Page 4 - Reedley Exponent 5-10-18

The Reedley Exponent A4 Thursday, May 10, 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
With a little more than one year having passed since the election of Donald Trump as President of the United States and the Demo- crats continuing to litigate that historical mes- sage to the Washington establishment, we no- ticed that Bernie Sanders already is beginning to make waves about a 2020 bid for that office.
Jon Earnest — Editor
Chris Aguirre — Sports Editor Felicia Cousart Matlosz — Panorama Editor Budd Brockett — Editor Emeritus
Like the idea of a free flight? Come to the Kevorkian Fly In on May 12
QUOTE
“I would rather be exposed to the inconveniences at- tending too much liberty than to those attending too small a degree of it.”
— Thomas Jefferson (1743 - 1826),
to Archibald Stuart, 1791
A major part of Sen. Sanders’ slate already
has been released to the press and polls have
been taken at this early stage. The senator
is proposing free college for everyone, free
healthcare for everyone, and a guaranteed
wage as well as a guaranteed job for every
American. Want to know something scary? The polling which has been done so far indicates that 46 percent of the people agree with his position. Sanders says that if the private sector is unable to provide the jobs, the government will make employment available.
Given a choice of continuing to remain on welfare and feed at the public trough wasn’t mentioned, but it seems to me that the job description of the two is fairly indistinguishable.
I cite this to use as a segue to our recent dealings with one of those agencies which “serves” the public in California.
Over the span of 59 years, during which I have owned and operat- ed a large number of vehicles, there was always a lingering suspicion that employees — and their management — at the Department of Mo- tor Vehicles were trained at a special school which required irrational thinking and total ignorance of communication skills. Guess what? When I moved to California about 30 years ago all those suspicions were validated. California DMV, you’re number one! There should be an award for that because they seem to relish in the obstreperousness displayed toward their customers. Last time I checked, their salaries are paid by those in the public they are supposed to assist.
We found, among numerous other things, that classic grammar usage goes right out the window. Something that is grammatically correct has an entirely different meaning to those people. Case in point would be the use of a slash to separate the names of the two people on a car title. In proper grammar such usage of the slash (also known as a solidus or virgule) indicates a choice of the names or more commonly, the word “or.” They argued that in DMV language it means “and.” That left us with the dilemma of having to prove that one of the parties (the husband) was deceased.
It took three trips to the DMV and numerous visits with the widow to gather enough information to gain title to a $2,500 former church van which we had purchased for the delivery of newspapers. Their final complaint, before they finally gave up and accepted our money, was that they couldn’t be sure it was really the lady’s signa- ture although her name had been signed to numerous documents they requested.
This just seemed like an appropriate time to raise such an is- sue when a possible presidential candidate has announced that he intends to campaign on a platform of more government workers. There is a whole alphabet soup of these people who include such “understanding and cooperative” agencies as the Internal Revenue Service and Department of Motor Vehicles. They regulate, dictate and restrict just about everything that American citizens can do. Do we really need or want more of them with their arcane way of thinking and reasoning?
But, as always, that’s only one man’s opinion.
I would be remiss if I failed to mention the disgust which I feel every day as I watch the Democrats, the Washington establishment, the press and Robert Mueller’s group of biased investigators con- tinue their attempt to destroy Donald Trump, his family, campaign personnel, White House staff and virtually anyone who ever knew him. The damage this aforementioned gang is inflicting is not only professionally but financially and personally as well. Thanks basi- cally to Rod Rosenstein, this group of “character assassins” have been given carte blanche with the federal treasury to pursue Trump and his allies with no apparent crime or limits.
It’s not often you get an opportu- nity to see Reedley and the eastern portion of Fresno County from the air. Especially without paying a steep price for an airline ticket.
But this Saturday, May 12, You’re in luck. Provided you get there early. The annual Korky Kevorkian Barbe- cue and Fly In starts at 10 a.m. at the Reedley Municipal Airport, 4557 S. Frankwood Ave. north of the city. At- tendees have the opportunity to sign up and embark on a brief flight — for free — on one of the planes. It’s an extremely popular feature, especially for children, and leads to long lines in the wait for pilots to take passengers.
So Denise Phariss, administrative assistant with the Community Servic- es Department, makes one important recommendation. Get to the signup table as soon as you arrive to sign up and get a ticket. This year, flights will be cut off at noon in order to allow pi- lots to hear Dick DeKoning, the key- note speaker. DeKoning plans to talk about his experience helping to build the famous Hughes H-4 Hercules, also known as “The Spruce Goose.” The plane made a single flight in 1947.
There’s also a barbecue hot dog lunch donated by the Reedley Airport Commission and a special demonstra- tion flight by one of the Pipestrel Al- pha Electro battery electric training airplanes being used as part of the sustainable aviation project part- nership between Reedley and Men-
dota. Don’t pass up the chance to see Reedley and the area from a couple of thousand feet up.
•••
During the course of hours last
week, the Kings River returned to rec- reational and irrigation levels through Reedley and into Tulare County. The Bureau of Reclamation began releas- es from Pine Flat Reservoir on May 1 and water levels climbed to where boats can travel on the river with plen- ty of room to spare.
The next step Reedley residents are waiting for is the opening of Reed- ley Beach on Memorial Day weekend. It will be the first Memorial Day holi- day Reedley Beach enthusiasts can spend at the facility in two years. In 2017, heavy spring flooding spurred by near-record rainfall and snowmelt kept the site under water through spring and early summer. Reedley Beach finally reopened July 21, leav- ing less than two months for water recreation activities.
Russ Robertson, public works di- rector for the city, said Cricket Hol- low Park has been open to the public through the winter after being closed for much of 2017 because of fallen trees. Robertson said boaters also have full access to the boat launch fa- cility at the south end of the park.
