Page 4 - Reedley Exponent 3-1-18 E-edition

The Reedley Exponent A4 Thursday, March 1, 2018 Editorial & Opinions
Serving “The World’s Fruit Basket” since 1891
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
Jon Earnest — Editor
Chris Aguirre — Sports Editor Felicia Cousart Matlosz — Panorama Editor Budd Brockett — Editor Emeritus
QUOTE
“The best measure of a man’s honesty isn’t his income tax return. It’s the zero adjust on his bathroom scale.”
— Arthur C. Clarke (1917-2008)
For those of you who might have missed the Greater Reedley Chamber of Commerce Awards Dinner on Feb. 24 because you had come to the opinion — as had I — that these type of shows had become mind numbingly bor- ing, you would have been pleasantly surprised.
Numerous awards were always given to people who traditionally spoke too long and, more often than not, those honorees had been selected subjectively rather than objectively. This formula, which had always been used, is the prescription for a painfully long evening.
Bad news on state’s snowpack, water situation coming this week
Fred Hall
Expect more bad news when the state’s March snowpack survey is tak- en in the Sierra Nevada on Thursday, March 1.
February’s survey by the Califor- nia Department of Water Resources showed that the central Sierra had snow-water equivalent of 4.6 inches — or 27 percent of normal. It wasn’t much better in the southern Sierra where the reading was at 3.8 inches, or 25 percent of average. This week, those numbers could be just as bad after another dry month — only slightly relieved by small amounts of mountain snow this week. If a two- day storm can drop enough snow, the China Peak ski resort east of Fresno could open by next week.
And the outlook for water levels, especially for agriculture? Not good at all. The Bureau of Reclamation on Feb. 20 dropped the hammer of real- ity to many Central Valley Project contractors when it announced that water contractors south of the Sac- ramento Delta are initially allocated just 20 percent of their contract total. That’s returning to levels last seen in 2015 when the drought was at its peak.
And it appears to be getting worse. Climate Nexus, a self-described sci- ence platform for cataloging and map- ping the impacts of climate change, planned a Feb. 28 media event to dis- cuss how its says climate change is diminishing snowpack. Near-record warm winter temperatures — at least before the Valley chill the past two weeks — have caused snow to fall as rain, Climate Nexus claims, and any snow that already has fallen is suscep- tible to an early snowmelt.
Of course, a few timely cold storms in the mountains could get the troubling situation back on the right
track. Problem is, these storms have been few and far between coming just one year after record rainfall and snow levels caused the opposite prob- lem — flooding of the Kings River and adjoining businesses and parks.
Another “March miracle” of rain and snow sure would be welcomed by agriculture and recreation interests.
•••
There’s been plenty of buzz and
feedback that the 2018 Greater Reed- ley Chamber of Commerce awards dinner may have been the most suc- cessful yet. There was an impressive list of worthy winners — the Hall of Fame induction of Paul Mitchell was a fitting tribute — but the one touch that impressed many attendees and partic- ipants was the musical entertainment.
Erik Valencia, the chamber’s new executive director, also happens to have experience and connections with Reedley’s River City Theatre as a performer and supporter. For the 2018 awards, he secured eight members of the theatre’s program to sing a variety of songs that they’ve performed in past shows. It made for some top-notch entertainment, and the audience showed its appreciation with lots of spirited applause capped off by a standing ovation when the group fin- ished.
It’s only proper to list the perform- ers and their songs at the awards din- ner to give them their due. They de- serve it.
The singers are Michael Angel, Meg Clark, Alina Gonzalez, Stacey Hall, Joseph Ham, Thomas Hayes, Jeff Lusk and Berit Rhodes. The songs performed at the dinner were “To- night” (Clark), “Broadway Melody” (all singers), “Oh Boy” (Ham), “Stupid Cupid” (Hall), “Where the Boys Are”
(Gonzalez), “Chan- tilly Lace” (Lusk), “Up on the Roof” (Angel) and “Four Seasons Medley” (Hayes backed by Angel, Ham and Lusk).
