Mountain Views News          Saturday, October 10, 2015

15

THE WORLD AROUND US

 Mountain Views News Saturday, October 10, 2015 


NASA ORBITER VIEWS SITES OF FICTION FILM’S MARS LANDINGS; 

WHITE HOUSE TO HOLD ASTRONOMY NIGHT OCT. 19


Images from a NASA Mars orbiter’s telescopic 
camera reveal details of real regions on Mars where 
the new Hollywood movie, “The Martian,” places 
future astronaut adventures.

 The novel of the same name, originally self-
published by Andy Weir in 2011, used actual 
locations on Mars for the landing sites for its “Ares 3” 
and “Ares 4” missions. The landing site for “Ares 3” 
is on a Martian plain named Acidalia Planitia. The 
base for the “Ares 4” mission was set inside a crater 
named Schiaparelli.

 Views of these two sites, and other locations 
pertinent to the fictional story, are in the latest 
weekly release of images from the High Resolution 
Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) camera on 
NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter. They are 
available online at http://uahirise.org/martian

 Each observation by HiRISE covers an area of 
several square miles and shows details as small as 
a desk. More than 39,000 of them have been taken 
since the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter reached 
Mars in 2006. They are available online for anyone 
to explore, from the comfort of home, at http://
hirise.lpl.arizona.edu

*******

WHITE HOUSE ASTRONOMY NIGHT, 
OCTOBER 19. “There are a lot of mysteries left, 
and there are a lot of problems for you students to 
solve—and I want to be a President who makes sure 
you have the teachers and the tools that you need to 
solve them,” President Obama said to middle school 
students, astronauts, and citizen scientists during 
the first-ever White House Astronomy Night in 
2009 [https://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/
remarks-president-astronomy-event-with-students].

 Since then, the President has recognized the 
unique contributions of scientists, engineers, 
mathematicians, tinkerers, and entrepreneurs, 
hosting five White House Science Fairs, the first-
ever White House Maker Faire, and the first White 
House Demo Day. The Administration has also led 
efforts to improve opportunities for all students in 
science, technology, engineering, and mathematics 
(STEM) education to inspire students to pursue 
careers in science, technology, and innovation-
driven disciplines.

 On October 19, 2015, the White House will host 
another Astronomy Night. The event will bring 
together scientists, engineers, and visionaries from 
astronomy and the space industry to share their 
experiences with students and teachers as they 
spend an evening stargazing from the South Lawn 
of the White House. 

 The President expressed the hope that scientists 
and amateur astronomers throughout the country 
will join the White House in celebrating Astronomy 
Night by hosting their own events at observatories, 
schools, planetariums, museums, and astronomy 
clubs nationwide on October 19.

 If you or your organization is interested in 
hosting an observing night or watch party in 
conjunction with the White House Astronomy 
Night, you are invited to tell the White House 
about your event at

 https://www.whitehouse.gov/webform/
astronomy-night-share-your-supporting-event

 If you want to take new actions to help inspire and 
educate the next generation of scientists, engineers, 
and inventors, the President wants to hear from you. 
To tell about your new commitments and ideas, 
email the White House at:

 AstronomyNight@ostp.gov

 You can contact Bob Eklund at: b.eklund@
MtnViewsNews.com.

This image from the HiRISE camera on NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter shows a location associated with the novel and movie, “The Martian.” 

NASA/JPL-Caltech/Univ. of Arizona


WHAT HAPPENS TO 
FORMER FOSTER 
YOUTH? 

Highlights from an Interview 

with Jaime Gutierrez


CHRISTOPHER Nyerges


COLUMBUS: WHO HE WAS, 

AND WHO HE WASN’T

[Nyerges is the author 
of “How to Survive 
Anywhere,” “Foraging 
California,” and other 
books. He can be reached at Box 41834, Eagle Rock, 
CA 90041, or www.SchoolofSelf-Reliance.com.] 

 Every school child in America has learned that 
a man named Columbus managed to sail across 
the Atlantic with a ragtag crew and made it North 
America and back home to tell the queen all about 
what he found. And no one debates that part of the 
story. 

 The new politically-correct posture is to say that, 
“hey, Columbus didn’t discover America, he just 
shipwrecked into the Carribean, and there were 
already people there….” Yes, of course, all more or 
less correct, and the politically-correct also suggest 
that we now call this Indigenous Peoples Day. OK 
with me…. 

