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Mountain Views News May 30, 2026OPINIONOPINION 13 
Mountain Views News May 30, 2026OPINIONOPINION 
PUT THE LIGHTS ON

STUART TOLCHIN 
LOOK TO THE CHILDREN 


Creative solutions to ongoing world problems must soon be found 

or all Human Kind will soon face its own destruction. I find it too 

depressing to enumerate the specific problems as civilian populations 

face destruction from enemy-military, while there is sufficient food in 

the world to feed everyone and yet many go hungry. Today, there seems 

to be an absence of trust. Is anyone telling us the truth or is there only

fake news produced and prepared by those unconcerned with human 

welfare. Are the selfish individual needs of those powerful ones in 
control going to result in the eventual and not too distant extinction of our species?

What are the traits of homo sapiens that have resulted in our dominance? 
Importantly, can these same traits be used for the common good rather than moving us 
toward destruction? Some might present the belief that God has anointed us to our special 
present status but no longer looks upon us with favor. To me religious belief has always 
seemed nonsensical, but it does serve a purpose and is instructive in revealing actual 
historical behaviors. Our ability to believe in “shared fictions” (such as money, religion, 
and status) enable Homo Sapiens to cooperate effectively in massive numbers of strangers 
and establish trust beyond immediate kinship networks.

Trust is all important. Combined with our unique mix of cognitive and physical 
traits, trust has resulted in the development of language and cumulative cultural learning 
along with our ability to share abstract concepts, debate hypotheticals, and pass down 
historical knowledge. We are capable of advanced forward planning and self-awareness. 
Everything worked so well for us that increased understanding has allowed for the 
“progress” that has brought us to where we are today.

So, where are we today? Why does it now seem that all of this “progress” has 
worked against us? We are now at the mercy of the rich and powerful who competing 
among themselves have obtained enough of these “shared fictions” to exert control over the 
rest of us as they lead the way to self-destruction. What can save all of us? I believe that 
the answer is children. Humans have a uniquely long period of dependent childhood and 
adolescence, and it is the utilization of this period that can save the rest of us.

We have all observed the beauty of children who struggle to absorb or rebel against 
the lessons presented by the adult world. I have so often in previous articles quoted the 
first sentence of my granddaughter as she returned from her first day of pre-kindergarten. 
Let me remind you, she clearly said “I hate single file”. Immediately she is aware of beingdirected to ignore her own feelings and to “act like everyone else.” In this world today“everyone else” is confused and dominated by their own history.

Contained within human beings are the need to compete and dominate. There is a 
continual need for validation because almost adults who have lost touch with their actual 
incentives have developed educational systems and societies that do not conform to the 
true human need to live communally or cooperatively which I believe is the underlyingdesire of human beings.

Watch little kids on the playground immediately making friends and sharing. 
Sometimes they don’t share and they bully and try to push other kids off the swings. The 
conflicting human traits are displayed and I believe it is all play. Historically damaging 
traits which look for validations in symbolic “shared fictions” have been emphasized and 
encouraged. These shared fictions have created incentives that have resulted in the kinds 
of competitions and maintenance of conflicts that have brought us to where we are today. 
But look where we are today. It is time to rethink our emphasis.

 Conflicts and competition brought us to where we are today but there is a need 
today to change that emphasis. Really underneath it all I just want to be a member of the 
team and do not want to be the star. Yes, I want acceptance but do not desire to control. 
From the very beginning individuals should be allowed to feel what I hope is natural feeling 
the desire to be a part of a community of mutual nurturance. Families used to provide that 
initial feeling of belonging and mutual cooperation. Whatever happened to families? Are 
we now all just trying to take care of ourselves?

I really heard my granddaughter say “I want to be good” which to me meant she 
wants to be a good person rather than someone who is better than everyone else. I trust 
that beneath our confused adult- selves, that is what we all want and need. 

Yes, we all must “take care of ourselves” but what does that mean, I think the 
children know! 

