Citizen About Town

By Nancy C. Arcuri, Editor and Publisher

Email: nancyarcuri@thecitizensvoice.net

Fax: 626-307-9081

Happy New Year!

Did you hear the news about the two near misses on December 20th over the San Gabriel Valley as reported by the local news media both on television and in the local newspapers?

An air traffic control stationed in San Diego gave incorrect information to the pilot of an EVA Air Boeing 777 leaving LAX heading towards Taiwan to turn left into the San Gabriel Mountains over the city of Altadena and into the flight path of an Air Canada plane taking off from LAX.

The controller made her corrections to the EVA plane to turn right away from the mountains to prevent a fatal accident.

Although the FAA spokesman Ian Gregor said the two planes remained the required distance from each other at all times during the incident.

Many residents of Monterey Park and other local cities are concerned about the low flying planes that skim the roof tops of our neighbors located on the highest hills on our west side of town.

This news story proves that the FAA needs to listen to the local residents’ concerns about the low flying air traffic over our cities.

Please keep on complaining to our city governments, State government and the Federal government to help keep us safe from low flying airplanes as well as air pollution and noise pollution.

I am concerned that Monterey Park may lose Federal funds in the future based on Los Angeles County being a sanctuary county that include many of our neighboring cities. Then on December 20th the Montebello School Board announced that their school district is a sanctuary school district.

I believe that we all should all uphold our US Constitution and the laws of our land.

Should local governments write up a resolution that any violent acts against law enforcement officers should be considered a hate crime? The violent truth is 135 police officers lost their lives serving the residents of the United States of America beginning in January 1th to December 28th of 2016. Most of them were shot and killed because they dedicated their lives to protect us from harm.

These resolutions should be approved and sent to our elected government representatives in Sacramento and Washington, DC as well as President Donald Trump to help protect law enforcement officers from violent hate crimes committed against them by criminals.

Those convicted of these hate crimes should be sentenced to life in prison without possible of parole. They should also have to work for a living in prison so we, the taxpayers, don’t have to support them for their violent acts.

March Madness has begun with many local elections for General Law cities in California.

Monterey Park, San Gabriel and many other local cities have voted to surrender their election process to Los Angeles County because it many save money.

Our leadership in Sacramento blames low voter turnout for their main reason to run all of the elections through the County offices.

It may save money but each city loses control over their election process.

Monterey Park is sometimes called the First Suburban Chinatown because so many older immigrants live in our city.  The downtown shopping area is full of Chinese language signs with smaller English subtitles for their benefits.

Many of these older residents are not US citizens and are not legally able to vote in our elections.

Another issue is that many residents of Monterey Park are not property owners so they don’t always vote to benefit the city.

I hear that Alhambra has reported that 60% of their residents are renters who always vote for higher taxes because they don’t think they have to pay the property taxes.

Years ago some renters who lived in the Garvey School District told the Schoolboard that they know their district needed higher taxes to improve the schools.  They also stated if the property taxes were increased then they could not longer afford in live in the district.

Within a few years of that Garvey School Bond election the district has to close three schools because their student enrollment dropped.

In the November Presidential election the ballot featured requests to increase the taxes to pay for school bonds for the local schools as well as the community colleges.

The majority of California voters voted to pay the higher taxes for education.

I agree that education is very important so I pay the taxes to education the young people.

I just want the schools to educate the children NOT indoctrinate them with their prejudices that include hating people of different religious views, economic backgrounds, education, ethnic heritages and political views to name a few issues.

Our United States was founded by our forefathers for religious freedoms and freedoms from royalty who treated their royal subjects like serfs or slaves.

Our United States is the one country in the world that no one escapes from even Hollywood people who said they would move out from our USA if Donald Trump won the White House.

I am thankful each and every day my ancestors immigrated to the USA from Ireland and Germany.

On their journeys to the Promised Land they faced hardships and concerns about their lives in a new country. They moved to the USA for many reasons that included religious freedoms and personal freedoms.

My ancestors and your ancestors or current immigrants all want many of the same things that we cherish in our “Land of the Free and Home of the Brave”.

Many God continue to bless our America and all of us in 2017!