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OPINIONOPINION

Mountain View News Saturday, May 17, 2025

STUART TOLCHIN

MOUNTAIN 
VIEWS

NEWS

PUBLISHER/ EDITOR

Susan Henderson

PASADENA CITY 
EDITOR

Dean Lee 

SALES

Patricia Colonello

626-355-2737 

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WEBMASTER

John Aveny 

DISTRIBUTION

Peter Lamendola

CONTRIBUTORS

Lori A. Harris

Michele Kidd

Stuart Tolchin 

Harvey Hyde

Audrey Swanson

Meghan Malooley

Mary Lou Caldwell

Kevin McGuire

Chris Leclerc

Dinah Chong Watkins

Howard Hays

Paul Carpenter

Kim Clymer-Kelley

Christopher Nyerges

Peter Dills 

Rich Johnson

Lori Ann Harris

Rev. James Snyder

Katie Hopkins

Deanne Davis

Despina Arouzman

Jeff Brown

Marc Garlett

Keely Toten

Dan Golden

Rebecca Wright

Hail Hamilton

Joan Schmidt

LaQuetta Shamblee

RICH JOHNSON

FIRST GRADE PROVERBS…RERUN

PUT THE LIGHTS ON

 
THE UNABOMBER AND THE NEW POPE

Last week in my article entitled IS THERE HOPE? I explored 
the possible current significance of the concerns of Theodore 
John Kaczynski. The man popularly or more accurately and 
unpopularly remembered as the Unabomber. The article was 
not a great success as readers responded that I could not sincerely 
suggest that there was something positive about the 
Unabomber. The man who admittedly terrorized the nation 
for nearly twenty years, planting bombs that killed three Americans and injured 
many more before his capture in 1996. It was Kaczynski’s ideas made 
public in his requested publication of his Unabomber manifesto that led to his 
identification and incarceration ending in 2023 when he was found dead in his 
cell possibly as the result of suicide.

What were the ideas presented in the manifesto that were so identified by his 
sister-in-law and brother who alerted the police to his identity? His ideas centered 
on the belief that industrial society and its reliance on technology were 
detrimental were detrimental to humanity. His core arguments included the 
idea that technology has created a society where people are oversocialized, lose 
their individual autonomy and become reliant on “surrogate activities” to be 
feel powerful. Kaczynski saw technology as a root cause of many societal problems, 
including mental health issues, loss of individual freedom and environmental 
degradation.

I need not say that these identified problems are still concerns today magnified 
from almost three decades ago. On May 8, 2025 a new Pope was selected 
within the conclave of Cardinals. Newspapers and newscasts identify him as 
the first “American” pope, but I heard one of the Cardinals explaining that to 
the selecting conclave the new Pope was seen as the Pope of the “Americas 
North and South”. The interviewed Cardinal explained that the new Pope was 
a citizen of Peru who was multilingual who had not lived in the United State 
during this century.

 The distinction between America, meaning the United States, and the Americas 
meaning the entire western hemisphere is important. It illustrates the competitive 
need for dominance of one country versus another which as countries 
and individuals seek to empower themselves. Referring to the ideas of the 
New Pope and comparing them to the ideas of the Unabomber in relation to 
the problems of our times is very enlightening. The new pope has chosen the 
name Leo XIV.

What is the significance of the name Leo XIV combined with the initial pronouncements 
made by the Pope? We are told that he is not afraid to state his 
mind and like Pope Leo XIII he has a great commitment to involvement in 
social issues. Pope Leo XIII was responsible for the beginnings of Catholic 
involvements in social issues. The new Pope has been a pastoral Priest ministering 
to the poor. It seems clear to me that he is concerned not with pleasing 
the elite but is interested in the problems of the common man as described by 
the Unabomber.

People are influenced by the non-stop presence of social media and have no 
sense of themselves without comparing themselves and competing with others. 
No one can let go of their phone because being alone is so depressing but we 
have lost the ability to even converse and listen to others. The Unabomber emphasized 
that power comes from within but the non-elite have lost that power

The New Pope has already emphasized the need to avoid partisanship. He 
talked about ending war and coming together. President Trump meanwhile 
engages in programs to benefit his super-wealthy benefactors while he accepts 
lavish “gifts” from foreign countries which of course are not given without the 
expectation of return accommodations.

