Mountain Views News, Combined Edition Saturday, June 6, 2020

3


Mountain Views-News Saturday, June 6, 2020 

REMEMBRANCE

WALKING SIERRA MADRE - The Social Side 

 by Deanne Davis


Longtime Sierra Madre resident and 
baseball coach, Charles “Dale” Jones, 
84, passed away on May 2, 2020 in Brea, 
CA, surrounded by his family. 

Dale was born in Hamburg, Iowa on 
July 19, 1935 to Paul and Dorothy 
Jones, and raised in San Diego. He 
graduated from Kearny High School 
and San Diego State University with a 
degree in English. 

Opting not to pursue a professional 
baseball career, Dale moved his 
young family to Sierra Madre in 1965, 
ultimately settling on Toyon Rd. He 
initially worked for C.F. Braun in 
Alhambra, then many years for Goulds 
Pumps in Pico Rivera. 

Known for his strong and hard-
working coaching style, Dale positively 
influenced many ballplayers while 
serving to build the foundation of youth 
baseball programs in Sierra Madre. He 
also assisted with numerous school 
baseball programs in San Gabriel 
Valley, including Maranatha High School. 

While a resident of Sierra Madre, he was a member of Sierra Madre Congregational Church. 
Dale will be remembered for his tremendous work ethic, his intelligence and sense of humor, 
his love of sports, and for being a devoted father. 

He is survived by his wife Connie, daughter Jill (Dave) Baker, son Devon, and numerous 
grandchildren, great-grandchildren, nieces and nephews. He will be greatly missed. 

A private memorial will be held at a date to be determined. 

CHARLES “DALE” JONE

“If they can make penicillin out of moldy bread, they can sure make something out of 
you.”

Mohammed Ali 

“Life is an improvisation. You have no idea what’s going to happen next and you are 
mostly just making things up as you go along.” 

Stephen Colbert

“You got no prom, you got no ceremony, but you are originals, the one-and-onlys. Like 
knowing that. Sing it from the rooftops. Put it on t-shirts, make a rap song out of it. It’s 
a badge of honor because it is yours and yours only forever!” 

Matthew McConaughey

2020 is the year when graduations are virtual, featuring drive-by parades and friends and family 
hanging out of car windows with signs and balloons as they slowly drive by their graduate. It’s 
the year when everyone is wearing a face mask to ward off the corona virus and no groups larger 
than ten are allowed to congregate. It’s also the year when graduations were eclipsed by our world 
being on fire as rioting and looting are the second pandemic. 

Books have been created out of graduation addresses. YouTube memorializes the best and the 
worst. Steve Jobs’ address at Stanford University in 2005 has been viewed millions of times. Brevity 
is encouraged, beseeched, begged for. And I heartily agree. We are so proud of our children and 
grandchildren whether there is a ceremony or not. 

I saw a news clip where diplomas were being handed off from the back of a boat to graduates 
dressed in their cap and gown, riding jet skis. On May 15th Matthew McConaughey, the actor, 
gave his commencement speech on Good Morning America and it was terrific, featuring a lot 
of great advice. You can see it on YouTube. He started by saying that when someone gives you a 
compliment, say thank you and look them in the eye. He said, “You are originals!” He got that 
right. Take a look at it. It’s worth the seven or eight minutes.

Thinking how many graduations we have attended is daunting. Six college, at least nine high school, 
should have been more, but we missed our son’s high school graduation, having thoughtlessly 
booked a trip to the Bahamas at the same time. Leah’s Law School graduation was a fantastic 
time. If I’ve missed anyone, I’m sorry! There were two at Cal State L.A. Both interminable as 
thousands of students marched by and we baked in the blazing sun. Actor, Edward James Olmos 
was the speaker at one. He was not brief. The picture is grandson, Blake, graduating from USC 
with incredibly proud John and me.

 

Our granddaughter, Ashley, graduated from Chico State University a while ago and now she’s 
a Registered Labor and Delivery Nurse at St. Joseph’s Hospital, in Orange County, married and 
expecting her second child. I hope I live long enough to attend this little person’s graduation 
sometime around 2037.

