There is more which we can learn from the Amish.  

Amish youth are raised in a close and closed culture.  Youth are not pampered;  they mix often with their community;  they are not exposed to consumer-oriented, destructive, dehumanizing popular culture.  Yet, at age eighteen, they are given the opportunity to choose whether to stay with their community or go into the world.  One source says that ninety percent choose to stay with their community.  

There are two lessons here:  

·        having a strong sense of one’s community is useful to youth;

·        permitting those who are dissatisfied to leave enables the Amish to maintain their community.  

This is not to say that we would adopt the Amish’s beliefs, although their moderate lifestyle appears to be ever wiser in light of the problems which we have created for ourselves with hyperconsumerism.  However, bucking the system in which the Federal and state governments and, yes, even our vaunted University of California, debilitate our community is in the interest of our community.  (Recall that we have spoken about the usefulness of communities having more autonomy, meaning that we would know what would be better for Montebello than would Sacramento or D.C.)  

While we might hesitate to embrace the idea of a closed community for fear of violating the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment or some other recently discovered inalienable right or irreversible entitlement, we should consider that we already have a closed community, starting at age five and running to about age twenty-three.  That community is our schools and universities, whose contact with the surrounding communities of adults and retirees is minimal.  Why should schools have standards to protect youth, but, at 3 p.m., those standards no longer apply as the youth leave school grounds?  Where is the logic in that?  

If you answer the multiple-choice questions below and e-mail to lessonanswers@mymontebello.com with “Lesson answers” in the subject field, you will be credited toward a “certificate of recognition in community affairs” to be awarded in 2007 by a local nonprofit organization.

1. Amish youth

(a) live in a close and closed community.

(b) may leave their community at age eighteen.  

2. Obstacles keeping us in Montebello from having a close and closed community include

(a) a fear of violating state and Federal constitutional or statutory law.

(b) the considerable diversity which would make it impossible to create a like-minded community on the same block.  

  Banking establishments are more dangerous than standing armies.
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The spirit of resistance to government is so valuable on certain occasions, that I wish it always to be kept alive.
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I have the consolation of having added nothing to my private fortune during my public service, and of retiring with hands clean as they are empty.
Thomas Jefferson, 1743 – 1826,
third President of the United States, the principal author of the Declaration of Independence, and one of the most influential Founding Fathers for his promotion of the ideals of Republicanism in the United States.  

In part 1, we learned that our elected representatives represented many more people than they did in the past.  In part 6, we read a compelling assertion that our country was in decline, followed by the possibility of reversing that decline through greater public participation in governance.  The need for greater public participation in governance was demonstrated by the argument in part 7 about the dilution of the present-day vote.  

The problems arising from an “overpopulation” of constituents starts not when an elected representative takes her oath of office, but, rather, when she registers as a candidate for office.  

The same problem facing an elected representative, namely, that he cannot talk in person to all his constituents in a reasonable time, faces a candidate, who cannot communicate his message in person to all voters in a reasonable time.  

Thus, the wonders of modern communication come to the rescue, and each of these wonders costs money:  television announcements, radio announcements, mailers, signs, refrigerator magnets, potholders, phone calls. 

Except for wealthy candidates who can and do draw upon their own funds, how do others running for office fund their election campaigns?  They have to ask others for money, and that dilutes the impact of your and my votes.   After a campaign, the donors have appreciation, if not dedication, from elected representatives whom they, the donors, have supported.  

As the overpopulation of constituents increases, so does the need for money and the dependence by candidates on donors to supply that money.  

We Americans have painted ourselves into a corner with our interpretation of the First Amendment specifically and of democracy generally.  Is there any way out without raising constitutional issues?  If we think outside the box, perhaps.  We will explore that in the next part.  

FOR HOLIDAY SHOPPERS.  Clever credit-card theft.   As correspondent Lesley Stahl reports, it's becoming a big problem.  The retail industry got a wake-up call earlier this year, when TJX, the parent company of T.J. Maxx and Marshalls, disclosed it had suffered the worst high-tech heist in shopping history.  Hackers raided the company's computer system, taking off with tens of millions of records.  And what we have learned is:  TJX could have prevented it. ...  

When you swipe your credit card, your data is often transmitted through a wireless router [in other words, your data travel through the air as do television and radio signals] either to a bank for approval or to the store's main computer.  But the signal carrying your information bleeds easily through the walls [somebody outside the store can receive your data on a laptop computer] ...  November 25, 2007

FOR EVERYONE.  Next garage sale soon.  December 7, 8, and 9.  The City of Montebello permits garage sales in residential zones four times per year.   The City does not require a permit and / or fee for residents wishing to have a garage sale on the permitted weekends.  The regulations that must be followed for residents holding garage sales are as follows:  

• Sales may be conducted only during the hours of 9:00 a.m. and 6:00 p.m.

• All items for sale and all items utilized in conjunction with the sale must be kept on private property and not encroach into neighboring property or the public right-of-way.

