave him a 
pleasant feeling of superiority and he looked me in the 
eyes and seemingly taking pity said that he could teach 
me to play. 

 He explained that until he was in the second grade his mother taught to hate video 
games. Finally he had explained to his mother that all his friends played the games 
and he did not want to be an outsider. Now during this time of Covid restriction he 
really enjoyed playing the games. He could now stay in touch with old friends and make 
new friends who might never personally meet. I told him I wasn’t up to learning video 
games but did he need any help in his classes? I asked if he would like to answer the 
questions that President Trump said he had answered on some cognitive ability test. I 
explained that one of the questions was to determine if he could count backwards from 
one hundred to zero by subtracting seven each time. He said he could do it but didn’t 
want to waste time doing something so silly. 

 I wandered home feeling pretty dissatisfied. Being me I thought about this for 
a while and realized I had been feeling vulnerable and didn’t want to feel worse by 
going out of my comfort zone. I realized my neighbor was coming from a position of 
strength as he assisted this old man. Understandably he did not want to make himself 
vulnerable by attempting to solve problems which he might not be able to adequately 
perform. 

 Is this a big deal? True, we both walked away dissatisfied and missed the 
opportunity to learn something that we might enjoy. I missed out on learning video 
games and he missed out on learning he was probably smarter than the President. How 
could our differences have been reconciled to our mutual benefit? Thinking about the 
conversation I realized that there was a magic moment that provided the answer. He 
had informed me that his mother had taught him to hate video games but that she had 
changed her mind once he had risked telling her that he did not want to feel like an 
outsider and wished to be included in the other kid’s games. He had the courage to risk 
vulnerability and share his true fears and feelings with his mother and that had melted 
her heart. Now it was clear to all that he had gained a valuable skill which had allowed 
him to adapt comfortably to a situation that seemed to be driving many adults crazy. 
Maybe if I had possessed the courage to be more vulnerable in our conversation and 
admit to discomfort and fears our situation would have been reconciled to both our 
advantage. 

 In this time of great partisanship and misunderstanding perhaps the only way to 
reconciliation is to risk vulnerability and discomfort and bravely share our feelings with 
people with whom we disagree. Really there is little to lose and much to gain. Let’s be 
brave enough to try and create some harmony beween different voices rather than just 
trying to drown each other out. 


DICK POLMAN 


PERPETUAL ANGER NO HELP 
AMID PANDEMIC 


Good grief: Apparently, America has yet to move past the 
anger phase regarding COVID-19. 

In 1969, you see, Elisabeth Kübler-Ross described five 
stages of grief: denial, anger, bargaining, depression and 
acceptance. 

According to Fast Company, researchers from Singapore, China, Australia 
and Switzerland analyzed more than 20 million Twitter posts from 7 million 
users in 170 countries to gauge people’s state of mind regarding the 
coronavirus. 

Using keywords such as “Wuhan” and “corona,” they found “sky-high levels 
of fear” worldwide as COVID-19 emerged because “people were fearful of the 
virus and shortages of testing and masks.” 

Then came anger: “first xenophobia, and then outrage around isolation and 
stay-at-home ordinances, the expression of which frequently involved colorful 
cursing.” 

Months later, as much of the world returns to some semblance of normal, 
America remains stuck in the anger phase. 

Why? 

Because, it seems to me, news reports remind us daily that we should remain 
in a high state of terror as the virus continues its spread; because some 
government leaders keep arbitrarily changing COVID-19 rules, requirements 
and restrictions; and because millions of livelihoods have been decimated 
and it’s anybody’s guess how this is going to play out for their future. 

I place myself in the “grumpy” phase because my country continues not responding 
well to the situation. 

Rather than unite to defeat this common challenge, we are more divided than 
ever. 

Some of us are still in the denial stage. Cocky, self-anointed experts pontificated 
well before useful data came in that the novel coronavirus is not much 
different than the regular flu, which impacts the old and weak every year, and 
that shutting down our economy to contain it was insane. 

But as National Geographic reports, “the latest best estimates show that COVID-
19 is around 50 to 100 times more lethal than the seasonal flu, on average.” 

On the other end of the spectrum are those who’ve way too willingly “accepted” 
every restriction placed on our freedoms by bumbling political leaders 
who seem to enjoy their absolute power a little bit too absolutely. 

The truth, as always, is somewhere in between these extremes, but we aren’t 
having much luck locating it. In the midst of a presidential campaign, misinformation 
and finger-pointing are making the situation worse, not better 
– and we continue not rising to this unique challenge. 

I’m grumpy, because I feel like I’m stuck in the middle of this chaos. 

I usually mind my own business in public, but I found myself agitated by 
a young man at a store who made zero effort to wear a mask. I’ve read the 
debates about such masks’ effectiveness, but I wear one because it’s a small 
sacrifice to make in an unusual time. 

If that young guy gets COVID-19, he’s unlikely to suffer lasting damage. But 
what if he gives it to an elderly customer who is? 

