Mountain Views News          Saturday, December 7, 2013

12

OPINION

 Mountain Views News Saturday, December 7, 2013 


A MAN SO GREAT - NELSON 
ROLIHLAHLA MANDELA

STUART Tolchin........On LIFE

Mountain 
Views

News

PUBLISHER/ EDITOR

Susan Henderson

CITY EDITOR

Dean Lee 

EAST VALLEY EDITOR

Joan Schmidt

BUSINESS EDITOR

LaQuetta Shamblee

SENIOR COMMUNITY 
EDITOR

Pat Birdsall

SALES

Patricia Colonello

626-355-2737 

626-818-2698

WEBMASTER

John Aveny 

CONTRIBUTORS

Chris Leclerc

Bob Eklund

Howard Hays

Paul Carpenter

Stuart Tolchin

Kim Clymer-Kelley

Christopher Nyerges

Peter Dills 

Hail Hamilton 

Rich Johnson

Merri Jill Finstrom

Lori Koop

Rev. James Snyder

Tina Paul

Mary Carney

Katie Hopkins

Deanne Davis

Despina Arouzman

Greg Welborn

Renee Quenell

Ben Show

Sean Kayden

Jasmine Kelsey Williams

HOW DO YOU GET A’S IN 
RETIREMENT?

“He used his life not for himself, but for 
the good of his country and the good of 
the world, and his spirit will live on.” 
Congresswoman Barbara Lee –(D) 
Oakland

By Susan Henderson

When Mandela came to the United 
States in 1990, I was fortunate enough 
to be in attendance when he stopped 
in Oakland.. I was a guest of the host 
committee of Congressman Ron 
Dellums and it was a day that I will never 
forget. Mr. Mandela’s presence when 
he arrived at the airport or even in the 
crowd of tens of thousands of people was 
absolutely mesmerizing. The expression, 
“in the presence of greatness” was an 
understatement. He was such gentle 
man and yet his very presence meant so 
much, even before he spoke a word. The 
man that stood before us, just months 
after serving 27 years in prison was a 
deity in many minds. He was the deity 
of goodness, strength and determination 
and lacked any remorse or anger. He 
was truly what one would describe as 
‘godlike’.

The visit, which was at the end of his 
eight city fundraising tour in the U.S. for 
the African National Congress was also, 
especially in the Bay Area, a big thank 
you for the areas unwavering support 
over the years. The cities of Berkeley, 
Oakland and San Francisco led the way in 
the anti-apartheid movement, primarily 
through the leadership of Bay Area 
Congressman Ron Dellums. Dellums 
pushed for years and finally prevailed 
in getting the cities to divest themselves 
of any business dealings in South 
Africa which started the ball rolling in 
delivering an irreparable blow to the 
apartheid regime. The movement also 
pushed for the release of Mandela from 
prison and for the passage of the Anti-
Apartheid Act. The Act finally passed 
the US Congress in 1986 only to be 
vetoed by President Reagan. However, 
Congress was able to override that veto 
with a bi-partisan effort. At the time, it 
was the only foreign policy override of 
a President in the 20th century. Four 
years later, Mandela was released from 
prison and four years after that elected as 
the first Black President of South Africa 
and the only man to transition a violent, 
divisive government to one that respects 
and honors the vote of each and every 
person in a non-violent manner. So 
you can imagine my excitement to be in 
the presence of this great man. To me 
he was as large as Mahatma Ghandi, who 
also sacrificed for equality in India, or 
Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. in the US, all 
proponents of non-violent change.

For as long as I have been aware of 
Nelson Mandela, I have been fearful 
that time would run out before he 
accomplished his goals. The life that he 
chose in order to save his country put 
him at risk every single day. He was in 
danger at every turn, through all of the 
various methodologies he chose to try to 
effectuate change. His transformation 
from a young lawyer who believed the 
law would deliver him, to the militant 
man who co-founded the ANC’s Military 
wing, to the activist who refused to allow 
a jail cell to deter him, to the freed man 
who continued on his journey without 
animosity or regret, to the leader of a 
Free, United South Africa, put his life in 
danger every step of the way. 