HOWARD Hays As I See It 

“When Ken Jennings publicly spoke out against ICE, MAGA started to 
boycott JEOPARDY which resulted in a net loss of zero viewers”. – posting 


on Threads 

Here are some favorite 
posts from May: 

MAHA Action posts: 

“RFK Jr. warns the U.S. is 
losing its edge to China in medical research 
and drug development.” Dr. Terry Simpson 
responds: “Yes you chased away a lot of 
scientists, you defunded many programs, 
and censored others. You are the problem”. 

From Jamie Bonkiewicz: “Hegseth is 
blaming Biden for military vaccine mandates. 
The flu shot’s been required since 
1945. Joe Biden was 2.” 

Aaron Rupar posts: “Agricultural SecretaryBrooke Rollins blames Biden for high beef 
prices and calls climate change a ‘hoax’.” 
Rep. Jim McGovern (D-MA) re-sponds: 
“Blaming someone who hasn’t been in 
power for 16 months is getting really old 
. . .”. 

From the New York Post: “DOT SecretaryDuffy blames Biden admin, Pete Buttigieg 
for Spirit Airlines’ failure”. Melanie 
D’Arrigo responds: “Weird, because Spirit 
Airlines blamed it on rising fuel costs 
because of Trump’s war in Iran.” 

Sen. Rick Scott (R-FL) tells CNN, “It’s 
terrible that that we have higher gas prices . 
. . but it’s worth it to me.” Ron Filipkowski 
posts: “Rick Scott’s net worth is $515 
million.” 

FactPost: “Trump’s 2026 budget proposal 
cuts $736 million from the National Parks 
Service.” Asked in response: “We don’t 
have $736 million for our National Parks 
but we have $500 million to bail out Spirit 
Airlines?” 

From covie_93: “Turns out that electing 
the guy who bankrupted casinos to fix the 
economy was a horrible idea.” 

Reporter asks Trump, “How long are you 
willing to wait for a response from Iran?” 
Trump replies, “Don’t rush me. We were in 
Vietnam for 18 years.” Justin Amash posts: 
“From ‘a little excursion’ to “Don’t rush me. 
We were in Vietnam for 18 years’.” 

“WSJ claims military advisors deliberatelykept President Trump out of Situation 
Room during high-risk Iran rescue 
mission over ‘temperament concerns’.” 
Rep. McGovern responds: “If Trump 
can’t be trusted in the Situation Room, 
then he shouldn’t be president. This isn’t 
complicated.” 

House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) posts: 
“President Trump is the ONLY one who 
could have gotten Iran – the world’s largest 
state sponsor of terrorism – to the negotiating 
table.” Dylan Williams responds: 
“Literally everyone on this website was 
alive eleven years ago when Obama did it 
and achieved an historic agreement without 
slaughtering a hundred schoolgirls.” 

White House communications director 
Steven Cheung posts that former Secretary 
of State Mike Pompeo “has no idea what 
the (eff) he’s talking about” and should 
“shut his stupid mouth” in criticizingTrump’s handling of the war with Iran. 
Aaron Rupar asks: “Is it a sign that things 
are going well when your spokesperson is 
posting like a jilted incel 8th grader?” 

gulfgirl22 posts: “MAGA: ‘Entertainers 
need to stay out of politics.’ Also MAGA: 
‘I see nothing wrong with Kid Rock 
addressing the Pentagon on the Strait of 
Hormuz’.” 

realmikedanner adds: “Let’s be honest, Kid 
Rock is just about as qualified to address 
the Pentagon as everyone else in this 
administration”. 

Headquarters posts: “Marco Rubio says 
the goal of the war in Iran is now to 
restore it ‘back to the way it was’ before 
Trump started the war in Iran”. Shaeil 
Ben-Ephraim responds: “This is literally 
the funniest moment in the history of 
American foreign policy.” 

Chief Josheola posts: “School shooting:
There’s nothing we can do about this. 
Don’t politicize these tragedies. Political 
shooting: We need a $400 million bunker 
built immediately and you hate America if 
you don’t agree.” 

Again from covie_93: “How Volodymyr 
Zelenskyy manages to survive in a literal 
war without a ballroom to keep him safe is 
just shocking to me.” 

“Pope Leo XIV says that the Catholic 
Church’s teaching on sexual ethics must 
be less prioritized over ‘greater, more 
important issues’.” Mary Pezzulo reacts: 
“It's like he was hand picked to annoy the 
worst people ever and I'm having a good 
time.” 