Nevertheless, Trump’s undemocratic and Unconstitutional behavior is accepted 
by many, all too many, who identify with the gifts to their hero, although 
they do not notice that they are not receiving gifts themselves. I assert that 
individual people must recover the experience of their own value. We are all 
humans, which is a pretty neat thing to be, and I hope that the new Pope, using 
starkly different methods from the Unabomber will help us to reclaim and 
rediscover ourselves.

Yes, there is hope----but we must free ourselves from dehumanizing addictions. 
It’s not easy. I still have not abandoned my phone . 

Since we are nearing children’s 2025 summer independence from 
school, I thought now may be a good time to rerun what many have 
said is my best column ever. First run in 2011, this column was 
moderated by me and co-written by 20 or so first graders at Bethany 
School.

I wanted the 8-year olds to rewrite well known proverbs. You never know what you 
might come up with if you give a group of first grade students the first half of a proverb 
and ask them to fill in the rest. Please try to apply these timeless truths to your 
own life.

Better to be safe than…………………….punch a 5th grader!

Strike while the………………………….bug is close!

It’s always darkest before…………….....daylight savings time!

Never underestimate the power of………termites!

Don’t bite the hand that…………………looks dirty!

A miss is as good as a……………………mr.!

You can’t teach an old dog………………math!

If you lie down with dogs, you…………..will stink in the morning!

Love all, but trust………………………...me!

An idle mind is.…………………………..the best way to relax!

Where there’s smoke, there’s…………….pollution!

A penny saved is………………………….no much!

Two is company, three’s………………….the musketeers!

Children should be seen and not………….spanked or grounded!

If at first you don’t succeed………………get new batteries!

You get out of something what you………see pictured on the box!

When the blind lead the blind…………….get out of the way!

Laugh and the whole world laughs with you. Cry and…………you have to blow 
your nose!

Some deep questions worth pondering for even deeper meaning.

Why isn’t the word ‘gullible’ in the dictionary? (Look it up)

If animals could talk, which species would be the rudest?

What was the first person to milk a cow trying to do?

Why do we say ‘after dark’ when it’s actually ‘after light’?

Why are there self-help groups?

Asked to create a new holiday, what would you name it and what would it celebrate?

If your pet could talk, what’s one thing they would say about you?

Why do round pizzas come in square boxes?

Do hummingbirds actually hum? Don’t they know the words?

Why do sleeping pills list drowsiness as a side effect?

Why isn’t phonetic spelled the way it sounds?

Have you ever imagined a world with no hypothetical situations?

How does the snowplow driver get to work on snowy days?

If a cow laughed, would milk come out of her nose?

If nothing sticks to Teflon, how do they make Teflon stick to the pan?

Why do they put Braille dots on the keypad at the drive up ATMs?

Why are there flotation devices under airplane seats and not parachutes?

Why do we drive on parkways and park on driveways?

Finally, and most importantly, Fables and Fancies, Sierra Madre’s new wonderful 
bookstore can be found on both Facebook and Instagram. Check them out and get 
on their email list. Ana, the proprietor…or is it proprietress? Hmmm. Anyway, Ana 
has plans for a number of group activities. The first one is a book club. Buy the current 
book (at a discount if you join) read it (in my case color it) and then get together 
with a group of happening people to share thoughts on the book. Who knows? You 
may end up saving the world!

Fables and Fancies is at 50 W. Sierra Madre Blvd in Sierra Madre. Their phone number 
is (626) 665-8856. Email address is info@fablesandfanciesbooks.com.

I think books are the up and coming new fad replacing the internet and the antiquated 
world wide web.

Have a good week. And remember…wherever you go, there you are!

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HOWARD Hays As I See It

 
“Hatewatch was unable to find any examples of Miller writing 
sympathetically or even in neutral tones about any person 
who is nonwhite or foreign-born.” – Southern Poverty 
Law Center on its examination of emails from presidential 
advisor Stephen Miller

 

In the first Trump Administration, Stephen Miller was the 
guy behind family separation and “kids in cages” policies – asserting that the 
greater the suffering inflicted by our government upon families and trauma 
upon children, the greater the deterrent. 

 

Now in Trump’s second term, Miller states they’re “actively looking at” suspending 
habeas corpus – the due process afforded those detained and held 
by our government. He suggests it’s something they would’ve done already if 
not for those “radical rogue judges”.

