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Mountain Views-News Saturday, January 10, 2026 OPINIONOPINION 1212 
Mountain Views-News Saturday, January 10, 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 


THE HIGH COST OF FREE SPEECH 

The basic right of INDIVIDUAL Americans to express 
themselves is protected by the first Amendment to the United 
States Constitution. I am sure you know that language well. 
“Congress shall make no law restricting the establishment of 
religion, the freedom of speech, freedom of the press, the right 
of the people peaceably to assemble, or the right to petition 
the government for grievances.” Right here at the outset of 

this article, it is worth reciting that sacred language in full. This language is 
considered the cornerstone of American liberty by safeguarding expression of 
belief. 

Specifically, as to speech, it must be understood that open and vigorous 
expression of views must be encouraged and protected. The Federal Government 
was never intended to be the arbiter of what was correct or incorrect. If an 
argument was advanced that brought disagreement, it was thought opposing 
arguments would be presented and eventually TRUTH would emerge even if 
the Government did not favor that truth. This process would engender trust 
and security and contribute to the overall wellbeing of our American society.

So, what happened? Now it must be agreed that many of us are living in 
a time of confusion and distrust. We don’t know who, or what to believe. The 
consequence of this inability is often a kind of despair and even contributes to 
a willful ignorance wherein individuals decide to just stop paying attention and 
choose to remain uninformed. 

The unfortunate result is that the potential influence of that distasteful 
class of billionaires has flourished. This cannot be argued since it is agreed that 
all political aspirants now must rely on huge monetary contributions in order 
to gain election or even a place on the ballot. The source of these monetary 
contributions is now allowed to be kept secret as the money comes from Super 
Pac’s, Independent Expenditure-Only Political Committees, that are allowed to 
raise and spend unlimited amounts of money from not only individuals, but 
also corporations and unions to advocate for or against candidates.

The significant case which changed the whole ball game is the Supreme 
Court opinion of Citizens United v Federal Election Commission, 558 U.S. 310. 
(It is hard for me to remember that I practiced law for over fifty years.) This 
decision held that non-individual entities such as those cited above had the 
same rights to free speech as private individuals. This group of non-individuals 
has come to include even foreign governments, all of whom can and do hide the 
individual contributors. All that becomes important to the aspiring candidates 
is the presence of the money supporting them independent of the source of that 
money. As individuals we citizens are prevented from knowing whose money is 
behind the candidates. 

Additionally, the advent of social media challenges traditional free 
speech principles by making it difficult to distinguish truth from falsehood. 
What is important is balancing the promise of open expression with the reality 
of the intentional distribution of lies or what is called misstatements. 

We have all heard politicians describe what they call “fake news”. 
Every day we see the representatives of our government; paid by us individual 
taxpayers make statements that are obviously untrue. Why, you wonder, is such 
a deceit not punishable? Yes, there is something called perjury when a factual 
statement made is knowingly untrue; but perjury requires that the statement be 
made under oath, and political speeches are not made under oath. Certainly, 
we all want the TRUTH; but now, we don’t know where to find it. Perhapsimpartial fact checks should be required to visually accompany televised 
political presentations; but things are not that simple. Protections designed to 
protect free speech have left us all unprotected and currently that is the TRUTH 
at a very high cost.

About this there can be no disagreement! 


HOWARD Hays As I See It 

“Nicolas Maduro Charged With Felony Oil Possession” 

– Headline from The Onion 
This is the fifth anniversary of the violent, armed attack on our nation’s 
Capital, part of a coordinated effort by Donald Trump to overturn a presidential 
election for the first time in our history. The president himself 
marked the occasion by addressing House Republicans at the KennedyCenter (recently renamed for himself), blaming the whole thing on NancyPelosi. No, that last part didn’t come from The Onion. I wish it did. 

In other news: It’s become clearer what our attack on Venezuela is all about. It’s becoming especially 
clear what it’s not about. 

It’s not about drugs. Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro had been indicted on drug-related 
charges. Since last September, we’ve blown up 35 small boats, killing 115. They were no threat 
to us – likely headed to drop stuff off at another port for shipment to Europe. We don’t know for 
sure, as the administration hasn’t offered evidence justifying anything – to Congress or anybody 
else. 

Venezuela isn’t a source of drugs, though it’s helped facilitate shipments of cocaine from Colombia. 
Trump has been making a big deal about fentanyl – which is irrelevant. That drug is mainly 
smuggled in by U.S. citizens through ports of entry at our southern border. 

