 With all that is going on in the world, from the war in Iran to rising gas prices to redistricting in blue and red states to President Trump’s latest tweet, I thought I would write something a little lighter and hopefully take your mind off the world’s woes for a few minutes. I read an article on this exact topic recently from Dave Barry so I thought I might pass on my own take on it.
I’ve often asked myself, “Jerry Hashimura, why aren’t you a billionaire?” Okay, maybe not often, but every time I see a picture of some random, goofy looking billionaire, I do ask myself that question. Many of them tend to lean towards the nerdy, “I wonder what the senior prom was like” side of things but maybe that’s just my own personal lens I’m looking through. When I ask myself this deep, dark question, I have learned to ask it silently in my head, as I get strange looks in Jack in the Box when I’m at a table by myself asking questions of myself. This could be one of the leading reasons why I’m not a billionaire but I’m sure there are many more. Dave Barry recites the morning routine of Jeff Bezos (the richest man in the world) and his wife, Lauren Sànchez Bezos, from a New York Times article. Here is a sampling of the Times profile: “A lot of things make Lauren Sànchez Bezos ridiculously happy. Helicopters. Fashion. Protecting the narwhal….On a typical day, the newlyweds wake up around 6 in their new, roughly $230 million compound on Indian Creek, an exclusive private island in Miami often called “Billionaire Bunker.” They don’t touch their phones. Instead, they begin each day by listing 10 things they’re grateful for – and they can’t repeat what they named the day before…They play pickleball. Six days a week, they work out for an hour with a private trainer.” If you’re like me, you see a few things that are probably preventing you from becoming a billionaire like Bezos. First, my bride and I don’t have a pickleball court on our exclusive compound in our “Billionaire Bunker.” In fact, we don’t even have a Billionaire Bunker or a compound. Second, we’d be hard pressed to come up with ten things we’re grateful for every single day. And waking up at 6 a.m. to make any kind of list isn’t something my bride and I would or could do without my bride tearing off my arm and beating me unconscious. Sure, the Bezos may have more things that ring their grateful meter, like helicopters plural, and my bride and I are blessed for the life we lead and are grateful for the things our hard work has brought us, but we don’t even have a helicopter singular. I tried listing ten things for which I’m grateful for just two days and, after Day One, ten new things was a real chore. To be totally honest, the first day’s list had bacon and ketchup as numbers nine and ten. While I guess I could afford to engage a private trainer, if I worked out six days a week, after three weeks, I wouldn’t be able to get out of bed and I’d have more aches and pains than Walgreens has Tylenol tablets . And I won’t even get into the endangered narwhal. Heck, I didn’t know what a freakin’ narwhal was or that it needed to be protected. I guess if I was a billionaire, I would have narwhals swimming around my compound, free from any danger. FYI, a freakin’ narwhal is a medium sized Arctic toothed whale (thanks Google). In the end, I will admit that many of these billionaires have come up with ideas or inventions that I would have no hope of replicating. While athletes, actors, and musicians are often hailed in the press as being “heroes,” to me, the real heroes are the geniuses coming up with the things that have made our lives both longer and easier – medical researchers, inventors, and the like. If an apocalyptical event were to occur and power, water, and everything else were to stop working, the first baseman for the Yankees or the power forward for the Lakers couldn’t get power restored or water running. I, for sure, couldn’t go into the woods for a week and come out with a working cell phone or generator. I guess these billionaires I keep reading about have earned their billions and I tip my hat to their genius. Jerry Hashimura Pahrump, NV  With Mother’s Day only a few days away, I thought it appropriate to pen a few words about this celebratory day…okay, I’m not going to “pen” anything (you couldn’t read my handwriting anyway) but I will smash the keys on my laptop to celebrate the mother of my child and give you a little background on how this day for mothers came about.