For good mea-
sure, the group
opened the evening
by singing the “Star Spangled Banner” followed by Rhodes’ performance of “God Bless America.” The show-clos- ing rendition of “Seasons of Love” brought the night’s final standing ova- tion and plenty of compliments.
The music and talented perform- ers are an added reason to attend fu- ture chamber awards dinners.
•••
Reedley College will be hosting
two open forums in connection with an accreditation visit on campus next week. The first forum will be from 5 to 6 p.m. on Monday, March 5, at the college’s Student Center, After a fo- rum in Madera on Tuesday, March 6, another forum at Reedley College will be from 10 to 11 a.m. on Wednesday, March 7, in the Student Center.
George Takata, Reedley College director of marketing and communi- cations, said a 10-person accreditation team from various junior colleges across the state will visit the campus. The team is led by Tim Karas from the College of Alameda.
Accreditation is a non-governmen- tal peer-review process established by colleges and schools designed to meet a set of standards and requirements to obtain federal funding.
Staff, faculty, students and the public are invited to the forums, ac- cording to Takata.
Erik Valencia, the new executive director of
the chamber, ingeniously managed to sandwich the awards between song-filled sessions which featured some of the finest young talent I’ve ever seen. Their medleys were wisely selected to not only display the performer’s extraordinary talent but appeal to every single individual in attendance. Talk about masterfully “putting lipstick on a pig!”
My advice to you is expect something special next year and start making your plans to attend. This level of entertainment is worth a few boring speeches. Congratulations also go out to Tim Thiesen, the chairman of the chamber board and his entire board of directors.
Erik Valencia and the entire chamber, you hit a home run! •••
With today’s prevailing conditions perhaps this would be an appro- priate time for us to remind our readers — and the public in general — of the sage and cautionary words in a quote by Benjamin Franklin: “Those who are willing to give up a little essential freedom to pur- chase a little temporary safety deserve neither freedom nor safety.”
It seems that every time we get a government-driven regulation or law, we give up a certain amount of our cherished freedom. In today’s social media-driven society — which features such devices as “bots” and “troll farms” — a situation has arisen where a literal handful of people are able to present an image of there being a huge hue and cry for one side of an issue while providing no dissenting position to their argument.
As more Americans turn to social media as their source of infor- mation being presented as news, the risk is omnipresent for a mas- sive disinformation campaign. We expect and hope that our readers are far too sophisticated consumers of news content than to be “suck- ered” into believing much of the propaganda being disseminated by these sites.
It’s my sincerely held position that many in the “main tream” me- dia have such hatred for our current president that they, in complete abrogation of journalistic standards, help stoke this fire of hatred.
“The press” will face a daunting task over the several years of restoring public confidence in what they read in newspapers and hear on radio and television.
So far, it seems to us that Donald J. Trump has made a good start toward his announced goal of making America great again. To reiter- ate that which I have espoused before, the economy is growing stron- ger everyday; the stock market is in record territory; unemployment is shrinking; job killing regulations are being repealed; businesses are returning stateside and America is simply stronger and safer due to efforts to rebuild the military. All of that, plus we got a tax cut that puts money in the pockets of Americans.
The man has managed to accomplish much while dragging the dead weight of the Republican establishment, the Democratic party and the “deep state” that is represented by professional government employees who have become fat and lazy while feeding at the trough of big government. All of that, plus being bedeviled by a “witchhunt” investigation by Robert Mueller which after a full year has yet to uncover any evidence. The indictments have nothing to do with Mr. Trump or his administration. Some are even process crimes.
We’ll begin to be impressed when members of the Clinton re- gime and yes, even Barack Obama come under scrutiny for their shenanigans.
But, as always, that’s only one man’s opinion.
Letters from readers
Jon Earnest
Paul Mitchell was the consummate team player
By Michael White
Guest columnist
This weekend, our com- munity will honor the life of Paul Mitchell, an icon on so many levels. I use “our community” in the broad- est sense, as my family and I moved away from Reed- ley in 2008. The community I speak of is not defined by a place, but instead our collective appreciation of Paul’s personal and profes- sional integrity.
