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Montebello E-News

 April 15, 2010

We are quite rich enough to defend ourselves, whatever the cost. We must now learn that we are quite rich enough to educate ourselves as we need to be educated. Walter Lippman

I keep taking pause at the statements made by Lippman. I wonder whether our high schools teach anything about him. I would add to the statement above that we need to educate ourselves how to defend ourselves in new, less costly, ways.

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We need more of these. City Councilwoman Christina Co'rtez is having a public meeting at city hall on Saturday, April 17, 2010, from 9 a.m. to 10:30 a.m. to talk with Montebelloans about priorities. For more information, ccortez4council@gmail.com . / / The City of Montebello will be conducting an environmental fair in conjunction with the 30th anniversary of Earth Day on Saturday, April 17, from 12:00 noon to 4:00 p.m. The event will be held in the east parking lot of Montebello City Hall, 1600 West Beverly Boulevard. ... For further information, please call 323.887.4613. From Spotlight on Montebello, April, 2010.

Book sale. Friends of the Montebello Library is having a book sale on Friday, April 16, and Saturday, April 17, 2010, from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. For more information, 323.722.6551.

Interesting fundraiser for Montebello organizations. One Montebello organization is receiving proceeds from sales on eBay. You can donate goods to the organization for it to sell.  http://stores.ebay.com/himalayan90640_Save-the-Montebello-Hills_
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Calendar is filling up! There seem to be more postings to the city calendar. That is good. Suggestion: bookmark the link to the calendar, http://www.cityofmontebello.com/cals/default.asp .

An event for all Montebello families. The Montebello-Commerce YMCA will join more than 1,500 YMCAs nationwide in the 19th annual YMCA Healthy Kids Day on Saturday, April 17. An opportunity for kids and families to "Put Play in Their Day", this special event uses free, fun, engaging and creative activities to encourage children and families to adopt behaviors that support a healthy lifestyle. ... For more information about YMCA Healthy Kids Day, call the Montebello-Commerce YMCA at 323.887.9622 or visit www.ymcala.org/mc . From Spotlight on Montebello, April, 2010. Hmmm, any activities with pets, like dog-walking?

Setting the record straight. Do lawyers get under your skin? Hear what this teacher says about the teaching profession.  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tpog1_NFd2Q

The magic million. ... From National Geographic news editor David Braun, 3.14.10. ...The endeavor to bring trees back to Armenia is thanks mostly to an initiative called the Armenia Tree Project, a program supported by the international conservation charity WWF and BMU/KfW, the German Development Bank. ATP has been raising and planting trees throughout the country for almost 16 years. Last year one million trees were planted, a record that brings the total of trees planted over the life of the project to about 3.5 million. ... Mature trees have been removed in my neighborhood. I have no idea whether Montebello would be replacing those trees. Do any of us know how many saplings must be planted to sequester as much carbon dioxide and generate as much oxygen as one mature tree which our city has removed?

Guess who is unhappy. As former Labor Secretary Robert Reich wrote after the vote [on health care]: "Don't believe anyone who says Obama's healthcare legislation marks a swing of the pendulum back toward the Great Society and the New Deal. Obama's health bill is a very conservative piece of legislation, building on a Republican (a private market approach) rather than a New Deal foundation. The New Deal foundation would have offered Medicare to all Americans or, at the very least, featured a public insurance option." ... Unlike Social Security and Medicare which expanded a public safety net, this bill requires people -- in the midst of the mass unemployment and the worse economic downturn since the Great Depression -- to pay thousands of dollars out of pocket to big private companies for a product that may or may not provide health coverage in return. ... by Rose Ann DeMoro, executive director of the 150,000-member National Nurses United.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/rose-ann-demoro/diary-of-a-wimpy-healthca_b_510706.html

When climate change is a good thing. A decades-long dispute between India and Bangladesh for sovereignty over a small Bay of Bengal island has ended with the territory, called New Moore Island by India and South Talpatti by Bangladesh, swallowed by rising ocean waters. Abstract in UN Wire, March 25, 2010, of a report in the Los Angeles Times, March 25, 2010.

Gain for the brain. Studies show that diverse, mentally stimulating tasks result in more brain cells, more robust connections among those cells, and a greater ability to bypass age- or disease-related trouble spots in the brain. The more you work your mind, the greater your cognitive reserve. And the greater your reserve, the greater your ability to withstand the inevitable challenges of aging. ... In fact, a recently published study of 2,500 people ages 70 to 79 found that 30 percent of the group saw no decline in their mental performance or improved on cognitive tests over the course of eight years. And that fortunate 30 percent were more likely than the others to have some or all of these healthy traits: * exercised at least once a week, * had at least a high-school education or equivalent, * did not smoke, * worked or volunteered, *lived with at least one other person ... Everyone can maximize his or her brain health. Living an active life—resisting the siren call of the couch and the remote control—is your best bet for staying sharp. ... And here are ten more brain-boosting activities: walk and talk, vary your routine, get smart, play, de-stress, sleep, imagine, party, eat right, watch your numbers [blood pressure, weight, blood sugar, cholesterol]. By P. Murali Doraiswamy, M.D., AARP, March and April, 2010.

Who signed me up to compete in the global economy? ... Once upon a time, there were several thousand mining communities in North America; perhaps fewer than a hundred still exist. Boron (unincorporated, population 2,000) is one of the survivors. In last year's contract negotiations, Rio Tinto (the British-Australian multinational acquired its Boron facility, U.S. Borax, in 1968 and renamed it Rio Tinto Borax) stunned members of the International Longshore and Warehouse Union, ILWU, Local 30 (Boron), by demanding abolition of the contractually enshrined seniority system and the surrender of any worker voice in the labor process. The company wants a contract that would allow it to capriciously promote or demote; to outsource union jobs; to convert full-time to part-time positions with little or no benefits; to reorganize shift schedules without warning; to eliminate existing work rules; to cut holidays, sick leave and pension payments; to impose involuntary overtime; and to heavily penalize the union if workers file grievances against the company with the National Labor Relations Board. "The company's proposal," union negotiators emphasize, "would destroy our union, lower our living standards, and give Borax total control over our jobs." On January 30, Local 30 members unanimously rejected the concessions demanded by Rio Tinto. The company deadline expired the next morning, when Terri Judd set off for work as usual with her lunchbox and thermos. At the locked front gate she and other day-shift workers encountered a phalanx of nervous Kern County sheriff's deputies in full riot gear. Inside the plant, an elite "strike security team" hired by Rio Tinto had taken control of operations. "Being locked out," says Terri, "is different from going on strike. Initially there's disbelief that the company is actually serious about booting you out the door. Hey, my granddad worked in this mine. But then you see that caravan of scabs coming to take your jobs, and the betrayal cuts like a knife in your heart."

I looked up "inurement" in Webster's online dictionary: to accustom to accept something undesirable. When it comes to fossil fuels, meaning, for the most part, coal and gasoline, we certainly have become inured. It is acceptable that some children have asthma, it is acceptable that we spend hours in commuter traffic, it is acceptable that carcinogens are introduced into our neighborhoods, it is acceptable that we wage war to secure an adequate supply of fossil fuels. Where do you draw the line between acceptable and unacceptable? And we have not even mentioned the possible effect of fossil fuels on the climate.

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, and for submitting stories to “Montebello Memories” at the Web site.