Captioning a photo of Donald Trump with 
Elon Musk, TheFrenchie posts: “Call me 
crazy, but maybe two men who fathered 17 
children with 6 different women shouldn’t 
be lecturing us about family values.” 

Christopher Hale posts: “MAGA 
Evangelical leaders gather in Mar-a-
Lago to bless and dedicate a gold statue 
dedicated to Donald Trump.” Mehdi Hasan 
responds: “Remember: in the Middle East, 
we’re fighting a regime of religious maniacs 
who blindly follow a Supreme Leader.” 

Another response: “I love the part of the 
bible where Jesus took health care awayfrom the poor to give tax breaks to the rich 
and built the biggest ballroom in Gali-lee.” 

From lecontinental: “What’s hilarious is 
that the only people who want a Trump 
commemorative passport are folks who 
will never travel out of the country.” 

Reacting to Virginia’s passing redistrictingfavoring Democrats, Laura Ingraham posts: 
“Adios, Virginia. The new California.” 
Gov. Newsom’s Press Office re-sponds: “Oh 
no – next comes free preschool, free school 
meals, higher wages, and tuition-free 
community college. Truly terrifying stuff.” 

From amay.a100: “Americans could’ve had 
student loan forgiveness, but instead it got 
insurrectionist forgiveness.” 

A question posted: “So if I break into the 
capitol and (crap) on Mike Johnson’s desk, 
can I also sue the government for money?” 

Finally, from axtelljoseph: “If you have 
a problem with my anti-MAGA posts,
feel free to give me a call on your Trump 
phone.” 

RICH JOHNSON 


WEIRD AND WHACKY TRIVIA ABOUT PRESIDENTS AND 
PLUMBERS 

(ALERT) Do not read this column aloud to your family during dinner! 

“Since nobody ever talks about presidents and politics anymore (lol), I thought I might help 
stimulate a growing popular national pastime that doesn’t involve balls and strikes. 

First at bat, William Henry Harrison. Mr. Harrison, our 9th president, is in the record books at having given the 
longest inaugural address in history. Immediately followed by the shortest term in office.
Your average inaugural speech? 2,350 words long, taking about 20-30 minutes to deliver out loud. Word counters 
counting President Harrison’s speech logged him at 8,445 words. He delivered his almost two-hour speech 
outside in the middle of a snowstorm in January. Harrison wasn’t wearing a coat. He died one month later having 
contracted pneumonia and the record for having the shortest presidency ever. Imagine if he had 4 years to exercise 
that keen intellect? We might have found ourselves back under British rule…by choice. 

On Thanksgiving Day 1926, President Coolidge was gifted with a raccoon to be used as a holiday dinner guest aka 
the main course. (Not knowing firsthand, I’ve been told raccoon tastes like goose). Instead of cooking and eating 
the raccoon, Coolidge pardoned the critter keeping it as a pet. He named her Rebecca. By the way, old copies of 
“The Joy of Cooking” do indeed have raccoon recipes. They suggest removing the scent glands before roasting. 
Good to know. 

Now believe this or not, I’m told one president and one president alone was the only president to whom English 
was a second language. Martin Van Buren preferred speaking Dutch. Which would be Greek to me (Pardon the 
pun). 

James Buchanan never married. The only president to not make that mistake once. (Does that qualify him for 
being the smartest president?) President Grover Cleveland personally answered the White House Phone. No, not 
a recording, you got the main guy. 

President Carter…the first president to use his nickname “Jimmy” instead of James. Too bad subsequent presidents 
Billy, Georgie, Barry, Donnie and Joey didn’t adopt the same down home friendly practice. 
Talk about a paradox. On July 4th, 1826, John Adams and Thomas Jefferson died. Same day, fitting holiday for a 
presidential death. James Monroe also picked the same holiday to die…in 1831. 

Now, turning to a more honorable profession, let’s talk about plumbers. An interesting public person once stated 
if he could do it all over again, he would rather be a plumber than what he chose for a career. The Plumbers and 
Steamfitters Union heard about it and actually made the fellow an honorary member. The wannabe plumber? 
Albert Einstein. By the way, the world’s most recognized plumbers are brothers. Their names are Mario and Luigi 
of video game fame. 

