Mountain Views News, Combined Edition Saturday, February 29, 2020

11

OPINION: 

Mountain View News Saturday, February 29, 2020 


VALUES

STUART TOLCHIN

MOUNTAIN 
VIEWS

NEWS

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Susan Henderson

PASADENA CITY 
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Dean Lee 

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Katie Hopkins

Deanne Davis

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Jeff Brown

Marc Garlett

Keely Toten

Dan Golden

Rebecca Wright

Hail Hamilton

Joan Schmidt

LaQuetta Shamblee


Are you familiar with the quotation “What we obtain too cheaply 
we esteem too lightly. It is dearness that gives everything its value.” 
This is a quote from Thomas Paine, the founding father whose 
writing inspired the American Revolutionaries to fight a war against 
the Mighty British Empire to secure their freedom. He inspired men 
to understand that as they fought so hard for their own freedom 
they would understand its importance and value the preservation 
of those hard won freedoms in the future. 

 Maybe it’s been all too easy for this generation. I watched the 
Democratic Presidential “Debates” a collection of degenerating ad 
hominem insults hurled primarily between old men of my age and 
religion and thought of Thomas Paine’s quote. The debate went 
on and seemed to completely ignore that a Climate Emergency 
existed and a pandemic was threatening the welfare of the planet. . These men are from a 
generation that should understand the importance of protecting the freedoms that we have. 
In fact, Senator Sanders, the present frontrunner, is someone whose grandparents were 
murdered by the Nazis.

This connection to the Nazis reminds me of the article I wrote two weeks ago which focused 
on the movie Jo JO Rabbit. The creator of that film received an Academy Award for Best 
Screen Writing. This man, Taika Waitit.i also known as Taikiki David Cohen, is someone 
whose father is Maori and whose mother is Russian Jewish. He gave an amazing acceptance 
speech which included the following: ”The Academy would like to acknowledge that we 
have gathered here on the ancestral land of the Tonga, the Tavanium, and the Chumash who 
formerly inhabited the very land where the ceremonial presentations ae taking place”. He 
concluded his speech by uttering two words “ kia ora”.

I had previously seen his movie Jo Jo Rabbit and understood that it was a satire concerning 
the adoration of the German Leader, Adolph Hitler. As a hint, the movie begins with 
clips of adoring fans at a rock-concert. Taika Waititi actually plays Adolph Hitler as an 
imaginary friend of a young German boy who adores him. By the film’s end the adoring boy 
realizes his imaginary friend is a lying fraud unworthy of any adoration. He kicks Hitler, his 
imagined former idol out the window. Once out the window, the imaginary friend explodes 
and disappears into space. I believe that this satirical film was making a statement about the 
present American misguided adoration of its President. I wondered about the meaning of 
the last two words of the acceptance speech. After reading and ignoring entries pertaining 
to Korean automobiles, I learned that the meaning of the Maori words was something 
equivalent to the English expression Go In Health Be Safe. This completely fascinated 
me as the expression was roughly equivalent to the Yiddish expression Gay Gezunt which 
my primarily Yiddish speaking grandmother uttered each day as I went off to Elementary 
School. The Yiddish dictionary describes the meaning as absolutely equivalent to the Maori 
expression. My grandmother was of that generation of Jews who realized how valuable 
and yet how tenuous were her freedoms in America. Really, she and my mother remained 
anxious and nervous all of their lives concerned about the permanence of their safety. 

Returning to the subject of the Democratic Debates, there were polls that stated that the 
main reaction to the debates by those polled was nervousness. That day I had received 
bumper stickers which a friend had created in response to my article Kia Ora which 
discussed the significance of the acceptance speech. In that article I had warned that 
the acceptance speech had contained warnings to the American Public that their glossy 
frivolous celebrations might well be part of a temporary culture that was adoring the wrong 
thing, not valuing or protecting what was really important. In other words, if we did not 
keep our eyes open this entire culture or civilization could well disappear like the Nazis or 
the Indian Nations that had inhabited America and were now completely forgotten. I had 
pasted the Kia Ora stickers on my car as a reminder to myself of the tenuous nature of what 
is only a tenuous hold on everything we think we value but now take for granted.