 Every country has dates and years that are 
integral to its mythology, and in the U.S., the 
two most important years that every schoolchild 
memorizes in rhyme is 1492 and 1776. So let’s look 
at the Columbus story from a different angle. 

 For starters, Columbus Day in the U.S. is of 
relatively recent origin. Though it was loosely 
commemorated since colonial times, it began to be 
commemorated unofficially in New York as early 
as 1866, and because of pressure from Catholic 
Italians, it was declared an official holiday in 1934. 
It had a lot to do with Italian-pride. 

 Columbus has always been embroiled in 
controversy. Did he treat the natives well, or not? 
Certainly his voyages opened the door for a flood 
of invaders into the New World which eventually 
devastated and obliterated the indigenous cultures. 
Curiously, in the book “1491” by Charles Mann, 
the author say that apparently a plague or disease 
spread across north America, in advance of the 
Europeans. Despite what you hear on popular 
TV shows, Mann believes that at least 80% of the 
indigenous population of north America died from 
various diseases, not by an intentional genocidal 
effort. And most of those who died in this die-off 
never even saw Europeans! 

 Plus, Columbus was not the first to get here. He 
was only celebrated because he was the one who 
went back home and told everyone what he found. 
Columbus’ own writings talk about “other maps” 
that were made by those who went before him, 
though he does not name who these others are. 

 In 1976, author Barry Fell released the first of his 
bombshell trilogy of books, “America B.C.” where 
he claims to have interpreted writings on stone 
throughout the Americas in written languages from 
such far away places as the British Islands, various 
parts of Europe, and Northern Africa. When I 
read Fell’s books, I wondered how it was that such 
epigraphic evidence could be overlooked by so 
many. In part, this was because the archaeologists 
weren’t looking for linguistic evidence in foreign 
languages. But Fell sought out such evidence, 
because he believed – as did Thor Heyerdahl before 
him – that the oceans were not barriers to travel 
by ancient man, but rather the highways where 
someone traveling on the trade winds could live off 
the sea and travel around the globe. 

 I thought that if even 10% of what Fell wrote was 
correct, it would revolutionize our view of history. 

Well, Fell had many followers, and many detractors, 
and it turns out that maybe he was very loose 
with transliterations and translations, along with 
some wishful thinking. Maybe only 10 to 20% of 
his writing is solid. But because he made so many 
mistakes in his unique efforts, traditional academic 
archaeologists more or less threw Fell out with the 
bath water, lock, stock, and barrel, including that 
very solid 10%! 

 Fortunately, others following in his footsteps 
have confirmed via epigraphy that someone with 
knowledge in writing systems that were used in 
Europe about 2000 to 3000 years ago left spotty 
evidence all over the U.S., but mostly in the 
Colorado-Oklahoma area, and along the east coast. 

Who were these people? You can and should read all 
about them in some of the research that has followed 
Fell, such as “Ancient American Inscriptions: Plow 
Marks or History?”, which is perhaps the single 
best book which attempts to approach linguistic 
evidence on rocks in a strict scientific manner. The 
evidence shows that there were indeed Celtic people 
here, who were master mariners. There were many 
others too, a little here, a little there, nearly always 
an extreme minority among the Siberian-rooted 
Plains Indians who were numerous in at least the 
eastern half of the country. 

 In fact, according to another controversial 
author, “Advanced Civilizations of Prehistoric 
America” by Frank Joseph (subtitled “The Lost 
Kingdoms of the Adena, Hopewell, Mississippians, 
and Anasazi”), not only were there other people 
here before Columbus, there were four distinct 
“civilizations” in North America that rose and fell 
long before Columbus was even born. 

 Joseph’s book is a bit too much for most people 
if it’s their first foray into the history of North 
America that you weren’t taught in school. But his 
book is just the latest in many that have followed in 
the footsteps of Fell and tried to demonstrate that 
North America was far more diverse than we ever 
imagined. 

 I’ll do a review of Joseph’s book another day, 
but suffice it to say that killing and brutality are all 
too common human traits, and Columbus and his 
gang certainly didn’t invent that. 

 At the end of the day, do we still want to 
commemorate Columbus? I guess that’s for all 
of us to decide. He did make a “discovery” for 
Europe, and no one disputes that, within the full 
definition of what we mean by “discovery.” But he 
really should be viewed more honestly, in view of 
today’s sensitivities. He was no saint, but he wasn’t 
the almighty demon either. 

 In a similar vein, it troubles me that the 
current Pope chose to create a saint out of a priest 
who caused so much harm and disruption and 
destruction to the California natives and their way 
of life. Serra was no saint either, and shame on the 
Pope for not knowing this. 

