The Valley Viewpoint

When I think back over my career, perhaps the strangest and most difficult 10 years I spent was the time that I was working at Electronic Data Systems (EDS).
A big, fast paced company where your worth to the organization was measured everyday and if you were not producing or lucky enough to be picked up on the latest reveunue producing contract, you were gone. Now, in EDS terms, that meant you were free to “seek out” assignments in the hopes of being picked up. It made for an environment that was stressful, backbiting and very difficult. The organization, in many ways, had many people who demonstrated the classic traits of psychopaths: superficial charm, grandiosity, and self-importance; a need for constant stimulation, a penchant for lying, deception, and manipulation, and the inability to feel remorse or guilt. Then I found myself to a team run by Greg Holowach. Greg ran the Towers Perrin account out of Philadelphia. Simply put, and as I reflect on working for Greg, I’m reminded that those who are best suited to power are those who have never sought it. He was one of most humble and sincere individuals I ever knew. EDS was an enviroment where the command structure was top-heavy with guys who looked good in uniform and talked right and did well enough not to embarrass themselves, while the really good ones quietly did all the serious work and bailed out their superiors and got blamed for errors they had advised against until they eventually got out. Greg was one of the really good ones. The guy who bailed others out; who made his bosses look good. All the while making sure that those who were on his team were taken care of…… were protected. During my time in Philly, working for Greg, a family member of mine was killed. Greg called me every day that I was out on leave. ‘Ed, what do you need, what can I do’?
I would have run through walls for him. Courage. Kindness. Friendship. Character. These are the qualities that define us as human beings, and propel us, on occasion, to greatness. Greg had all of these traits in abundance. He arrived at greatness early on.
So, I wanted to let those who follow my posts that we lost a good man and the world will be a little less richer for it, but I do believe that Greg is now home and we’ll see him again……God speed, Holowach.

San Francisco decriminalized public defecation, but criminalized plastic straws. While bench warrants for public urination are discarded, the straw fines are real and expensive. A California statewide bill goes further with a threat of six months in the county jail for giving a man a straw. When drugs are legal and straws aren’t, the Mexican cartels will soon switch to smuggling drinking straws into California.

Why ban straws? Because straws, according to the San Francisco ordinance, “may threaten public health” and are bad for the environment? Piles of human waste in the street are great for public health and the environment. But a Chicago medical association disagreed and cancelled its planned conference in San Fransisco.

When Chicago thinks your city is dirty and dangerous hellhole, you really have a problem.

One of the joys of parenthood is, simply, enjoying the passage of time. I’ve always been fortunate that I can talk about, almost anything with my daughter and, while I admit, I sometimes squirm when the topic of conversation is no longer toys or the Spice Girls or high school and becomes one of relationships, I’m glad that I’m there to offer whatever limited advice I can give. So, here goes: When you find a guy who calls you beautiful instead of hot, who calls you back when you hang up on him, who will stand in front of you when other’s cast stones, or will stay awake just to watch you sleep, who wants to show you off to the world when you are in sweats, who will hold your hand when your sick, who thinks your pretty without makeup, the one who turns to his friends and says, ‘that’s her’, the one that would bear your rejection because losing you means losing his will to live, who kisses you when you screw up, watches the stars and names one for you, that’s the guy you may want to keep around. I think it’s pretty good advice…….

In his first public statement from prison, Bill Cosby said he will never have remorse for his crimes and called himself a political prisoner. “My political beliefs, my actions of trying to humanize all races, genders and religions landed me in this place surrounded by barb wire fencing, a room made of steel and iron,” the comedian said in a statement released through his press spokesman, Andrew Wyatt. Cosby, 81, also noted that his cell at SCI Phoenix, the prison outside Philadelphia where he is serving his sentence, “resembles the quarters of some of the Greatest Political Prisoners — Martin Luther King Jr., Mahatma Gandhi, Nelson Mandela, Randal Robinson, and Dr. Benjamin Chavis.” Really??

