Montebello E-News  

December 13, 2007  

I know of no country in which there is so little independence of mind and real freedom of discussion as in America.
Alexis de Tocqueville, 1805 – 1859,
was a French political thinker and historian best known for his Democracy in America and The Old Regime and the Revolution.  

[Do most of us think of Tocqueville as a Frenchman who wrote glowingly of American democracy over one hundred seventy years ago?  We have been given this impression by our “secular faith,” discussed in the E-News essay “From History to Hysteria.”  Reality is not so kind.]  

1.     A Holiday Message

2.     The Falling Dominos of Democracy, Part 10

3.     Announcements

4.     Fun Facts about Illinois

5.     The Flashback Quarterback:  Are We Lambs for the Slaughter? 

6.     Beware and Share about the Dance of Politicians

7.     About Montebello E-News and “My Montebello”  

 A Holiday Message  

The young generation, the ”Millennials,” might not know who George Carlin is, but I once saw the comedian perform in Washington, D.C. I did not think that wise words would come from Carlin, but according to an uncorroborated source, he was responsible for the following:  

The paradox of our time in history is that we have taller buildings but shorter tempers, wider Freeways, but narrower viewpoints.  We spend more, but have less, we buy more, but enjoy less. We have bigger houses and smaller families, more conveniences, but less time.  We have more degrees but less sense [folks, see “Flashback Quarterback” below], more knowledge, but less judgment, more experts, yet more problems, more medicine, but less wellness.  

We drink too much, smoke too much, spend too recklessly, laugh too little, drive too fast, get too angry, stay up too late, get up too tired, read too little, watch TV too much, and pray too seldom.  

We have multiplied our possessions, but reduced our values.  We talk too much, love too seldom, and hate too often.  

We've learned how to make a living, but not a life.  We've added years to life not life to years.  We've been all the way to the moon and back, but have trouble crossing the street to meet a new neighbor.  We conquered outer space but not inner space.  We've done larger things, but not better things.  

We've cleaned up the air, but polluted the soul.  We've conquered the atom, but not our prejudice.  We write more, but learn less. We plan more, but accomplish less.  We've learned to rush, but not to wait.  We build more computers to hold more information, to produce more copies than ever, but we communicate less and less.  

These are the times of fast foods and slow digestion, big men and small character, steep profits and shallow relationships.  These are the days of two incomes but more divorce, fancier houses, but broken homes.  These are days of quick trips, disposable diapers, throwaway morality, one night stands, overweight bodies, and pills that do everything from cheer, to quiet, to kill.  It is a time when there is much in the showroom window and nothing in the stockroom.  A time when technology can bring this letter to you, and a time when you can choose either to share this insight, or to just hit “delete”...

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.  What is the gist of George Carlin’s message?

(a)  We have progressed technologically, but have regressed socially and spiritually.

(b)  There is something fundamentally wrong with modern-day society.  

2.  Who should be concerned about what Carlin says?

(a) We Americans, because Carlin is addressing us.

(b) Most people around the world because they are adopting undesirable traits of American culture.  

  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.  In part 8, we learned how an “overpopulation” of constituents was adversely affecting election campaigns, while in part 9 we looked at solutions to bring us better election campaigns.  

Did you bristle when, during an interview on “Sixty Minutes” a couple of years ago, President Vladimir Putin, when asked about the institution of a nondemocratic practice in Russia , pointed to the election of our President in 2000 by the U.S. Supreme Court?  

Our democracy is far from perfect and there is not going to be a quantum leap forward which would make people like President Putin pause and say, “America is far ahead of us.”  We have failed in America to address the fundamental problem of an “overpopulation” of constituents, which has several undesirable consequences.  Our current attempts to fix our democracy do nothing to address overpopulation, which means that our attempts would be, at best, only somewhat effective.  

If we believe that democracy is the best means to increase the quality of life or, said another way, to do the least harm to large numbers of people, we must start thinking and acting outside the box, which is not to say that we should do something illegal, but, rather, that we should stop thinking within the confines of the status quo.  A major, albeit imperfect, step in that direction occurred in 1999 when the voters of the City of Los Angeles amended the city charter in order to create neighborhood councils, of which there are now eighty-nine, each of which receives a $50,000 annual budget from the city.  And if we look below to “Fun Facts about Illinois,” we see that it is not odd to deal with an overpopulation of constituents by increasing the number of elected representatives and opportunities for constituent participation.  

FOR EVERYONE.  Shooting stars!  What could be the best meteor display of the year will reach its peak on the night of December 13 through 14.  Here is what astronomers David Levy and Stephen Edberg have written of the annual Geminid Meteor Shower: "If you have not seen a mighty Geminid fireball arcing gracefully across an expanse of sky, then you have not seen a meteor."  The Geminids get their name from the constellation of Gemini, the Twins, because the meteors appear to emanate from a spot in the sky near the bright star Castor in Gemini.  http://news.yahoo.com/s/space/20071207/sc_space/bestmeteorshowerof2007peaksdec13

FOR EVERYONE.  Snow in Montebello.  City Park, 1300 West Whittier Boulevard, Saturday, December 15, from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m.  Snow slides, train rides, holiday snacks.  Also, if you bring a toy for the “Spark of Love” toy drive, your name will be entered into a raffle for a Christmas tree.  For more information, 323.887.4547.  