The day he was released from prison I 
remember having such mixed emotions. 
Overwhelming joy and overwhelming 
fear that hatred of some deranged 
assassin would stop the clock before 
he was able to reach his goals. Such 
tragedies were all too vivid, President 
Kennedy, Bobby Kennedy, Anwar Sadat, 
Martin Luther King, all cut off before 
their work was done. That nagging 
feeling that Mandela would be taken 
away too soon never left. However, he 
was able to change his country and the 
world through love, compassion and 
diligence. He was a truly good man, a 
real asset to our world. He inspired so 
many.

But as they say, time continued to move 
on, many oblivious to the fact that one 
day he would no longer be with us. In 
fact, until this year, many never thought 
of his mortality. We all knew he was 95 
years old, and we knew that his time was 
certain to come to an end on this earth, 
yet the state of disbelief still clings to our 
hearts with the knowledge of his passing. 

We should all be grateful that Nelson 
Mandela was given enough time to 
show us in many so ways, how to live. 
I remember when he came to Oakland 
one of the statements he made noted his 
rejuvenation. He said, “`I feel like an old 
battery that has been recharged,’’ and we 
felt like he had been too. He went on 
to accomplish things no other man had 
done before on that recharged battery. 

Nelson Mandela was truly a Man So 
Great, one who used his time on this 
earth to help others, one from whom 
we should learn much and one who will 
never be forgotten. 

 Well, today 
may well be the 
beginning of a whole 
new life for me. For 
the first time in decades there was no 
place I had to be this morning. I had 
set aside this time in December to do 
three trials, one right after the other. 
Because of my heart problems the Judge 
hearing the matter suggested that I 
allow myself to be relieved and another 
attorney be appointed in my place. An 
additional factor influencing the Judge 
is that the City Attorney is already many 
months pregnant and the Judge was 
concerned that if I became ill and asked 
for a delay that delay combined with 
the prosecutor’s pregnancy would cause 
the cases to be delayed indefinitely. 
These combined factors were enough 
to influence the Judge who said 
immediately after relieving me, “Now, 
aren’t you relieved”

 “No doubt that I am now relieved 
but I can’t say that I am relieved.”

 I wasn’t just trying to be clever. 
It was difficult for me to accept being 
relieved. Not only was I losing out on 
a substantial amount of money but also 
the whole thing made me too aware of 
my own mortality. I think I could have 
done the trials without delay but to 
tell the truth it is now a week later and 
truthfully I am relieved to kiss off the 
whole thing and to be able to focus on 
something else.

 Is this the beginning of 
retirement? Today is a trial run so to 
speak; so what will I do? I began the 
day with the best of intentions and took 
the time to look at the New York Times 
on line. I read a few columns in the 
Opinion section all of which seemed to 
talk of the dysfunction of government 
and to predict catastrophes in the near 
future. Nothing new there. I chanced 
upon a series designed to give the reader 
a new appreciation of drawing. I used to 
love trying to do line drawings without 
lifting my pen from the paper. I made a 
practice of drawing with colored markers 
on paper towels. When the drawings 
were completed I spritzed them with 
water and the colors spread into various 
rainbow hues. I thumb tacked these 
pictures (if you call them that) all over 
the house and everyone who saw them 
praised them. Actually, that’s not quite 
true. The only living creatures who saw 
the pictures were my dog and my kids 
who were still pre-teens. I think they 
actually liked the idea of me trying to 
draw and were not very concerned with 
my results.

 I like to think that my attempts 
had something to with my daughter’s 
creating mosaics. Some of these 
mosaics are now up on the walls of my 
house and I think they’re pretty terrific. 
As to my attempts at decoration, those 
paper-towel creations were torn down 
by my new wife soon after she moved 
in. She’s an art major and thought the 
pictures looked like garbage and she 
probably was right. By the time she 
tore the drawings down my kids were 
out of the house and my dog was too 
old to complain and even I thought the 
drawings weren’t very “good” Actually 
she put the drawings into a book and 
later framed one of the pictures which 
now hangs on our bedroom wall. What 
I’m relating to is my feeling that the 
attempts weren’t really very worthy 
rather than relating to anything she said. 
I never felt I deserved an A in drawing. 