Ash Wednesday Pelosi. This is the same woman who called the Trump administration hypocrites and urged “right thinking” Republicans to bring an end to what she called the “un-American activities that is being put forth by the President of the United States, by the Republicans in congress, and by this Attorney General”, specific to illegal immigration. She went further and said: “For this administration to pose as people of faith and pose as people who care about family and children is of a height of hypocrisy that knows no bounds’. Sort of like wearing ashes and supporting abortion up to the moment of birth. The only vice that cannot be forgiven is hypocrisy. The repentance of a hypocrite is itself hypocrisy

Several weeks ago, the head of the NY Jesuit Province released the names of his fellow Jesuits who were credibly accused of the sexual abuse of minors over the past 50 years.

Having been educated by the Jesuits myself, I wrote the NY Province. Here’s my letter:

John Cecero SJ’s letter regarding the release the of the names of Jesuits from the Northeast Province contains the unbelievable sentence ‘We did not know any best practices to handle these violations many decades ago and regrettably made mistakes along the way’. Tell me, what’s the right ‘best practice’ for child rape? Wouldn’t a ‘best practice’ have been to report this as the crime it was? John’s use of this term, in my opinion is right up there with his fellow Jesuit Provincial from Oregon when he wrote a letter that compared the ‘humiliation’ he was feeling when his Province was sued by Alaskan villagers for the sex abuse they suffered for over 20 years by Jesuits of his Province to the humiliation that Christ must have felt at Gethsemane. Really? Christ suffering at Gethsemani was not because he abused children. I find it incredible that this provincial would dare to equate Christ’s humiliation to the humiliation that he felt because of what his fellow Jesuits did to children. I find the same incredulity with John’s ‘Best Practice’ comment. Healing from this event will only occur when those in Jesuit leadership positions can finally admit that they were aware of what many of their colleagues were doing; that the culture of the priesthood that they were trained in actively ignored this problem and that the real ‘humiliation’ the Oregonian Provincial wrote about stems from the fact that he, or other Jesuits in leadership positions, knew about what was going on and chose not to do anything. Unfortunately, that was the ‘Best Practice’ that these guys chose to follow. Several years ago, I wrote Tom Smolich SJ, the then California Provincial, concerning the abuse uncovered in California. To my surprise, I received a reply which really was nothing more than a tepid apology and his feeling that God had ‘opened this door up for a reason’. I can also remember showing and discussing this correspondence with a Jesuit who I had deep respect for. Again, to my surprise, he stated that he ‘didn’t understand my anger or correspondence’. Sadly, this is the last time that I spoke to him. I don’t know if the publishing of these names will do any good. In many respects, I feel that the culture of secrecy that allowed these priests to continue their abuse has destroyed the trust and respect that I know I once had. I remain very conflicted. On one hand, I thank my family for the sacrifices they made in sending me to Jesuit institutions. In a submission that I submitted and was run through Xavier’s Alumni Magazine, I wrote of the Jesuits who played a profound role in my life and that of my uncle who was also a Xavier High School man. I feel it is an injustice to the memory of Vin Duminuco SJ, who I referenced, among others, in that submission, to see that he’s buried right next to Roy Drake, a confirmed pedophile, at the Jesuit cemetery in Auriesville. I condemn the Jesuits in leadership positions for knowing that the abuse was occurring and the ‘best practice’ they used was silence. Make no mistake, they knew. They employed legal arguments to shield their assets. Sadly, John’s letter again brings my anger to the surface. It raised the same feelings of disbelief when I took the time to read the legal briefs that outlined the Jesuit’s defense in the Alaskan sex abuse claims. If you’re not familiar with it, the Jesuits attempted to use the legal strategy of declaring schools and universities run by the Jesuits in the Province that oversaw Alaska as not being owned or operated as part of the order. Known now as the ‘Gonzaga Argument’, this desperate attempt to shield assets, as one editorialist wrote, is like arguing that Pontiac is not part of the General Motors Corporation. I hope that the release of these names brings closure to those who are conflicted about their faith because of this abuse. I know that it doesn’t for me. It just makes me angrier. Healing from this will only occur when these Provincials can finally admit that they were aware of what their colleagues were doing; that the culture of the priesthood that they were trained in actively ignored this problem and that the real ‘humiliation’ that one Provincial wrote about stems from the fact that he and other Jesuits in leadership positions, knew about what was going on and chose not to do anything.

