Montebello E-News

June 19, 2008  

Guilt or innocence becomes irrelevant in the criminal trials as we flounder in a morass of artificial rules poorly conceived and often impossible to apply.
Warren Earl Burger, 1907 – 1995,

was Chief Justice of the United States Supreme Court from 1969 to 1986. Although Burger was a conservative and considered a strict constructionist, still under his leadership, the United States Supreme Court delivered a variety of major decisions on abortion, capital punishment, religious establishment, and school desegregation.  

[Is Burger saying that we have lost sight of the goal of criminal trials, namely, to determine guilt or innocence?]  

1. The Pope’s Green Vestments  

2.  It’s a Small World after All, Part 6

3. Announcements

4. Fun Facts about South Carolina

5. The Flashback Quarterback:  A Case against Your Race?   

6. Be Aware and Share:  Double Standard?

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

 The Pope’s Green Vestments  

From Worldwatch Institute newsletter, April 17, 2008
by Gary Gardner  

Pope Benedict may address climate change during a United Nations speech.  Rumor has it that Pope Benedict may address climate change during his visit to the United Nations this week. Whether he does or not, his young papacy can claim to be the "greenest" ever. Benedict has identified extensive common ground between sustainability concerns and a Catholic worldview - adding weight to the argument that the world's religions could be instrumental in nudging policymakers and the public to embrace sustainability.  Now, the Pope has the opportunity to further develop the links between sustainability and religious values, markedly advancing thinking in both arenas. 

Benedict's predecessor, John Paul II, made important environmental statements during his long papacy, but Benedict is the first "green pope."  Last year, the Vatican installed solar panels on its 10,000-seat main auditorium building, and it arranged to reforest land in Hungary to offset Vatican City's carbon emissions, making it the world's first carbon-neutral state. And Benedict has repeatedly urged protection of the environment and action against poverty in a number of major addresses. His next encyclical (major papal teaching), due out this summer, is expected to further wrestle with environmental, social, and other themes of interest to the sustainability community.  ...  

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 2008 by a local nonprofit organization. 

1. What is the significance of this article?

(a) The Pope will address the United Nations.

(b) The Pope can link religious values and sustainability, which includes taking care of the environment.  

2. What is meant by “carbon emissions”?

(a) Coal dust gets into the air.

(b) Each of us generates carbon dioxide through the tools which we use, the cars which we drive, and the food which we eat.  

3. What is meant by “carbon neutrality”?

(a) A person cancels the carbon dioxide which she or he generates, by doing something, like planting trees, which absorb carbon dioxide.

(b) A person has no opinion about carbon.  

4. What did the Vatican do to become carbon-neutral?

(a) Plant trees in Hungary.

(b) Install fluorescent light bulbs.  

 The world is too dangerous for anything but truth and too small for anything but love.
Rev. William Sloane Coffin, Jr., 1924 – 2006,
 was a liberal Christian clergyman and long-time peace activist with international stature. He was ordained in the Presbyterian Church and later received ministerial standing in the United Church of Christ.  In his younger days he was a superb athlete, a highly talented pianist, a CIA agent, and later chaplain of Yale University, where the influence of Reinhold Niebuhr's social philosophy led him to become a leader in the civil-rights and peace movements of the 1960s and 1970s.  

In the previous two parts, we have looked at positive solutions which make a shrinking world livable.  (Shrinking?  How?  More population, less land and scarcer resources.  Problems do not only sprout in such conditions, but, also, they flourish.)  One solution was to teach poor children in Venezuela to play musical instruments, while another solution was to give poor youth alternative heroes to terrorists.  

But in order to persuade the world to be cooperative, so that we make the best of our shrinking world, we Americans must set an example over and over again.  However, we fail and that makes the shrinking world more difficult to live in.  

A good example is our insisting that China and India, which have begun their industrial revolutions, quickly move to green economies.  Two problems with our “moral high ground” is that we Americans are not moving quickly toward a green economy and, at the beginning of our industrial revolution, we did not consider the greenness of our business practices and of our industrial machinery.  

Another example comes from our very poor use of taxpayer money.  A large sum of American money has been lost in Iraq; yet, we expect accountability from other countries when we give them foreign aid.  

I recall when former Russian President Vladimir Putin was interviewed on “Sixty Minutes.”  When asked about the devolution of democracy in his country, he pointed to the 2000 American President election as an example of the imperfection of democracy in our country.  (And it is a wonder to me that there has not been more attention paid to the election bungling in Ohio, the swing state, in the 2004 President election.)  

Maybe, in our shrinking world, we need to get away from “G2G”, that is, government to government, relations and look to “P2P”, that is, people to people, relations in order to create a livable world.  This is not too different from part 3 of this essay in the May 29, 2008, E-News, where the involvement of many people is seen as part of the solution.