I first met Paul within days of having accepted the position of Reedley Col- lege’s new head football coach in the summer of 1990. From the earliest of my encounters to some of our very last, I have sev- eral enduring memories of “Coach Mitchell.” A par- ticular type of football play, called a “screen pass”, trig- gers these memories. To those with and without a football background, I hope you follow along as I trav- el down my Paul Mitchell “memory lane.”
I can say without quali- fication that Paul Mitchell loved the screen pass. He made that very clear to me very early on in our rela- tionship, questioning how we coached, practiced, and called the screen at Reedley College from 1990 to 2008. Mind you, Paul did so not as a critic, but as a connoisseur of a timely, sophisticated,
and team- executed screen pass.
Many of you have en- joyed over the decades Paul’s mastery
Michael White
cessful screen pass.
The screen pass also is
one of the most sophisticat- ed plays within any football team’s offensive arsenal. A well-executed screen on Sat- urday evening is the result of not just a few practice repetitions, but hundreds. There is a bit of theatre to the screen pass; the quarter- back feigning one direction and anticipating a chorus of players to be ready for the ball’s delivery on the oppo- site side of the formation. Paul Mitchell was a sophis- ticated man, as committed to his decades-long Friday and Saturday night announcing duties as he was to serving at a local polling station dur- ing election years or sup- porting state and national environmental causes. He practiced what he believed in, time and time again.
Finally, Paul Mitchell was the consummate team player. A football screen pass is the consummate team play, with several line- men having their backs to the receiver and quarter- back, and all others playing a critical role in the “the- atre” of the play. The screen play may never look the same from one call to the
next. The QB, receiver, and linemen all have to adjust to the defensive scheme and players react “on the fly.” It occurs to me that Paul Mitchell improved as a sta- dium announcer with every game and season, despite the many changes in his ‘team” makeup. Paul’s announcing booth “teammates” over the years included Jim Bailey, Will Goldbeck, Larry Ham and Mark Givens. As the announcing crew “lineup” changed, Paul adjusted by allowing each “player” their respective place on the team.
Paul Mitchell will be celebrated on Saturday, March 3, in Fresno. He mastered his craft and life, exhibiting timeliness, so- phistication, and teamwork like few others. I will miss Paul’s professionalism as a game announcer and integ- rity as a man.
Michael White was the head football coach at Reedley College from 1990 to 2008, and was the inter- im president of the college from 2012 to 2013. He now is the president of Wood- land Community College in Yolo County, north of Sacra- mento.
A Celebration of Life service for Paul Mitchell will be at 1 p.m. Saturday, March 3, at the Unitarian Universalist Church, 2672 E. Alluvial Ave in Fresno. The public is invited.
Honor Mitchell, help library group
Paul A. Mitchell was “The Voice” of Reedley High School and Reedley College athletics for many years. He touched many lives through his teaching and support of athletics.
Paul was a longtime member of the Friends of the Reedley Library. He was instrumental in helping the library present special programs and events. Mr. Mitchell not only served as president and board member for our organization for many years,
he also strongly advocated for a larger and more functional li- brary facility.
With the prospect of build- ing a new library, the Friends of Reedley Library would like to establish a memorial in Paul’s name to be placed in our future library.
Donations to this memo- rial should be sent to Friends of Reedley Library - Paul Mitchell Memorial, 1027 E St., Reedley CA 93654.
James Leesch Chairman, Friends of the Reedley Library
of his craft as a stadium an- nouncer at Reedley High School and college football games. His timing was im- peccable. I recall one my first home games in 1990 at RHS Stadium, and although during those early years we did not have a team that provided much for him to crow about, Paul made your attendance worthwhile. I remember thinking to my- self: “This small town, this small college, and this pro- fessional stadium voice.... Wow!” Like the thoughtful use of a screen pass dur- ing the course of a football game, Paul appreciated tim- ing. He kept you engaged in the game with his descrip- tion and football knowledge without being overbearing. He knew you were pres- ent to cheer on your son or classmate, or the Tigers as a whole. He layered his voice over the game, add- ing just the right amount of description and enthusiasm to enrich your experience. Timing is critical to both an announcer’s craft and a suc-
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