Anna Reeves Jarvis is credited with the idea of the current Mother’s Day after her mother passed away on May 9th, 1905. She wanted to create a special day to honor her mother as well as mothers everywhere. Jarvis was from West Virginia and West Virginia takes great pride in the fact that they hosted the first official Mother’s Day – hooray for West Virginia…and mothers around the globe. President Woodrow Wilson signed a bill on May 9th, 1914, establishing Mother’s Day as the second Sunday in May and the first national observance was held the following day, May 10th, 1914. While Jarvis may be this holiday’s official founder, decades before Jarvis started her idea, poet and author Julia Ward Howe (who was also an anti-war activist) tried to start a day focused on peace, whereby she wanted women to gather once a year to pray, sing hymns, and listen to sermons in the name of promoting peace. Coincidentally, Jarvis’s own mother supported Howe’s peace effort. This followed the Civil War in the United States and the Franco-Prussian War in Europe – so, everyone was tired of war and wanted to promote peace; and what better way than to have women (and mothers) take up the banner of this anti-war effort. This sounds like something we could all use today but, unfortunately, Howe’s idea faded away when Jarvis advanced her idea for Mother’s Day. It will come as no surprise to anyone, I’m sure, that the crystal ball gazers predict 2026 Mother’s Day spending to reach a record $38 billion in the U.S. (2025 was $34.1 billion spent and 2023 set the current record at $35.7 billion). Restaurants look to get the lion’s share of the Mother’s Day profit but flowers remain extremely popular as 75% of shoppers plan on buying flowers. Jewelry remains the king of gifts with an estimated $7.5 billion spend. Sadly, Jarvis went to her grave regretting her idea for this holiday. She despised how commercial it had become. She did not profit from her idea of Mother’s Day and died a pauper as she spent all her money fighting the commercialization of Mother’s Day. It seems that any celebratory event, no matter how innocent or good its intentions, falls under America’s obsession with making a buck…think of Valentine’s Day, Christmas, Mother’s Day, Father’s Day, Halloween, Super Bowl Sunday, Easter, and the like. If there’s a way to make a profit, Americans will find it, exploit it, and shame you into spending your hard earned $$. On a personal note, I can remember my dad giving me and my older brother $10 when we were very young to buy my mom a Mother’s Day gift. We’d march down to the local Rexall Drugstore or Big T supermarket and do our Mother’s Day shopping. I remember selecting really “expensive” perfume sold in gallon-size jugs or small kitchen knick knacks, wrapping them carefully, and presenting them to my mom on that glorious day. By her reaction, you would have thought we gave her the Crown Jewels…that’s what mom’s do; they love their children and celebrate these gifts. Let me share a personal story about my mom that I learned when I was an adult in my 30’s. My father worked six days a week. His only day off was Tuesdays. Most Saturday mornings, my dad would give my mom some money and she would take my brother and I to the local bowling alley, where my brother and I would usually bowl three games each and then we would all have lunch in the bowling alley coffee shop. We used to look forward to those Saturdays. More often than not, we would beg to bowl another game. On those days when my mom let us bowl that extra game (which I seem to remember was pretty often), I never noticed that my mom did not eat lunch. She had a set amount of money and if we bowled an extra game each, she knew she couldn’t eat lunch but would let us do so anyway. That’s the kind of mother’s love that should be celebrated. It’s the kind of love that children rarely see or can appreciate while growing up. While my mother and father have both passed on, I still have great memories of her, especially of flying my mother to Germany in 1985, when we were assigned to Kaiserslautern, Germany, and she was able to spend six weeks with us. We took her to as many tourist sites as she could tolerate, including many historic castles and Dachau Concentration Camp, as well as introduce her to our German and Army friends. She also got to see first-hand what her little baby did in the Army. We were also able to take her to the Army Chapel where we were married in 1975 and my bride’s hometown (which, at the time, was smaller than the parking lot of Disneyland). My mom bonded even more deeply with her favorite daughter-in-law (my German bride) and her one and only grandson. My mom had such a good time and we have such strong memories of her visit. My mom passed away less than eight years after that visit. If your mother is alive today, don’t just celebrate her on this one special day, but spend as much time as you can with her before the opportunity is lost. Build precious memories with your mother for