FOR EVERYONE.  Cleaning up the whole mess.  From Euronews, June 6, 2008:  Silvio Berlusconi venait d’annoncer avec énergie une nouvelle mesure, l’interdiction des écoutes téléphoniques : “Elles seront interdites sauf pour traquer le crime organisé, la mafia ou le terrorisme. Pour tous les autres cas, 5 années de prison, 5 années pour celui qui ordonnera ces écoutes, 5 années pour celui qui les fera et pour qui les diffusera.”  Translation:  Silvio Berlusconi [the head of the Italian government] had just energetically announced a new measure, the prohibition of wiretapping.  “Wiretapping will be prohibited except to track organized crime, the Mafia or terrorism.  For all other cases, five years of prison, five years for him who orders the wiretap, five years for him who carries it out, and five years for him who distributes it.”  

FOR EVERYONE.  Commission meeting.  The Montebello Civil Service Commission is holding its regularly-scheduled meeting on Tuesday, June 24, 2008, at 6 p.m. at city hall.  The meeting is open to the public.  If you wish to speak, fill a card before the start of the meeting.  For more information, 323.887.1363.  

FOR EVERYONE.  City-council meeting.  The next regular meeting of the Montebello city council will be in the council chamber at city hall on Wednesday, June 25, 2008, at 6:30 p.m.  If you wish to speak during orals, come before 6:30 p.m. and sign up.  If you have more to say than there is time allotted, prepare a one pager, make copies, and hand out before you speak.  For more information, 323.887.1363.  

The walls of the American fort on Sullivan Island, in Charleston Harbor, were made of spongy Palmetto logs.  This was helpful in protecting the fort because the British cannonballs bounced off the logs.  [That is interesting.  Also, have you looked on the twenty-five cent coin with South Carolina’s symbols on the back?  The Palmetto tree is shown.]

David Robert Coker, 1870-1938, conducted his early crop-improvement experiments on the family plantation in Hartsville.  Beginning with thirty experimental cotton selections and methodically applying the latest techniques in the scientific breeding of crops, Coker Experimental Farms played a great role in the agricultural revolution in the South.  [Have you heard of an agricultural revolution in the South?]

The first battle of the Civil War took place at Fort Sumter.  [Do you know whose army was inside and whose army was outside the fort?]

South Carolina is the nation’s leading peach producer and shipper east of the Mississippi River.

Before being known as the Palmetto State, South Carolina was known as, and had emblazoned on their license plates, the Iodine State.  [Why iodine?]

The Black River Swamp Preserve is located near Andrews.  This slow-moving river is characterized by high concentrations of organic carbon, which accounts for the tea-colored water and gives rise to the diverse habitats in its widespread floodplain.  [It would be interesting to know how carbon affected life in the preserve.]

Every few years, the town of Irmo has a sighting of some kind of water monster that inhabits Lake Murray. The monster first ‘surfaced’ in 1973 when residents of Irmo and Ballentine saw a cousin of the Loch Ness Monster.  It was described in The Independent News in 1980 as “a cross between a snake and something prehistoric.”  [True or not, that is good for tourism.]

Bomb Island on Lake Murray each spring and summer is the home of a very unusual event.  Each year thousands of Purple Martins return to this island to roost for the summer. The island has been declared a bird sanctuary;  it is quite a sight to watch these birds return to Bomb Island each day around sunset.  [What is our equivalent in California?]

Diversity has its limits.  What better solutions would you propose to the one introduced below by Arizona state legislator Pearce?  

From the newsletter of Coalición de Derechos Humanos
by J. J. Herme, April 18, 2008

Arizona Proposal Would Prohibit Race-Based Student Groups  

An Arizona legislative committee has passed an amendment to a routine homeland-security bill that would prohibit students at the state's public universities and community colleges from organizing groups based on race.  The amendment was approved by the Arizona House Appropriations Committee on Wednesday.  It still awaits a vote by the state's full House and Senate.  

The amendment, introduced by State Rep. Russell K. Pearce, a Republican, would also allow state officials to withhold funds from public schools sponsoring activities that 'denigrate American values and the teachings of Western civilization.'  The proposal was added to Senate Bill 1108, a measure that has nothing to do with education but was intended to allow designees of mayors and police chiefs to serve on homeland-security advisory councils.  

'This bill basically says, 'You're here. Adopt American values,'' State Rep. John Kavanagh, a Republican, told The Arizona Republic. ''If you want a different culture, then fine, go back to that culture,'' he said.

Possible solutions which come to mind:  (1) students organize groups based on learning a culture or learning a language, (2) the state permit organizations which are race-based but which, as the primary goal, teach that race’s contribution to the betterment of humankind.  By the way, do you see the challenge in trying to define American values?

The Mormon fundamentalist cult in Texas is not in the news these days, but it is bothersome that the authorities acted so vehemently to a fraudulent call, as if looking for an excuse to raid the cult’s compound.  For one, the cultists have beliefs which are acceptable in other societies.  While such beliefs might be against the law here, that does not justify media-generated horror.  Also, any sizable community is going to have abuse, because that is the nature of us humans.  If, by comparison, there were a case of abuse at a public elementary school, would we see authorities isolate all the children from the adults?  Third, the assertion that the adults in the cult were brainwashed smacked of hypocrisy, given how advertising and political propaganda among us normal Americans get us to do things which are not in our better interest.

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.