We know it’s not about drugs because of Trump’s pardoning of former Honduran President Juan 
Orlando Hernandez. Maduro has been indicted. Hernandez had been indicted, tried, found 
guilty and sentenced to 45 years for helping traffic 400 tons of cocaine into the U.S., taking millions 
in cartel bribes and stealing from U.S. taxpayers. But Hernandez had deals with billionaire 
techie Trump supporters – so his pardon was more important for Trump than whatever concern 
about drugs. 

We know it’s not about democracy or liberating Venezuela from a brutal dictatorship. They had 
their last presidential election in 2024. Maria Corina Mahcado got overwhelming support in 
the primaries, so the government barred her from running. Edmundo Gonzalez then took on 
Maduro. Poll watchers saw a Gonzalez landslide, but the government declared Maduro the winner. 
No tallies supported that result, but they declared him the winner, anyway. 

There’s apparently been no attempt to coordinate with Gonzalez, who’d been regarded as the 
natural, already-elected successor to Maduro. Nobel Peace Prize-winning Machado embarrassed 
herself in protesting that Trump deserved that prize more than she. But whatever it was 
she hoped to accomplish, it didn’t work. Trump now says of Machado, “She’s a very nice woman, 
but she doesn’t have the respect.” Machado endured years of Maduro thugs attacking her rallies, 
arrest warrants and death threats in earning 90% of opposition support. But the guy currentlyfreaked about his name showing up in the Epstein pedo-files says she doesn’t have Venezuelans’ 
“respect”. 

(A White House source quoted by the Washington Post said that had Machado simply refused 
to accept that Nobel Prize, saying it rightfully belonged to Donald Trump, “she’d be the president 
of Venezuela today”.) 

If this had anything to do with restoring democracy to Venezuela, we’d be coordinating with 
Machado and Gonzalez – or at least calling for elections to choose new leaders. But this has 
nothing to do with drugs, stemming the flow of immigrants, or ending a repressive dictatorship. 
It’s all about the oil. And Trump brags about it. 

Twenty-three years ago, while President George W. Bush was warning of Saddam Hussein’s 
“weapons of mass destruction”, V.P. Dick Cheney was secretly going over maps with oil execs 
divvying up Iraqi oilfields. Trump warns about Maduro’s involvement with drug trafficking, but 
then openly tells reporters on Air Force One, “We should run the country where we can take 
advantage of the economics of what they have, which is valuable oil and valuable other things”. 
Politico reports that Trump briefed oil execs on the upcoming strike on Venezuela while leavingCongress in the dark. 

Nobel-winner Machado described Delcy Rodriguez, vice president under Maduro, as “one of 
the main architects of torture, persecution, corruption, narco trafficking . . . the main ally of 
Russia, China, Iran.” It’s Rodriguez that Trump chose to head the Venezuelan government moving 
forward. The police state structure of the Maduro dictatorship will remain in place, while 
Trump says he’ll “run” it – and Rodriguez knows what would happen to her if she didn’t play 
along. Energy Secretary Chris Wright says we’ll be in control of Venezuela’s oil “indefinitely”. 

A problem, though, comes with estimates that revitalizing Venezuela’s oil industry might involve 
billions of dollars in investments over nearly a decade. Major oil companies have indicated that’s 
an investment they’d be unwilling to make without prospects of a stable, sovereign, democratic 
government – which is not what Trump has in mind for Venezuela. 

Five weeks after launching our invasion of Iraq in 2003, President Bush declared, “Mission Accomplished”. 
Eight years later, 4,492 American servicemembers and 200,000 Iraqi civilians had 
been killed. 

Chinese human rights and democracy activist Yaqui Wang posted, “America’s credibility on a 
rules-based international order is now completely in the toilet. I urge my colleagues to seriously 
explore alternative approaches to advocating for human rights and democracy in China that 
do not rely on U.S. power or U.S. funding." Also from last week: “Resolution to block Trumpfrom invading Greenland introduced by Sen. Gallego (D-AZ)”. No, that didn’t come from The 
Onion. I wish it did. 

RICH JOHNSON 


THIS, THAT, AND OH YEAH, THE OTHERTHING… RESOLUTIONS 

As many of you know, music is a big part of my life. I blame myfixation on John, Paul, George and Ringo. You may have heard 
of them. They called themselves the Beatles. I was just a wee lad 
in my early teens when the Beatles exploded on the scene and 

