Montebello E-News  

September 27, 2007 

Better do a good deed near at home than go far away to burn incense.
Amelia Earhart, 1897 – 1937,
noted American aviation pioneer and women's rights advocate. 

[Is Earhart criticizing what we consider piety?  Is her statement applicable even when religion is not involved?] 

1.     The Montebello Ostrich Farm

2.     Gatekeepers They Are, Sleepers Are We, Part 6

3.     Announcements

4.     Fun Facts about Alabama

5.     The Flashback Quarterback about Taggers and President Bush

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

The Montebello Ostrich Farm 

If you watch Huell Howser on PBS, you might have learned that ostriches are raised in California.  Does Montebello have an ostrich farm? 

No.  But somebody might say that we were acting like ostriches.  As were most other communities in America.  

Though hurricane season is underway and September has been designated National Preparedness Month, fewer than one in 10 Americans are prepared for an emergency, the American Red Cross says.  

In a recent poll conducted for the Red Cross by Harris Interactive, the vast majority of people have yet to compile a disaster kit, make a plan and get informed, three steps the charity says are critical to preparedness.  

To help families get ready, the Red Cross has set up a free online tutorial that details the steps to readiness, and is offering a 10 percent discount on readiness products at its online store during September. ...

Of the Americans who do have a disaster kit, nine in 10 say they feel prepared, poll results say, but fewer than three in 10 people have yet to purchase or compile a kit. ... 

Overall, almost two in three Americans have no evacuation plan, the poll says.  From Philanthropy Journal, September 17, 2007.  

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.  Why analogize us Montebelloans to ostriches?

(a)  We have buried our heads in the sand when we should be doing something.

(b) Drinking milk has resulted in each succeeding generation being taller than its predecessor.  

2.  Knowing that this online lesson would have little effect on anybody doing anything, how do we motivate Montebelloans to prepare?

(a)  We make an urgent presentation to our city council. 

(b) We create a local currency so that we have money and we hold a prize-awarding contest to select the best prepared neighborhoods.  

3. Why should we make the effort to become prepared for emergencies, in light of all the other issues vying for our attention?

(a) Doing so keeps our neighborhoods from devolving into anarchy because some unprepared people, in desperation, would demand at the point of a gun that we share our emergency supplies.

(b) It would be foolish for us to expect that FEMA, the American Red Cross, and others would immediately arrive and save us.  

  "Quis custodiet ipsos custodes?” is a Latin phrase variously translated as "Who will guard the guards?", "Who watches the watchmen?", "Who shall watch the watchers themselves?", or similar.
 Decimus Iunius Iuvenalis,
known in English as “Juvenal,” was a Roman poet
active in the late first and early second century CE
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Juvenal 

The disconcerting conclusions from parts 1 through 4 of this essay were that there were many gatekeepers and that they held back our youth and us adults, that is, we missed opportunities.  In part 5 we considered solutions with which to overcome this big problem.  Here we consider a weakness in the solutions and a solution to that weakness.  (Are we dizzy yet?)  

Solutions in part 5 included increasing the number of gatekeepers.  While each of us has her / his limitations, the chances of youth and adults on the other side of the gate missing opportunities because of gatekeeper limitations decreases as the number of gatekeepers increases.  But the questions arises, “Who has the time to be a gatekeeper?”  

Our lives inexorably become busier.  It is expected that, to get ahead, one would work longer hours.  This is frightening because, unable to or unaccustomed to think outside the box, we feel helpless and fail to act.  When do we have the time to become gatekeepers who could and would connect youth and adults with opportunities? 

A solution to this weakness lies in our being paid to become gatekeepers.  Then our volunteer and leisure time becomes reprioritized and we have more gatekeepers.  

Easier said than done?  Whence would the money come?  Government is the bank of last resort, so the answer would not lie there.  However, there could be an answer at www.ithacahours.org .  Many communities have printed their own money.  Money could be printed and dedicated to specified uses to improve communities, in addition to serving as a local economic stimulus.  

What would it take to print money?  First, we would need several Montebelloans who acknowledged the problem of gatekeepers and were ready to do address the problem.  With such a group involved, printing money and then spending it to pay gatekeepers would become less difficult. 

FOR EVERYONE.  Come have dinner with us.  The Montebello Historical Society is having its annual fundraiser, an "Evening in Italy", on Thursday, October 4, 2007, at the Montebello Senior Center, 115 South Taylor Avenue, Montebello.  For a $15.00 donation you receive a complete spaghetti dinner.  For further information please call 323.887.4592.  Thank you for your support.  

