Mountain Views News, Combined Edition Saturday, October 10, 2020

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 Mountain Views News Saturday, October 10, 2020 

PORTRAIT OF OUR NEIGHBORS by Stuart Tolchin


DR. DEANA OKOHIRA

 Dr. Deana Okohira is a Doctor of Pharmacy at Kaiser 
where she has worked for over twenty years. For the last 
few years she has worked at the Pasadena facility as an Ambulatory 
Care Pharmacist where she provides patient care 
regulating blood sugar levels, cholesterol, and blood pressure. 
She focuses on patient diet and lifestyle and medication 
management. She also discusses with patients the possible 
consequence of uncontrolled diabetes which include 
blindness, dialysis, amputation, and premature death. (Just 
describing these conditions frightens me). 

 During this Covid crisis she has been able to continue 
working, but found it frustrating at times. She has to 
rely primarily on phone conversations rather than in person 
visits. The value of in person visits, she says, is that she can 
build a rapport with patients and hopefully gain their trust 
which allows her to better help manage their condition. 
This is particularly true when it comes to concerns about a 
patient’s emotional or mental state. She is still required to 
go into the facility to call patients although the calls could 
be made just as easily from her home without the risk to her 
own health. 

 Beyond work – who is Dr. Okohira? I learned that 
she is careful about her diet but does like to bake. (She 
baked some delicious homemade cookies for my wife and 
I.) She runs three miles twice a week. Both she and her 
husband are health field professionals and in all probability, 
her college age children will eventually work in the same 
field. Her father was a pharmacist and this was always a 
goal of hers. As we spoke about her family I began to get a 
better sense of her as a person. She is a Japanese American 
person whose mother was born in an internment camp. Her 
grandparents’ restaurant business was confiscated and they 
were ordered removed to internment camps. Many of us 
know that Santa Anita Park was a temporary assembly center 
while internment camps across the nation were being 
built. During their time in Santa Anita the detained individuals, detained only because of their ethnicity, even if born in the 
United States, were forced to live in horse stalls. Years later, after their release, inadequate reparations were paid. As we spoke 
we both were aware that Santa Anita Park was visible from the front of my house.

 I wondered how this seemingly secure, confident, health professional felt about the way her family had been treated. 
Her parents and grandparents were very reluctant to talk about their experiences. I mentioned that my wife’s Hispanic 
grandparents living in Boyle Heights had hidden and sheltered a Japanese young girl in their home for a period of years. Dr. 
Okohira was very interested in this. She explained that she had been raised in Orange County with mostly white people and 
often felt like an outsider, an outsider to her own history. Today she is glad her children grew up in a racially mixed neighborhood 
and were able to explore their Japanese ancestry.

 Her son, who is currently enrolled at UCLA, but was quarantined at home in the Spring. Her daughter, a senior in 
high school told her recently that she learned in school that racism in the United States was something of the past. She expressed 
displeasure that history taught in school seems lacking in many areas. Also it’s very difficult for kids these days to 
go attend college, start a career, buy a house, etc. given the competition and cost. I gathered that both her children will likely 
pursue jobs in the health care field where their interests lie but she wouldn’t mind if they take a little time off and learn more 
of what goes on outside their sphere. Like the rest of us, she would love for the Covid to be over and that she could go back to 
fully enjoying her job and personal life.

 
In addition the County of 
Los Angeles has an item on 
the ballot and the State of 
California has twelve ballot 
measures for you to vote 
on. The League of Women 
Voters at the invitation of 
this newspaper, presented 
the Pros and Cons of each 
on Zoom last week. You 
can view the presentation 
and listen to the discussions 
by going to: https://us02web.
zoom.us/rec/share/cqcy-p2uMvannMTl81W9JVP4E5SNPWumr5OY1aoA2YD7sY2Nf6mmp2NTAKWUoGwg.
QcIo4jvULGvaGxRl Passcode: 8YE=q&M4.

Mountain Views News Recommendations:

Every election, the Mountain Views News brings together its 
'Editorial Advisors' to discuss the candidates and issues that are 
on the ballot. When done, we have our endorsement list to share 
with you. 

PRESIDENT/VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES

 JOE BIDEN/KAMALA HARRIS

US HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 27TH DISTRICT

 CONGRESSWOMAN JUDY CHU

US HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 28TH DISTRICT

 CONGRESSMAN ADAM SCHIFF

CALIFORNIA STATE SENATE DISTRICT 25

 ANTHONY PORTANTINO, JR.