Ashley’s was wonderful. The Alumni Address was given by Lain I. Hensley, Chico State Class of 
1993, College of Communication and Education. He started his address by asking, “Am I in the 
presence of greatness?” Mr. Hensley, co-founder and chief operating officer of Odyssey Teams, 
which develops philanthropic team-building programs for large corporations including the 
prosthetic hand-building program, Helping Hands, and the bicycle-building event LifeCycles is 
an inspirational speaker and corporate trainer with heavy emphasis on the inspirational. “Up to 
now,” he said, “you’ve been having lessons and then having tests. From here on out, this is LIFE 
where you get the test and then the lesson comes! And if you don’t get the lesson the first time, 
you get the test again and again till you do!” “Be patient with yourself,” he said, and, “Will you 
make progress or excuses?” “Pick a good partner and be a good partner. Deep love and deep 
commitment can only be achieved by working at it. Work hard!”

He ended his address by saying, “I AM in the presence of greatness!” We knew we were, too. Two 
thousand plus young people walked by us, including Registered Nurse, Ashley Davis. We were 
indeed in the presence of greatness. 

This excellent advice from U.S. Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas at the University of 
Georgia in 2008 is one of my favorites:

“Thank the people who put up with your antics and loved you through it all. Thank the people 
who paid your tuition and your expenses. There are those who helped and counseled you through 
difficult times or when you made hard decisions. There are those who were compassionate enough 
to tell you what you needed to hear, not what you wanted to hear.”

Meanwhile, may the Lord bless all these children who are our future, may the Lord make His face 
to shine upon them and keep them close. May our world turn right-side up again and may peace 
reign. 

“Let there be peace on earth
And let it begin with me.
Let there be peace on earth,
The peace that was meant to be.

With God as our Father
Brothers all are we
Let me walk with my brother
In perfect harmony.

Let peace begin with me
Let this be the moment now.

With ev’ry step I take
Let this be my solemn vow
To take each moment and live
Each moment in peace eternally
Let there be peace on earth
And let it begin with me.”

Written by: Jill Jackson-Miller / Sy Miller in 1955

My book page: Amazon.com: Deanne Davis

Where you’ll find “Sunrises and Sunflowers Speak Hope”

And “A Tablespoon of Love, A Tablespoon of Laughter”

Take a look at both of these books, stuffed with hope and the

Occasional good recipe.

Blog: www.authordeanne.com

Follow me on Twitter, too! https://twitter.com/@playwrightdd


CHRISTOPHER Nyerges


SEEKING THE FRAGILE BALANCE:

The Meaning of Life vs. Virus Protection

 

[Nyerges is the author of “How to Survive Anywhere,” “Self-Sufficient Home,” and 
others. His latest book, “An Urban Survival Guide,” will be released later in 2020. 
More information, and his schedule of classes, is at www.SchoolofSelf-Reliance.
com.]

 

Tony Brown (of Tony Brown’s Journal on public TV) once stated that “if it seems that I’m placing 
a high priority on the need to have money, it’s because I consider it as val-uable as oxygen.” His 
discussion program was all about the need especially for black families to do whatever it takes to 
increase their cash flow in order to elevate their over-all quality of life. He was encouraging his 
audience to start their own businesses, and buy their own homes.

Tony Brown made me think deeply about money. I grew up in a lower middle class neighborhood 
in a big family. Whenever I, or any of my brothers, asked my mother if we could do something, 
she’d nearly always say, “Yes, just go out and earn the money so you can do it.” We learned 
all the legal ways to hustle and earn money to buy a bi-cycle, or go on a trip. Our basic needs were 
always met by two working parents, and I’ve learned to live frugally life-long. But I have never 
been desperate due to low in-come, or no income, or social discrimination that would inhibit my 
ability to work and be a part of my society.

