This Week...
LESLIE MARSHALL at WVRC on July 8th
ELLIOTT TURNER led the Pledge. JOHN WOODALL provided the Invocation.
“For the blessings of Fellowship at this table, for the blessing of food and for the blessings of life, we give you thanks, O God. Amen” Thanks, JOHN. LENNY came forward to explain that he wanted to do Smile and another song each week, but he had been overruled. While there is no point in questioning who was the author of these instructions, we did launch into America, and it came out well.
We did have one Visiting Rotarian, Paul Lioni from Santa Monica. There were of course guests – PEGGY was with her helper, Renaldo, and SUNNY was of course with LENNY. Early on, new member Terry de Souza was deputized to collect at least five bucks from whoever didn’t have their pin on. The culprits this time were JOHN WOODALL and DAVID FRIEDMAN, who although he had a long story of woe about difficulties in getting his pin in place, still had to pay the cash fine!
It was the second Thursday, and thus Birthday time! While the following members were asked to come forward, it wasn’t until they were all lined up that they were then called upon to announce their birth date. And this doesn’t provide the supposed place of arrival, so some adjustment is probably underway. But, Fear Not – drawing on my extensive and always-accurate records, here is the complete data! ED GAULD liked the 4th, as did HANK HEUER. With ED claiming Long Island City, and HENRY standing up for Yonkers. RICK CULLEN brought us back to Good Old LA on the 8th – that’s TODAY! – CLAWSON BLEAK leaned toward St. George, and you know that’s in Utah, on the 10th, while both PEGGY BLOOMFIELD and HENRY TSENG liked the 12th, but PEGGY stayed in Calfornia, specifically Oceanside, and HENRY of course claimed Yokahama, Japan. Someone named GORDON FELL insisted on the 18th, but at least he choose Los Angeles. YOSH SETOGUCHI liked LA as well, but preferred the 19th. The aforementioned DAVID FRIEDMAN snuck in via Santa Monica on the 22nd. ALY SHOJI liked the 23RD, in nearby Hawthorne, but TOM BARRON insisted on the 25th in Pasadena. SALLY PHILLIPS liked the 29th, in Cooperstown, ND, and JACK PAUL contended he arrived on the 31st back in LA. TERRY M WHITE claimed the 31st also, but settled for Santa Monica.
The Auxiliary Fun Party is coming up on August 28th at the home of PEGGY BLOOMFIELD. It will be a real Hoedown, with all the trimmings. ROZ and DON are in charge, and plans are underway. Cost will be $40, and they are expecting up to 60 guests, so get your check in soon to MARGIE DOWNIE. And while you are writing MARGIE, note that the Auxiliary Roster will be coming out soon.
Please make any corrections or additions before the deadline of August 1st.
President GORDON had a couple of ‘date similarities’ which of course we all knew the answers to…First, on this date (July 8th, that is) in what year was the first reading of the Declaration of Independence to the Public? And I’m sure it will help you answer when you realize that the reader was Col. John Nixon! STEVE PETTISE boomed out the answer, that being 1776. Next up was a bit tougher – when was the City of Paris founded? ELLIOTT, somehow, was closest with 1100, but the actual year was 951!
PP CHRIS BRADFORD introduced our Speaker, Leslie Marshall. She is a native of Boston and has been a radio personality for more than 20 years. She has specialized in political punditry on national TV for the past 7 years. Her radio show is nationally syndicated, and she regularly appears on the Fox News Channel, CNBC, CNN and MSNBC. Leslie is now a Fox News Contributor and appears every Tuesday on “American Live with Megyn Kelly” on Fox News and “Money Rocks” on Fox Business; every Thursday (starting 7/22) on “America’s Nightly Scoreboard” on Fox Business; and every Friday on the highest rated cable news show – “The O’Reilly Factor” on Fox News. As a talk show host, Leslie has shown that she’s hard to define. While sometimes pigeon-holed as a liberal, she’s skillfully debated both Conservatives and Liberals, and it’s clear that she frequently shows an independent streak. Leslie encourages all opinions from her radio callers, and describes her radio show as “The only true democracy in talk radio.” Sounds like fun!
