Mountain Views News, Combined Edition Saturday, July 2, 2022

B8B8 Mountain Views-News Saturday, July 2, 2022 OPINIONOPINION B8B8 Mountain Views-News Saturday, July 2, 2022 OPINIONOPINION 
MOUNTAIN 

VIEWS 

NEWS 

PUBLISHER/ EDITOR

Susan Henderson 

PASADENA CITY 
EDITOR 

Dean Lee 

PRODUCTION 

SALES 

Patricia Colonello 
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WEBMASTER 

John Aveny 

DISTRIBUTION 

Peter Lamendola 

CONTRIBUTORS 

Stuart Tolchin 
Audrey SwansonMeghan MalooleyMary Lou CaldwellKevin McGuire 
Chris Leclerc 
Bob Eklund 
Howard HaysPaul CarpenterKim Clymer-KelleyChristopher NyergesPeter Dills 
Rich Johnson 
Lori Ann Harris 
Rev. James SnyderKatie HopkinsDeanne Davis 
Despina ArouzmanJeff Brown 
Marc Garlett 
Keely TotenDan Golden 
Rebecca WrightHail Hamilton 
Joan Schmidt 
LaQuetta Shamblee 

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Integrity will be our guide. 

PUT THE LIGHTS ON

STUART TOLCHIN 



I LOST IT 
ON……. 
THE GOLF 
COURSE 

As I 

wrote last week 

I was sickened 

by the totality

of World News 

that I decided 

to completely 

stop watching 
television. Remember this was last week when 
the January 6th Investigative Committeeproceedings were first being televised. I 
successfully avoided watching television 
despite being challenged by friends whowondered how I could stand to miss such 
an important presentation. Nevertheless, I 
persisted. In order to succeed I realized that 
I would have to obtain a few large print booksas my eyesight was such that I could not readcomfortably for any length of time. I had 
gone to the optometrist who advised me thatdifferent corrections were necessary in order toread from different sources. The computer, theIPhone, the newspaper, and driving I guess allrequired different corrections. Furthermore,
different lighting conditions and differingdistances also required different glasses. I 
tried to follow her instructions and purchasedabout 6 inexpensive “reading glasses” from thepharmacy. Of course I became confused as to 
what glasses were appropriate at any momentand the only consistent thing was that as Iattempted to walk down the stairs I realizedthat the glasses I was wearing at that momentcaused some confusion and I was sure I would 
fall down the stairs. 

My wife and I ventured to Descanso 
Gardens in La Canada. I had a wonderful time 
smelling the flowers and hearing a live musicconcert. Returning home I noticed an emailfrom my friend in France inquiring about myopinion of whether Doctors who performedabortions which were now prohibited in theirState should be treated criminally togetherwith the pregnant woman or the person whoknowingly drove the woman to the doctor.

I considered that question all weekand one late afternoon when my son and Iwent to my daughter’s Law Office to meether I innocently asked the young attorneywho worked for her about her opinion asto the appropriateness of punishment forDoctors who performed abortions whichthe Law of their state now declared illegal.
The young lawyer quickly responded that 
no punishment was appropriate and thenew Dobbs decision nullifying Roe v. Wadewas a disgrace. My daughter overheard this 

conversation and angrily told me that I had 
absolutely no business asking her employeesuch a provocative question. I felt improperlychastised and reminded her that I was her 
father but was forced to realize, that whetherI liked it or not, these are very difficult times,
and I need to pay attention.

All of the foregoing has been anintroduction to what happened on the golfcourse yesterday. On Wednesday morningsI regularly play golf with this very congenial 
seventy year old Republican man that I met 
on the course a few months ago. At one pointyesterday he innocently informed me that theWhite House Aide testifying Tuesday sure was 
a beautiful woman. I asked if that was all he 
had to say about her and he said no; “She isa brave courageous, admirable person”. Thatsounds innocuous enough but to my ownsurprise I went nuts. I emphatically (a kindword) forcefully told him that commendingher was like commending a German DeathCamp killer who at the end of the war says,
“Maybe it was not such a good idea”.

I screamed at him saying that Trumpand all of his incompetent, ignorant, bigotedhenchpersons were directly responsible for the 
unnecessary death of over a million peoplewho died unnecessarily from the Covid flu.
How is it that the these United States the 
richest, most medically advanced Countryin the world for partisan political reasonshave stood by while millions have died. 
Trump’s response to being informed that theinsurrectionists were carrying metal weaponand should be kept away from the Capitolwas something like “that’s okay—they’re notgoing to shoot me.” I now understand that he 
just wanted a big crowd for TV and actuallysupported and encouraged the rioters. Even 
when told that Democratic Legislators and theVice-President lives were endangered he saidsomething like, “Well they deserve it”.

I truly regret blowing up at my golfingcompanion, after all he grew up in wealthySan Marino and I probably was inappropriatein my daughter’s office; but television or notelevision I am very angry. There is no doubt 
that “Justice delayed is Justice denied”. The 
fact that Trump has been allowed to remain 
in office while visibly threatening our entireDemocracy is a condemnation of our entire 
system. These investigations and the politicalmaneuvering relating to them (Rememberthe Mueller Report} are a disgrace and weshould all be ferociously mad about it. We 
need immediate accountability, penalties 
and punishments --not commendations for 
courageous behavior after the fact. 

Also I just learned that our house is infestedwith termites and I’m very upset. 

JOHN MICEK 
THE HOME OF THE FREE A LITTLE LESS 
FREE FOR MY DAUGHTER 


Ever since she was old enough for me to tell her anything, I’vebeen telling my daughter that she could grow up to be whatevershe wants to be, that no obstacle, big or small, would ever standin her way. 

