Page 4 - Mid Valley Times 9-5-19 E-edition

Thursday, September 5, 2019 | 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 Politics do not belong in a
Random thoughts about heroes, city councils and zombies
Rick Curiel — Dinuba Editor Jon Earnest — Reedley Editor Dick Sheppard — Sanger Editor
college classroom
Labor Day is squarely in our rear- view mirror and with its passing we mark the opening of our schools, foot- ball season is beginning, harvest is underway or just around the corner and — although daytime tempera- tures belie the fact that fall is at hand — cooler days and crisp evening are on the way. What's not to like in that scenario?
By Dick Sheppard
Hope you'll join me Sat- urday at 5 p.m. in downtown Sanger for the start of the Farmers' Market season. Chamber boss Tammy Wolfe has done a great job putting to- gether another Carnival Night kickoff with the high school marching band and cheer squad, jugglers, fire eaters and a stilt walker. There'll also be a huge variety of food and a beer garden. It's all free, well except for the food and drinks. You'll have to pay for those.
•••
Tis the season for nominat-
ing Sanger heroes:
• a past or present U.S.
Coast Guard man or woman to be grand marshal of the 9th annual Sanger Veterans Day Parade on Nov. 2 in downtown Sanger; and,
• former athletes, coaches or contributors to be honored at the 3rd annual Sanger High School Athletic Hall of Fame event on May 2 of next year at the community center.
Contact me by email at sangerherald@gmail.com for more info about nominations.
The hall of fame event has been sold out the past couple of years. If you'd like to go to the next enshrinement dinner it would be a good idea to get your name on a "ticket waiting list" by emailing sangercahof@ gmail.com. Those on the list will get first shot at tickets, in the order they sign up, right after those who are chosen to be enshrined and their guests. It may not be a perfect solu- tion to the sold out problem.
But it's probably the most fair, help keep the at least until the city comes up current level of with a larger, more suitable city services, venue. or not.
••• Transparen- Don't count on that larger, cy, what a con-
more suitable venue any time cept! soon, not with the attitude the •••
Dick Sheppard
Sadly, during the last half-century that beginning of the school year has become like one of those good news- bad news stories. Good news is that the kids are happy to be back experiencing real social interaction after a summer of hare-brained Facebook posting and Twitter- ing. There are lots of new clothes and new friends. Bad news would be in the form of the curriculum they are taught as well as some instructors — especially if your kids or grandkids are in college — feeling they have license to indoctrinate their personal political views in the mind of your child. Politics do not belong in a classroom! I don't know why the hell that is so hard to understand or control by school administrators.
Often, while pondering why the once-fertile fields that represented our nation's political future are now producing nothing but weeds of the most onerous sort, I find that it's beneficial to sit and have a conversation with my granddaughter who is a senior this year at Fresno State. The unclouded introspection of a young mind which has survived 15 years of education, yet remains intact with God-given common sense can tell one more than they may really want to know!
The last I checked, racism was simply defined as discrimination based solely on race or racial character- istics. Yet, how would you feel if one of your professors announced to her class, “There is no reason for any white students to be in this class.”
Perhaps one would have an uneasy feeling about their chances of being successful under this teacher with such a pre-established discrimination for the white members of her charge. It doesn't get any uglier than anyone with racial attitudes but it certainly isn't an isolated situation. Black people can be racist. White people can certainly be racist. Asians are capable of racism. I guess we've run out of anyone who is politi- cally correct to attack and it's time for white people of European descent to be blamed for everything.
Please understand that none of this is intended as a blanket condemnation of the teaching profession, but only that segment who feel entitled to shirk their duty as educators to teach students rather than engage in po- litical proselytizing. Perhaps if tenure no longer made an educator “bulletproof” to being fired greater atten- tion would be paid to more effectively doing one's job. We can't afford to lose another generation of minds.
