Page 4 - Mid Valley Times 5-7-20 E-edition

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 We're slowly destroying
ourselves from within
Who would have thought that,
even with our other problems — all of
which should have served as warnings
— California citizens would essen-
tially allow themselves to be placed
under house arrest at the whim of a
duly elected governor; have business-
es that are our sources of livelihood
shuttered; watch quietly as politi-
cians release convicted criminals on
the thinest of premises; and permit the governor, com- pletely unfettered, to spend billions of our tax dollars with China while at the same time spend hundreds of millions earmarked for illegal aliens?
And now our beaches — God's gift to California — have been ordered closed by people we elected. Why is all of this happening? Because Gov. Gavin Newsom ordered it—the Constitution be damned!
The overpriced personal protection equipment which Newsom purchased comes from China, perhaps the most antagonistic foe that the United States has. BYD, the electric car company, which retooled for the job, is noted for its shoddy products. We suspect that the real key in deal is that the Chinese automaker is partially owned by Warren Buffet. Others in need of masks placed their orders with American compa- nies and paid only a fraction of what California did. It seems, for whatever reason, we have opted to enrich and reward the very country which was the source of this entire mess!
Welcome to California, in the year of our Lord 2020, and a version of the New Green Deal from Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. Rahm Emanuel, Democratic Chicago politician, is famous for extolling his party to always take advantage of a crisis. So far, it seems to be work- ing for them.
We've acquiesced to a form of socialism we thought would never exist to this extent and not a single shot has been fired. This is the exact situation the Russians threatened way back in the 1960s. Soviet Premier Ni- kita Khrushchev, while pounding his shoe on the table, told America that they would take this country down without firing a shot.
His assertion was that we would manage to destroy ourselves from within. Now, after almost 60 years of slumping toward socialism, they are fearfully close to achieving his goal. Over years, universities have pro- duced men and women with no leadership qualities or common sense — and, we've continued to vote for them and send them to Washington and Sacramento to rep- resent us!
Americans used to be fighters. Somewhere along the way, we seem to have lost the sand in our craw when it comes to protecting our best interests. The last time the strength of this nation was really tested and we won was 75 years ago. Heroes from that era have been replaced by the “pajama boys” of today.
Those among us who would sacrifice freedom in the pursuit of security deserve neither. I wish I could take credit for that statement, but I can't. The original au- thor was Benjamin Franklin who, according to today's teaching curriculum was one of our evil intentioned forefathers. Freedom requires our constant, vigilant oversight of those basic freedoms provided by our fore- fathers through the beautifully framed concepts of the Constitution and Bill of Rights or we risk having them stolen away by unscrupulous political figures.
Socialism, coupled with an authoritarian govern- ment, is insidious in the way it creeps in and takes over one's normal everyday life. Always remember a couple of things: nothing from the government is ever free — someone paid that money they are so freely distribut- ing and we elected those people to work for us. It's not our job to support their lifestyles!
But, of course, that's only one man's opinion.
Chancellor: SCCCD proudly gives back to the community
Rick Curiel — Sanger Editor Jon Earnest — Reedley Editor Dick Sheppard — Editor Emeritus
Thursday, May 7, 2020 | A4 | Mid Valley TiMes Editorial & Opinions
Fred Hall
By Paul Parnell
Guest columnist
We at the State Center Com- munity College District would like to thank our first respond- ers, health care and other essen- tial employees who are report- ing to work during the pandem- ic. You are all heroes.
The SCCCD (Fresno City Col- lege, Reedley College, Clovis Community College, Madera Community College Center and Oakhurst Community College Center) felt the need to do its part to minimize the spread of the Coronavirus (COVID-19).
On March 13, with one CO- VID-19 case in Madera Coun- ty and one in Fresno County, our board held an emergency meeting announcing that the district would be converting to online classes. Two days later, the district issued a notice for employees 65 or older or those with health issues, to work from home. On March 16, our colleges began the process of transition- ing to online classes and work- ing remotely. This decision meant that 68,000 students and 3,000 instructors and staff would be staying home to reduce the rate of infection.
This has been a challenging time for both our students and staff. I want to thank our stu- dents for their perseverance and flexibility, and our staff for their tremendous effort to quickly transition to a fully remote op-
eration. I’d also like to recognize the essential SCCCD staff who work to keep us safe, our tech- nology running, our buildings clean and our staff paid.