 Obviously, at this late age, 
it’s too late for me to begin to learn 
something new and really get “good” at 
it. So what’s so important about being 
“good” at it? The important thing is that 
I enjoy what I’m doing. Right? I enjoy 
reading and watching sports. Except for 
the fact that I consider watching sports 
mainly a waste of time and really how 
many hours a day can anyone read? I 
already read more than anyone I know 
and these days I forget stuff almost as 
soon as I read it. Besides that I’ve always 
viewed my reading as preparation for 
something; for what I really don’t know. 
Now it’s becoming clear to me that 
whatever it was that I was preparing for 
is not going to happen.

 Maybe I would enjoy being a grandpa 
but alas I have no grandchildren and 
my kids don’t seem to be cooperating. 
I tried very hard to be a good son but 
now both my parents have died and I 
miss that role of “good son” along with 
missing them every day

 Okay, I’ve learned something by 
writing this article. I’m at another 
stage of life for which I am completely 
unprepared. I can share this bit of 
wisdom with you. Whatever it is that 
you are doing pretty soon you (and I) 
won’t be able to do it anymore. You’re 
going to have to do something else and 
you probably won’t be able to get an A 
in the something else. Really a B would 
be fine; so plan ahead if you can. Good 
luck. 

 

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LEFT TURN/RIGHT TURN


HOWARD Hays As I See It

DETROIT IS OUR 
WAKE UP CALL

GREG Welborn


"I don't know where 
he is. You know, I just 
don't spend that much 
time on him." President 
Bush on Osama 
bin Laden - March, 
2002

A few weeks after Bill 
Clinton became president, 
a truck bomb blew 
up in the North Tower 
garage at the World Trade Center, killing six 
Americans and wounding more than a thousand. 
Clinton directed the National Security 
Council and FBI to see that those responsible 
were held accountable. (The five behind that 
bombing now live out their lives at the federal 
“supermax” prison in Florence, Colorado.)

 The CIA determined they worked under 
Osama bin Laden.

 In 1995, Clinton sent Congress legislation 
streamlining the deportation of terrorists and 
targeting their funding. A Presidential Directive 
called on the U.S. to “deter, defeat and 
respond vigorously to all terrorist attacks on 
our territory and against our citizens." The 
FBI and CIA got additional tools and funding.

 The CIA set up a special unit to focus on bin 
Laden, and found he’d set up in Afghanistan 
– protected by the Taliban.

 The multi-agency Counter-terrorism Security 
Group (CSG) under Richard Clarke 
learned of bin Laden cells in Saudi Arabia 
targeting American forces. After talks with 
CIA Director George Tenet, the Saudis agreed 
to use their influence with the Taliban to get 
bin Laden turned over for trial. The Saudis 
later said the Taliban promised to do so, but 
ultimately reneged on the deal.

On August 7, 1998, our embassies in Kenya 
and Tanzania were bombed, killing 224 and 
injuring 5,000. The CIA confirmed bin Laden 
was behind the bombings, and learned he’d 
be meeting with other terrorist leaders in Afghanistan 
to plan more attacks. On August 
20, Clinton ordered a cruise missile attack on 
Al Qaeda camps in Afghanistan. (It was later 
reported we’d missed bin Laden by “a few 
hours”.) Also targeted was a pharmaceutical 
plant in Sudan, run by the National Islamic 
Front and nerve gas experts from Iraq. Intelligence 
implicated the plant as a source of 
chemical weapons for Osama bin Laden.

In his column last week, Greg Welborn likened 
our recent agreement with Iran to “President 
Clinton’s bombing of some aspirin factory 
when his presidency was faltering”. As I 
often do, I decided to look into it. The above 
narrative is what I came up with, culminating 
in that “bombing of some aspirin factory”.

