Page 4 - Mid Valley Times 2-10-22 E-Edition

Thursday, February 10, 2022 | A4 | Mid Valley TiMes Editorial & Opinions
Serving the Readers of the Reedley Exponent, Dimuba Sentinel and Sanger Herald.
A Mid Valley Publishing Newspaper
Founded March 26, 1891, in a two-story building on the corner of 11th and F streets, by A.S. Jones
In my OPINION Time now to worry about
U.S. strategic planning
Dinuba, Reedley soon to honor top citizens at Chamber award galas
Fred Hall — Publisher
Jon Earnest — Editor
Dick Sheppard — Editor Emeritus
QUOTE
“You can go a long way with a smile. You can go a lot farther with a smile and a gun.”
— Al Capone (1899-1947)
It's difficult to imagine anything more frightening than the individuals who will be in charge of strategic plan- ning should Russia follow through on its threatened-by-implication invasion of the Ukraine. Joe Biden, Mark Mil- ley and Lloyd Austin were the geniuses who did the “planning” for our with- drawal from Afghanistan and every- one knows how well that went.
February is a month to honor community involvement in Di- nuba and Reedley with annual award banquets hosted by each cities' Chamber of Commerce.
On Friday, Feb. 18, the Di- nuba Chamber of Commerce is putting on its Night of Heroes annual banquet at the new Rose Event Venue in downtown Di- nuba. Junior and Senior Citizen of the Year, Small and Large Businesses of the Year, Teen Citizen of the Year (we're pro- filing finalists in The Times this month), Community Hero Award, Nonprofit Gold Star and New Image Award all will be presented. We'll have more details about the event in next week's issue.
Then on Saturday, Feb. 26, the Greater Reedley Chamber of Commerce will host its Busi- ness & Community Awards Gala at the Reedley Community
Center. Eight award recipients will be honored, highlighted by Citizen of the Year Susan Lusk. Also being honored are Ashlee Campos, Junior Citizen of the Year; Fitness Quest Health Club, Large Business of the Year; Wil- lie's Cafe, Small Business of the Year; Ahmad Jaber and Jaber Motors, Entrepreneur of the Year; Minerva Resendiz, Com- munity Hero of the Year; and Yanez Construction/Homes, Reedley Beautiful Award.
You stlll can purchase tick- ets to either event. Call the Di- nuba Chamber of Commerce at (559) 591-2707 or the Greater Reedley Chamber of Commerce at (559) 638-3548.
•••
Hearty congratulations goes out to Sanger High's Academic Decathlon team, which placed second in the tough Division 1 field and had a third place
overall finish at
the 40th annual
Fresno County
Academic De-
cathlon on Feb.
5. It wasn't a
live event, but
all 23 school
participated on-
line and the notable Super Quiz competition was held by video. The Apaches' team and head coach Angelique Duvet-Tovar participated from their home base in the SHS Multipurpose Center on campus.
It's almost as good as a victo- ry, as perennial champion Uni- versity High of Fresno has es- tablished sort of an AD dynasty in the region. A job well done, students and teachers-coaches!
Jon Earnest is news-sports editor for The Times.
Jon Earnest
Fred Hall
The only concerns those men have
for the military seems to deal with gender, race, appro- priate pronoun and correctly shared restrooms. If the approved facility is not available while on maneuvers, I suppose our soldiers could be expected find a “binary bush” to go behind. That should satisfy the politically correct personal wants and needs of Messrs Biden, Austin and Milley. One has to wonder if the practice of “woke-ism” appears as dumb to those who practice it.
Neocons, military contractors, war materiel provid- ers and politicians who are in the pocket of those who profit by war are suddenly in full throat of defending the borders of Ukraine, a country of no strategic value to the United States.
Keep in mind that all this talk of defending the bor- ders of another sovereign nation comes at a time when our own southern border is being overrun by millions of undocumented illegals. It's difficult to rationalize how it's required that we get involved in defending another and, at the same time, virtually sanctioning the invasion of our own by millions.
It seems that every action taken by the United States — generally accepted as the world's last superpower — over the past year can, and has been, construed as weak- ness. Bad guys even see the obvious cognitive shortcom- ings of our president as a void in our strength to react. Certainly the complete disregard of our southern border and our bungling withdrawal from commitments to Af- ghanistan did little to elevate confidence in America's ability and willingness to live up to our commitments. Americans — especially Christians — were left behind to suffer and die in that Middle Eastern country which has been ceded to radical ideologues (well-armed radi- cals, I might add) due to poor planning and decision mak- ing by the three men I mentioned earlier. Leaving behind prisoners, hardened air bases and $85 billion in military assets is a real gift to an aggressive people!