As I drove to a restaurant early the next morning, I heard on the radio that the Trump 
administration was assuring everyone that there was nothing to worry about the coronavirus 
and that everything was under control. Next I heard that this assurance was contradicted 
by almost all scientists. I became increasingly anxious as I next heard reported that elderly 
individuals with diabetes were particularly susceptible to the virus. I was in both categories 
and became even more nervous. I found myself at Roscoe’s chicken and Waffles, a server of 
delicious sugary high carbohydrate food which should be avoided by individuals like me.

I drove to the restaurant and upon entering I was greeted by a server who remembered me 
and said “long time no see”. I started to explain when she noticed my car and its bumper 
stickers. She laughed and said that “Kia Ora” was what the Polynesians said to each other 
in Hawaii. I took her laughter to mean that it was the dispossessed people like the native 
Hawaiians who were telling each other to be safe knowing that their whole culture had 
been destroyed by the Europeans and Americans. Really, I don’t know why she laughed but 
looking at the bumper stickers I realized I was doing the opposite of protecting that which I 
valued most: MY OWN HEALTH as I was so busy worrying about everything else. Perhaps 
I should run for President.

 kia ora be safe 


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LEFT TURN /RIGHT TURN

MICHAEL REAGAN

BRINGING CHOCOLATE, PEANUT 
BUTTER, AND AMERICANS 

TOGETHER AGAIN

SICK OF THE 
MEDIA HYPE 
(UPDATED)

TOM PURCELL


Every time I bite into 
a Clark Bar, I become 
10 years old again.

Irish immigrant D.L. 
Clark created the 
legendary chocolate-
coated peanut-butter-
crunch confection in 
Pittsburgh in 1917. 
Individually wrapped Clark Bars were 
shipped to U.S. troops during World War 
I and became popular nationwide following 
the war.

According to “Sweets: A History of Candy,” 
Clark applied a new technique that allowed 
a thin milk-chocolate shell to coat 
a non-chocolate filling, producing America’s 
first successful “combination” candy 
bar. That makes the Clark Bar’s origin a 
reflection of American innovation.

Clark’s family-owned business produced 
the candy until 1955, when his company 
was acquired by corporate owners in Pittsburgh. 
But every October for decades after 
that, thousands of families bought the 
highly affordable bars to hand out on Halloween 
night. That makes the Clark Bar a 
tremendous source of American nostalgia.

By the time we were both 10 in 1972, my 
best friend Tommy Guillen and I had Halloween 
night down to a science.

We knew which houses to hit and which to 
avoid. A couple of families always handed 
out popcorn balls or Rice Krispies marshmallow 
bars – families that were just begging 
to have their car windows soaped!

Georgetown, the richest neighborhood 
near our homes – literally on the other 
side of the railroad tracks – was our first 
stop.

Georgetown parents filled our pillowcase 
sacks with brand-name candy heaven: 
Hershey’s, Nestle Crunch, Milk Duds, 
Good & Plenty, Almond Joy, $100,000 
Bar, Twizzlers, Snickers, Milky Way, Kit 
Kat, M&Ms, Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups 
and the granddaddy of them all, Mallo 
Cup – chocolate-covered marshmallow 
perfection!

After miles of walking, we’d head back 
across the railroad tracks to hit the small 
ranch houses in the adjoining borough 
– affordable homes built during the post-
World War II boom for returning veterans 
benefiting from the GI Bill.

The families in those neighborhoods were 
wonderful – but, being budget-conscious, 
they were strictly Clark Bar families, as the 
locally produced confection was always 
discounted during the Halloween season. 
Our pillowcases would be filled with dozens 
of Clark Bars when we’d finally conclude 
our trick-or-treating.

The Clark Bar’s corporate ownership 
would go through a series of sales and 
bankruptcies over the years. Production 
finally ceased in 2018, breaking the hearts 
of millions of 1970s kids like me.

But now, the Clark Bar is back!

Boyer Candy in Altoona, Pa. – the very 
same company that makes the Mallo 
Cup – has begun producing the Clark Bar 
again. That makes the Clark Bar part of a 
classic American comeback story.

Though I didn’t yet appreciate or understand 
the Clark Bar’s history when I was 
10, I certainly enjoyed devouring hundreds 
of them. The Clark Bar remains a 
heavenly piece of Americana – one thing 
that still unites millions, even in these 
highly partisan and divided times.

Regrettably, the Clark Bar’s comeback is 
currently limited to the Pittsburgh market. 
But if you can, buy a pack or two – and 
share them with friend and foe alike.