into my consciousness. 
I start this column with music because I have a new favorite singer. Her vocal 
quality is mesmerizing. You should pronounce her name “Lay-Vee” even though 
it’s spelled Laufey. Laufey Lin Bing Jonsdottir is a native of Iceland. Her Icelandic 
father introduced her to jazz and her Chinese mother played classical violin. 
Laufey’s voice has the qualities of the torch singers of the 1940s and 1950s.
All I can tell you is if you like music, punch her name up on Youtube and enjoy 
what I consider to be unbelievably good. Many compare her to Ella Fitzgerald 
which is fair. She also has a distinctive voice. I compare Laufey to Linda Ronstadt 
and Carly Simon in that all it takes is 3 notes and you know who it is. Check her 
music out. 
Back to reality lol, how are those New Year’s resolutions sizing up? What’s your 
past life experience when dealing with resolutions? The top resolutions? Improve 
fitness, improve finances, and improve mental health.
Experts tell us most of us will abandon resolutions by “Quitter’s Day” which is 
the second Friday in January. Do you live with that frustration? (I’m fairly certain 
most of us do).
How about some achievable resolutions? Here’s one I practice: Start giving someone 
a compliment a day. About them, their children or even their pet. Whatever 
comes to mind. 
Pay for the person behind you in a Star-Bucks store. Pay someone behind you in 
line at a compliment.
Now, how about ending with dubious yet telling quotes? I’ll start with the most 
profound quote I found:
You are the artist of your own life. Don’t hand the paintbrush to anyone else. 
AnonymousYou have to be odd to be number one. Dr. Seuss 
Anthropologist Margaret Mead once said, Always remember that you are absolutely 
unique…just like everyone else.
Everyone is a genius. But if you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree, it will live 
its whole life believing that it is stupid Albert EinsteinCreativity is contagious, pass it on Albert EinsteinLottery: A tax on people who are bad at math. AnonymousIf you are not yourself, who are you? Blaise PascalIt is better to fail in originality than to succeed in imitation. Herman MelvilleBe yourself; everyone else is already taken Oscar WildeYou can’t blend in when you were born to stand out. R.J. PalacioYou’re only given a little spark of madness. You mustn’t lose it. Robin WilliamsDon’t be afraid to be different, be afraid to be the same as everyone else 
AnonymousFind out who you are and do it on purpose Dolly PartonIndividuality is the salt of life Khalil GibranDon’t be afraid of being different, be afraid of being the same as everyone else 
Unknown 
Have a wonderful week. If you live in Sierra Madre, frequent to local merchants. 
They are convenient and it would be nice if they thrived and stayedHave a good week! 

OP ED: Your Misdirected Tax Dollars 

I keep hearing from city hall and from 
our elected council members that claim 
they don’t have enough money to keep 
our sidewalks and streets safe or properly 
maintained. I’m hoping that We The 
People, the residents and taxpayers of Sierra 
Madre, can create a renewed awareness 
that reminds both city hall and our 
elected councilmembers that their primary 
responsibility is to keep us safe, not 
entertained. 

Anyone with at least 20/80 vision can see 
that the condition of our sidewalks and 
streets in Sierra Madre are a dangerous 
mess. If your eyesight is worse than 20/80,
I suggest not walking on the sidewalks or 
streets, especially at night. It almost seems 
as if the word “maintenance” has been removed 
from the City’s vocabulary.

 I keep asking myself, “Why are the streets 
and sidewalks being neglected and allowed 
to deteriorate year after year?” Or, “Knowing 
how many trip-and-fall accidents occur 
that are breaking bones and injuring 
our residents, why does the city council 
and city staff continue to neglect these 
public safety hazards?” 

The answer, I suppose, is quite simple. 
It’s because, year after year, city staff has 
failed to present to council a budget that 
provides sufficient funding to their Public 
Works budget in order to maintain our 
failing infrastructure that, incidentally, is 
failing at a rate significantly faster than it 
is being maintained. Not only with streets 
and sidewalks but also with our water and 
sewer infrastructures. And, both the current 
and previous councils over the last 
decade, have not taken the unpleasant but 
necessary actions to direct staff to provide 
sufficient funds to Public Works to maintain 
these infrastructures, mainly because 
it would require providing reduced services 
for budget items with way lower priorities. 
This, to me, is problematic and concerning 
any time government reduces and 
sacrifices public safety budgets but willfully 
uses those funds for entertainment. 
In my opinion, it’s reckless, dangerous, and 
irresponsible. 