you, your spouse or significant other, and children; you can’t get the time back. Because my bride’s mother died when she was seven years old and my mother has been gone for more than 30 years, I celebrate Mother’s Day for the mother of my little soon-to be 50-year old baby. Stephani made too many sacrifices for our son (and for me) than I could possibly count. She made a home of our house (no matter which country we were in at the time) and has a heart so big that I’m ashamed to compare myself to her. I try to honor her every day that I’m with her, though I do seem to irritate her on some days more than honor her – but that’s the way I roll. I could not have imagined a better mother for our son or wife for me…I definitely married above my pay grade. No matter what the state of your relationship is with your own mother, I believe a great part of who you are today is because of her. Celebrate and honor your mother, celebrate and honor the mother of your child (or children), and celebrate and honor the mother of your spouse. For my German bride and mother of my baby, “Alles Gute zum Muttertag!” For the English speaking mommies, “Happy Mother’s Day!” And for others I may have missed, “Feliz Dia de la Madre,” “Joueuse Fète des Mères,” “Buona festa dell mamma,” and “Haha no hi moedetòi.”  As I wrote in earlier articles, I wanted to write a series of short stories leading up to our July 4th celebration of 250 years of America, celebrating what has made and what continues to make this the greatest country in the world. People come here legally (like my wife and grandparents) and illegally (crossing oceans and deserts, and climbing walls for a chance at a better life). Everyone who comes here the right way deserves their shot at the American dream and I wish them the very best of luck (though hard work has more to do with it than luck). I do not want them to have their dream halted by illegal aliens jumping the line…but enough about that.
While I was looking for things to celebrate, this past weekend brought yet another assassination attempt on President Trump’s life. Every news outlet and every journalist with a heartbeat has weighed in on this issue, so I thought I would add my voice to the noise and give you my take on it. Fortunately, the Secret Service stopped this latest wannabe Presidential assassin (number three for Trump by my count). This is the first White House Correspondent’s Dinner (“WHCD”) Trump has attended, so I don’t believe it’s a coincidence that this nut job tried to gain entry and, I presume, shoot Trump and anyone and everyone else who got in this way. Protesters were outside the WHCD hotel, waving signs that read, “Death to Tyrants” and “Death to all of Them.” They continued to wave these signs in the faces of attendees who were obviously shaken by that night’s events and were evacuating the venue. This has become the norm. It is now completely “normal” in America to openly and publicly call for violence against the “other side” simply because you disagree with them. It’s not hard to find examples of violent rhetoric being used by politicians at the national, state, and local level. But the animosity shown by the Left against Trump is on a completely different scale. It almost can’t be measured. The Democrats have continued to urge their followers to engage in violence and we see the result. Among many things, three assassination attempts on President Trump and Charlie Kirk murdered last year. And it’s not just Republicans at risk, as evidenced by the murder of Minnesota Democratic legislators, Melissa Hortman and John Hoffman, last year and the residence of Democratic Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro being set on fire while he and his family slept. And, not to put too fine a point on this issue, Democratic Representative Maxwell Frost was punched in the face at an event last January and Representative Ilhan Omar was sprayed with a vinegar-like substance at a town hall meeting. The Left’s calls for violence have made violence so accepted that, unlike some of our elected representatives, it has successfully crossed the aisle. U.S. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer went on national television in October of last year and urged Americans to “forcefully rise up” against the government. A few days ago, the New York Times published a gleeful podcast conversation in which the participants excused the murder of UnitedHealthcare DEO Brian Thompson. It is not hard to find literally hundreds of examples of politicians, journalists, podcasters, and anyone with a microphone or Youtube channel calling for violence or excusing murder because these people “deserved it.” It is saddening and sickening. With each attack and the rise of violent rhetoric, the risk exponentially expands for someone to be in the public eye. The impact on our country cannot be denied and can be measured by every speech that cannot be held because of the risk to the speaker. It can be measured by each good American