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Mountain Views-News Saturday, January 31, 2026OPINIONOPINION 99 
Mountain Views-News Saturday, January 31, 2026OPINIONOPINION 
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 

Mountain Views News 
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for the City of SierraMadre; in Court CaseGS005940 and for the 
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Madre, California, 91024.
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A member of 
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Mountain Views News 

Mission Statement 

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community news


papers and the 

concerns of our readers 


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top priorities. We 
support a prosperous

community of well-
informed citizens. We 


hold in high regard the 

valuesoftheexceptional

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Integrity will be our guide. 

PUT THE LIGHTS ON

STUART TOLCHIN 
YOU DON’T HAVE TO CLIMB 
SKYSCRAPERS TO FEEL SOMETHING 


Yesterday, after my strength class I was able to stand on one foot. 

I was thrilled and imagined that I would be able to put my shoes 

on today without having to lean against something. I tried to do 

it this morning and succeeded, which felt damn great. I know 

you readers, imaginary, and those few of whom I can identify,

do not really appreciate the importance of this accomplishment. 

So why do I bother to bring it to your attention at all? This article will be an 
attempt to describe the present human inability to communicate emotion from 
one person to another. I’ll leave you to speculate on the causes and consequences 
of this inability. 

First of all, why was being able to stand on one foot such a big deal? As any 
reader of my previous columns knows, I constantly complain about the difficulties 
I encounter which I attribute to ageing and the isolation of retirement. Yes, I am 
happy to still be alive, but I have trouble balancing and am constantly in fear of 
falling. A few weeks ago, a neighbor handed me a card entitling me to one free 
twenty-minute program at a nearby Strength class. I tried the one free twenty-
minute session and was told that the process is supposed to help with balancing 
and weight loss. Of course, there is a cost, but it is much more workable than 
having my wife drive me to a gym every day where I would compare myself to 
others who look healthier and thinner and younger. So, I tried the first series 
of once a week twenty-minute programs which really didn’t seem to help much. 
What did impress me was that on a table I saw three books that explained the 
whole process. I mentioned to the young woman who had acted as my trainer for 
the day that I would like to look at the books, but I could not read them there as 
my wife was waiting to drive me home. 

The young woman said, “not to worry” and said that she had some copies of the 
books at home and would bring them to my house for me to read or at least look 
at. I cautioned her that I live way up in the canyon in Sierra Madre and the place 
was hard to find. I gave her my address and amazingly, a few days later, there on mydoorstep were the three books. I felt appreciative and, as you can guess, I am much 
more comfortable reading than exercising and I dutifully glanced at the books. 
This was motivation and I did four more once a week twenty-minute sessions. 
At first, I really did not notice much difference; but liked having someplace to 
go on Mondays and it felt good having someone to talk to who was obligated to 
be nice and encouraging to me. I signed up for more sessions and yesterday, as I 
said above, was able to stand on one foot and to balance putting on my shoes. All 
right still this still does not seem like such a big deal to you but I was encouraged 
enough to ask my wife to drive me to a nearby library where I put a hold on a 
large-print copy of Moby Dick.

 As we drove my wife told me that on the news this morning there was presented 
the video of several thousand people gathered in Taipei watching a man climbing 
without assistance a 1,667-foot skyscraper. This bit of news for me emphasized 
how dead people often feel inside and why they are willing to risk their life or 
watch someone else risk their life as a way of feeling something inside. I think of 
this as an explanation of why so many people engage in risk-taking activities just 
to feel something and to avoid depression. 

I now understand that I don’t have to climb skyscrapers—I can now stand on 
one foot! I am alive and experience something inside encouraging me to work 
to make things better and not just be an observer of my own decay. How do you 
feel about that? Do you realize that maybe there are things each of us can do to 
improve whatever we might wish to improve? 


HOWARD Hays As I See It 

“a town looks better when you have military people.
These are big, strong guys, bad guys. Look at them 
and say, ‘We’re not gonna mess with them’.” 

– President Trump on Washington, DC after 
he’d deployed the National Guard 
It’s hard to think of anything as horrific as the killing of Alex Pretti in 

Minneapolis, an ICU nurse at a veteran’s hospital, described as simply 

a great guy, killed less than three weeks after the killing of Renee Good. But I can think 

of a couple things horrific in their own way: the “official” response to the killing, and an 

AI-altered photo released just days prior. 

