Page 3 - Sanger Herald 2-28-19 E-edition

SANGER HERALD 3A THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 28, 2019 EDITORIAL & OPINION
Random thoughts The grand jury has become the de facto overseer of Sanger politics ...
By Dick Sheppard
Only .0636 percent of the residents of Sanger attend- ed a well publicized State of the City presentation by mayor Frank Gonzalez on Tuesday evening.
Thatminisculepercent-
ageis basedononly16
people, not counting city
staff, elected officials and media representa- tives out of an estimated population of 25,161 showing up for the meeting.
Hizzoner's mom and dad, Delores and Rene Gonzalez, did their part to bolster the percentage. If they hadn't been there it would have been only .0556 percent.
Therewasn'tevenabigenoughcrowdto makemuchofadentintheseveralplatesof cookies on a table in the lobby at city hall.
The sign on the front wall of the council chamber "MAX. OCCUPANCY 95" seemed to be mocking the ridiculously poor turnout of residents for an important presentation about what the city has done, what it's doing and what it plans to do for the health and welfare of its 25,161 residents, including the approxi- mately 25,145 who stayed home Tuesday eve- ning.
There could be no better - or worse - vali- dation of my oft repeated contention that Sangerresidentscaremoreaboutpotholes than politics than the poor turnout for the State of the City presentation.
Maybe if they cared at least a little more about politics there would be fewer potholes.
I have frequently mentioned a comment madetomebyformerBeereporterGeorge Hostetter at an awards presentation in Fresno.
It's very relevant to what happened Tuesday.
The Herald was being presented an inves- tigative journalism award for a story about the goings on that prompted the scathing 2008-2009 grand jury investigation.
After the master of ceremonies read a summary of our story, George turned to me andasked,"Howcouldthe votersletsome- thing like that happen?"
I suspect it's because a majority of voters, maybe about 99 percent based on those who showed up at the State of the City presenta- tion, don't know or care about what goes on at city hall as long as the Apaches keep winning and their toilets keep flushing.
In spite of the low turnout Gonzalez man- aged to deliver an upbeat 30 minute presenta- tionfilledwithlotsoffactsandsomeunde- served praise for the political awareness and involvement of the majority of the citizens of Sanger.
No wonder the grand jury has come back to Sanger every other year for the past decade and has become the de facto overseer of Sanger politics.
The vocal minority, God bless them, who show up at almost every city council meeting toask questionsandventaboutonethingor anotherdon't seemtorealizehowlittle,if anything, they are accomplishing.
The only change for the better in voter awareness and participation will have to come about through organization and action. It will not happen because of entertaining and snarky comments at a city council meeting.
••• Don't get me wrong.
I love Sanger.
It's a great town with great people who love their Apaches and their pizzas and apparently couldn't care any less about the town's politicsorpoliticians.
•••
Sanger's elementary schools in the City of
Sanger are going back to the way they were years ago before 6th graders were moved over to Washington Academic Middle School (WAMS)tojointhe 7thand8thgraders.
It's just a matter of time.
The school board gave the okay Tuesday evening to begin the process.
There are at least a couple of reasons for the change:
• WAMS has pretty much reached its capacity; and,
• Population growth in the district, outside the city of Sanger, has put lots of pressure on elementary schools that serve Fresno's south- eastgrowthareaandtheareawherethenew education complex is being built off Jensen
Avenue between Armstrong and Fowler ave- nues. Those 6th graders will have to be bused into Sanger where there's room to add a 6th grade to the city schools.
Population growth in the district is outpac- ing the district's ability to build new schools.
•••
Hope to see you at the Blossom Trail
Festival indowntownSangerthisSaturday!
•••
"Sometimes I wonder whether the world is
being run by smart people who are putting us on, or by imbeciles who really mean it.''
Mark Twain
Please direct your questions or comments to sangerherald@gmail.com.
DickSheppard
In my OPINION
High Speed Rail is perhaps one of the greatest
hoaxes ever perpetrated on California voters
By Fred Hall
members of his own party in “resistance” because they felt—or maybe it was just hope- -that Bob Mueller, The F.B.I. and the Justice Department (along with National Security operatives) would succeed in removing the President from office.
Overturning the results of an election by an unelected bureaucracy is about as ugly
as its gets. Newly released information indicates there were internal discussions involving the aforementioned agencies of attempting the invoke the 25th amendment to remove the President. That's not in their pur- view and such discussions alone are enough to warrant jail time.
