Remember the Neediest

National attention is turning dramatically to filling the needs of the disabled. Both Washington, D.C. and Sacramento saw demonstrations and testimony by those who are requesting continued – if not enlarged – share of the budget for our voiceless handicapped citizens. Gateway Center for the Developmentally Disabled in Pacific Grove has a new lease on life as it plans to implement a remodeling of the facility to meet the new government standards. Requested to separate the clients into smaller living groups, it will be dividing its facility, but will keep the property with its admirable mission. Thanks to a generous donor, a feasibility study for the remodeling was undertaken and steps are underway to follow their suggestions. Family members of the residents are pleased with the progress being made. And the Monterey Peninsula will continue to serve some of its neediest residents.

Hitler, Middlebrook & the Media

Adolf Hitler was freely elected by the German majority. Unlike many dictators from the right or the left, he did not come into power by force. His ascension to absolute rule in Nazi Germany is the salient lesson as to why democracy is not inherently noble. Hitler’s reign of terror reflected the mob-rule mentality of the deranged majority mindset of Germans in that era that wanted war and the “final solution” for Jews.

Most Americans today erroneously equate democratic rule with loftier values. Any democracy is only as noble as the level and depth of the enlightenment of its electorate. As this pertains to choices for Supreme Court justices, it should never be about ethnicity, gender or political affiliation. America must have a Supreme Court that is balanced, rational, sensible and compassionate. Our Supreme Court must always strive to protect minority interests when those interests are rational, and defend the majority interests when they are rational. Our Supreme Court must be both liberal and conservative, male and female, and reflect the rich ethnic diversity of America, but none of those distinctions and qualities should take priority to a Supreme Court that truly understands and respects life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.

P.S. The Pagrovian Phantom Pen (who, me?) has transcended the local rags. My letter about Dylan made it into the May 25 issue of Time, and my letter to National Geographic about nudist Neanderthals made it into the February issue. I’m putting America’s “Lost” Hometown on the international map.