The facts are clear in videos and witness accounts. Pretti joined others protesting an ICE 
operation. He was recording on his phone and directing traffic. Another protestor was 
shoved to the ground by an ICE agent, and Pretti went over to help her up. They were 
pepper-sprayed, a half-dozen agents took Pretti to the ground, beat him and took away aholstered gun he had under his jacket. Pretti was then shot four times in the back, with 
another agent adding more rounds. As with the killing of Renee Good, a physician was at 
the scene but blocked from rendering aid. When he did approach, he saw federal agents 
counting the bullet holes. 

Just eighty minutes later, DHS had already issued a statement. Pretti “wanted to do maximum 
damage and massacre law enforcement”. While videos showed no sign of a gun 
until agents took the one Pretti had holstered, right before killing him, DHS SecretaryKristi Noem accused Pretti of being a “domestic terrorist”, later that he’d “brandished” his 
weapon. Vice President JD Vance blamed it on “far left agitators”. Trump aide Stephen 
Miller posted, “An assassin tried to murder federal agents.” 

As with the Renee Good killing, ICE barred police from the crime scene. But this time,
Minneapolis Police Chief Brian O’Hara refused to comply and ordered his officers to preserve 
whatever evidence they could. By the end of the day, Minnesota Attorney General 
Keith Ellison had gotten a judicial order barring the feds “from destroying or altering 
evidence related to the fatal shooting”. 

In his filing, Ellison acknowledged that the request was unusual, in that federal agents 
normally cooperate with state investigators in preserving evidence – rather than trying 
to destroy it. But “What happened today was not normal.” DHS announced that they, 
not the FBI, would be handling the investigation. NYU Law Professor Ryan Goodman 
posted, "Looks like the fix is in at the federal level. DHS does not have any prosecutorial 
authority.” DHS had already announced their conclusion before any “investigation” had 
begun. 

Minnesota Governor Tim Walz assured they’d be keeping “a log of evidence for the future 
prosecution of ICE agents and officials responsible for this.” Trump responded by accusing 
Walz of “inciting insurrection”. The day after the killing, CBP chief Greg Bovino said 
border patrol agents were the “victims”. Attorney General Pam Bondi blamed it on sanctuary 
cities. She offered to withdraw some forces, though, in return for the state’s voter 
rolls - with unredacted personal information. 

Sen. Ruben Gallego (D-AZ) said of Secretary Noem, “she didn’t wait to see what the video 
(showed) . . . automatically said that this man was brandishing a weapon, which we now 
know is not true.” He added, “She lied about a citizen to justify his murder”. Former CNN 
anchor Jim Acosta vented frustration that mainstream media was reluctant to suggest 
more than that official statements were “contradicted” by evidence. “The reality is that 
the eyewitness footage revealed that the administration was flat out lying to the public.” 

Minnesota is now in federal court against the Trump administration, arguing Tenth 
Amendment violations in having armed, masked agents in their communities not to enforce 
federal laws, but to coerce the state into changing policies Trump doesn’t like. The 
administration’s case isn’t helped by Trump’s public statements of, basically, “Yeah, and 
what of it?” 

Our government rejecting the truth about a horrific crime in order to push a false, self-
serving narrative is horrific in itself. And then there’s this AI-altered photo: 

The White House and Bondi’s DOJ released a photo of civil rights lawyer and former Minneapolis 
NAACP president Nakima Levy Armstrong, one of three arrested protesting at 
a St. Paul church over a pastor being a regional director for ICE. The photo showed her 
sobbing while being led away in cuffs.

 The same photo was released earlier by DHS – but this showed her serious, stoic and determined. 
The White House wanted confirmation of Trump’s narrative; if you’re “gonna 
mess with them” - they can arrest you, cuff you and make you cry. The original pic didn’t 
convey that, so they put it through AI and had it changed. 

Armstrong’s principles are shared by tens of thousands in the streets of Minnesota, tens 
of millions throughout the country – so the regime responds by rejecting the truth about 
the murder of Alex Pretti and putting out an AI-altered pic of the arrest of Nakima LevyArmstrong. 

Trump hopes we’re sufficiently intimidated by armed, masked “big guys, strong guys” 
deployed in our communities. We remain mindful of Bill Clinton’s warning, in response 
to the murder of Alex Pretti, that if “we give our freedoms away after 250 years, we might 
never get them back.” 