Speaking of plumbing, ever wonder how the toilet got the nickname “John”. Named after Sir “John” Harrington, 
who invented the first flushable toilet in 1596. And by the way, the use of “Crapper” was not a snappy Fifth Avenue 
construct. No, we have Thomas Crapper to be thankful for that delightful nom de plume. Crapper didn’t invent 
the toilet. His major contribution? Crapper was the first to mass-produce the “crapper”, err the flushing toilet. 
Even the writer of this column’s last name (Johnson) has become a colloquial euphemism for something related to 
this paragraph. I won’t go into details. 

Let’s close this week with wonderful plumbing slogans and famous plumbers:
We’re number one in the number in two business! 
Don’t go to bed with a drip…call us.
Your throne is our command. 
If water runs through it, we do it.
And now the plumbers hall of fame…famous celebrities who started out as plumbers: Michael Caine, Harrison 
Ford, Liam Neeson, Joe Cocker, Bob Hoskins, and last and most dangerous…John Gotti.” 
Have a great week! 

BEWARE DISTRACTED DRIVERS THIS SUMMER 


Tom Purcell 


working on computers and participating in online conferences and, of course, texting. 

Texting continues to be the most dangerous distraction. 

According to the latest CTIA data, Americans exchanged nearly 2.2 trillion texts in 2024 — and surveys show that 
millions of them were sent and read while behind the wheel. 

The latest National Occupant Protection Use Survey (NOPUS) shows that whereas fewer people are talking on 
their phones, many more are visibly manipulating their digital devices — a number that has more than doubled 
since 2015. 

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration reports that young drivers, ages 16 to 24, are distracted bydigital devices at much higher rates than older drivers. 

All told, digital-device distractions cause approximately 1.6 million crashes and hundreds of thousands of injuries 
each year — including 3,208 deaths in 2024 alone. 

Which means we drivers need to knock it off. 

How many studies do we have to do to finally realize how dangerous it is to let digital devices distract us as we 
drive? 

Carnegie Mellon University found that using a digital device while driving — even just listening to a hands-free 
conversation — reduces activity in the brain’s parietal lobe by 37 percent. 

Since the parietal lobe handles spatial awareness, processes what drivers see around them and helps them judge 
where their car is in relation to everything else on the road, distracted drivers are at greater risk of missing hazards,
drifting out of their lanes, misjudging distances and reacting more slowly to sudden changes in traffic. 

In other words, distracted driving is equivalent to driving at night with one eye closed and the dashboard lights 
turned off. 

Here’s another troubling finding: According to the Virginia Tech Transportation Institute, texting while drivingdiverts your eyes from the road for an average of five seconds. At 55 mph, that’s enough time to cover the length 
of a football field blindfolded. 

You’d think it would be simple common sense — that people would know better than to try to text and drive or 
take cellphone calls while they’re roaring down a highway at a high rate of speed — but that isn’t the case. 

You’d think there would be no need for new laws and penalties to punish and prevent distracted driving, but 
unfortunately, there is. 

Every day, newspaper headlines feature tragedies that involve distracted drivers — and the subsequent manslaughter 
lawsuits that many of these drivers face. It’s all heartbreaking and totally unnecessary. 

That is why many people — people like me who are otherwise wary of our government — agree that state and local 
governments need to crack down on this matter until a thickheaded public finally grasps the seriousness of usingdigital devices while driving. 

So be careful when you hit the roadways this summer — careful to avoid a growing number of drivers oblivious 
to the dangers of distracted driving. 

As millions of Americans hit the roadways this summer, it’s time to be especially aware of 
distracted drivers. 

According to Distraction.gov, distracted driving involves “any activity that could divert a 
person’s attention away from the primary task of driving” — everything from eating and 
drinking to using a navigation system to checking digital devices. 

When I lived in Washington, D.C. — land of the most distracted drivers on Earth — I saw 
people do nutty things on the Beltway: applying makeup, reading books and newspapers, 

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