Page 3 - Sanger Herald 3-8-18 E-edition

SANGER HERALD 3A THURSDAY, MARCH 8, 2018 EDITORIAL & OPINION
Random thoughts They didn't need no stinkin' public hearing ...
By Dick Sheppard
A big enthusiastic wayto- go to chamber boss Tammy Wolfe and her posse for a supercalifragilisticexpiali- docious Blossom Festival.
Early and late showers
didn't dampen the enthusi-
asm of runners, walkers, Dick Sheppard gear heads, country music and beer garden fans or the long line of appreciative peach cob- bler and rib sandwich fans in front of Sadie Mae's food booth.
•••
I have to confess to very mixed emotions
about the proposed student walkout at Sanger High School at 10 a.m. next Wednesday.
It will be for just 17 minutes - one minute for each of the victims of the recent Florida school shootings.
Those students who walk out of class plan to stay in a group, stay on campus and listen to the name of each shooting victim being read.
I was a fan when I thought it was all about honoring the victims. After all, I was involved in more than one protest in the olden days. The biggest one for me was when my high school proposed removing candy bars and sodas from the vending machine. (Don't remember wheth- er we won that one or not.)
Then I found out the same people who brought us the Women's March are behind the Wednesday walkout. I remember how politi- cally partisan that event was and I still haven't scrubbed out of my brain the images of giant pink vaginas dancing in the streets.
A statement by one of the young organizers that one of the goals of the walkout is to try to discourage a Republican congressman, who is up for re-election in November, from accept- ing money from the National Rifle Association (NRA) triggered, so to speak, my interest in what partisan group is behind the scenes pull- ing the strings.
And voila!
A website with the Womens March signa- ture on it, telling youngsters all they might ever want to know about organizing their very own activist event, choreographed of course by the Womens March cadre.
According to a New York Times 2017 columnist, there are - believe it or not - Democrats in congress, who have accepted money from the NRA - Democrats like con- gressman Sanford Bishop from Georgia and senators Joe Manchin from West Virginia and Patrick Leahy from Vermont.
Maybe the young Sanger activists should also ask them to turn down NRA money,
instead of singling out a congressman from California, which, according to Giffords Law Center's Annual Gun Law Scoreboard, has the most stringent gun control laws among all 50 states, and ignoring congressmen and senators from that other party in states with weak to almost no gun control laws.
SeewhyI'malittleskeptical? SeewhyI can't help wonder if, from the top, it's not so muchabouthonoringvictimsasitis about using a tragedy as an excuse to recruit naive, innocent and well meaning young people into an ongoing activist group to be used to keep a very politically charged partisan message in front of the public during a key election year?
Can't help thinking that it looks very much like these youngsters are being used as pawns in a political chess game - and this is just the opening move.
I've heard that high school principal Dan Chacon plans to give all students a 17 minute break, starting at 10 a.m. next Wednesday. The students can decide whether they want to use the time to join the demonstrators, go to the cafeteria for snacks or just hang out in the gym. That way no one's first amendment rights have been infringed and there's really no walkout because everyone is on break.
•••
No city councilmembers showed up -
again - at the Measure S Citizens Oversight Committee meeting on Tuesday.
Seems like they would rather have a colonoscopy than show up at one of those meetings and hear the committee count the ways it believes the designated public safety money has been misspent.
Gotta hand it to the majority of council- members, they are really good at proclaiming a desire for information and avoiding situa- tions where they might get some.
The vote at the March 1 council meeting - there was a full moon that night, by the way
- on medical marijuana dispensaries is a good example. They were not voting on whether or not to allow a dispensary even though they certainly made it seem that way.
The vote was about whether or not to keep the decision making process open.
A vote to prolong the decision making pro- cesswouldhaveallowedthemtocollectthe information they said they needed, especially during a public hearing by the planning com- missionbeforetheissuefinallycameback
to the council, probably more than a month from now.
Instead, while proclaiming a desire for more information, they cut off the informa- tion gathering process. They didn't need no stinkin' public hearing, to paraphrase a line of dialogue from the 1948 film "The Treasure of the Sierra Madre."
My mama always said, "Actions speak louder than words," and their actions shouted down their words about wanting more infor- mation.
•••
An event Sunday morning at Jenni Park
triggered a bittersweet memory that caused me – and probably my young furry friend Sadie – to shed a tear.
We were walking on the hill on the south side, along the chain link fence between the park and the canal, among the empty boxes of Swisher Sweets and the scattered rem- nants of blunts. A movement on the other side of the park caused us to look that way.
An elderly, very arthritic dog was going down a walkway from a house on the other side of Jenni Avenue. Her human was close besideher.Whentheyreachedthesidewalk they turned and slowly made their way across the street and onto the sidewalk cir- cling the park. Sadie and I didn’t move even though it took them a long time to make their way past the tot lot and onto our side of the park. Sadie and I looked at each other. I’m sure we had the same thought, “That’s the way we looked when we walked with 19-year- old Dundee, who took us on her final walk on Jan. 1 and died on Jan. 3.