Leslie began by commenting that she was very glad we asked her to speak, rather than sing (and LENNY will have to explain that, of course). She enjoys Rotarian audiences, because they are responsive (did anyone warn her about ERIC, or ELLIOTT?) She was asked to talk about our frustrations with Washington, and notes that we sometimes forget that we aren’t two countries, Democrats and Republicans. And she is aware of our frustrations with Congress and the President. She claims her Mother recognized her tendencies when she was only four, and today she sometimes agrees with either party. She favors Capital Punishment and likes Chain Gangs. One reason we don’t agree on more issues is because nobody knows how to do it.
Speaking of the President, she reminds us that Obama is not our Daddy. While never having been in the military, she has a lot of close family members who have been. Those in the service often read a book called, “The Art of War”. This gives them thoughts that they in turn adopt. We are subject to so much information, and that is one reason for our divided country. We are concerned about our debt – everyone agrees that it is a problem, but no one agrees on what to begin doing about it. We are of course concerned with the economy. We want – and need – to feel safe. Where are we on healthcare? All these disagreements are the basis of the divisions in the House and Senate. And yet there are a lot of areas where the two parties overlap.
Do you ever disagree with your spouse? Of course, and that’s what happens in Congress. She voted for John Anderson – which is kind of a test of your recollection of history. She doesn’t believe in having a structure – and yet again, that’s what we have. Our frustration with Congress and the President is based on our frustration in our own lives. Take the housing crash – if you look it up, something similar happens every seven years – and we do recover. She thinks we will come out of all this better and stronger. And of course we have to blame somebody, with Congress being the obvious target. It’s often hard to separate facts from fiction, and expectations from reality.
Leslie reported on a Personality Test she was obligated to take by an earlier employer. Apparently, on a scale of one to ten, she scored a negative four! She was particularly weak on patience. If you watch Fox, you may feel that each of us is responsible for the state of the economy and that’s true, but hard to acknowledge. She noted that she had bought a house much bigger than needed – and now, it is worth less than what she paid for it (join the group). The thing to remember is that your lifestyle goes along with your income – when income goes up, so does your appetite for toys, etc.
Our responsibility as American citizens is to elect people to office who will make laws that benefit us. She feels that we have failed today in some instances of this need. We sometimes forget that these politicians have been there for quite some time. Your own Congressman, Henry Waxman, has been there for over twenty years, and is running this time without opposition – what kind of system is that? She didn’t vote for George W. Bush, because she didn’t like his record while Governor of Texas. Her candidate in 2008 was Hilary Clinton – but of course she wasn’t nominated. Barak Obama wasn’t her first choice, but she didn’t approve of John McCain’s record in office.
She favors term limits, and doesn’t think this is a liberal vs conservative issue. What was it that got Gray Davis voted out of office? Concern about the budget, about our safety – and where are we now? What does our flag stand for? The red is for Freedom. We have every right to disagree, and she noted that she “would go out of her mind” if everyone on her programs agreed with her! Talk radio is founded on dissention. While she doesn’t really believe in our two-party system, she certainly isn’t going to back Ron Paul, for instance. Remember that a politician’s resume gives their background.
She quoted Warren Buffet, “We are fine, and we are going to be fine”. As a talk show host, she feels her job is to complain about our problems. Of course, answers require solutions. We must find where we agree, and where we are willing to compromise. At the end of the day, we must care about how we have lived our lives, and what our decisions have been.
Q&A – You rate experience as important – how do you square that with supporting Obama? A good question, and I felt that Obama was a better candidate than John McCain. What stations are you on in Los Angeles? Presently none, but her assistant (who was present) is working on several possibilities. How can our present system provide real democracy? I’ll give you an example – in Massachusetts, a heavily Democratic state, Scott Brown, a Republican, was elected as the replacement for Ted Kennedy – and she likes Brown. He has already crossed over twice on Senate issues, and this is what he was elected to do. Remember that in every successful negotiation everyone comes away a loser.
Leslie Marshall, we thank you for a wide-ranging and provocative presentation.
