Montebello E-News

June 26, 2008  

It is indeed an odd business that it has taken this Court nearly two centuries to discover a constitutional mandate to have counsel at a preliminary hearing.
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.  

[We talk about “inalienable rights”.  Should all of these rights have been obvious in 1776 or are some of these inalienable rights a product of the times, in which case can they be considered inalienable?]

1. Volunteering:  Good for Community or Good for Capitalism?   

2. Social-Impact Report, Part 1

3. Announcements

4. Fun Facts about South Dakota

5. The Flashback Quarterback:  See No Evil, Hear No Evil   

6. Be Aware and Share:  Too Good to Be True   

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

Volunteering:  Good for Community or Good for Capitalism?

This month [May] take the time to consider how you could involve some of the older citizens in your community in your service-learning projects. "Every week thousands of older Americans give back to their communities by volunteering through groups like Senior Corps. From teaching young children how to read, to helping provide relief to those affected by natural disasters, seniors play an important and compassionate role in our Nation."  This from a Proclamation by President Bush declaring May, 2008, “Older American's Month”. Read the entire proclamation here:  http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2008/04/20080423-2.html . ...  From K-12 SL listserv, May 3, 2008.  

An announcement like this is heartwarming.  But there is a nagging thought:  do we promote voluntarism because it is good for the community or good for capitalism?

Yes, our immediate answer is the former, but that does not soothe the soul.  The nagging thought continues.  

Is our government promoting voluntarism because it is good for capitalism, that is, volunteers will do with their time what capitalists will not do with their money?  From a business’ standpoint, is it not a better business deal for a business to give away $1,000,000 in awards to volunteers instead of paying $100,000,000 in taxes?  

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.     How can older Americans help in their communities?

(a)   Teaching children to read.

(b)  Assisting with disaster relief.  

2. What is the nagging thought?

(a) That voluntarism is not enough to address the ills of Montebello.

(b) That voluntarism is supported by businesses as a substitute for their paying taxes.

When most companies close the year, they assess their financial performance and thank their customers for sales. While we definitely succeeded on that dimension this year with over 1,000 retail locations across the United States and 300% sales growth, our far more important impact was increasing the quality of life for thousands of women and children across the globe – and we want to thank you for making that possible.  ...
Priya Haji, Co-founder and CEO
“World of Good” Social-Impact Report 2006, http://www.worldofgood.com/impact/index.shtml  

A “social-impact report”?  We have heard of “environmental-impact report”;  for example, one has to be filed with regard to the disposition of our Montebello Hills before a decision be made about the hills.  

What would a social-impact report, a “SIR”, contain?  

The quote above gives a glimpse of what a SIR would contain.  At the same time, a SIR could not be as definitive as an environment-impact report, because the latter is often based on empirical science, while a SIR would be based less on empiricism.  For example, how would one predict happiness if a particular change were to occur, like leaving the Montebello Hills undeveloped or, to the contrary, developing the hills?  

Well-documented history could help give credence to SIR, provided that we remembered the E-News essay which compared history to a secular faith, that is, history would always be suspect to some extent, in part because we could not gather all the accurate and all the relevant data upon which to draw conclusions.  For example, if we looked at the immigration of Europeans to the New World in the eighteenth, nineteenth, and twentieth centuries, we could predict and have some confidence that people with similar backgrounds and a similar purpose, supported by superior weaponry, settling upon relatively open lands, with large potential for development, would produce similar results sociologically, namely, the United States as it was and now is.  

Having an SIR would be strongly opposed by businesses and, perhaps, by government, because the consequences of business and government decisions would have to be analyzed and a report issued, this report delaying, perhaps canceling, a project on the drawing board.  As is it, an environment-impact report would be a burden.  A SIR would more than double that burden because social impact would not be as quantifiable.  

Would an SIR be more trouble than it was worth?  In coming parts to this essay, let us imagine what a SIR would say about certain activities, planned or in progress, in our society.

FOR EVERYONE.  Happy birthday.  On June 28, 2008, the community is invited to a Fandango [a kind of lively Spanish dance or music] celebrating the two hundredth anniversary of the birth of Juan Matias Sanchez.  The Fandango will be held at Adobe Park, 946 North Adobe Avenue, Montebello, from noon to 7:00 p.m.  There will be old fashion Californio music and dancing (possible dance lessons), a special Gabrieleno Indian presentation (the real thing), butter making, black smithing.  There will be various period re-enactors.  There will be a costume contest for the "best dressed" Californio.  To top things off we will have an old fashioned Californio barbeque.  The event is free, but for the food and drink, bring money.  For more information, Gary Brougher, gbrougher@sbcglobal.net.  

FOR EVERYONE.  Commission meeting.  The Montebello City Planning Commission is holding its regularly-scheduled meeting on Tuesday, July 1, 2008, at 7 p.m. at city hall.  The meeting is open to the public.  For more information, 323.887.1200. 

FOR EVERYONE.  Commission meeting.  The Montebello Traffic Safety Commission is holding its regularly-scheduled meeting on Wednesday, July 2, 2008, at 7 p.m. at city hall.  The meeting is open to the public.  For more information, 323.887.1200.  