 (Perhaps the standard is too low for sainthood. 
I’ve heard that two healing miracles must be 
documented in order for one to be regarded as 
a saint. Since I believe there were at least two 
“healings” from “praying” to my purebred pitbull 
Cassius Clay, shouldn’t he be eligible for “dog 
sainthood”?)

by La Quetta M. Shamblee

Jaime Gutierrez is proud to embrace his role as a 
husband and father of two children, ages four and 
one. At age 13, he was well on his way to becoming 
a statistic within the criminal justice system. By 
2000, he had already made his rounds to at least 
two juvenile residential facilities in San Fernando 
Valley after being convicted of assault and 
battery. Yet at that young age he was wise enough 
to realize that returning to the chaos of his home 
environment in North Hollywood would not be 
a good move. When it was time for him to leave 
the residential boys’ home he had been living in 
for two years, he asked his probation officer if she 
could help him find another place to live. Journey 
House was already on her radar screen, as she had 
already been impressed with the program after 
placing three other foster probation young men at 
the Pasadena-based nonprofit agency.

 After being interviewed by Journey House 
founder, Tim Mayworm, Jaime moved into the 
residential program that the agency operated at 
that time. Only 14 at the time, he was relieved, 
for he felt in his spirit that it was one of the best 
things that could have happened at that point in 
his life. His status as an undocumented child of 
Mexican immigrants had never been addressed, 
so Tim swung into action to assist with the legal 
paperwork to ensure that the youngster would 
have legal status as an emancipated minor. Jaime 
had found a place that felt safe, a place where 
he felt like he finally belonged. “Journey House 
helped me to grow up and become a man,” says 
Jaime. He stated that just wanted to learn to be 
independent, to graduate high school and get into 
college. He says, “No one else was going to give 
me that chance.”

 The craftsman house at the corner of Los Robles 
and Claremont was his home, where he resided 
with his extended family of colleagues. All of 
the young men were given the guidance, love and 
support that all young people need, yet they were 
held accountable. Jaime still had challenges as 
he tried to learn how to handle responsibilities 
as a student, as a young man. He had to repeat 
one semester of the 9th grade at Pasadena High 
School and went on to graduate in 2004. He 
was finally coming of age and at 18 he moved 
out of the Journey House group home, into The 
Bridge, a separate transitional housing program 
in Pasadena that the agency operated at that time.

 He got a job in the hotel industry, but like so 
many others during the related to the onset of the 
Great Recession in 2008, he lost his job. Like any 
other unemployed adult with responsibilities, he 
had to determine what to do next. As timing would 
have it, Tim contacted him about an opportunity 
to work as a Career Development Intern working 
with probation and former foster youth for DCFS. 
He applied, but it took more than a year before 
DCFS contacted him for an interview. Jaime has 
been employed by DCFS for eight years now and 
currently works as an Intermediate Clerk Typist. 
During his time with the County, he has actually 
worked with one of the social workers who had 
been assigned to his case when he was a foster 
child. 

 Jaime is among the alumni of the residential 
program that the Pasadena-based nonprofit 
operated for 25 years, until 2008. One of the 
people he met when he first moved in was another 
youth name Luis, and they are best friends to this 
day. When asked why he feels it is important to 
maintain a connection with the agency, he shares, 
“Journey House is still a support system, there are 
like my backbone. Tim is just like a father to me 
and I’ve always kept that relationship with him.” 
He says that he calls for advice about many things, 
including how to go about buying a house.

 On the day that Jamie dropped in and agreed 
to the impromptu interview for this article, 
Journey House was in the process of preparing 
for its upcoming semi-annual, three-day yard 
sale scheduled next Wednesday through Friday, 
Oct 14th – 16th. While sorting through some old 
boxes, Tim had found a file that contained some 
art sketches that Jaime drew when he was living 
at Journey House. Jaime was excited when Tim 
handed the drawings to him, stating that he didn’t 
know what had happened to the drawings and 
figured that he had misplaced them or they had 
been tossed into the trash years ago. After seeing 
them, he said, “Now I can show these to my son.”

 Youth like the 13-year old Jaime who faced 
challenges, served as the inspiration for Tim 
Mayworm to leave his teaching position at 
LaSalle High School and take a leap of faith to 
establish Journey House in 1983. For 25 years 
Journey House operated a 


GUTIERREZ

continued on page 21

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