•••
If you’re registered to vote —
which I hope you are — you now can take the steps to vote early and avoid
going to a precinct to vote on Tuesday, June 5.
This past Mon-
day, May 7, early
voting began for
the statewide di-
rect primary elec-
tion next month.
If you’re in Fresno
and you want to
cast a ballot early, you can go to the Fresno County Main Elections Office at 2221 Kern St. weekdays from 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. and cast a vote. It’s an option people have each weekday until June 5.
Then there’s the option of voting by mail. If you call the elections of- fice at (559) 600-8683, you can request a vote-by-mail ballot to be sent to your residence. You can mail it in to the elections office anytime up until pri- mary Election Day, or you can drop it off if you’re in downtown Fresno.
““Early voting is a great opportu- nity for voters with busy schedules or who cannot make it to their polling place on June 5,” said Brandy Orth, Fresno County Clerk and Registrar of Voters. “We hope voters will take advantage of this opportunity to come down to the elections office and cast their ballots.”
In addition, you can go online at fresnovote.com to verify and update your registration.
Fred Hall
Jon Earnest
Relevancy of the Constitution in local and state elections
By Harold Pease
Guest columnist
With election signs ev- erywhere it is well to note that it is unrealistic to ex- pect national candidates to follow the Constitution when we did not insist that they did so in local and state elections. After all, many simply move up to higher office. Some may even view the Constitution as ir- relevant at these levels.
Several years ago, at a public debate for county supervisor in California, the public was invited to of- fer written questions. I did so and watched the debate monitor, with a puzzled look on his face, sideline my question in preference to others. I presumed it was because it raised a consti- tutional concern, which un- fortunately, is considered by many an irrelevant topic at the city, county, or even state levels. You are sup- posed to ask what “goodies” from taxpayer funding are you going to give me and is it more than your oppo- nent?
So what does the Consti- tution have to do with local or state issues? Everything! First, it is the only document that every elected public servant swears by oath to uphold. So the Founders must have thought it rel- evant at lower levels.
Second, candidates at lower levels successfully rise to higher levels because of the name recognition ob- tained at lower levels and eventually become mem- bers of the House of Repre- sentatives and U.S. Senate, often without ever having read the Constitution they are specifically under oath
to protect. When I worked as a legislative assistant in the U.S. Senate years ago, I was certain at least 50 percent had never read it at any level of government. Today I would be surprised if those who had read it ex- ceeded 10 percent. No one asks candidates while cam- paigning when they last read it.
So again, why does this matter? Historically, the two major enemies of freedom are: 1) it is the nature of all governments to pull deci- sion-making power upward to the seat of government and, 2) the more apathetic and indifferent the popula- tion becomes the greater the tendency of the people to push decision making power upwards to the seat of government. When these two forces work together it always leads to the central government eventually hav- ing most of the power. The Constitution is full of “hand- cuffs” to keep decision- making power from getting to the top thus maximizing it with the individual. The Founders overriding phi- losophy of government, if it could be penned into one sentence, was, “never el- evate to a higher level that which can be resolved at a lesser level.”
Even a casual look at the Constitution reveals the separation of powers on the federal level into three distinct branches the legis- lative, executive, and judi- cial — each with a specific list. For Congress it was a list of the four types of law they could make (Art. I, Sec. 8), for the president it was the types of execu- tive functions he could ex-
ecute (Art. II, Sec. 2-3), and for the Supreme Court the types of cases it could ad- judicate (Art. III, Sec. 2). The lists exist to both re- strict them and to prohibit the concentration of power into one branch. The only type of federal government authorized by the Founders was decidedly a limited one. States, counties, and cities have all the powers not list- ed, as per Amendment 10.
When these limitations are not understood and protected at lower levels of government, the federal government is constantly tempted to steal authority from the states or counties as per its confiscating, en- vironmental, health, and education issues, which are constitutionally 100% non-federal government is- sues. States, counties, and cities should use the Tenth Amendment to tell the fed- eral government to “butt out.” “You have no consti- tutional authority.” When Congress passed, and the president signed into law, the National Defense Au- thorization Act, Dec. 31, 2012, both states and coun- ties should have written Congress and the president. “You may not void Amend- ments4,5,6,and8,ofThe Bill of Rights and the Writ of Habeas Corpus for our citizens.”
Sixty years ago, it may not have made much differ- ence if a county supervisor/ commissioner, or city coun- cilman, swore allegiance to a Constitution that he had not fully studied, or worse, even read. The federal govern- ment had not yet absorbed his area of jurisdiction. Now it has! There is hardly an
area where the federal gov- ernment does not have its tentacles embedded, from school lunches to cross gen- der bathrooms. More than 30 years ago, a city council- man complained to me that a third of what he voted on was already mandated be- cause sometime in the past the council had accepted the “free money” which now ob- ligated him. School districts are notorious for having done the same thing.
City, county, and state leaders, you are our buf- fer from the federal gov- ernment taking from you your areas of jurisdiction. They have done so for ma- ny years because you were complacent, or ignorant of the Constitution. Con- sequently you have lost a large portion of our liberty. Today, your understanding of the document must be known before we place you in power.
This election let us find leaders with constitutional fire in their bellies to undo the precedents that their predecessors created. All is- sues on the city and county levels are directly or indi- rectly constitutional issues. We now expect leaders to know, and abide by, the document that they swear to uphold.
Harold Pease is a syn- dicated columnist and an expert on the United States Constitution. He has dedi- cated his career to studying the writings of the Found- ing Fathers and applying that knowledge to current events. He has taught his- tory and political science from this perspective for more than 30 years at Taft College in Kern County.
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