FOR YOUTH AND FAMILIES.  Soccer signups.  Youth soccer for grades one through six.  To sign up, go to the Senior Citizen Center at 115 South Taylor at any time between 7:30 a.m. and 7 p.m., Monday through Thursday.  Must bring a child’s birth certificate and photo.  Registration fee is $20, cash.  Signups will continue until all spots be filled.  Play begins in February.  For more information, 323.887.4547.  

FOR EVERYONE.  Somewhat acceptable junk food.  Web site for vegans, http://www.peta.org/accidentallyVegan/ .  Interesting that healthful eating and a vegan diet are not the same.  Healthful eating can include poultry and fish, while a vegan diet can include junk food.  

FOR EVERYONE.  Montebello memories.  At the “My Montebello” Web site, there is now a page for Montebello memories.  Imagine, for example, going duck hunting where the CVS pharmacy now stands!  To read about memories or make a submission, http://www.mymontebello.com/memories.  

Ottawa, Freeport, Jonesboro, Charleston, Galesburg, Quincy and Alton hosted the famous Lincoln-Douglas debates that stirred interest all over the country in the slavery issue.  

The first aquarium opened in Chicago, 1893.  

The world’s first skyscraper was built in Chicago, 1885.  

The Sears Tower, Chicago, is the tallest building on the North American continent.  

Metropolis, the home of Superman, really exists in southern Illinois.  

Cahokia Mounds State Historic Site represents the most sophisticated prehistoric native civilization north of Mexico.  

Illinois was the first state to ratify the 13th Amendment to the Constitution, which abolished slavery.  1865  

On December 2, 1942, Enrico Fermi and a small band of scientists and engineers demonstrated that a simple construction of graphite bricks and uranium lumps could produce controlled heat.  The space chosen for the first nuclear fission reactor was a squash court under the football stadium at the University of Chicago.  

Before Abraham Lincoln was elected president he served in the Illinois legislature and practiced law in Springfield.  Abraham Lincoln is buried just outside Springfield at Lincoln Tomb State Historic Site.  

Illinois has 102 counties.  Also, the state has more units of government, i.e., city, county, township, etc., than any other state, over six thousand!  One contributing reason may be the township governments, which are generally six miles square.  [A lesson for us in California to learn?]  

The Chicago River is dyed green on Saint Patrick’s Day.  [A custom which we should retire?]  

The world’s largest cookie and cracker factory, where Nabisco made 16 billion Oreo cookies in 1995, is located in Chicago.  

http://www.fun-facts.com/item/86101

We have talked about this in E-News:  the inability of our community to take care of itself because the state and Federal governments pre-empt us in certain matters.  The following, from the Thanksgiving Day Los Angeles Times, struck a nerve:

Dardeene Prairie, Missouri—For nearly a year, the families who live along Waterford Crystal Drive in this bedroom community northwest of St. Louis have kept the secret about the boy Megan Meier met last September on the social networking site MySpace.  

He called himself Josh Evans, and he and 13-year-old Megan struck up an online friendship that lasted several week.  Then the boy abruptly turned on Megan and ended it.  That night, Megan, who had previously battled depression, committed suicide.  

The secret was revealed six weeks later.  Neighbor Lori Drew had pretended to be 16-year-old Josh to gain the trust of Megan, who had been fighting with Drew’s daughter, according to sheriff’s department records and Megan’s parents.  

After their daughter’s death, Tina and Ron Meier begged their other neighbors to keep the story private.  Let the local authorities and the FBI conduct their investigations in privacy, they pleaded.  

But after waiting for criminal charges to be filed against Drew, neighbors learned that local and federal prosecutors could not find a statute applicable to the case.  [Emphasis mine.]  

This community’s patience has dried up.  The furious neighbors—and in the wake of recent media reports—an outraged public—are taking matters into their own hands. ...  

Why, oh, why must there be a law specifying a crime before an act be recognized as a crime?  Have we lost our moral compass to know right from wrong?  The same thing happens when there is a new firearm or a new drug:  if it is not specifically mentioned in a law, then there is the chance that an offender could not be brought to justice.  We have become legalistic and that is neither healthy nor healthful.  

Listen closely to what politicians say.  When they want popular support, they say that the will of the people must be done.  When politicians are going to do something contrary to the will of the people, they say that they are going to “do the right thing” or that the media are leading the public astray with slanted reporting.  

I respect U.S. Senator John McCain, but I fuzzily recall his saying a while ago that the Senate had to do the right thing, that is, continue the U.S. presence in Iraq even though the public were disenchanted with the war in Iraq.  

So, the actions of a government can be independent of the will of the people.  This is not new;  we know this.  This was written into our Constitution in the 1780s.  Why?  Because the public lacked deliberation;  that is to say, the public could become hot-tempered and impulsive.  To make this point, a historian might point to the ancient Greek public, who, living in a democracy, were the ones wanting to go to war.  

Solution?  If your and my voice are to be truly heard, we must refrain from the absurd.  And to do so, we should deliberate, best done with a group of friends ready, able, and willing to deliberate.  

To learn about this newsletter, Montebello E-News, and the accompanying, growing Web site, “My Montebello”, visit www.mymontebello.com.  Also, you will find instructions and contact information for submitting announcements for publication in this newsletter.