who decides not to run for office for fear they or their family will become targets, and even journalists who decide not to write certain details for fear of being killed. It’s a sad state of affairs we find ourselves in today. America was not founded almost 250 years ago for its citizens to live in fear or be murdered because someone disagrees with what they say. The White House Correspondent’s Dinner is supposed to be a celebration of free speech. But this latest shooting and the many attacks in the past are a stark reminder that the First Amendment alone cannot protect free speech. The protections under the First Amendment are based on the assumption that each individual will have the power to speak freely. That cannot be said today. It’s sometimes a punchline that the Second Amendment exists to protect the First Amendment. But I believe it to be true. While Democrats and the Left-leaning media rally against guns and try to restrict our Second Amendment rights, in the end, when shots rang out that night, Republicans Democrats alike were sheltering under their tables waiting for people with guns to save and protect them. And that’s exactly what happened; Secret Service agents with guns stopped the threat. I carry a firearm to protect myself and those I love. I don’t want to be hiding under a table without a means to protect my family. I guarantee you that there will be another cry for gun control. It seems that those calling for gun control do not understand that laws restricting guns and our Second Amendment rights only disarms the good guys, the people who obey the law. Criminals will not disarm because Congress or some State enacts a law; they only know that now their potential victims will likely not have a gun and they will. The largest murder in 2025 was in New Orleans when a homegrown Islamic terrorist killed 14 people with a car…in a nation with 500 million guns, he used a car. Not to sound like an old codger but, back in the day, teenagers would bring rifles to school and put them in their locker to go hunting after school, or have a gun rack in their pick-up truck in the school parking lot. There was no worry the gun would be stolen or there would be a school shooting – there just weren’t any school shootings during all that time. What’s changed is America’s culture…not guns. At the end of the day, a gun sitting on table cannot pull its own trigger. Blaming the gun is misguided. By that same logic, there should be a call for restricting car ownership. I really believe that part of the problem today is the lack of civil discourse. I wrote an article on that topic in June of 2025 and would invite you to take a look. I would ask our esteemed editor to reprint that article for your easy reference. America can do better. America should do better. Let’s use the ballot box to put conservatives in office who will do better for all of America. Let’s Make America Great Again! Jerry Hashimura Pahrump, NV (BELOW IS A REPRINTED ARTICLE FROM LAST YEAR--June of 2025) Has Civility, Respect, and Civil Discourse Disappeared in Today’s Society? Let’s think about it. Allow me to climb back onto my old guy soapbox for a moment and talk a little about whether civility, respect, and good old fashioned civil discourse is still alive and well or gone the way of the Dodo bird and woolly mammoth. For purposes of this article and ease of reading, I will refer to “civility” but am talking about all three – respect, civil discourse, and civility. From what I’ve seen, civility is off life support, deader than Biden’s attempt at re-election, and something way too many people ignore while in polite society. We’ve all seen news reports or Youtube videos of the latest road rage incident, or the “Karen” in McDonalds or Wal-Mart yelling at the top of her lungs in the face of some poor clerk or waiter – and the male-equivalent of Karen doing the same, or the HOA representative going absolutely bonkers and yelling and screaming at a resident or visitor for some perceived infraction. And all too often, it ends up escalating into some form of physical assault to one party or the other. Many podcasters or commenters on Youtube videos say that many of these lunatics who act inappropriately and aggressively have never been punched in the face. In my opinion, that’s 100% accurate. They have never suffered any consequences for their actions. Many of these people believe they are somehow magically protected, can say whatever they want, and are insulated from any adverse action befalling them. Nothing could be farther from the truth. There are just too, too many of these incidents happening every single day and night for it to be an exception and has, sadly, become the norm. It’s often painful and/or uncomfortable to watch. Many times, these inappropriate tirades devolve into racial slurs; something I, as a minority, cannot tolerate, nor should anyone…and, of course, when these bigots are called out on social media and lose their jobs or suffer other consequences, they