It had been awhile since Dundee had been able to go all the way to the park. We mostly just walked around the block – slowly – for probably about a year before she died.
Sadie wanted to run down the hill and
say hello. I held her back and reminded her how Dundee, with cataracts and a hearing problem, sometimes became confused and frightened when there were sudden move- ments near her. So, we watched from the hill
as the older dog made her way slowly past us on the sidewalk below and around to the incline that led up to the exit from the park. She paused frequently and her human stood patiently while she gathered new energy. But just before she reached the exit she looked up at her human as if to say, “I can’t go any farther.” He bent down, kissed her on top of her head, gently picked her up and carried herhome.
It was a quiet walk home for Sadie and me. We were probably both remembering our walks with Dundee. Wishing for just one more.
Sadie, who joined the family less than two years ago, only remembered the painfully slow, short ones. But I remembered the times before age and arthritis caught up with a young, beautiful, always smiling, tail wagging Dundee, when she would lead us on a walking tour of practically all of northwest Sanger every weekend. The good times.
Hopefully, that’s what the kind human who carried his best friend home Sunday morning from Jenni Park will remember.
The good times.
Comments, complaints and suggestions may be emailed to sangerherald@gmail.com or maybe made by calling 875-2511
In my OPINION
Democrat tantrums are not pretty or productive
By Fred Hall
Perhaps everyone of us, as have I, need to take a step back and reassess that which is happening right now in The United States.
The “nutty left” com-
posed of much of California,
Hollywood, some in sports
- specifically professional
football and much or the media - have dis- played such hatred for this president that they have found their audience ratings falling precipitously. Rememberthatratingswhich represent viewership convert to money and represent the very lifeblood of this cur- rentlyderangedgroup. Itissoprevalent
that it has been provided a name ... Trump Derangement Syndrome!
I won't even pretend to understand such behavior,whichisbasicallychildish. Itjust strikes me that when America is doing well and prospering - as it now is - every single American is the beneficiary.
“A rising tide lifts all boats.”
The job of Commander in Chief is, in itself, a tough enough job without having to liter- ally drag the negativity of almost one-half of thiscountrytowardourgoal. Democratsand Berniecrats need to just accept the fact they losttheelection. Yougettotryagainthe nexttime-it'stheAmericanway. Thispetti- ness they display is not acceptable.
We hope that Hollywood got the message last Sunday evening when their ratings were offabout20percentfromlastyear. Roger Goodell and the National Football League saw ticket sales, attendance figures and television ratings plummet because of their silly anti- Americanstanceinvolvingtheflag. Onecan only hope that these entities, as well as the countless other information and entertain- ment media, understand the message being sent by millions of hard working Americans whobelieveinthisgreatcountry. Theylike this return to the strong, world respected America they grew up in.
Right now, right here in America a little respect between the left and the political right would go a long way toward beginning the healing process.
Come to think of it, what's not like in today'sAmerica? Youmaybeunhappythat your candidate didn't win. The seemingly endless tweets of president Trump may upset you or even the man's personality may seem incompatible with what we see as a polite society, but he does keep promises, he gets thingsdoneandheloveshiscountry. Those
Fred Hall
Not my President
Democrats won't work with Republicans until those darn Republicans grow up.
are the main items we should demand in a national leader.
All economic indicators pointing to job growth and more money being left in the pay- checks of Americans are tremendous posi- tives.
Many are upset with his elimination of
a DACA program created by President Obama which most reasonable people agree was well beyond his constitutional purview. Immigration laws are to be established by the House of Representatives and the Senate. This is not a subject left to executive order bytheexecutivebranch. IfCongresstruly wishes to do anything about the E.O. being lifted,thentheyshouldact. Wesincerely believe that Democrats don't want to do any- thing because they prefer to have it as an election issue this November.
State officials would be better served if they stopped doing foolish things designed
to hinder federal law enforcement and stop making foolish pronouncements such as
the one recently uttered by the mayor of Oakland. Thiswomanhasliterallycommit- ted a federal crime with her warning of ICE arrestsofcriminalillegals. Itremainstosee if there is any punitive action but our govern- ment is certainly entitled to introduce her honor, the mayor, to the inside of a jail cell.
All I ask is what is called for - simple com- monsense. DonaldJ.Trumpisourelected President. Therewillbenoimpeachment even if Maxine Waters and Adam Schiff con- tinuetoproclaimitonadailybasis. Wishful thinkingwillnevermakeitso. Whydon't
we all begin to pull together to truly restore Americatogreatness. Aregulardisplayof hate-filled rhetoric and obstinance is a drag on the efforts of true Americans everywhere.
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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