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Mountain Views-News Saturday, January 3, 2026 OPINIONOPINION 1212 
Mountain Views-News Saturday, January 3, 2026 OPINIONOPINION 
MOUNTAIN 

VIEWS 

NEWS 

PUBLISHER/ EDITOR

Susan Henderson 

PASADENA CITY 
EDITOR 

Dean Lee 

SALES 

Patricia Colonello 
626-355-2737 
626-818-2698 

WEBMASTER 

John Aveny 

DISTRIBUTION 

Peter Lamendola 

CONTRIBUTORS 

Lori A. Harris 
Michele Kidd 
Stuart Tolchin 
Harvey HydeAudrey SwansonMeghan MalooleyMary Lou CaldwellKevin McGuire 
Chris Leclerc 
Dinah Chong WatkinsHoward HaysPaul CarpenterKim Clymer-KelleyChristopher NyergesPeter Dills 
Rich Johnson 
Rev. James SnyderKatie HopkinsDeanne Davis 
Despina ArouzmanJeff Brown 
Marc Garlett 
Keely TotenDan Golden 
Rebecca WrightHail Hamilton 
Joan Schmidt 
LaQuetta Shamblee 

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PUT THE LIGHTS ON

STUART TOLCHIN 


SUMMING IT UP

 Well, I am hoping to create an article of interest to others beyond 
myself as I type away on this Wednesday morning which 
begins the last day of the unimaginable year 2025. My plans for 
tonight are up in the air, which I mean it all depends on the rain. 
I already walked my dog around the canyon circle this morning 
and there was barely a drizzle. It was my hope to spend the night 
at my son's apartment in Pasadena just off Colorado Boulevard 

and then walk to the boulevard and join the crowd viewing the parade. Let me 
say at the outset that despite living here in this paradise of Sierra Madre Canyon 
for over 45 years I still cannot quite believe that I have been so fortunate to live 
in this paradise.

 At this time of the year, I recall in 1952, while I was eight years old, my Uncle 
Phil climbed the stairs carrying a seven-inch television to our apartment on the 
fourth floor of our tenement apartment in South Side Chicago. I was able to 
watch the Democratic Presidential convention and the speech by the Illinois governor 
Adlai Stephenson, who, perhaps because of that speech, was nominated to 
be the Democratic Presidential Candidate in 1952. I cannot remember anything 
specific that he said, but I know his speech had a great deal to do with shaping 
my own political views. 

Stephenson was defeated in 1952 but had so affected much of the population 
that he was again the Democratic candidate in 1956. He lost again but still was 
so popular that in 1960 he was a popular candidate with many of us as the Democratic 
Presidential convention which was being held at the Los Angeles Memorial 
Coliseum. I was 16 years old, living in an apartment in North Hollywood. Of 
course, although I had a driver's license, no car was available to me, but a friend 
had his own car, and we drove to the Coliseum. Arriving at the Coliseum we saw 
signs addressing Stephenson which in large letters proclaimed, YOU WILL NOT 
LEAD US TO DEFEAT FOR THE THIRD TIME.

 Stephenson did not get the Democratic nomination which instead went to 
some movie-star looking guy who was the son of some really rich guy named 
Joeseph P. Kennedy. I knew that Joeseph P. Kennedy had owned the Merchandise 
Mart in Chicago, which was, I believe, the largest building in the world.
Hmm. I seem to have lost my point. I started talking about first getting a television 
in 1952 and I intended to write about viewing the Rose Parade on the first 
day of 1953. As usual, in winter- Chicago, it was snowy and freezing outside. On 
television I saw pictured the Rose Parade proceeding along Orange Grove Avenue 
and Colorado Boulevard. Who could imagine a place called Pasadena. In 
fact, I can still remember someone mentioning that in that place called Pasadena, 
oranges grew on trees anyone could pick and eat them.