Now, with Democrats the majority in the House and Mitch McConnell as Senate leader, there can be little doubt that there will not
be much accomplished. Nancy Pelosi com- pletely ignored Trump's attempts to strike
a deal which would involve relief for “the Dreamers” and stubbornly stuck by her posi- tion of no money for the wall. One has to be politically blind to ignore the fact that there is, indeed, a crisis on our Southern border involving drugs and human trafficking. The President went to the only other option avail- able and that was to declare a national emer- gency and take money which was available for parallel needs and protect our security.
Adam Schiff, Eric Swalwell and Maxine Waters are among the radical instigators for continued investigations to follow the conclu- sion of the Mueller probe. Ironically all three are from the very same California which continues to file lawsuit after law suit in their attempt to thwart the actions of a duly elect- ed President.
As sad as it is, that's the current politi-
cal climate in The United States, but it's no excuse for what's happening right here in California. The High Speed Rail is perhaps one of the greatest hoaxes ever perpetrated on the California voter. From day one, the entire project made no sense either in terms of need or viability. Now that it has been truncated to a span between Bakersfield
and Merced we are told that it represents an economic boon to the great Central Valley. That's a story that is palpably incorrect and yet our politicians think we are stupid enough to buy it.
Taxpayer money has been taken from everywhere to fund this project which is over budget and far behind schedule. Money was even taken with the false narrative of
it helping clean our air! That was based on Californians giving up their automobiles and riding the train. There has been a long-stand- ing love affair between Golden State resi- dents and their cars. We once had the finest road system that was the envy of everyone. We now rank near the bottom in the main- tenance of that system. Fix our roads and scrap the train.
I know that common sense is foreign to most of the people we elect but we suggest they act like adults and move toward a solu- tion that benefits people and not their re- election!
But, as always, that's only one man's opin- ion.
In addition to the Sanger Herald, Publisher Fred Hall oversees two other Mid Valley Publishing newspapers - Reedley Exponent, and Dinuba Sentinel. He can be contacted by phone at (559) 638-2244 or by email at fred@ midvalleypublishing.com.
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Have you ever thought
about what would happen
if you went to the bank for
money to build a new home
and about half-way through
decided you weren't going
to be able to finish the job?
Do you suppose the money
provider would simply offer
absolution - forgive the money you've already spent - and allow you to keep the unused money without having to pay it back?
That's pretty much the position which
has been taken by Gavin Newsom with our always controversial High Speed Rail proj- ect. NowtheGovernorsaysthatthegov- ernment requesting the return of taxpayer moneyisallaboutpolitics. Duh! Isn'tevery- thing that California and its Attorney General Xavier Becerra have done over the past two years about resisting anything the President wants to do to make America great again also about politics?
FinishingtheHighSpeedRail? There
is no plan beyond completing the line from Merced to Bakersfield which is so dumb as tomakeone'sheadhurt. It'smomentslike this that make us realize that politicians abso- lutely think we are so stupid as to believe anything. That'stheprobleminanypolitical constituency which has become so one sided astobeunilateralintheirbeliefs. Yes,there are a few Republicans left in California but so few that we do not fill a single seat beyond the handful in the Assembly and Senate. Democrats have what is called a “super majority” and need not even consider any Republican objections to the stupid adven- tures of state government.
Xavier Becerra, the chief law enforcement officer in the State of California, has—during the first two years of the Trump administra- tion—sued The United States a total of 38 times, according to The Los Angeles Times. If you have the time, it would be a pretty good idea to read through the lawsuit list and examine the levity of the issues about which suits are being brought.
Space here does not permit us to provide
a comprehensive list of items over which
our political powers feel so strongly as to go tocourtandspendourmoney. Westrongly believe that once you've examined the list you'll find yourself opposing the politicians or even believing their cause is frivolous. It's absolutely political and more about “resis- tance” than the common good!
It just seems to me that the time has come for our politicians stop acting like petulant children and do the bidding of the people who electedthem. Iwouldemphaticallypointout that I am not only talking about Democrats butRepublicansaswell. Itseemsthatthe media continues to mislead the American public with the full complicity of most Democrats but some Republicans have joined tham.
Let's set aside the malfeasance of California's Attorney General for a moment and take a look at both the Senate and the House of The United States Congress. Republicans should have done the border wall while they were in leadership of both houses. DonaldTrumphadbeenPresident long enough for the G.O.P. to have passed much more of the agenda upon which the Americanpeopleelectedhim. Themanhad
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Fred Hall
Bernie Sanders races to lead in New Hampshire primary as Democratic socialism is now front and center in 2020 race
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