Our dedicated faculty and staff are keeping students on track with their educational goals while keeping them safe. Students were provided lap- tops, Wi-Fi hotspots and access to technology, in order to finish the semester. Students without internet, accessed campus wi-fi from their cars in our parking lots, thus increasing connectiv- ity capabilities while maintain- ing social distancing.
Fresno City College nursing, respiratory and first responder students can now be found on the front lines. Madera LVN students are also assisting. Ac- tually, California community colleges train 80 percent of fire, police and EMTs as well as 70 percent of nurses.
Reedley College has contin- ued training essential wildland fire fighters, pilots and aviation maintenance employees.
Madera and Oakhurst Com- munity College Center veterans are assisting with the state’s food distribution. Students at all campuses are assisting locally with food distribution.
In addition, our Valley Com- munity Small Business Develop- ment Center, located at Clovis Community College, has helped hundreds of local businesses apply for COVID-19 emergency
financial assis- tance.
SCCCD is on
a shelter-in-place
status through
Sunday, May 31.
All of our events
have been can-
celed or post-
poned including commencement. Our summer classes also will be offered online.
We understand how disrup- tive the COVID-19 pandemic has been in the lives of many of our students and families. We are fo- cused on helping provide the sup- port and resources they need to succeed. Therefore, I am pleased to announce that the State Center Community College Foundation has created the COVID-19 Emer- gency Aid for Students fund (ac- cessible online at scccd.edu/.)
This fund provides relief for SCCCD students facing a financial crisis, including food or housing insecurity, technol- ogy needs or other unexpected financial emergencies resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic.
Once the crisis passes, we look forward to again being able to celebrate in person the successes of our students, as well as, to thank our donors and friends for their support.
Dr. Paul Parnell is chancellor for the State Center Community College District.
QUOTE
“When you think of the long and gloomy history of man, you will find more hideous crimes have been committed in the name of obedience than have ever been committed in the name of rebellion.”
—C.P.Snow (1905-1980)
Paul Parnell
Don’t delay emergency care, even in a pandemic
By Dr. Frank Gavini and Laurie Taggart
Guest columnists
Walk through our hospitals, and you’ll notice something: quiet. Our hospital corridors, usu- ally bustling with caregivers and patients, have been un- usually empty these past few weeks. Many of the beds in our inpatient units have gone un- filled. The number of patients suffering from heart attacks, strokes and chest pains has de- clined. Few emergency surger-
ies are being performed. While fewer emergencies may sound like cause for cel- ebration, we know that the re- ality is grim. As much as we’d like to believe it’s because people are not suffering from life-threatening conditions, we
know that’s not the case. Across the communities we serve, loved ones, including the elderly and medically vulnera- ble, have been delaying or avoid- ing care out of fear of coming to the hospital during a pandemic. In other cases, our community members feel a sense of duty to
avoid the hospital to not over- whelm healthcare resources.
We’ve seen our community take extraordinary measures amid this pandemic to prac- tice responsible social distanc- ing, “flattening the curve” and keeping our healthcare workers safe. We’re grateful for that, but the measures — meant to pre- vent an unmanageable surge of COVID-19 patients — have had unintended consequences.
At Adventist Health, the number of people coming into our emergency department has decreased by more than half across our multi-state system.
This is distressing for those who are suffering from oth- erwise minor conditions that can worsen without immediate medical care. A man in one of our communities, for example, took a bad spill off his bicycle and fractured a bone. He called the hospital to see if it was safe to come in for treatment.
Let me answer his question for everyone who might be asking themselves the same thing during this pandemic: Yes, our hospitals are safe. Emergencies happen,
and you should never delay care. We recognize that some might fear going to the hospital during these uncertain times. But we should never let fear get in the way of receiving needed medical care. If we allow it to, then this pandemic will have indirectly claimed more lives and wreaked
more havoc than it should have. Our community has done its job socially distancing. That has provided us adequate time to prepare for any potential surge of patients, put into place infec- tion prevention measures to halt the spread of COVID-19 within our hospital walls, and most of all, keep our patients and care-
givers safe.
Now it’s time for us to con-
tinue doing our jobs keeping our community healthy.
Emergency care should nev- er be put off or avoided, espe- cially during a pandemic.
Emergencies happen. Don’t delay your care.
Dr. Frank Gavini is medical officer and Laurie Taggart is patient care executive for Ad- ventist Health in the Central Valley, which includes Adven- tist Health Reedley.