Instead, the best solution we get out of 
city hall is that they need to increase taxes. 
And how many times have we voted on the 
UUT (where Sierra Madre has one of the 
highest rates in the entire state) or consider 
the more recently failed Measure PS? And 
BTW, don’t be too surprised if you see signature-
gatherers in a few months trying to 
put another tax-increase on the ballot for 
this coming November. (I’ll detail more on 
that in another post)

Currently, the City is operating annually 
under a deficit. Recent predictions by afinancial consultant that the City hired to 
examine the City’s finances are reporting 
that the City will probably continue to face 
an additional 5 years of deficit spending. 
Municipal financing is a very complex 
system. Very rarely is it thoroughly understood 
by elected council members,
city staff, or the public at large. Without 
getting into too much detail regarding 
municipal financing, I’d like to take a 
look at two multi-million-dollar projects 
that redirected your tax dollars that could 
have easily been put into the Public Works 
budget; the library renovation/expansion 
and the purchase of the Bank of America 
building. I’m only mentioning these two 
because they are easily recognizable by the 
average citizen and, frankly, they are low 
hanging fruit.

 Regarding the library, and in my opinion, 
the city council fell victim and succumbed 
to the seductive nature of free money. The 
City received $10 million in grant funds to 
be used specifically on the library structure 
and does not include furniture or other related 
but necessary items. In order to receive 
and spend the entire $10 million, the 
City needed to not only renovate the existing 
structure, but they needed to add an 
additional 5,000 plus square feet. In 2022,
City documents informed the public that 
the total cost would be around $9,500,000, 
an amount that would be covered by the 
grant funds. That wasn’t the case and was 

a significant and expensive miscalculation. 
To date, the costs now are being reported 
at over $12,500,000. This colossal financial 
miscalculation and mistake forced the 
city council to approve $1,800,000 out of 
the City’s reserve funds to supplement the 
construction costs, the same money that 
the tax payers were told was not available 
for street and sidewalk maintenance. 

But the library’s renovation and expansion 
are not the end of what I consider ill-
conceived long-term financial planning. 
Because of the additional 5,000 square foot 
expansion, the library is now requesting 
the City allocate additional money in the 
budget for additional staff. That’s not even 
to mention the additional money that will 
be required in perpetuity for electricity,
heating, A/C, cleaning, and other required 
maintenance (if the word ‘maintenance’ 
ever finds it’s way back into the City’s 
vocabulary).

It’s hard for me to understand why cityhall and our council members can state 
that they don’t have enough money to 
maintain our current capital assets but 
then build additional structures without 
identifying future funding sources to staff 
and maintain these new financial responsibilities; 
unless they plan on trying to get 
you to vote for a new tax assessment in the 
near future. ……..I should probably add 
that what is being built at the library is not 
consistent with the architectural plans that 
are sitting in the Planning Department at 
city hall, the plans that were approved by 
the committee, the plans submitted to the 
public for public discussion, or what was 
approved by the city council. I’ll address 
that more in another post. 

Ask yourself, “If they are operating under 
a deficit, then why are they ignoring 
necessary public safety and maintenance 
expenses and at the same time increasing 
other ongoing expenses?” Perhaps a simple 
question they should consider before 
committing to additional expenditures is,
“Can we afford this and what are the new 
identifiable funding sources?” …..seems 
reasonable to me. 

The Bank of America building is another 
financial “Charlie Foxtrot.” Sierra Madre 
residents were told that $3,000,000 of their 
tax money was used to purchase the building 
and to be renovated and converted into 
a new relocated police station. Of course 
the renovations were not part of the purchase 
price and the numbers being thrown 
around to convert the building are comingin between $1 million to $2 million, possibly 
more. But here we are, several years 
later, and the building is not being used for 
the purpose the residents were told was the 
intention of the purchase. And where was 
the money for renovations, upgrades, ADA 
compliance, modernized police equipment, 
etc coming from? 

I’ve heard the argument that the BofA 
building purchase was a good investment 
and could be sold at a profit or leased out. 
Perhaps that is true but I don’t believe that 
the residents were involved in the decision 
making process to become real estate 
investors or landlords. Additionally, from 
what I’m hearing, is that murmurings at 
city hall are throwing around the possibility 
of selling the building. 

Perhaps it’s time for the residents to demand 
that infrastructure safety and maintenance, 
both of which are public safety 
concerns, be given the same priority as 
police and fire. I suggest that every resident 
that sees a pothole to flood city hall 
with complaints and fill our council members’ 
email accounts with the complaints. 
And don’t stop there. Do the same with 
sidewalk hazards. Flood social media with 
the same. Write letters to the editor of the 
Mountain Views. Let your voice be heard. 
We all work hard for our money and we 
need to demand that our tax dollars are being 
spent on a priority basis where public 
safety is at the top of the list. Sierra Madre 
deserves much better than what has been 
the status quo. 
Submitted by Glenn Lambdin,
Former Sierra Madre Mayor 

Mountain Views News 80 W Sierra Madre Blvd. No. 327 Sierra Madre, Ca. 91024 Office: 626.355.2737 Fax: 626.609.3285 
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