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Montebello E-News

  July 15, 2009

The best servants of the people, like the best valets, must whisper unpleasant truths in the master's ear. It is the court fool, not the foolish courtier, whom the king can least afford to lose.

Walter Lippman

 (Woah.)

1. Announcements

2. Mi Katil Meghr (A Drop of Honey)

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

“I love Lemonade Day!”  What a fun idea which we could do in Montebello.  Check it out at http://www.lemonadeday.org.

Help for grandparents.  Challenges from low vision and blindness affect all ages, but more so older people.  On June 26, I took my father to a nearly event sponsored by the Braille Institute, where he received information and bought a magnifying glass.  The presenter told us that a staffer from the Dayle McIntosh Center would come to a person’s house and, among other things, would program the television remote control.  For more information for any age, contact the Braille Institute at 323.663.1111, extension 1188.

A labor of love.  E-News does not print the debate over the fate of the Montebello Hills, but will gladly list hyperlinks to material posted online.  One Montebelloan has made quite a list of such hyperlinks, which can be seen at www.mymontebello.com/hills.htm.  You are invited to add to that list.

Another step in the right direction.  Our city has a master calendar at its Web site, for city events, http://www.cityofmontebello.com/cals/default.asp.  Somebody did a fine job.  If community events could be posted there or, alternatively, if the calendar template could be made available for a community calendar at another Web site, that would be yet another step in the right direction.  By the way, there is a free concert in Montebello Park every Thursday;  information is available from the city calendar.

More from our library.  There is a summer program for teenagers.  There is one for children, too.  Enjoy great books and special programs at Montebello Library this summer.  Win prizes by playing our exciting reading game.  Children in grades K-8 can read one book to get a game booklet and become a member of the Reading Club.  Younger children and babies are able to join if their parents read to them!  Sign-ups for all ages start Monday, June 22, 2009.  (It is not too late.)  There is something special every Thursday at 3 p.m.  The next one is on Thursday, July 16, “Lizard Boy and His Mobile Reptile Zoo”, and the Thursday events keep going through August 20, 2009.  For more information, 323.722.6551.

A visually beautiful movie about the Earth.  My DSL could not handle it, but I liked what I could see.  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jqxENMKaeCU

What technology can do.  You can call an 800 number and leave a voice mail for a legislator about a bill which you support or oppose.  That message is then conveyed to the legislator.  For example, the Union of Concerned Scientists asks that we support AB 1404 in Sacramento, to reduce pollution.  To support AB 1404, we call toll free 1-888-408-9513, then dial extension 130 to leave a personal message for Senator Ron Calderon.

Are we doing this in Montebello?  We can be bringing money into Montebello in a new way.  See http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/10/world/americas/10degrees.html?_r=1  .  ... TransMilenio last year became the only large transportation project approved by the United Nations to generate and sell carbon credits. ...

Mi Katil Meghr is an Armenian tale, somewhere between a fable and an allegory.  In short, the tale is about how a mountain is made out of a molehill.  We almost had that in Montebello, beginning on Sunday, June 28, when a neighbor called Montebello police—on the business line—to report a leaking outdoor faucet at Washington Elementary.  Another neighbor reduced the leak considerably by capping it.  But nobody shut off the leak for another week, even though the leak was reported to the school-district office and the school office in the meantime.  Up to 2,000 gallons was lost.  One neighbor thought of billing the school district, but did not do so when, eight days after the leak was reported, she noticed that the leak had been stopped.  The inability or unwillingness of our school district to enlist neighbors to watch after our schools is an issue which persists.