At the time, pundits and politicians on the 
right described the August 20 attacks as 
a “wag the dog” exercise; a manufactured 
threat of Islamic terrorism drummed-up by 
the administration to divert attention from 
the matter that truly threatened our republic: 
the president’s relationship with Monica 
Lewinsky.

With help from the government of Jordan 
and the work of Richard Clarke’s CSG, we 
thwarted the “millennial bombers” – terrorists 
who’d planned to destroy iconic targets 
in the U.S. (including LAX) as the year 1999 
became 2000. The CIA traced these would-be 
bombers back to Osama bin Laden.

 In October 2000 terrorists blew a hole in the 
USS Cole, docked in Yemen, with 17 Navy 
sailors killed. President Clinton declined to 
take action until responsibility was determined. 
Confirmation of the involvement of 
Osama bin Laden came in late January 2001 
– a week after President George W. Bush was 
sworn in. The new administration was busy 
with other things.

 Clinton’s National Security Advisor Sandy 
Berger met with incoming counterparts to 
warn that Osama bin Laden and the threat 
of Islamic terrorism needed to be the “24/7” 
concern for our nation’s security. He was 
rebuffed.

Former Sens. Gary Hart (D-CO) and Warren 
Rudman (R-NH) came with findings of 
the commission they co-chaired, that a major 
terrorist attack on our soil was not a matter 
of “if” but “when” - but no one would listen. 
Incoming NSA Condoleezza Rice was pre-
occupied with reviving the “star wars” missile 
defense system. There was talk of Vice-President 
Cheney chairing a committee on terrorism 
sometime in the future – but it never met. 
(Cheney did, however, meet with his energy 
committee – at which industry execs reportedly 
pored over maps of Iraqi oilfields.)

 Richard Clarke and others in intelligence 
“ran around with hair on fire” in the summer 
of 2001 warning that an attack was imminent, 
and it would be big. They were ignored. The 
CIA personally delivered to President Bush 
his daily briefing at his ranch in Crawford, 
Texas in early August– warning that “”Bin 
Laden Determined to Strike in US”. The president 
dismissed the courier and resumed his 
vacation.

Following the attacks of 9/11, one of the more 
moving expressions of condolence came as 
Iranians gathered for a candlelight vigil in 
Tehran’s Mohseni Square. President Khatami 
released a statement “On behalf of the Iranian 
people and the Islamic Republic” to “express 
my deep sorrow and sympathy with the 
American people.”

A few months later, President Bush included 
Iran in his “Axis of Evil”. Iranians turned to 
the mullahs, and the mullahs turned to Mahmoud 
Ahmadinejad.

Soon after the election of Hassan Rouhani as 
president last June, American officials began 
back-channel explorations of the possibility 
of a re-set in relations with Iran. The result 
was the recent interim agreement; Iran agreeing 
to six months of restrictions on its nuclear 
program in return for the un-freezing of 
some $6 billion in frozen assets – to assess the 
potential for a more meaningful, permanent 
treaty. (A recent Reuters/Ipsos poll shows the 
American people support the agreement by a 
2-to-1 margin.)

 One of the more compelling arguments for 
the agreement is that its critics were not long 
ago cheerleaders for those responsible for the 
most disastrous foreign policy and intelligence 
failures in our nation’s history.

 President Obama has recently succeeded in 
seeing to the destruction of Syria’s chemical 
weapons stockpiles and manufacturing capabilities 
– without having to go to war over it. 
(Greg calls this outcome “tragic”.) As for the 
president’s determination to hold accountable 
those who would do us harm, Osama bin 
Laden would offer compelling testimony – if 
he could.

 A federal judge removed the last 
remaining obstacle to Detroit’s recovery 
from decades of political abuse. His 
ruling, which was not unexpected, was 
that all creditors, pensions included, have 
to be adjusted in a bankruptcy. This came 
as a surprise only to those who purposely 
put on blinders to continue in their belief 
that somehow even the wildest extravagant 
promises made by politicians to public 
employees would be spared. While the 
personal cost to those who worked hard 
as Detroit public employees is high, the 
judge’s ruling provides a much needed 
wake up call to the rest of the nation and 
will help many more public employees.