 Today I look across the street and see the oranges falling from the trees and allowed 
to rot on the ground. Okay, now it is New Year’s Eve 2025, and I still do not 
have access to a car. The reasons are different as I am now over 81 and one can 
tell by the dents in my car still parked on my driveway that from now on, I should 
only be a passenger and not a driver. That is an edict issued by my wife, and usually 
I am more than willing to comply. But, tonight, I want her to drive me to 
my son's apartment so I could sleep over and then walk to Colorado Boulevard. 
She refuses because she doesn’t want to drive in the rain and does not want me 
to stand in the rain to watch the parade. Recently I just got over pneumonia, and 
she says standing in the rain, with or without an umbrella, could and probably 
would bring about a recurrence of the condition.

 So, to sum things up, wonderful surprises come out of the blue during a lifetime, 
and you never know where things are going to end up. This past year I have 
worried about the crisis within our democracy, together with the climate crisis, 
the continuation of wars all over the world. and worries about my own health. 
There are things I would like to do that I cannot do; but all in all, I have lived an 
unexpectedly wonderful life, and probably so have you other Sierra Madreans.
HAPPY NEW YEAR! 

HOWARD Hays As I See It 

Mr. Trump's America will be increasingly blind and blun


dering, feeble and friendless." Hillary Clinton 

“When American history starts getting treated like something 
you can ban, erase, rename, or rebrand for somebody 
else’s ego, I can’t stand on that stage and sleep right at night”. 

– Kristy Lee, on cancelling her gig at the John F. KennedyCenter for the Performing Arts 
The idea of a National Cultural Center goes back to the 1930s, with First 
Lady Eleanor Roosevelt concerned about actors put out of work by the Great 
Depression. The idea was resurrected in the 1950s and the National Cultural 
Center Act was signed by President Eisenhower in 1958. 

Development continued under President Kennedy, with First Lady Jacqueline 
Kennedy serving as honorary chairwoman. Following Kennedy’s assassination, 
the Center’s board decided it would become a “living memorial” to 
the late president. In 1964, by act of Congress, the National Cultural Center 
became the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. The KennedyCenter opened in September 1971 with the premiere of Leonard Bernstein’s 
“Mass” in its Opera House. 

Last July, Republicans in Congress proposed renaming that venue the “First 
Lady Melania Trump Opera House”. They introduced a “Make Entertainment 
Great Again Act” to drop the Kennedy name altogether, renaming the 
complex the “Donald J. Trump Center for Performing Arts”. 

JFK’s niece Maria Shriver responded; “This is insane. It makes my blood boil. 
It’s so ridiculous, so petty, so small minded.” His grandson Jack Schlossberg 
weighed in; “this isn’t about the arts. Trump is obsessed with being bigger 
than JFK, with minimizing the many heroes of our past, as if that elevates 
him. It doesn’t.” 

Last February, Trump fired members of the Center’s board of trustees, others 
resigned, then replaced them with his own picks. The board consisted 
of presidentially-appointed members and others appointed by Congress. The 
by-laws were changed so that now only presidentially-appointed members 
could vote. They promptly chose Trump as their chairman. 

Richard Grenell was our ambassador to Germany during Trump’s first term. 
Der Spiegel found the consensus among over thirty “high-ranking” German 
and American officials to be that Grenell was “remarkably similar to Donald 
Trump . . .a vain, narcissistic person who dishes out aggressively, but can 
barely handle criticism”. Grenell became Trump’s choice to run our flagshipinstitution for arts and culture. 

Lin-Manuel Miranda cancelled the upcoming 8-week run of “Hamilton”, 
booked in celebration of our nation’s 250th anniversary, explaining that “The 
Kennedy Center was not created in this spirit, and we’re not going to be a 
part of it while it is the Trump Kennedy Center.” Grenell called the action a 
“political stunt”. 

A dozen cast members pulled out of the “Les Miserables” fundraiser (sponsorship 
level at $2 million - photo op with Trump and Grenell), with Grenell 
suggesting it’d be “important to out those vapid and intolerant artists to ensure 
producers know who they shouldn’t hire.” 

In the first few weeks of the 2023 season, 80% of tickets were sold. In 2024,
it was 93%. This past year – 57%. One former staff member noted how it’s 
“truly shocking” that actions under the new leadership “have been worse for 
business at the Kennedy Center than the aftermath of a global pandemic.” 
Grenell insists current staff members are “ecstatic”. 

