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

Thursday, March 4, 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 President seems to be
provided marching orders
Some touching Random Thoughts
from Dick Sheppard on Nov. 14, 2019
Jon Earnest — Reedley Editor Dick Sheppard — Editor Emeritus
QUOTE
“The last time somebody said, 'I find I can write much better with a word proces- sor.', I replied, 'They used to say the same thing about drugs.'”
— Roy Blount Jr. (1941- )
Since Joe Biden unexpectedly be- came President of the United States, I have wrestled with the thought — and told my friends or anyone who would listen of my misgivings — that Presi- dent Biden would never be a man of his own means. There always was the nagging feeling that his marching or- ders were being supplied by someone else or some group in the Washington swamp.
By Dick Sheppard
For the first time in a long while I bought a book of post- age stamps. The guy behind the counter at the post office probably thought I was hav- ing a stroke when he told me the price and I had trouble ar- ticulating an incredulous and probably incoherent response. I grudgingly handed over a $10 bill and put the few pen- nies change in my pocket. I needed the stamps to respond to people from my past who saw my name in the Mid Val- ley Times and wrote to say hello and reminisce about how things used to be.
My first letter, maybe even in my best cursive, will be to Mrs. Mae Ewert of Dinuba. Mrs. Ewert’s late husband Al- bert was one of my favorite school teachers. Mrs. Whit- tington in the fifth grade and Mr. Ewert in junior high school get most of the credit for me being who and where I am to- day instead of who and where I might have been – in a gated community operated by the state or feds.
When we moved from Ex- eter to Dinuba I was several grades behind other kids my age and, I’m told, I had a bad attitude about school, teach- ers, other kids and just about everything else.
My first recollection of school, after migrating from
I had heard but ignored at school I learned to read from cereal boxes and my father’s pulp western magazines.
I started Di-
nuba schools in the 4th grade. I was so far behind other kids my age that my voice had al- ready changed, but I could read really well. I was almost immediately promoted to the 5th grade and Mrs. Whitting- ton. She talked to me as though I was a real person. She told me what she expected of me academically and on the play- ground – no more fights. She held me accountable for liv- ing up to her expectations. No teacher had ever done that be- fore.
When I made it to junior high school, thanks to the makeover started by Mrs. Whittington, Mr. Ewert raised the bar. He held me account- able for living up to a new set of even higher expectations.
I had stopped fighting — a good thing because I’m a little guy and I always got beat up. I started to get better grades and no longer thought of my- self as a subspecies incapable of learning or functioning in a civilized society.
Thank you Mrs. Whittington and Mr. Ewert — for my very life.
This is the second of three featured "Random Thoughts" columns that the late Dick Sheppard wrote for The Times after his retirement in 2019.
Fred Hall
Oklahoma, was at Linnel Farm Labor Camp in Tulare County. Many employees and volun- teers at the camp talked about us Okie kids as though we weren’t capable of understand- ing them.
When we settled in Exeter for awhile my teachers acted like I was some kind of sub- species, not capable of under- standing or learning. The Cali- fornia kids made fun of me because my shirts were cut and sewn from flour sacks and everything else was ill-fitting hand-me-downs from my older brother.
I guess I didn’t want to dis- appoint the teachers or kids, so I lived down to their expecta- tions of me. On one Exeter re- port card I got 26 unsatisfac- tory marks on the attitude side of the card and the academic side wasn’t much better.
After one of the several sometimes bloody fights I got into at school, my mother told me the school thought it would be a good idea if I stayed home for awhile. And I did, for quite awhile.
Applying at home what
Dick Sheppard
To me, ample proof was provided when the president named California Attorney General Javier Becerra as his nominee for Secretary of Health and Human Ser- vices. Problem was that the California-based Becerra was introduced by the Commander in Chief as Javier “Bockeria.”
Since Biden couldn't even pronounce the name cor- rectly it indicated — at least to me — that very little thought was given to the candidate. One would assume that their sponsor could pronounce their name correctly and had investigated their qualifications.