CALIFORNIA STATE ASSEMBLY DISTRICT 41

 ASSEMBLYMAN CHRIS HOLDEN

PASADENA UNIFIED SCHOOL DISTRICT - 6

 CRYSTAL CZUBERNAT

SIERRA MADRE CITY COUNCIL - 2 YEAR SEAT

 EDWARD T. GARCIA

SIERRA MADRE CITY COUNCIL - 4 YEAR SEATS

 ANDY BENCOSME

 ROBERT PARKHURST 

LA COUNTY DISTRICT ATTORNEY

JACKIE LACEY

Susan Henderson, 

Editor/Publisher

California Proposition 14, the Stem Cell Research Institute 
Bond Initiative

A "yes" vote supports issuing $5.5 billion general obligation 
bonds for the state's stem cell research institute and making 
changes to the institute's governance structure and programs.

California Proposition 15, the Tax on Commercial and Industrial 
Properties for Education and Local Government Funding 
Initiative

A "yes" vote supports this constitutional amendment to require 
commercial and industrial properties, except those zoned as 
commercial agriculture, to be taxed based on their market value, 
rather than their purchase price.

California Proposition 16, the Repeal Proposition 209 

Affirmative Action Amendment

A "no" vote opposes this constitutional amendment, thereby 
keeping Proposition 209 (1996), which stated that the government 
and public institutions cannot discriminate against or 
grant preferential treatment to persons on the basis of race, sex, 
color, ethnicity, or national origin in public employment, public 
education, and public contracting.

California Proposition 17, the Voting Rights Restoration for 
Persons on Parole Amendment

A "no" vote opposes this constitutional amendment, thereby 
continuing to prohibit people who are on parole for felony convictions 
from voting.

California Proposition 18, the Primary Voting for 17-Year-
Olds Amendment

A "no" vote opposes this constitutional amendment, thereby 
continuing to prohibit 17-year-olds who will be 18 at the time of 
the next general election to vote in primary elections and special 
elections.

California Proposition 19, the Property Tax Transfers, Exemptions, 
and Revenue for Wildfire Agencies and Counties 
Amendment

A "yes" vote supports this constitutional amendment to: 

* allow eligible homeowners to transfer their tax assessments 
anywhere within the state and allow tax assessments to be transferred 
to a more expensive home with an upward adjustment;

* increase the number of times that persons over 55 years old or 
with severe disabilities can transfer their tax assessments from 
one to three;

* require that inherited homes that are not used as principal residences, 
such as second homes or rentals, be reassessed at market 
value when transferred; and

* allocate additional revenue or net savings resulting from the 
ballot measure to wildfire agencies and counties. 

California Proposition 20, the Criminal Sentencing, Parole, 
and DNA Collection Initiative

A "yes" vote supports this initiative to add crimes to the list of 
violent felonies for which early parole is restricted; recategorize 
certain types of theft and fraud crimes as wobblers (chargeable 
as misdemeanors or felonies); and require DNA collection for 
certain misdemeanors.

California Proposition 21, the Local Rent Control Initiative

A "no" vote opposes this ballot initiative, thereby continuing to 
prohibit rent control on housing that was first occupied after 
February 1, 1995, and housing units with distinct titles, such as 
single-family homes.

California Proposition 22, the App-Based Drivers as Contractors 
and Labor Policies Initiative

A "yes" vote supports this ballot initiative to define app-based 
transportation (rideshare) and delivery drivers as independent 
contractors and adopt labor and wage policies specific to app-
based drivers and companies.

California Proposition 23, the Dialysis Clinic Requirements 
Initiative.

A "yes" vote supports this ballot initiative to require chronic 
dialysis clinics to: have an on-site physician while patients are 
being treated; report data on dialysis-related infections; obtain 
consent from the state health department before closing a clinic; 
and not discriminate against patients based on the source of 
payment for care.

California Proposition 24, the Consumer Personal Information 
Law and Agency Initiative

A "yes" vote supports this ballot initiative to expand the state’s 
consumer data privacy laws, including provisions to allow consumers 
to direct businesses to not share their personal information; 
remove the time period in which businesses can fix violations 
before being penalized; and create the Privacy Protection 
Agency to enforce the state’s consumer data privacy laws.

California Proposition 25, the Replace Cash Bail with Risk 
Assessments Referendum

A "no" vote is to repeal the contested legislation, Senate Bill 10 
(SB 10), thus keeping in place the use of cash bail for detained 
suspects awaiting trials.


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