• Not more than one sign may be displayed on the premises for the purposes of advertising the sale.

• Placement of signs on public property is prohibited.  

For more information please contact the Montebello Fire Department Code Enforcement Division at (323) 887-1490.  

FOR COMMUNITY LEADERS.  Five $100,000 prizes.  Civic Ventures, http://www.civicventures.org/, announces the opening of nominations for the 2008 Purpose Prize, a major initiative that invests in Americans over 60 who are leading a new age of social innovation.  

The Purpose Prize provides five awards of $100,000 and ten awards of $10,000 to people over 60 who are taking on society’s biggest challenges. It is for those with the passion and creativity to discover new opportunities, the experience to come up with practical solutions, and the determination to make lasting change.

For the first time in 2008, nominees may include U.S. residents whose work is affecting the lives of people outside the U.S. as well as domestically.  

Winners in 2007 have developed new ways to help children succeed in life through reforms to the education and foster care systems, and new methods to save lives through improvements in hospital safety, newborn care, and search-and-rescue efforts.  

Who will take the Prize in 2008?  Make your nomination now.  Nominations will close on March 1.  

Hawaii is the only state that grows coffee.  

More than one-third of the world’s commercial supply of pineapples comes from Hawaii.  

There are only twelve letters in the Hawaiian alphabet.  Vowels:  A, E, I, O, U.  Consonants:  H, K, L, M, N, P, W.  

From east to west Hawaii is the widest state in the United States.  

The Hawaiian Islands are the projecting tops of the biggest mountain range in the world.  

The first Asian-American in the United States Senate was Hawaii ’s Hiram Fong.  Descended from Chinese immigrants, Fong was elected to the Senate in 1959.  

Hawaii was the fiftieth state admitted to the Union , August 20, 1959.  

Iolani Palace is the only royal palace in the United States.  

The world’s largest wind generator is on the island of Oahu.  The windmill has two blades 400 feet long on the top of a tower twenty stories high.  

Molokai ’s east end is a tropical rain forest and part of the island receives 240 inches of rainfall a year.  

At 800,000 years of age, the island of Hawaii , the “Big Island,” is the youngest of the island chain.  However, it was the first island discovered by voyaging Polynesians.  

The Big Island is the worldwide leader in harvesting macadamia nuts and orchids.  

http://www.fun-facts.com/item/86099  

Working in a paralegal’s office, I am exposed to how dysfunctional the rule of law can be when the law lacks deliberation, wisdom, and compassion.  We have explored the possibility of unintended consequences.  Would you consider the following an example?  

Former Councilwoman Faces Deportation

Emigrated From Cuba At Age 1, Calif. Woman Learns True Residency

Status Means Her Vote Was Illegal  

(AP) LOS ANGELES.  Zoila Meyer spent her whole life believing she was an American.  

Her parents brought her with them from Cuba when she was 1 year old and always told her she was a U.S. citizen.  She even won election to the City Council of Adelanto, a town of about 23,000 in Southern California's high desert.  

But on Tuesday, immigration officers put the 40-year-old mother of four in handcuffs and she is facing deportation for illegally voting.  

"To be honest with you, I'm scared.  How can they just pluck me out of my family, my kids?" Meyer said in a telephone interview on Friday.  

"If they can do this to me, they can do it to anybody," she said.  

After Meyer was elected to the council in Adelanto in 2004, someone told officials that she was born in Cuba, prompting an investigation.  

Eventually, "the police came to me and said, 'Zoila, you're not a citizen. You're a legal resident but you're not a citizen,"' said Meyer, who now lives in the San Bernardino County desert town of Apple Valley, near Adelanto.  

She resigned after 10 weeks in office in Adelanto, a town of about 23,000. ...  

"It makes me feel like we're all just numbers," she said of her case. "I see people writing 'This is my country.'  It really isn't.   It belongs to the government and they decide who stays and who goes. ...  

Meyer was arrested by immigration officials on June 19, 2007.  While not in jail, she still had not had a hearing as of November 8, according to a conversation with the managing editor of the Victorville Daily Press.  

I received an e-mail which suggested sending a Christmas card to a recovering soldier at Walter Reed Army Medical Center .  I was going to convey that to you, but then I checked and read this from the medical center’s Web site:  

Holiday Cards to Wounded and Recovering Soldiers  

Walter Reed Army Medical Center officials want to remind those individuals who want to show their appreciation through mail to include [which includes] packages, letters, and holiday cards addressed to 'Any Wounded Soldier' or 'A Recovering American Soldier' that Walter Reed cannot accept these packages in support of the decision by then Deputy Undersecretary of Defense for Transportation Policy in 2001.  This decision was made to ensure the safety and well being of patients and staff at medical centers throughout the Department of Defense. ...

http://www.wramc.amedd.army.mil/
Lists/WRNews/DispForm.aspx?Id=25&