are quick to say they didn’t mean what they said and they are definitely not bigots or biased – these protestations of innocence fall on deaf ears for me; they’ve shown their true colors. When I read about these incidents or watch these videos, it occurs to me that, aside from struggling with self-control and low self-esteem, these people are reacting to perceived disrespect in what they believe in their minds is the only way for them to regain respect or show they are somehow levels above the person they are assaulting with the sheer volume and content of their words. They are quick to engage in these white-hot temper tantrums while operating on emotion and ego and losing the ability to think rationally, employ good decision-making, or understand what might be the final outcome of these outbursts, threats, or physical assaults. What’s especially significant to me is their inability to understand what could be the end result of their behavior – which can be catastrophic or deadly to them. The internet is filled with Youtube videos of road ragers threatening their “victims” with a weapon, the victim perceiving their life is in danger or they will suffer serious bodily injury, and employing lawful deadly force in self-defense. So, not only has a life been lost, but the lives of everyone involved has been changed forever. We’ve also seen literally hundreds of Youtube videos and news reports of people who walk into stores and feel they are somehow entitled to steal whatever catches their fancy, without consequences. They grab armfuls of clothing, without regard to size or style, and dash out of the store…or put hundreds of packages of cigarettes into plastic trash bags and run out. These crimes are, unfortunately, enabled by a weak criminal justice response in many states, like California, and caused businesses to close and formerly nice, fashionable shopping districts to shutter stores. This is a case of these criminals having no respect for the rule of law, or business owners trying to make a living and support their families, and the collapse of the traditional family unit and the values taught in the past. “Civil discourse” can be defined as communication that has mutual respect, open-mindedness, and a willingness to listen to differing opinions and viewpoints. With this definition in mind, think about how our political “leaders” talk to the opposing party, Republican or Democrat. Unfortunately, the “political discourse” that exists today is characterized by a decline (or elimination) of respect and fact-based arguments and, in the end, is extremely toxic. With the constant bombardment on social media of this discourse by our politicians, both written and video-based, maybe it’s no wonder so many “normal” citizens have abandoned civility and act out the way they do. Why can’t we rise above this kind of behavior? Is it too late for us? Who knows…but we should try. I carry a firearm and have extensive training in a variety of martial arts and fighting systems. I do not feel threatened by some Karen or road rager trying to prove themselves because of some perceived disrespect that exists only in their minds. I will walk away or not engage because I can’t predict if they will try to escalate the situation and, ultimately, threaten or attempt to physically assault me and I will be forced to respond. I am not a physically imposing 6-foot, 200-pound person. I’m usually the smaller person in the fight. But, if I or my loved ones are attacked, I have trained in ways to defend myself that will end the assault quickly, to reduce the chance I or my loved ones will be hurt, by inflicting maximum, serious, and potentially permanent injury. I don’t want to do that and hope to never have to do it (but I continue to train as I can’t predict the future). This is exactly what I meant above about these people not understanding the possible end result of their rage. They do not know the person they are attempting to intimidate. They are “raging” or yelling in the face of someone they have zero knowledge about who could inflict serious injury on them and it could end (and has ended for some) very, very badly. I can only hope that people exercise self-control, put aside their egos, and think about the second and third-order effects of their actions. Let’s return to an era of civility, respect, and civil discourse. Talk to people the way you would talk to your mother or grandmother; be polite and set an example, it doesn’t cost you anything…and urge others to do the same. Jerry Hashimura Pahrump, NV article originally published June of 2025  This is another article in what has turned out to be a series of articles on New York City’s Mayor Zohran Mamdani. It’s not that I have some sort of vendetta against or obsession about Mamdani, far from it. I’m proud to say I’ve never met him and would not do so if offered a chance. My purpose is to continue to highlight what has happened in NYC and what could happen in cities and states across this great country.