 What happened in Detroit matters to 
all of us, even here in California. For too 
long, politicians in this state, and many 
others, have knowingly made promises 
which could not be met. It’s always easy to 
negotiate with someone else’s money and 
even more so when you don’t have to pay up 
for years or decades. As cynical and craven 
as the politicians are in making financial 
promises they couldn’t keep, much of the 
guilt has to be shouldered by the public 
employee union heads that accepted these 
lousy promises, and in many instances 
asked for them. They were willing to bet 
their members’ futures on the negligently 
arrogant demand that the tax payer gravy 
train would continue forever. That ain’t so, 
never was, and never will be.

 What happened in Detroit could easily 
happen in a number of cities and states. 
Unions negotiate with politicians to get 
the politicians to promises to use tax 
payer money to pay large future pensions 
to public employees. I understand and 
am entirely sympathetic to the public 
employees. None of us wants to see 
someone’s retirement jeopardized without 
warning. At the same time, though, voter 
registration and exit polling data show 
that the vast majority of public employees 
have consistently voted for the Liberal 
politicians who engaged in this slight-of-
hand, and they cast these votes while being 
warned the system was a house of cards.

 How many election cycles have we gone 
though in which conservatives have been 
warning that the spending spree and the 
lavish benefits promised public employees 
could not continue? I personally have lost 
count. I do know that at the $1 trillion 
deficit and $17 trillion national debt was 
front and center in the last election, and 
yet President Obama, who has contributed 
to this debt burden more than any other 
president, was re-elected. 

 Detroit’s situation is instructive. As 
spending increased and outstripped tax 
receipts, the deficits were simply rolled 
into debt. The city just borrowed more, 
rather than confront the realities of having 
to allocate scarce resources. They did 
the same thing when it came to paying 
public employees. Rather than downsize 
departments that weren’t needed, or keep 
public employees’ 
compensation in line 
with the private sector, 
politicians simply 
promised them fatter 
pensions than could 
be afforded in order 
to avoid the political 
confrontation with the 
unions.

 At the time of Detroit’s bankruptcy, 
pension costs had become so large 
that basic public services were being 
compromised. The Detroit police force 
had been cut by 40%; Emergency response 
times were 5 times longer than the national 
average; and two out of every five street 
lights did not work. When the you-
know-what finally hit the fan, the city had 
no choice. There was simply no way to 
postpone the inevitable. Bankruptcy was 
the only solution.

 To the bitter end, union leaders have 
been fighting this reality. They don’t want 
the gravy train for them to end either. It is 
infinitely easier to go to their membership 
and tell them about the great increase in 
pension benefit they’ve negotiated than 
it is to tell the members that economic 
realities necessitate some downsizing or 
changes in work rules. Their last conceit 
was believing that somehow a pension 
liability would be deemed to be superior to 
any other type of liability. That was never 
true, and the judge simply ruled as the law 
demanded.

 But at least the judge offered as a silver 
lining an explanation why none of us 
should want to have pension promises 
considered more sacrosanct than other 
promises. Remember, every time a city 
promises to pay something (whether it is 
for an employee’s pension or for a supplier’s 
product), someone is on the other end. 
Employees give their time and hard 
work, but so too do contractors or service 
providers. Whoever supplies phones to 
the city is just as entitled to payment as the 
janitor who cleans city hall. 

 Judge Steven Rhodes commented wisely 
that if pension benefits were immune from 
bankruptcy then politicians and unions 
would have even more incentive than 
they do now to make wild promises using 
tax payer money. All creditors must be 
treated fairly, or government will cease to 
represent the voters at all. As sad as the 
present situation is, the situation was only 
going to get worse. California’s unfunded 
pension liability is 68%. Perhaps now, with 
the Detroit bankruptcy, politicians will 
own up to the invalid promises they’ve 
made, start to negotiate in good faith, and 
ultimately prevent even larger disasters 
from occurring in the future.

gregwelborn2@gmail.com 

Mountain Views News

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