It's obvious that hating Donald Trump would provide sufficient bona fides to serve in the Biden administra- tion. Having filed more than 100 lawsuits against the Trump administration seems to qualify Mr. “Bockeria” exquisitely for the job. Like most of Biden's appointees, there is a glaring absence of experience or know-how to do the job these people are assuming. We're being asked to place our lives and futures in the hands of people who essentially don't know what the hell they are doing.
Some are so racially divisive as to be frightening while, at the same time, espouse socialistic beliefs that would be more at home with the bureaucracy of Cuba or Venezuela. Racial disparity and attacks on people's skin color (at the present time white is out of favor) presents an unhealthy and dangerous circumstance for the freest nation in the world. Wars have been fought to eliminate exactly what is happening with the “woke” left. Some of the truly ignorant actions — such as burning down buildings, tearing down statues and rewriting history — seem to harken back to the mantra of the 1970s: “If it feels good, do it!” That doesn't speak well for any of us.
The attack on petroleum bing perpetrated by “the new green deal” has already begun to manifest itself in rising gasoline prices. One can't do things as simplis- tic as shutting down Keystone and other pipelines as well as closing huge areas to drilling and not impact the country's economy. Green energy will probably come but man can not expedite that date. We're probably 20 or 30 years away from any serious curtailment of pe- troleum usage.
Getting back to Mr. Biden and our initial “defense” of him, I would swear it's impossible for one man to do so many really dumb things at once without assistance. He seems to set new records for flawed rationale every day! We've all heard “the lights are on but there's no one home.” In this case the lights aren't even on. Our new president has what I call “dead eyes.” Under our current circumstances, the lights are off and no one is home!
The problem is that every one of his mistakes will ultimately have repercussions. Our economy is being damaged; our security is being impacted by misguided policies involving Iran and China; public health is threat- ened with uncontrolled immigration; we will once again be dependent on foreign energy; lower and middle class jobs will be decimated for the same reason and taxes will rise. The truly unbelievable is that we are sending money to the Arab Middle East for “gender studies.” Good luck on that taxpayer money being put to good use.
But, as always, that's only one man's opinion.
Remember the story of the little girl who, having been told to clean the stable, went happily to work de- claring “with all this horse poop in here, there must be a pony somewhere." I'm still looking for the pony!
Some are virtual, but Blossom Trail's first weekend has events scheduled
With all the craziness of COVID-19 messing up live events for just about a full year, one of the final events to be affected is this year's Blos- som Trail events.
Just before the pandemic started in March 2020, cities were able to squeeze in their annual Blossom Trail events (Sanger fun run/car show and food booths; Reedley Blossom Trail Bike Ride) before the fast-spreading virus brought everything to a screeching halt. The fallout is still being felt in 2021.
This year's Blossom Trail Run is being held virtually, with entrants running on their own beginning on March 1 and continuing through Sunday, April 4.They then can submit their times electronically af- ter picking up their packets by drive-thru at the city annex (1789 Jensen Ave.). Runners or walkers can compete in 10K,
2K run-walks as well as a a virtual Kids Fun Run/Walk.
There's also two new vir- tual features, a virtual 20-mile bike ride and a virtual "Du- athon" (consisting of a 10K run and 20-mile bike ride). That's good news, since the Reedley Lions Club decided to cancel its 32nd annual ride through the city streets of Reedley and rural roads north of the city.
Blossom Trail Bike Ride or- ganizers decided to cancel the ride for 2021 "as we consider the health and welfare of our riders and volunteers." They plan to come back better than ever on March 5, 2022, and with COVID numbers now de- clining it's hoped that every- thing returns to a pre-virus level of participation.
Thankfully, one thing is appearing to be holding to its usual popular form. That's the HIllcrest Tree Farm Blossom Trail 2021 rides this weekend,
March 6-7 and the weekend of March 13-14. The Reedley Railfest also is scheduled to take place on Saturday and Sunday, March 20-21.
Jon Earnest
Train rides are available and food vendors will be on site on both weekends from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. The Railfest will feature the regular train runs along with multiple visiting trains and food vendors.
It may be the old credo of "something is better than noth- ing," but it's a chance for the Central Valley communities to get outside and enjoy the spring-like weather (although there is a chance of rain in the forecast for this weekend).
Jon Earnest is news-sports editor for The Times.