Page 4 - Mid Valley Times 3-11-21 E-edition

Thursday, March 11, 2021 | 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
Fred Hall — Publisher
In my OPINION Federal govenment is a
special kind of 'ineptocracy'
Return of prep sports, reopened school are happy developments
Jon Earnest — Reedley Editor Dick Sheppard — Editor Emeritus
The English language has always seemed to be somewhat amorphous in that words seem to be added solely based on usage or misuse by the gen- eral public. As an example. when I was studying the subject in high school, the past tense of sneak was sneaked. Somewhere along the way the word “snuck” became generally acceptable — much to my consternation.
It's not like activities of the first week of March 2020, but this year's opening week of the "month of spring" was showing the tiniest signs of a return to normal.
Last week, we saw junior high and high school students walking back onto campus for classes after nearly a year of being taught at home while watching their computer screen or a tablet. More im- portant to many students, they once again had an opportunity to amp up their practice sched- ule and prepare to compete in the outdoor sport they love.
After getting my first taste in nearly a year watching high school athletes compete when I attended a swim meet in Sanger in late February, I was blessed with shooting photos of Dinuba High and Washington Union High cross country run- ners competing in the Ridge Creek Classic at Ridge Creek Golf Course in Dinuba. While masks were still prevalent and plenty of physical distancing practiced, young athletes were back to chasing their dreams in competition and fellowship with neighboring schools. Just being able to be outside shoot- ing events again felt great.
Things will only get better. Now that Fresno and Tulare counties have dropped below 14 new cases per 100,000 peo- ple, the door flew open for the return of prep football. These athletes who never had a regu- lar fall season (a big deficiency for talented seniors looking for college opportunities) finally will get an opportunity to take the field at least one more time. When it comes to games, it's six times for both Sanger and Reedley high schools, and the tradition-laden Apaches program is the first in action this Friday, March 12, with a 6 p.m. home scrimmage against Clovis High School.
While I'm fortunate to cover some of these games, many of our readers won't be as fortu- nate when it comes to attend- ing prep football games. The California Interscholastic Fed- eration has limited attendance at the games to immediate family members — in the case of Sanger High only four fam- ily members per player will be allowed to attend. Similar re- strictions are likely for Reed- ley and Dinuba. To play these games, all players are required to undergo COVID-19 testing and strict precautions will be
in place.
But that's
better than the alternative,
which has been
a nightmare
for young peo-
ple the past 12
months. From
those Class of 2020 students who had to graduate virtually — with the exception of Im- manuel High School — to the current crop of seniors who have been denied making (at least on campus) the countless memories and experiences a senior year entails.
A traditional school year as we have known it very well may never come back. Schools could eventually go to a perma- nent "blended" learning model of both in-person and online distance instruction. And for the rest of this year, those stu- dents who have been so ac- tive in extracurricular clubs, groups, bands and orchestras, choirs (to name a few) hope- fully will get some kind of op- portunity at a normal school experience.
Welcome back to our young scholars and athletes.
Jon Earnest is news-sports editor for The Times.
The rules for adding or deleting words from the Eng- lish seem to require very little thought or rationale. A good friend sent me a suggestion which he maintains should be included in the next dictionary.
Ineptocracy (in-ep-toc'-ra-cy) — a system of govern- ment where the least capable to lead are elected by the least capable of producing, and where the members of society least likely to sustain themselves or succeed, are rewarded with goods and services paid for by the con- fiscated wealth of a diminishing number of producers.
You may want to read the word and its definition closely and carefully. Absorb the true meaning. It is my firm belief that our feet are firmly planted in the very soil in which the word will become widely recognized. Finally, we find there is a new word that aptly describes not only the present but our future as well.
Actions such as those being taken by the new admin- istration in Washington and state capitols throughout the country are bound to have ramifications. We have a president unable to string thoughts or sentences to- gether. The president has been busy surrounding him- self with advisors and department heads whose thinking would be more at home in a socialist nation. Forget the House and Senate. They're more like a pack of lemmings headed for the cliff. With that collection, there can be little doubt that “the chickens will soon come home to roost.” It's inevitable! Forest Gump famously declared that stupid is as stupid does!
According to Italian proverbs, curses are like pro- cessions; they always return whence they came. That translates favorably to a more contemporary version that deals with chickens coming home to roost. The po- liticization of the normal coronavirus and small-minded bureaucrats abusing the public's fear of the disease have laid waste to the American economy and psyche as well as the surrender of numerous freedoms and rights. The ease with which this was perpetrated invariably leads to a dark place I don't believe any of us want as a des- tination.
Incrementally changing the lives of people while get- ting them to accept something that would normally not be palatable is a technique that is old as time. I suspect everyone is familiar with the story of the frog who is placed on the stove in a pot of cool water. The tempera- ture is then slowly raised until the frog realizes he is in serious trouble, but it's too late and he is unable to make the small leap from the boiling pot.
One would think, however, that the speed at which the “cancel culture” is moving with their special brand of idiocy someone would realize that the time has come to say "whoa." Renaming schools and military bases while tearing down statues of men who were, at their time, heroes to a nation, borders on insanity. Recently, we've discovered "The Eyes of Texas," the school spirit song of the University of Texas, is racist. Who knew that all the wonderful children's literature from Dr. Seuss also was racist?
That's not dumb enough for you? How about states and school districts that literally are willing to bribe teachers to go back to work and satisfy their commit- ment to teach a generation of students we are on the verge of losing?
I can't be sure about you but I would be fired for act- ing that way.
Letters from readers
Fred Hall
Jon Earnest
But, as always, that's only one man's opinion.
Don't take groundwater for granted
Any resource taken for granted is a resource at risk of being lost. That is why the California Groundwater As- sociation, The Groundwater Foundation, and the National Ground Water Association will be joining hundreds of organiza- tions across the country in cel- ebrating National Groundwater Awareness Week, March 7-13. National Groundwater Aware- ness Week, now in its 22nd year, is an annual week of awareness, education, and advocacy focus- ing on one of the nation’s most precious resources.
California depends on groundwater for nearly 46 per- cent of its public water. It also provides over 1.5 million pri- vate water wells in the state with fresh and clean water ev- ery day. The United States uses 80.3 billion gallons per day of
fresh groundwater for public supply, private supply, irriga- tion, livestock, manufacturing, mining, thermoelectric power, and other purposes.
Groundwater is undeniably crucial to our society and is a resource that must be advo- cated for and protected by our citizens. This is why during Na- tional Groundwater Awareness Week we are providing tools for the public to become bet- ter educated on groundwater issues and opportunities to pro- tect groundwater in their own backyard!
To learn more about ground- water and its usage, you can visit the website at:
https://www.ngwa.org/gwaw.
Here you will find free groundwater educational re- sources and ways to increase awareness of groundwater is- sues in your community. Re- member, if you don’t speak up for groundwater, who will?
For the more than 1.5 million California residents who rely on private water wells, we encour- age you to use Groundwater Awareness Week to test, tend, and treat your private water system. An annual inspection of your well and its water can not only save you thousands of dollars in potential damages but can also protect the health of your family.
To find a certified water well contractor in your area, you can visit: https://www.groundh2o. org/member-directory
Whether it’s writing a letter to your representative, posting groundwater facts on social media, or having your own wa- ter supply tested and treated, please remember to take time this week and help protect groundwater in California!
Dave Schulenberg Executive Director, California Groundwater Association
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, Reedley Exponent, 1130 G St, Reedley CA 93654.
QUOTE
“All truths are
easy to under- stand once they are discovered; the point is to discover them.”
— Galileo Galilei (1564-1642)
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