Even the future of NATO is under a cloud because of en- ergy supply-related issues. Under the leadership of Donald Trump, the U.S. had become a net exporter of oil to many in that part of the world. Here it is, the middle of winter, and countries like Germany are forced to turn to Russian and the Nord stream 2 pipeline to meet their energy needs.
We've been placed squarely in the crosshairs of that un- necessary conundrum by the left-leaning socialist division of the Democratic Party. Energy reliance on renewable sources is probably a pretty good idea but we damned well should make sure the supply chain is squarely in place to support such a pie-in-the sky theory. Those are decisions best suited for discussions in the university faculty lounge where one would not expect contact with reality.
There can be little doubt that this wonderfully resilient country has survived political malfeasance and misadven- ture before at the hands of a ruling political class that, giv- en the opportunity, would change everything about the way we live. Fortunately, political aspirations for change never seem to follow a straight line. It's an everlasting blessing that the path of which we speak is more of the arc of a pen- dulum. Politics reach an apogee before beginning a return to their original position. It seems we're there!
Recently, that American citizen is becoming more of a “I'm mad as hell and I'm not going to take it anymore” type voter. Recent reaction affecting the rejection of govern- mental overreach in dealing with COVID, climate change, democratic socialism, woke-ism and culture canceling are showing signs that Americans can only be pushed so far. God bless and hold safe all those who are coming to their senses and putting America back on the right path!
Letters from readers
But, as always, that's only one man's opinion.
A 10-point indictment
A 10-point indictment of Joe Biden:
• He could easily have left 2,500 of our troops in Afghani- stan but he pulled them out and now the Taliban is wreaking havoc with that poor county’s female population.
• He canceled the Keystone XL pipeline project with Can- ada and now we are no longer energy independent with our President begging OPEC to up their exports of oil to us.
• He stopped the construc- tion of our border wall with Mexico, effectively opened that border, and now we are being invaded by criminals, rapists, and drug dealers.
• He has politicized and delivered ever-changing and confused messages, mandates, decries, etc. regarding COVID. He has prolonged - not short- ened - this pandemic.
• He has capitulated to the Teachers Unions who don’t give a hoot about our children. Where Charter Schools are needed, he has made their very existence tenuous.
• He has raised gas to $5/ gallon, raised our monthly elec- tric bill by 60 percent, almost doubled the cost of lumber, and effectively removed beef from our menu ($58 for a roast!).
• He has repeatedly at- tempted to appoint people to
important government posts who have viewpoints oddly misaligned with our nation’s core values.
• He has spoken strongly but acted weakly in response to the provocations of Russia, China, and Iran. Because of Joe Biden, we are seen on the world stage as weak and vacil- lating.
• He has said that his ac- tions are based on science but his “scientific” defense of Build-Back-Better was obvi- ously unscientific, even to non- degreed economists.
• Contrary to his promises, he has increased the division of our country. Where he had an almost Golden Opportunity to unite us, he chose to divide us.
In summary, he has lost our trust and as George P. Shultz said just a year ago, “Trust Is the Coin of the Realm.” In elev- en months, Joe Biden has done an amazing amount of damage. He and his entire administra- tion need to pause and re-think what they are doing, for whom, and why.
Jim Spitze Sanger
A lesson needed in foreign policy
Rivera Sun says "you don't need to know much about for- eign policy" to know it's foolish to render any military support
to Ukraine as it resists Putin's power grab. Clearly, Ms. Sun doesn't know much about for- eign policy. She doesn't under- stand that the best way to avoid a war is to show the enemy that we are prepared and willing to resist military adventurism. Appeasing thugs like Putin only delays the day of reckoning.
Don't care about the Ukraine? The British didn't care about Czechoslovakia in 1938. We all know (or maybe Ms. Sun doesn't know) how that turned out. Her mention of the COVID pandemic, her wish list of taxpayer-funded liberal goodies and her reference to the Doomsday Clock are only marginally relevant to a seri- ous discussion about maintain- ing the balance of power to avoid armed conflict.
Ms. Sun's suggestion that we have a kumbaya love-in over cli- mate change with two countries that have not shown the least in- terest in following the Paris Ac- cord is laughable. Her assertion that we are a "rogue nation with thousands of illegal nukes" is a symptom of the ignorance and moral decadence that can result from years of indoctrination in our leftist-dominated public school system.
Ms. Sun gets the Greta Thun- berg Award for naiveté and in- tellectual vacuity.
Michael Freeman Sanger
Letters Policy
MID VALLEY TIMES invites letters from the public on any topic of local relevance. We reserve the right to edit letters for clarity or brevity, and we reserve the right to NOT publish them if they could be deemed libelous or profane. Letters should be 350 words or less, and bear the author's name, address, and phone number. Letters can be mailed, emailed, submitted via our website, or personally delivered to: Editor, Mid Valley Times, 1130 G St, Reedley CA 93654.
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