RICH JOHNSON 


FRIENDS, ENEMIES, AND A FEW 
RELATIVES 

Who are the experts who determine how many friends we 
have? Anthropologists. Anthropology, AKA the science of 
humanity, is the study of what makes us human.
Expert anthropologists tell us in America nearly half of 

us have 3 people we would call best friends. A third of us 
bipods have 4 to 9 friends or so they say. They also tell us we probablyhave 100 to 150 friends we would call acquaintances. 

Even celebrities tend to have only a few close friends. Oprah says she has 3. 
So says Selena Gomez. Of course, we know Matt Damon and Ben Affleck 
are buddies. Many celebrities first cross paths in college. For example, Al 
Gore and Tommy Lee Jones are chums? They attended Harvard together. 
Christopher Reeve and Robin Williams became “besties” as graduate 
students at Julliard. Other strange bedfellows? Actors Stanley Tucci 
and Ving Rhames. Ving wasn’t born Ving. He was born Erving, Stanley 
shortened “Erving” to “Ving”. Apparently Ving wouldn’t have looked 
quite so tough if he had kept the name Erving. 

Brad Pitt and Sheryl Crow initially crossed paths at the University of 
Missouri. Sheryl admits she dreamt she would marry Brad. They never 
married and are apparently, still good friends. 

Best buddies Richard and Bruce went to St. Augustine by the Sea 
School in Santa Monica. Later they introduced their daughters to each 
other. They became besties. Who are we talking about you ask? Bruce’s 
daughter you would know better as Gwyneth Paltrow and Richard’s 
daughter is Maya Rudolph. The gals also both went to St. Augustine by 
the Sea School. Personal note: A casting director friend of mine worked 
on several television shows for Gwyneth’s dad Bruce. My friend told me 
she met daughter Gwyneth when Miss Paltrow was 10 years old. Theybecame good friends and are still friends to this day. 

Two guys you probably would never ever put together as “buds” met at 
the beach in 1967. If you run into them you would have no trouble telling 
them apart. Their names? Michael Douglas and Danny DeVito. 

Go back seventy-five years or so and you might run into George Burns 
hanging with Jack Benny. Best buds for 50 years. 1930s actresses Jean 
Harlow and Myrna Loy hung around together. Met in a movie with actor 
William Powell. 

Of course, the big duo was Spencer Tracy and Katherine Hepburn. Did 
nine films together. Their relationship was complicated by Spencer’s 
estranged marriage to wife Louise. Mrs. Tracy never would grant Spencer 
a divorce. So, since Louise lived 15 years longer than Spencer Tracy and 
Hepburn never married. 

Ella Fitzgerald and Marilyn Monroe became friends in the 1950s. Marilyn 
played a big part in Ella’s rise to stardom. Ella wanted to perform at the 
Mocambo nightclub in Hollywood, but the owner didn’t want to book 
Ella. Marilyn called the owner and said she would come sit in the front 
row if Ella performed there. Not only was the show a sellout, tons of press 
came by and that day Ella became a big star. Yay! 

Really strange relationships in history. Ulysses S. Grant and James 
Longstreet. Grant was commander of the Union Army during the Civil 
War and Longstreet was one of Confederate General Robert E. Lee’s most 
trusted officers. Grant and Longstreet became friends at West Point. 
Their friendship undoubtedly saved thousands of lives as near the end of 
the war, Longstreet convinced Lee to surrender, convincing General Lee 
that General Grant would be generous in his terms. 

What about celebrity friends who became celebrity enemies? 

Since this is a family publication I will spend very little space on enemies. 
Gwyneth Paltrow and Winona Ryder were great friends until Gwyneth 
discovered Winona’s “Shakespeare in Love” script. Ms. Paltrow sped down 
and auditioned for the role Winona was going after. You would know if 
you saw the movie, that not only did Gwyneth get cast for the role…she 
scored an Oscar for her performance. At the same time Ms. Paltrow was 
getting her Oscar, Winona was getting arrested for shoplifting in BeverlyHills. Maybe Gwyneth could play Winona in a movie version of her heist.
Finally, relatively speaking, it’s no surprise Chris Hemsworth and Liam 
Hemsworth are related. Duh! Did you know Shirley Maclaine and 
Warren Beatty are brother and sister? And Senator Cory Booker and 
RuPaul are cousins. 

A really scary movie would be the retelling of my brothers and sisters. You 
see, my twin sister, Ruth and I, were born on the same day…Halloween. 
A year later, on Thanksgiving, my other brother and sister were born.
Now that’s scary! 


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