When one of your friends tells you that they are ‘progressives’, have this outline ready:

Progressivism is merely the current euphemism for centralized power vested in a class of people who believe their own propaganda, or know it is a lie but tell it anyway. It is not enough merely to note that it has failed every time it has been tried. It must also be said that it has done irreparable damage to humanity wherever it has been practiced. Progressivism is human vice incarnate, the indulgence and celebration of the erasure of the constraints that human experience and wisdom have devised to limit evil. The name has been changed to protect the guilty.

Historically, before the current iteration that we are witnessing in the United States, the quest by elitists for unlimited power over their fellow men, pursued initially under the guise of peaceful change, has usually progressed from societal “improvements” and the well-intended promise of social benefit, to oppression, persecution, and murder. The time line may vary, some are more sudden and violent, some more gradual and subtle, but the outcome has always been the same: the dominance of rulers over the ruled, with all rights and possessions, including life, sacrificed to appease to the insatiable hunger of a soulless state and its foolish enablers.

Along the way, what is lost is immeasurable. Human freedom, the right of each individual to live a life determined by his own needs, skills, and choices, bounded by laws which recognize the need of ethical limits on our interactions, dissolves or, more accurately, is banned. The progressive understands that the usurpation of total control cannot be achieved where humans are permitted to make informed decisions based on accurate information. Thus, it is necessary first to alter the flow and content of the information on which individuals make decisions which, in its totality, directs events that promote one outcome over another. As such, every repressive regime has depended upon disinformation, presented as “news”, meant to shape opinion to favor the illusory virtues of the regime. The success of this process increases in direct proportion to the cultivated pollution of the knowledge of the people.

A significant tool in this arsenal of fraud is the appeal to “science”. After all, the progressive argues, “science” is independent of motives or partisan influence. Only a troglodyte disagrees with “science”. The progressive needs you to believe that the science he has bought is pure and true, and is only what he says it is. Science has always been sacrificed on the altar of total power.

Beware those who speak of “settled science”, and are prepared to act on that conclusion. It was settled science to some that the Jews were genetically inferior. Similarly, those who have historically favored the oppression and servitude of blacks have implicitly invoked settled science to advance the inherent lie that as a people they are genetically incapable of equality on their own, and that a paternalistic hand is necessary to compensate for their historic deficiencies. While this was done in the past to keep them in literal bondage, it is done now to keep them in philosophical bondage, dependent upon the entitlements given to them by their political keepers.

Global warming is merely the latest scientific straw man to walk the stage, dressed in invisible clothes and armed with self-righteous indignation and the power of the state. It’s always about control, and is always based on lies. When people stop believing the lies progressives tell to control their choices and behavior, and refuse to grant them power in the name of false benevolence and phony virtue, the spell will be broken. Of course, this simply cannot be allowed.

The problem, as serious Americans grasp, is that there is nowhere else we can go if progressivism completely destroys freedom here. The rest of the world has already succumbed. For generations, others have fled here when like-minded zealots destroyed their countries, because this was someplace else to go, a haven of freedom left on Earth in which a person could not only survive, but advance, on hard work and merit. Now, many of them voice their fear that this magnificent country to which they have fled is becoming increasingly familiar to what they left behind. There is no place left like the United States as it was before the cancer of progressivism.
Progressives intend that the “land of opportunity” shall become the land of servitude. With their backs against the last wall, threatened with mass destruction of all they know and love, some citizens will surrender to the inevitability of serfdom that progressives have always planned for them, despite the evidence and lessons of history. Others, Americans who recognize the danger and cherish what is threatened and will not be regained, will defend themselves, their families and their future. Before 2008, not many of us ever thought we’d have to confront that choice in our lifetimes. Now, only a few short years later, it is on our doorstep.

Look what has already been lost because we have failed thus far to defuse the destructive power of progressivism, and the historic malice or complicity of its proponents, both left and right. The hour is late and the opportunities are shrinking rapidly. It is our time to defeat progressivism, or it will surely destroy all we hold dear as free Americans.

