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Next Week...
February 14 -
Spouse's Day
Sue Hodson, Curator of Literary Manuscripts, Huntington Library and our own Curt Smith, "Smith on Wry: Jack Smith, Columnist for Our Times"
Upcoming Meetings...
February 21
Dan Hildebrand
Eco-Shell Buildings
February 28
Craft Talks
Lorin Ruttenberg and Aly Shoji
Upcoming Events...
February 17
Sweetheart Valentine Brunch
Lawry's Beverly Hills, 12:30pm
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This Week...
LORES RIZKALA Tells It Like It Is, WVRC on February 7th
In a true feat of Executive Ledger main, President CHRIS appointed himself to lead the Pledge. As he was about to start, he discovered that he was facing the California Flag. This being corrected, he did everything else right, By Golly! That brought up LENNY. Who elected You’re A Grand Old Flag. Curt Smith provided a thoughtful Invocation, which he assured us was first OK’ed by the Reverend JOHN WOODALL. The original material was provided by Michael R. Harvey, and CURT’S summation follows.
An Invocation is an appeal for guidance, a call, a petition, to positive action. Our Constitution commits us to the separation of state and church – a core value. History teaches us that the rights and accomplishments of humanity are the results of its past struggles. We therefore invoke this Club and all of its leaders to be guided and inspired by the invaluable lessons of history. Raise your heads and open your eyes to recognize and fully understand the problems before you – solutions to human problems can come only from human beings. Well done, Curt!
There were several spouses and other guests. LENNY was with SUNNY, BRIAN BUMPAS brought Duke Russell, who spoke later in the meeting. BOB LUSK was accompanied by his wife of 60 years, Cindy – and after he admitted that she had once been one of his students, various unsolicited comments were heard…PP STEVE SCHERER was with Randy Harris, another attorney, and the son of Caroline and BRUCE HARRIS.
Chernobrovina Svetlana, who belongs to a Rotary Club in Siberia, brought along her friend Rahata Abicdaeva.
Katia Vaisberg brought along two Rotaract members, Nikkole Valdez and Rebecca Mendoza.
Curt Russell then came forward to remind us all of the 16th Annual Abe Lincoln Remembrance, Feb 12th at noon at the LA National Cemetery in Westwood. This is an excellent event – give it a try, please.
At this point, PETER and SHIRLEY MORE came up to tell us about the Chinese New Year. Today is New Years Day #4706 in the Chinese calendar, the Year of the Rat. SHIRLEY, whose Chinese credentials are perhaps better developed than those of PETER, told of her own upbringing. This is the biggest holiday of the year, and many people receive packets of happy money – in some cases, enough cash arrives to provide spending money for the rest of the whole year! I note that the event is called Gong Xi Fa Chi, which I’m sure you will want to keep handy in case needed.
A quick reminder – the Sweetheart Brunch at Lawry’s is Feb 17th.
And being the first monthly meeting date, birthdays in February were celebrated. LEO TSENG claims Shanghai, China, on the 3rd. LENNY FRIEDMAN liked the 8th, in Chicago. ART HENRY chose the 11th, way back in Cambridge, Mass. KEVIN KOMATSU brought us back to California, in Fullerton on the 13th. PDG BILL GOODWYN liked Louisville, on the 23rd, and last was DONN CONNER, in Tulsa on the 25th. At this point, it emerged that LENNY was having a BIG birthday tomorrow – he will be NINETY! Some of the events taking place in his birth year of 1918 were, of course the World War, and on March 19th, Congress established Time Zones and Daylight Savings Time that same month. Sept 11th, the Boston Red Sox defeated the Chicago Cubs in the World Serious, and on November 11, The Armistice Agreement ending WWI was signed. LENNY reminded us that, in their family, SUNNY pushes all the buttons…
A quick update on our arrangements for parking with St. Albans Church. I turned in $110 today (some people pay in advance) but I would remind you that without a Rotary Pass, you are trespassing, and possibly subject to towing. Please – let’s use this as it was intended, since it is mutually beneficial for both the church and Rotary.
President CHRIS introduced our Speaker, Lores Rizkalla. She has spoken to us before, and hosts a radio talk show on KRLA on Sunday evening at 10 pm. You can reach her at (310) 365-7839. Lores was born in the US of Egyptian parents, and is an Evangelical Christian. She graduated from UCLA, and spent several years teaching history on the high school level. Lores identifies herself as a political junkie – she can’t get enough political information, rumor, or intrigue.
One of her concerns is the increasing effect that Political Correctness is having in our society. She doesn’t agree that we need to accommodate diverse laws – what we have are applied here, and trying to wedge in other legal systems (Sharia, for instance) doesn’t work, period. Lores is concerned that almost all of Europe is allowing some Islamic legalisms to become accepted, since this can only have serious counter-effects in the future.
She is openly ‘right of center’ in her political leanings. This of course encourages some pretty wild debate on her radio show. Her email address, by the way, is lores@loreslive.com. We have the beginnings of some Islamic influence at present, and she feels that it must not be allowed to increase – or even be allowed. There were a couple of audience questions – TONY MARRONE asked what her opinion of Mitt Romney dropping out of the race was. She didn’t agree with his doing it, but it was done, not as a quitter, but for the unity and good of the party. DON NELSON asked for her opinion on Barak Obama. He is certainly a charismatic speaker, and would represent change – but his lack of experience concerns her. You can have no doubt on where she stands, and that makes for active controversy both in her talk and on her radio show. Lores, thank you for being our speaker – it’s fun to get an unalloyed statement of political position!
President CHRIS leaves us with these words of wisdom, attributed to a Chinese Philosopher—some guy named Confucius: Wherever you go, go with all your heart.