Tony Brown pointed out that he was not just talking “economically.” When we have a job and 
work for income, we turn our time, our life, into a medium of exchange (i.e., “money”) which we 
then use to create a meaningful life. The life that money can pro-vide gives families the means to 
have a home around which the family can gather, the means to live a healthy life, and the means 
to get an education that allows one to cre-ate the job and career that gives life meaning.

In other words, the ability to earn income in our society relates to the ability to live a quality life, 
and all that that entails.

Thus, more to my point, it is a false argument when people say that we should not “re-open” our 
economy, but we should keep most things closed for the presumed health reasons. One such 
proponent for the “stay closed” scenario is Bill Gates, who is openly pushing for everyone to get 
vaccinated. (Hey, is it true that Gates is heavily-invested in vaccines?)

“You care more about money than people,” one old-time friend challenged me.

“You’re wrong,” I told him emphatically. I told him that I care deeply about the total health of 
people: mental, spiritual, physical, and psychological health. I think it is a false idea that you must 
choose one over the other.

A man or woman who works at a job they love tend to have a good immune system to fight disease. 
They wake up looking forward to something, hopeful for the future. It’s not just a job where 
they earn something for their labor. For most people in western societies, it is the idea that their 
life serves a purpose, while interacting with others and keeping busy. 

Such a mental and psychological posture impacts the health of the body. Someone who is happy, 
who laughs, who has hope, who strives to get up in the morning, has a better immune system than 
someone who is gloomy, fearful, desperate, worrying, for-lorn, wondering when their government 
check will arrive because the government won’t allow them to work.

Yes, I know that various surveys have shown that so many Americans hate their jobs, but they 
would still rather work than not work, and have the ability to find another job that suits them 
better.

I have so, so many questions about the reasoning behind why some businesses were told to close, 
and others allowed to stay open. I wonder, for example, why golf courses were told to close. Don’t 
the spaced-out conditions of the golf course seem like the least-likely place to spread a virus? And 
you can’t sell clothes, but if you have a dry cleaner, you can stay open and clean clothes. Churches, 
temples and mosques are forboden, but liquor stores are considered “essential.” Really? 

My preference is that government entities stick to governing, and medical authorities stay out of 
politics, and rather than constantly talking about vaccines that may or may not work once they get 
developed, if they get developed, they should talk loudly about doing all the things that improve 
our immune system! That’s right! Rather than discuss the drug of the week, what about getting 
into the sun, exercising, taking vitamins, sleeping well, finding ways to feel happy and uplifted, 
and improving our diets so that our food helps our immune systems? Isn’t that the sort of thing 
that medical authorities should be telling us at this time? 

With suicide rates up in the last two months and mental depression at a high, don’t world leaders 
grasp that this is not about money vs. health? The issue is about protect-ing the life we want 
to live, from a virus that will get some sick, and kill some. In the U.S., according to math, about 
1/300th of the population has gotten infected with Covid 19. Of those infected, 0.5% (approximately) 
will die. Maybe more, probably less. 

Can’t life go on, obviously modified for a bit, so that the vast majority can continue with their 
livelihood, yet still find a way to protect the sick?

Once, many years ago, a fire inspector was inspecting a one acre wildlife preserve where I was 
one of the caretakers. The inspector wanted the plants radically cut down. “You’d be happy if we 
cemented everything over,” I said cynically. “Yes, I would,” he replied, fully honest. 

You see, to the fire inspector, the whole world is about fire safety, and everything else is subservient 
to that goal. Things such as wildlife homes, oxygen production, aroma, beauty, vibrant 
gardens, permaculture, et al, are less than meaningful concepts. Every-thing is about fire-safety.

I fear that in the zeal to protect people from the novel Covid virus, our “leaders” have become that 
fire inspector, with the belief that everything is suddenly subservient to the goal of virus protection 
and reduction, even those things that strengthen our immune systems and give us reasons to 
live. I fear that our “leaders” have become like the me-dieval doctors, who giddily declared, “The 
surgery was a success, but the patient died.”

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