For the annual Kennedy Center Honors, Trump not only attended but insisted 
on hosting. TV ratings dropped 35% from the year before, to their 
lowest level ever. 

After December’sname change,thereactionintensified.Drummer/ vibraphonistChuck Redd has hosted Christmas Eve jazz concerts at the Center since 2006.Grenell 
says he’s now seeking $1.5 million in damages from Redd for pulling out. The 
American College Theater Festival ended a 58-year affiliation with the Center. 

RICH JOHNSON 


WHY DIDN'T I THINK OF THAT OR DID 
I NOT THINK OF THAT? 
That is the Question! 

Well, friends, truth be told I have not been feeling very good. 
When I don’t feel very good, an amazing world event of epic 
proportions takes place. I shut up. I know. Hard to imagine. I 
have a small group of friends and research scientists who live 

for those rare moments… most of them on speed dial. Even if 
I have nothing to say, these friends want to be there to hear what I don’t say 
especially if I don’t call. (That’s existential if you must know). 

When this cosmic oddity strikes, yours truly runs wacky. People also want to be 
there because, as bad as I am when my mind is connected to my mouth, when 
not directly connected, what comes out of that major source of my anatomy 
may be memorable...maybe. I tend to pontificate. Go to that nether region 
where rationale thought is cosmic. With me so far? Me neither. Are you listening? 
Me neither. 

Martin Heidegger and Jean-Paul Sartre had me in mind when discussing existential 
thought years before I came into existence. It’s all in their work coincidentally 
on existentialism. My contributions preceded my existence further 
authenticating my contributions to the essence of nothingness. 

Of course, you have questions. Here are some questions you might consider 
asking yourself and others. 

If you try to fail and succeed, which one did you do? 
Why, when I’m driving and looking for an address do I turn down the volume 
on the radio? 

If a word is spelled incorrectly in the dictionary, how would we ever know? Can 
you cry underwater? 
If you had something written on your face, what would it be? 
Who actually calls the wind Mariah? Does Mariah answer? 
Is it a pair of pants if there is only one? 
What do you call a fly without wings? A walk? 
What is the one thing movies never get right? 
If you could change the color of your eyes to an unnatural color, which color 
would you choose? Which color would you not choose? 
What was the weirdest outfit you ever wore? 
What’s the worst song ever written? What’s the best song never written? 
What’s the worst pizza topping? 
Which Disney Princess would make the best secret agent? 

And thank you Susan Henderson for being exactly who are! 
I just have one final question. And please answer truthfully….Do stairs go up 
or down? 

I need to know. 
Thank you for putting up with me 
Oh, hello 2026. 


The Cookers is a jazz septet with foundations in the New York jazz scene of 
the 1960s. Apologizing to their fans for withdrawing from their New Year’s 
Eve gig at the Center, they explained, “Jazz was born from struggle and from 
a relentless insistence on freedom: freedom of thought, of expression, and of 
the full human voice.” They added they “want to make sure that when we do 
return to the bandstand, the room is able to celebrate the full presence of the 
music and everyone in it.” 

Issa Rae cancelled her sold-out show, as did Pulitzer Prize (and Grammy) 
winner Rhiannon Giddens. The Doug Varone and Dancers group knows that 
cancelling their April gig is costing them $40,000. Their leader calls that “financially 
devastating but morally exhilarating,” 

As for Grenell, he reminds that these artists were booked by “the previous far 
left leadership”, referring to them as “far left political activists rather than artists” 
and calls their actions “derangement syndrome”. It’s the artists blamed 
for bringing politics into it; not the president installing himself as chairman 
and putting his name above Kennedy’s. 

Kristy Lee, quoted above, posted: “I don’t have much power, and I don’t run 
with the big dogs who do. I’m just a folk singer from Alabama, singing songsfor a living. I believe in the power of truth, and I believe in the power of people. 
And I’m gonna stand on that side forever. I won’t lie to you, cancelling 
shows hurts. This is how I keep the lights on. But losing my integrity would 
cost me more than any paycheck.” 

Now I’m going to have to check out Ms. Lee’s work, as will thousands of others. 
Kristy Lee has every reason to “sleep right at night”. 

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