I’ve told her that she’ll set her own destiny — that she’ll writethe story of her life, and that only she can determine the way it 
turns out. I’d always believed it to be true. And after watchingher grow and become the amazing young woman that she is,
it’s always seemed like she believed it too. 

Then last week happened. In a ruling that speaks not for the

majority of Americans who want abortion to remain safe andlegal, but for a tyrannical minority that’s spent decades working toward this moment, theSupreme Court blasted a hole right through that narrative. Five people – four of themmen – all of them accountable to no one, struck down Roe v. Wade, the 1973 decision that 
provided a constitutional right to abortion, and Planned Parenthood v. Casey, the 1992ruling that codified that right. 

Because fundamental to the belief that you set your own destiny is the freedom to control 
your own body, to make decisions about how, when, and whether you choose to have a 
child — if at all. 

And when my brave, proudly out child looked at us and told us she feared for her ownsafety, for her own future, the faces of millions of people nationwide fearing the same thing,
looked back at us. 

If the state can force you to give birth, if it can take away that fundamental control, then it’sentirely possible for the state to take away other freedoms that Americans have taken forgranted for generations. 

Indeed, in chilling terms, Justice Clarence Thomas opened the door to just such aneventuality, arguing that high court precedents establishing rights for LGBTQ Americans,
along with the right to access contraception, now also are fair game. 

Thomas wrote that those rulings “were demonstrably erroneous decisions,” once againspeaking for a tyrannical minority, not the majorities of Americans who both supportaccess to contraception and equal rights for LGBTQ Americans. 

And if that’s the case, are all of the high court’s super-precedents, from Brown v. Board ofEducation, which desegregated the public schools to Loving v. Virginia, which struck downbans on interracial marriage, now also vulnerable? It’s not hard to conceive of that beingthe case. 

If we’re to follow the logic of Justice Samuel Alito, none of those rights conferred by thosehistorical rulings were specifically enumerated by the slave-owning, landed white men whowere conspicuously silent about women when they crafted the young nation’s foundationaldocument. 

But through decades of jurisprudence, often at terrible cost, those rights were won. BlackAmericans and women were granted those core freedoms. In 2015, love won, and those 
freedoms and protections were granted to LGBTQ Americans. 

That march forward has never been perfect. We’re reminded continually that progresscannot be taken for granted. It’s a reality driven home by the civil rights marches of thelast two years, and most viscerally by the would-be fascists who tried to topple the 2020election. 

But besides taking away the rights of millions of people, the high court did somethingjust as damaging — it took a torch to its own credibility; it demolished its standing asa guarantor of the protections in the document each justice took an oath to uphold and 
protect. 

Over the weekend, for the first time in generations, Americans woke up in a countrydemonstrably less free and less equal than it was the day before. 

And with the battle over abortion rights now moving to the states, and with my daughterand millions of people who can become pregnant looking to recover the freedoms thatrightfully are theirs, they’ll have to do what the generations before them did: they’ll haveto fight for them. 

And with our collective freedoms, our shared humanity on the line, it’s going to take all ofus to wage it.

 John L. Micek is Editor-in-Chief of The Pennsylvania Capital-Star in Harrisburg, Pa. 

RICH & 
FAMOUS 


SOME GUY 
NAMED LINCOLN 

With your permission this

 July 4th weekend, I will open reciting 

a short poem. The title of the poem 


is “Abraham Lincoln”. 

The poem was written, quite coincidentally, by Abraham Lincoln about

Abraham Lincoln from Abraham Lincoln’s perspective (For those of you

unsure, Abraham Lincoln was our 16th President): 

“Abraham Lincoln, his hand and pen, he will be good but God knows 

when.” 
President Lincoln blessed us with many more timeless quotes regardinglife: 

“If I were two-faced, would I be wearing this one?” 

“It’s not me who can’t keep a secret. It’s the people I tell that can’t.” 

“I don’t like that man. I must get to know him better.” 

“To ease another’s heartache is to forget one’s own.” 

“The better part of one’s life consists of his friendships.” 

“Whatever you are, be a good one.” 

“Do I not destroy my enemies when I make them my friends?” 

“My concern is not whether God is on our side; my greatest concern is

to be on God’s side, for God is always right.” 
“When I get ready to talk to people, I spend two thirds of the time

thinking about what they want to hear and one third thinking about 
what I want to say.” 
“The best way to predict your future is to create it.” 
“Tact: the ability to see others as they see themselves.” 
“Give me six hours to chop down a tree and I will spend the first four

sharpening the axe.” 

“Let no feeling of discouragement prey upon you, and in the end you are

sure to succeed.” 

“I have always found that mercy bears richer fruits than strict justice.” 

“If you think you can, you can, if you think you can’t, you’re right!” 

Clever may be my favorite word. And there is no writer more clever than 

Irish literary genius Oscar Wilde. 

Here goes (3): 

“I can resist everything but temptation.” 

“True friends stab you in the front.” 

“Everything in moderation, including moderation.” 

“I am not young enough to know everything.” 
“I am so clever that sometimes I don’t understand a single word of whatI am saying.” 

“Be yourself; everyone else is already taken.” 

“To love oneself is the beginning of a lifelong romance.” 

A common thread in both Lincoln and Wilde’s quotes is the revelation thatthese two men accepted themselves and celebrated their contributions. 
You should not only accept yourself; you should celebrate yourself…

warts and all. God created you to be exactly who you are. We can always

improve. Its just much easier to put in the effort if we figure out how to like

ourselves. 

My intrepid Editor/Publisher, Susan Henderson and I will be in the SierraMadre 4th of July Parade. We will be cruising down the parade route ina teal blue 1909 Packard Model 18. This splendid antique car is owned byWarren Record. Special thanks to both Warren and Norm Haley. Say hi ifyou see us and bring snacks lol. 

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