FOR EVERYONE.  Dance, defend, shape up.  The Department of Parks and Recreation of our city has an extensive calendar of classes during October for children and adults.  Pre-ballet, beginning ballet, pre-tap dance, beginning tap dance, intermediate tap dance, pre hip-hop, hip-hop dance, intermediate hip-hop and jazz, youth beginning folklorico dance, técnica folklorica, folklorico;  little samurai karate, beginning karate, intermediate and advanced karate;  boot camp workout (exercises), senior heart and sole (low-impact aerobics).  The dance and martial-arts classes are to be at the Senior Citizen Center, while the exercise classes are divided between Montebello Intermediate School and the Cathy Hensel Youth Center.  For more information and to register, call 323.887.4540.  

FOR FAMILIES AND YOUTH.  After-school activities.  The After School Recreation Program is a free drop-in program open to youth ages 5 to 17.  It is available year-round at four of our city’s parks.  There are many fun activities, like arts and crafts, trips, games and special events.  Field trips are offered for free or very minimal cost.  Visit your local park site or call 323.887.4554 for more information.  

FOR EVERYONE.  Skate nights.  September 28, October 12, October 26, November 9, November 30, at the skate park in Montebello City Park.  Starting times vary.  For more information, call 323.887.4577.  

FOR YOUTH.  Knott’s Scary Farm.  Friday, October 5, from 4 p.m. to 11:30 p.m.  Ages 13 to 17 only.  $20 per person.  For more information, 323.887.4540.  Don’t wait till the last moment to register.  

Huntsville, Alabama, is known as the rocket capital of the world.  [Do the Russians agree?]  In 1956 the Army Ballistic Missile Agency was established at Huntsville’s Redstone Arsenal.  Alabama workers built the first rocket to put humans on the moon.      

Baseball player Henry Louis “Hank” Aaron was born in Mobile in 1934.

Boxer Joe Louis was born in Lexington in 1914.  Baseball player Willie Howard Mays was born in Westfield in 1931.  

http://www.fun-facts.com/item/85927  

No, the two are not connected.

It is disheartening, if not downright frightening, to witness mass paralysis as indicated in this opinion piece by Steve Lopez in the September 16, 2007, Los Angeles Times:  

“I am responding to the story about the second person recently killed by taggers.  A group of friends in our neighborhood used to commit ‘midnight acts of beautification,’ painting [over] tags and graffiti while someone stood guard with a cellphone…Now, of course…we are too afraid of being killed to do this any longer.” … 

“You don’t get to communicate here,” she said, adding that unchecked graffiti makes the taggers think they’ve conquered new turf. … 

Not long ago, Bob and Mary were walking their dogs at Hermon Park and saw a group of drunken young men brazenly tagging everything in sight.  It bugged them no end that they felt frozen by the fear of what might happen if they spoke up, and they knew at the same time that reporting it to the police or dialing 311 wouldn’t get a timely enough response to matter. … 

But Mary is afraid of the consequences and doubtful much can be accomplished without far greater muscle from the city, Caltrans and the police. 

Even then it would be tough.  The problem is also about education.  It’s about parenting.  It’s about the culture of violence.  Los Angeles has never found the right combination of law enforcement and prevention, and Mary is tired of standing in the dark with a can of paint, waiting for the infantry. … 

We have talked about the solution, beginning with empowering a community to take care of its problems without being hamstrung by ineffective “laws by consensus” from Sacramento or the city.  

Now we switch gears.  “From 1987 until 2006, Alan Greenspan was the chairman of the United States Federal Reserve Board, which oversees the Federal Reserve Bank, a private corporation chartered in 1913 by Congress and President Woodrow Wilson to service the nation's banks.”  Last week, Greenspan criticized President Bush in a new book.  Among the criticisms:  

I am saddened that it is politically inconvenient to acknowledge what everyone knows:  the Iraq war is largely about oil. 

A point made in an E-News essay was that we not believe people whom we did not know.  At the same time, we should note that when somebody as well known as Greenspan says something unexpected, it is almost like a defendant in court testifying against himself, thereby giving the testimony more credibility.  

Should we believe Greenspan?  No, but his making the statement should impel us to convene a group of friends and investigate the matter, more so because of the incomprehensible loss in lives and resources in Iraq and our continuing dependence on oil.  

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.