Another source of the educational process, journal- ism, as it was intended by the drafters of our Constitu- tion who wrote in special protections for the profes- sion, is dead! Editors, reporters, writers, and televi- sion anchors should only report the facts — preferably verified by at least three sources — allowing the news consumer to draw their own conclusions. Pundits and columnists provide personal opinions which a viewer or reader can use to supplement factual reporting to draw meaning. Today everything seems to be delivered through the filter of political partisanship.
“Nothing is as terrible as fear itself,” according to Sir Francis Bacon. Even as this is being written the babbling class that is America's media is busy spread- ing fear as truth. It seems to me that every effort is being expended by our ”newspeople” to talk this coun- try into a recession. Rely on real statistics and not insinuations and innuendos.
But, as always, that's only one man's opinion.
Action on a sales tax measure for Reedley likely by the end of month
Fred Hall
current city hall administra- tion seems to have about de- velopment.
Three developers have shared identical stories with me about the negativity, lack of follow through and unre- turned phone calls from the city manager Tim Chapa and his non-development staff. They are also telling those stories to the fast growing concerned citizen's commit- tee. You might hear one of the horror stories at this evening's city council meeting, maybe along with the increasingly popular chant of, "If Sanger's going to grow, Chapa has to go!"
•••
I might skip the council
meeting in favor of the Thurs- day night Apache football game with Clovis East at La- monica Stadium. I always feel like supporting the Apaches, the city council not so much these days.
•••
The city manager and city
council in Reedley are doing something out of the ordinary and I like it, big time!
They're talking about put- ting a special tax measure on the ballot next March to help balance the budget.
Seems like they're being very up front about offering residents an opportunity to
I've always
been a huge science fiction fan. But, until recently haven't paid much attention to movies and TV shows about zombies. However, I'm starting to be- lieve something very similar to the fictional zombie apoc- alypse is taking place right here in Sanger and is one more thing our city council is prob- ably not going to worry much about.
I'm talking about the drug addicted and mentally unstable men and women wandering our streets, dumpster diving to retrieve recyclables to sell for meth — and in a growing number of instances burglar- izing our homes; the woman who didn't notice the open sore filled with maggots on her leg, the ranting, red-eyed man un- steadily steering his rattling, wobbling shopping cart across the Bethel Avenue Speedway to the recycle center, the empty eyed man who wouldn't stop smoking his meth pipe while I tried to talk with him and the woman — difficult to tell her age — who tries to sell herself to the tweakers who just got paid for their black bags or shopping carts full of cans and bottles.
No, I'm not talking about San Francisco or Los Angeles. Contact Dick Sheppard at
sangerherald@gmail.com
QUOTE
“Skiing consists of wearing $3,000 worth of clothes and equipment and driving 200 miles in the snow in order to stand around at a bar and drink.”
— P. J. O'Rourke (1947 - )
A vote by the Reedley City Council on Aug. 27 set the stage for a potential sales tax measure to be decided by city residents and eligible vot- ers next March. If there ends up being a sales tax measure going to voters, it will be in March 2020.
By the end of this month, we'll know for sure if there will be an election and exactly what action voters will decide to take. The city has done its due diligence receiving com- munity feedback regarding Reedley's brewing budget cri- sis. It's a situation no Califor- niacity—bigorsmall—is going to be able to avoid for much longer. Fiscals strains
that include unfunded pension mandates for state employees, continued increase in the mini- mum wage and rising costs in general mean that Reedley is looking at budget deficits as soon as 2020-2021.
Paul Melikian, Reedley's as- sistant city manager, has told the council that residents have made it clear that they want to continue to see services and important infrastructure like street and road maintenance to continue. In order to avoid the unpleasant task of job and position cuts, that would mean increasing revenue to the city — in other words, a tax in- crease.
The consensus the public
seems to want in the event of ataxisasales tax. Whether it's one-half cent or three- quarter cent is an important decision to be made.
Jon Earnest
The likely date of a vote is Tuesday, Sept. 24. Reedley residents who have concerns, support, opposition or simply questions should attend on that date. It's your opportunity to vouch your opinion to city leaders.
Whatever the decision, a day of financial reckoning is on the horizon.