I’ve written before about Mamdani’s avowed hatred of Israel and the communists and socialists he has appointed to prominent positions in his administration that share his views…you know, people like Cea Weaver who said such things as, “Elect more communists,” “Private property…especially home ownership is a weapon of white supremacy (a real surprise to me, a homeowner and American of Japanese descent),” and “If you don’t believe in the government’s sacred right to seize private property, it’s over” (a central communist/socialist “right” for government seizure of property and businesses – and I must be out of touch because I didn’t know that government had any “sacred” right to my property or business).” Of course, Weaver also ran crying and hid from reporters who were asking her about the $1.6 million home her mother owns in Nashville, Tennessee. You just can’t make this stuff up. Well, on to Mamdani’s “better” half. Rama Duwaji is apparently active on social media, “liking” posts (which is Instagram’s way of supporting others’ posts) that portrayed in celebratory terms the October 7th, 2023, Hammas slaughter, rape, and kidnapping of Israeli men, women, and children. She liked over seventy individual posts that referred to the October 7th surprise attack as “collective liberation” and the reports of Hamas’ rape of Israeli women as a “mass hoax.” The day after the attack, Mamdani’s wife liked two posts expressing support for anti-Israel protests. She also liked posts that accused Israel of genocide immediately after the Hamas attack (before Israel and responded at all to the attack) and posts that called former President Joe Biden the “Butcher Biden,” accusing him of genocide (who ever thought I’d be on Sleepy Joe’s side). Of course, Mamdani’s wife sits alongside many of Mamdani’s staff members who posted antisemitic and inflammatory statements following the October 7th surprise attack on Israel. Mamdani married Rama Duwaji in a Nikkah ceremony in Dubai (a Nikkah or Nikah ceremony is a sacred, core Islamic marriage ceremony) on December 22, 2024, and had an NYC civil ceremony in February of 2025 and a wedding celebration in Uganda (where Mamdani was born) in July 2025. I guess he wanted to make sure he was really married. When asked about his wife’s comments, what was Mamdani’s response? “My wife is the love of my life and she’s also a private person who has held no formal position on my campaign or in my City Hall.” A clear deflection that says absolutely nothing. If my wife were to say something morally reprehensible, I would feel obligated to speak out against it. Mamdani’s silence rightfully allows the world to draw the conclusion that he tolerates it, if not outright agrees with it, no matter how many times he says the opposite (to get votes during the election and to garner support now that he is in office). It is fair to conclude Mamdani holds the same feelings. If you oppose something outrageous said by the person closest to you, you would speak out. If you do not speak out, you are not just an observer, you are complicit in what they are saying. My wife understands and appreciates that I don’t have the same beliefs as she in certain things – we are two separate people. She knows that if she says something I find to be wrong according to my moral compass, I’ll speak out. I wouldn’t deflect and say nonsense, as Mamdani has done. As the “leader” of the largest city in the United States, he should have the courage to state clearly that “liking” and celebrating the murder and rape of innocent people and denying the suffering of victims is disgusting. That Mamdani fails to do so tells me all I need to know about him and his beliefs. For those New Yorkers that voted him into office, you’re getting exactly what you deserve (or maybe you’re an antisemite and you’re getting exactly what you wanted – a sad state of affairs in America today). New York City is far from where I live but I caution everyone to keep a sharp eye on this socialist (communist) bozo and those around him. The Democratic Socialists of America are feeding off this NYC win and want to get more Mamdani’s in as many public offices as possible. It’s up to us to stop them. Jerry Hashimura Pahrump, NV |
Authors"The Grassroot Conservative" publication is a collection of Southern Nevada authors with strong independent voices writing on the issues that matter. Matt Sadler is the editor-in-chief of this new eMagazine and blog, Each author brings life experience, talent, and insight to each thoughtful article. Archives
June 2026
Categories |
RSS Feed