FOR EVERYONE.  Winter is a threatened season?  From BBC, Wednesday, June 18, 2008.  Arctic sea ice is melting even faster than last year, despite a cold winter.  Data from the US National Snow and Ice Data Center... shows that the year began with ice covering a larger area than at the beginning of 2007.  But now it is down to levels seen last June, at the beginning of a summer that broke records for sea ice loss.  Scientists on the project say that much of the ice is so thin that it melts easily, and the Arctic may be ice-free in summer within five to 10 years. …  

Sculptor Gutzon Borglum began drilling into the 6,200-foot Mount Rushmore in 1927.  

Creation of the Shrine to Democracy took fourteen years and cost a mere $1 million, though it is now deemed priceless.  

The faces of George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Theodore Roosevelt, and Abraham Lincoln are sculpted into Mount Rushmore, the world’s greatest mountain carving.  

Fossilized remains of life fifty million years ago have been arranged in unusual forms, which is Lemmon’s mark of distinction at the world’s largest petrified wood park.

South Dakota is the home of the Dakota, Lakota and Nakota tribes, which make up the Sioux Nation.

Custer State Park is home to a herd of one thousand five hundred free-roaming bison.  Bison can weigh as much as 2,000 pounds. Historically, the bison played an essential role in the lives of the Lakota (Sioux), who relied on the “tatanka” for food, clothing and shelter.  [Who remembers Kevin Costner saying “tatanka” in “Dancing with Wolves” as he tries to tell a tribe of Indians that there are bison nearby?]

Jewel Cave is the third-longest cave in the world.  More than one hundred twenty miles of passages have been surveyed.  Calcite crystals that glitter when illuminated give the cave its name.

The Crazy Horse mountain carving now in progress will be the world’s largest sculpture, 563’ high, 641’ long, carved in the round.  It is the focal point of an educational and cultural memorial to and for the North American Indian.  

The Mammoth Site of Hot Springs contains the largest concentration of Columbian and woolly mammoth bones discovered in their primary context in the world!  This National Natural Landmark is the only in-situ, that is, bones left as found, display of fossil mammoths in  America.  

The Flaming Fountain on South Dakota State Capitol Lake is fed by an artesian well with natural gas content so high that it can be lit.  The fountain glows perpetually as a memorial to all veterans.  

Mato Paha “Sacred Mountain” is the origin of many Native American legends.  Rising one thousand four hundred feet above the surrounding prairie near Sturgis, and standing all by itself, Bear Butte is not hard to find.  It was used as a landmark by the plains Indians and even today it is considered sacred by the plains peoples.

Black Hills National Cemetery, “The Arlington of the West”, is a final resting place of our nation’s veterans.  

For millions of years, Split Rock Creek near Garretson cut deep gorges through Palisades State Park.  Geologists say the Sioux quartzite spires are 1.2 billion years old!  Glaciers deposited a thin layer of debris atop the quartzite.  Beds of dark red pipestone can be found between the layers.  This is one of the few areas in the nation where pipestone is found.  The mineral is considered sacred by American Indians.  

Do we know anything about the No Nothing Party?  That they stole a gift made by the Pope to the United States , namely, a stone to be included in the construction of the Washington Monument ?  Do we not have similar fears these days, but directed at other groups?  

The Know Nothing movement was a nativist American political movement of the 1850s.  It was empowered by popular fears that the country was being overwhelmed by Irish Catholic immigrants, who were often regarded as hostile to American values and controlled by the Pope in Rome.  Mainly active from 1854–56, it strove to curb immigration and naturalization, though its efforts met with little success.  There were few prominent leaders, and the largely middle-class and Protestant membership fragmented over the issue of slavery, most often joining the Republican Party by the time of the 1860 presidential election.  

The movement originated in New York in 1843 as the American Republican Party. It spread to other states as the Native American Party and became a national party in 1845. In 1855 it renamed itself the American Party. The origin of the "Know Nothing" term was in the semi-secret organization of the party. When a member was asked about its activities, he was supposed to reply, "I know nothing."  Wikipedia, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Know_Nothing.  

... the GSS [General Social Survey of 2000] also revealed that people who said that they felt completely or very free were twice as likely to say that they were very happy about their lives as those who felt only a moderate degree of freedom, not much, or none at all. Even when holding income, sex, education, race, religion, politics, and family status constant, we find that people who felt free were about 18 percentage points more likely than others to say that they were very happy.  

...To begin with, those who favor less government intervention in our economic affairs are happier than those who favor more. When asked in 2004 whether it was the government’s responsibility to improve the living standards of Americans, 26 percent of those who agreed called themselves very happy, versus 37 percent who disagreed. When asked in 1996 whether it should be “the government’s responsibility to keep prices under control,” those who said it “definitely should be” were a quarter less likely to say that they were very happy than those who said it “definitely should not be.” ...  From http://www.city-journal.org/2008/18_2_happy_people.html.  

A role of government is to protect people from the excesses of capitalism.  But if less government intervention means that more people are happy, are we compelled to conclude that the happiness of the many is the unhappiness of the few, because some people surely will use freedom under capitalism to exploit their neighbors?  That there is no way to make everyone happy, because the more government pulled back, the more people would be exploited and, therefore, made unhappy?

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.