Sharing the Clark Bar’s tastiness just might 
melt hearts just enough to foster calm, reasoned 
discussion.

Every time I taste one, I become as hopeful 
and optimistic as I was when I was 10.

I hope everyone can enjoy and share the 
positive energy that comes from enjoying 
a few bites of the Clark Bar’s chocolate and 
peanut butter perfection – together.

Tom Purcell, author of “Misadventures of 
a 1970’s Childhood,” a humorous memoir 
available at amazon.com, is a Pittsburgh 
Tribune-Review humor columnist and is 
nationally syndicated exclusively by Cagle 
Cartoons Inc. 

Two weeks 
ago, I was 
happily sailing 
on a 
huge cruise 
ship in 
the Indian 
Ocean.

My wife 
Collen is a travel agent and I was tagging 
along with her and her group on a Celebrity 
Cruise Line ship as it sailed from 
Dubai to Singapore and back with 2,300 
souls aboard.

Everyone on board our ship knew what 
was happening that same week to the 
unlucky people stuck on the Diamond 
Princess cruise liner docked offshore 
Tokyo.

Because a passenger who left Diamond 
Princess nine days earlier in Hong Kong 
had tested positive for the new coronavirus 
sweeping China, the Japanese government 
had ordered everyone to stay 
aboard the luxury cruise ship.

We weren’t doctors or epidemiologists, 
just vacationers.

But we knew that cooping 2,666 people 
together on the Diamond Princess for 
14 days was going to be trouble – and 
it was.

Because Japanese officials dithered 
around and then screwed up their containment 
measures on the ship for two 
weeks, the Diamond Princess became 
what the New York Times called “a floating 
epidemiological disaster.”

According to the Times, “with 634 infections 
and two deaths, the cruise ship 
represents the largest concentration of 
coronavirus cases outside China.”

We were a lot luckier, even though we 
never made it all the way to Singapore.

Our wise captain decided it wasn’t worth 
the risk of getting any closer to the epicenter 
of the coronavirus outbreak and 
we turned back to Dubai after stopping 
at Sri Lanka.

The Celebrity Cruise Line people did everything 
right. Everyone was compensated 
for their lost cruise time and given 
$500 to pay for straightening up their 
travel arrangements.

Most important, as far as I know no one 
on our cruise ship caught the flu.

Since I’ve been back in Southern California, 
however, I’ve been getting sick 
watching the mainstream media sensationalize 
the dangers of the coronavirus.

Every time another country like Brazil 
gets its first official coronovirus case, 
they throw up another panicky headline 
about how the deadly pandemic is putting 
every human on the planet at risk.

The mainstream media rarely take the 
trouble to point out that it is the already 
sick, the very old and the very 
young who are most likely to die from 
flu-caused problems like pneumonia, 
strokes and heart attacks.

The coronavirus may yet live up to its 
media hype and become a true pandemic 
in the United States or elsewhere that 
kills hundreds of thousands.

But as the stock market dropped a few 
thousand points this week on the Dow 
Jones, it’d be a nice public service if the 
media put the death toll of the coronavirus 
in the proper perspective.

President Trump did exactly that during 
his press conference on Wednesday.

He pointed out to the entire country 
that old-fashioned Asian flu – the regular 
kind of constantly changing viruses 
that many of us take shots for every year 
– kills from 25,000 to 69,000 Americans 
a year.

Every year after every year after every 
year.

When President Trump admitted he was 
“shocked” to learn that the “regular” flu 
was so deadly, he was of course mocked 
for his ignorance by the mainstream liberal 
media and their Democrat pals.

They would like you to think President 
Trump is the only person in America 
who wasn’t up to speed on America’s annual 
flu deaths, which actually are statistical 
estimates made by the Centers for 
Disease Control.

But I bet most Republicans and Democrats 
were unaware of how deadly the 
“regular” flu is.

For example, did you know that 2017-
2018 was one of the deadliest flu seasons 
in our history?

Did you know that 80,000 Americans 
– older, younger, sicker Americans — 
died that flu season, the most since the 
mid-1970s?

Do you remember the scary media stories, 
the doomsday predictions, the panic 
in the streets, the stock market crash 
of early 2018, the soccer games played 
in empty stadiums, the closing of public 
schools?

Neither do I — and neither do the 
media.

Mountain Views News

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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