 

Historians still debate Lincoln’s suspending habeas corpus during the Civil 
War. The last time it was suspended was in Hawaii with the Japanese attack 
on Pearl Harbor. Our Constitution allows suspension (by Congress, not the 
president) “when in Cases of Rebellion or Invasion the public Safety may 
require it”. Stephen Miller suggests immigration is a national crisis on a par 
with the Civil War and Pearl Harbor attack, warranting suspension of our 
Constitutional rights.

 

Miller calls our refugee program a “colossal failure”. These laws were enacted 
in retroactive shame over our having turned away Jewish refugees escaping 
Nazi Germany. Now, those seeking escape from war and famine in Sudan, 
Burma and the Congo – having waited years, undergone vetting, obtained 
sponsorships – see their clearances revoked. President Trump cancelled already-
approved admission for 10,000 refugees – including those who’d risked 
their lives helping us through two decades of war in Afghanistan. 

 

But 59 white South Africans saw the process fast-tracked; they’re already 
here receiving government resettlement assistance. Stephen Miller refers to 
them as “the text book definition of why the refugee program was created”. 
Although refugees usually travel on their own dime, this group arrived via 
government-chartered flight at taxpayers’ expense - personally welcomed by 
State Department officials in what Miller calls part of a “much larger-scale 
relocation effort”. 

 

Trump told reporters, “It's a genocide that's taking place that you people 
don't want to write about . . . farmers are being killed. They happen to be 
white . . . and their land is being confiscated in South Africa”. The president 
surmised the reason behind this lack of coverage is that the victims are white; 
“If it were the other way around, they'd talk about it. That would be the only 
story they'd talk about”.

 

The reason it isn’t getting coverage is because this “genocide” is about as real 
as those stories Trump told of Haitians eating dogs and cats in Ohio. South 
Africa has one of the highest homicide rates in the world, though out of 
19,000 homicides in the country last year, according to the BBC, 44 occurred 
on farms – with eight of those being farmers, of whatever race. 

 

Trump cancelled aid to South Africa (mostly to fight HIV/AIDS) because of 
South Africa’s “confiscating land”. The government passed a law last January 
allowing for land seizures. But while no land has yet been confiscated under 
that law, South African native Elon Musk calls the situation “openly racist” 
and “actively promoting white genocide”.

 

South Africa’s Ambassador to the U.S. Ebrahim Rasool suggested Trump was 
trying to “project white victimhood as a dog whistle”; “a response not simply 
to a supremacist instinct, but to very clear data that shows great demographic 
shifts in the USA”. (As a child, Rasool and his family were evicted from their 
home in Cape Town when it was declared a white area under Apartheid.)

 

Asked about white South Africans being welcomed while other refugees remained 
barred, Deputy Secretary of State Christopher Landau explained that 
while Trump’s Executive Order halts further admission of refugees, there’s 
an exception for those “who can fully and appropriately assimilate into the 
United States” – and these refugees from South Africa “could be assimilated 
easily into our country”. 

 

As to discerning a particular attribute (physical characteristic?) making these 
Dutch-descended Afrikaners more likely to “appropriately assimilate” than 
others, it might be related to that “supremacist instinct” referred to by Ambassador 
Rasool. He also mentioned “white victimhood as a dog whistle”. Stephen 
Miller describes the new arrivals as victims of “race-based persecution”.

 

Stephen Miller’s name also appeared in a New York Times article on Attorney 
General Pam Bondi. Although, the Times reports, “Ms. Bondi has been 
consulted on key decisions”, “She does not appear to have played a major role 
in creating overall strategies”. She instead “sees her role as that of a surrogate. 
. . compelled to cede ground to empowered players in the West Wing.” As to 
who’s calling the shots, “It was clear from the start that Mr. Miller, who is not 
a lawyer, would exercise control inside the department, current and former 
Trump aides said”.

 

Following the reporting on Miller’s emails by the Southern Poverty Law Center 
referred to above, in 2019 a coalition of Congressional caucuses demanded 
his resignation, releasing a statement: “It’s clearer than ever that Stephen 
Miller is a far-right white nationalist with a racist and xenophobic worldview”.

 

Mike Walz left his post as Trump’s National Security Advisor following that 
“Signal-gate” affair, discussing war plans in an unsecured chat. Axios reports 
that a likely candidate to replace him in that position is “ghoulish white nationalist” 
Stephen Miller.

 

Eighteen months until the mid-terms. 


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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