Likewise, I’m agitated by tattletales calling government hotlines, eagerly reporting 
people and establishments who aren’t following restrictions to a “T” 
– just as I am by people in such establishments, such as pubs, making zero 
effort to distance and not spread the disease. 

Come on, America! We can do better than this. 

Surely, we can protect those most at risk, even as we reopen an economy that 
cannot sustain continuous, massive disruption for much longer. Surely, we 
can agree on a nuanced, sensible risk-minimal approach that balances risk 
against economic disaster. 

If we can’t figure out a basic, effective path forward, God help us in navigating 
larger challenges headed our way. 

Good grief! 

–Tom Purcell, author of “Misadventures of a 1970’s Childhood,” a humorous 
memoir available at amazon.com, is a Pittsburgh Tribune-Review humor columnist 
. 

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ON OPENING DAY, THREE CHEERS 
FOR A BASEBALL OBSESSED 

FORMER FIRST LADY 

JOE GURZADDI 


The 2020 Major League Baseball season is, in a manner 
of speaking, underway. Fans who can overlook the 
cardboard cutouts that have replaced them in stadium 
seats, or tolerate the piped-in music and masked players 
will be fine. Those who can’t abide by the 60-game 
season’s new guidelines will have to fend for themselves. 

COVID-19 baseball has claimed many sports-related 
victims. Perhaps none will be more missed than the traditional 
presidential Opening Day pitch, a custom that 
dates back to 1910 when William Howard Taft tossed 
out the first pitch at the old Griffith Stadium for the 
Washington Senators’ home debut. 

Chief executives and first ladies have come and gone from the White House in the 110 
years since Taft initiated the first-pitch custom. Some presidents, like Woodrow Wilson, 
Harry Truman and Richard Nixon, were die-hard fans. Others, like Calvin Coolidge and 
Teddy Roosevelt, not so much. Roosevelt considered baseball “a mollycoddle game.” 

The most passionate White House baseball bug was Grace Anna Coolidge, Silent Cal’s 
spouse. Cal could care less about baseball, and in 1924 was spotted trying to make a 
ninth inning exit during the crucial seventh World Series game between the Senators 
and the New York Giants with the score tied. Grace grabbed the president’s coattails and 
jerked him back into his seat. 

During her White House years, 1923-1929, Grace was a regular at Griffith Stadium and, 
when Coolidge was Massachusetts’ governor, a fixture at Red Sox games. In the 1950s, 
Grace wrote to a friend: “I venture to say that not one of you cares a hoot about baseball, 
but to me it’s my very life.” 

Her friends often wondered how Grace became such an avid fan. Some think that 
Grace turned to baseball to assuage her grief after the untimely 1924 sepsis death of her 
16-year-old son, Calvin Jr. Others who had known Grace longer said that her baseball 
enthusiasm could be traced back to her college days at the University of Vermont when 
she was the Catamounts’ official score keeper. 

Players and baseball writers acknowledged that Grace’s scorecard was, in their word, 
“perfect” in every respect – a flawless technique, completeness in detail and legible 
handwriting. Grace took her scorecards back to the White House so she could treasure 
them during her advanced years. 

Since the scorecard first appeared in 1845, the art of noting each play as the game unfolds 
has fallen out of vogue. That so few fans today keep score is curious because, while 
there are guidelines that official scorekeepers recommend, really, anything goes. The 
scorecard chicken scratch has only to be intelligible to the scribbler. Remember: New 
York Yankee Hall of Fame shortstop turned team announcer Phil Rizutto was famous for 
marking “WW” on his card, the “Scooter’s” shorthand for “Wasn’t Watching.” 

Fans who want to resume the scorekeeping skills they developed earlier in their lives 
need only two tools. First, reject the flimsy, generally useless scorecard handed out at the 
gate before each game. Instead, buy a scorekeeper that has multiple pages, extra-wide 
lines, ample space for substitutions, rolling pitch counts and extra innings. If possible, 
find one with a heavy cover that can be easily and safely stored. Historian Doris Kearns 
Goodwin kept a detailed account of Brooklyn Dodgers’ radio broadcast games so she 
could provide her father Michael with a pitch-by-pitch account when he returned home 
from work. 

Second, buy a pencil that’s worthy of the task. New York-based C.W. Pencil Enterprise 
has an affordable, pencil – about $1.50 – specifically designed for scoring. Among the 
pencil’s most practical features are its soft eraser and dark smudge-proof core. For a total 
investment of less than $10, scorekeeper plus pencil, fans will be set for the season to, 
like Grace, keep a “perfect” scorecard. 

But remember this cautionary note found inside the Baltimore Orioles program-scorecard: 
“Warning! Scoring a ballgame can be habit forming. Proceed at your own risk.” 

Joe Guzzardi is a Society for Baseball Research and an Internet Baseball Writers Association 
Member. Contact him at guzzjoe@yahoo.com. 


Mountain Views News 

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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