With a little hint of Spring in the air today and seeing that the local bicycle shop in Pleasant Valley had their great inventory out for sale today, I wanted to repost this message that I wrote last May.

Tonight, as I was making my way home, I saw a pure reminder of childhood. As the evening rush hour traffic crawled east on 44 right before West Road, right in front of the bicycle shop, I saw a girl about 10 years old whose was walking a brand new bike to her parents car. She could not contain her excitement as the bike was being placed in the back of her Dad’s car. She was waving to the cars that were waiting to turn onto West Rd. The smile on her face was so broad. I’m happy that I saw this. The truth of life is that every year we get farther away from the essence that is born within us. We get shouldered with burdens, some of them good, some of them not so good. Things happen to us. Loved ones die. People get sick and get crippled. People lose their way, for one reason or another. It’s not hard to do, in this world of crazy mazes. Life itself does its best to take that memory of magic away from us. You don’t know it’s happening until one day you feel you’ve lost something but you’re not sure what it is.
It just happens.
These memories of who I was and where I lived are important to me. They make up a large part of who I’m going to be when my journey winds down. I need the memory of magic and I’m glad that there was a little girl and her new bike that made me see and remember that magic.

While many if not most illegal aliens are decent people and are only illegally in the United States to provide for themselves or their families – an action that does not justify breaking the immigration laws of the United States – all of them are not decent and many are responsible for shocking crimes and incredible damage to families all across the America.
Most everybody remembers the tragedy in New Jersey where illegal aliens wantonly killed three students and seriously injured another. A few people even remember that Jamiel Shaw was gunned down by an illegal alien gang member. However, very few people remember or even know that four year old Esmeralda Nava was kidnapped, molested, and strangled to death by an illegal alien child predator. The perpetrator that killed little Esmeralda told police that he carried the girl with one arm and muffled Esmerelda’s cries for her daddy with his other hand ‘’until she stopped moving.’’ Almost nobody knows that the illegal alien sexual pervert that used and abused little Esmeralda Nava had been previously deported.
Who remembers Min Soon Chang, an eighteen year old freshman at the University of North Carolina who was killed by a drunk driving illegal alien? In that case the perpetrator had at least three prior DWI convictions and had been previously DEPORTED 17 times. That is not a typo.
Who besides her family even know, let alone remember, that Danielle Gorectke, a vivacious 23 year old student at University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point was raped and beaten to death by an illegal alien?
Each one of these tragedies devastated an American family, and I could go on and on with more equally horrific stories.
Each one of these tragedies was totally preventable if the perpetrator was not illegally residing in the United States.
Excluding breaking the immigration laws of the United States and committing ID theft and fraud, do illegal aliens commit more crime than legal immigrants? Probably, but nobody really knows. Do illegal aliens commit more crime than citizens? Most likely, but nobody really knows.
What we do know is that the Justice Department does not report crimes committed by foreign nationals, illegal aliens, or even Hispanics (about 80% of illegal aliens are Hispanic.). Interestingly, the DOJ does, however, report crimes committed against Hispanics, including illegal alien Hispanics, but will not distinguish if the perpetrator was Hispanic themselves. (Crimes committed by Hispanics, including illegal alien Hispanics, go into the “Caucasian” category as “Hispanic” is an ethnicity, not a race.)
While no crime is ever justified and racially motivated crimes are particularly onerous in a civilized society, the reporting is a one way street supporting the common perception that “illegal aliens are just good family values people that are here to do the work Americans won’t.” When the government does not report crimes committed by illegal aliens, who are mostly Hispanic, but does report “hate crimes” committed against Hispanics it further distorts perceptions.
The blood of these innocents and many more are on the hands of the Open-Borders extremists—the Raza mouthpieces, the immigration lawyers, the journalists who crank out sob stories about lawbreakers. They work to overthrow our system of law and borders for their own selfish reasons, while the number of dead killed by illegal aliens continues to mount. Yet the Open-Borders enablers act like they are on the side of virtue. Why is that?
The Open Borders side is guilty of more crimes than treason. They must be held to account

Thanks for joining me!

Good company in a journey makes the way seem shorter. — Izaak Walton