Page 4 - Reedley Exponent 3-29-18 E-edition

The Reedley Exponent A4 Thursday, March 29, 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
It never fails that whenever one feels that politicians and their big money donors have broken through the threshold of “worst ever,” they manage to surpass anything done before. Wonder what it took to bring me to this conclu- sion? I just watched President Donald Trump sign the “omnibus bill,” which is a budget that betrays everyone who voted for a Republican majority in government.
Jon Earnest — Editor
Chris Aguirre — Sports Editor Felicia Cousart Matlosz — Panorama Editor Budd Brockett — Editor Emeritus
QUOTE
“When a man says he approves of something in principle, it means he hasn’t the slightest intention of putting it into practice.”
— Otto von Bismarck (1815-1898)
Electric plane program forms a bond between Reedley, Mendota
Democrats are the big winners in this
mess! They got virtually everything they want,
and they’re the minority party. Why should we
waste our votes on vacant promises by Republicans? At least we know what liberal Democrats are going to do. They might as well have written this budget with little or no resistance from weak- kneed Republicans and their sorry excuse for leadership in both the House of Representatives and the Senate!
Granted, the president got the money which was so sorely need- ed to build our military to pre-Obama levels. Since the primary objective of our Federal government is to protect the people, the Administration delivered on his campaign promise but fell pitifully short on his promise to construct a wall across our Southwest border to stem the flow of illegals and drugs into our country. Thanks to both political parties, that border was essentially left open.
Between 1970 and 2014, 44.5 million babies were aborted in America chiefly through the publicly funded Planned Parenthood, which is nothing more than an abortion mill. The unnecessary death of more than 44 million children is a stain on any civilized society. How and why can such an obvious misuse of taxpayer money be- come the very heartbeat of Democratic candidates? Although the rate of such occurrences is down, the last reporting year indicated there were well more than 700,000 children who will never be al- lowed to enjoy the American life.
Although a tremendous tragedy, how can the deaths of 17 chil- dren in Florida raise such a public furor when compared to millions of babies who receive no attention whatsoever? Remember, thanks to this new budget, Planned Parenthood received additional funding to do their sordid work.
As long as it’s legal under a newly found right of privacy under the Constitution, it appears there is little we can do to stop such idi- ocy, but we shouldn’t be called upon to pay for it.
Increased social programs, championed by Democrats and ac- cepted by their Republicans in the “Deep State,” should not be used to pay for legal defense, Social Security and health benefits for il- legals. Nor should funding continue to flow into sanctuary cities to provide cover for illegal criminals and certainly it should not come from the toil of hard-working, taxpaying American citizens.
With a budget that exceeds 2,000 pages — which obviously no one read — it’s impossible in such a small amount of space to truly do justice to all the prolific spending contained therein, especially when it calls for a $1.3 trillion deficit. We did note, however, with only lip service being paid to border security in our own country, this bunch of “rocket scientists” we elected to govern managed to include copious amounts of money for walls and border security in Middle Eastern countries. Don’t ask why. Congress just seems able to do as they please and get away with it. Anyway, it makes them feel better because it’s their way of showing Trump who’s the boss. Our president should have vetoed the mess and made Congress come back to the cesspool of their creation and fix the mess!
But, as always, that’s only one man’s opinion.
Letters from readers
Before 2017, the small Fresno County cities of Reedley and Mendota had little in common other than a lean toward agriculture and high unem- ployment during the recession about a decade ago. Now, there’s a historic link — electric aircraft.
Early last year, the cities agreed to enter into a “Sustainability Avia- tion Project” that brings four Pip- istrel Alpha Electro battery electric training aircraft to the Central Val- ley. Once fully operational, the planes will shuttle between Reedley, Men- dota and Fresno’s Chandler Airport — where the planes currently are stored.
Both City Councils gathered at the airport near downtown Fresno for a special meeting March 26. There, they had the opportunity to see the four rare planes — the only operat- ing electric aircraft in the Western Hemisphere — up close and then wit- ness a flying demonstration by Joseph Oldham, director of CALSTART’s San Joaquin Valley Clean Transportation Center.
At the meeting, Oldham compared the historical significance of the elec- tric plane technology to Charles Lind- bergh’s solo flight across the Atlan- tic Ocean in 1927. In the big picture, that’s not such a far-fetched notion. It’s a technology that will drastically re-
plane program, and plans for the imme- diate future, next week.
••• There was an-
other protest rally
at Reedley High
School last week,
but it didn’t involved any students leaving campus. On March 23, more than 20 students held up signs com- menting on the current unrest and conflict in Syria.
Senior Victoria Rodriguez sent us some photos of the rally/protest which she said was “not to push an agenda but to inform people about the situa- tion in Syria which I feel not enough attention is being called to.” The brief event occurred during the school lunch period.
On March 14 — the one-month an- niversary of the fatal shooting of 17 students and staff members at a Flor- ida high school — about 200 students participated in a memorial on campus while just more than 100 others brief- ly walked off campus. The students who left campus, even briefly, were subject to discipline ranging from de- tention to Saturday school.
Fred Hall
Jon Earnest
Thanks from Relay for Life
To the Reedley community, you rock! Rain or shine, our Reed- ley Relay for Life teams were out there on March 2 collecting for the American Cancer Society.
It was amazing to see the generosity that our community displayed; from the dime col- lected from a high school stu- dent’s console to the many $20 dollar bills that came from wal- lets as they told our teams “thank you for being out here, I have a family member with cancer.” We raised nearly$3,030 on that beau- tiful rainy day!
Four days later on March 6, we hosted our Annual “Abraca-
dabra” Bra Auction at The Pub. Once again, our Reedley com- munity came through with their enthusiasm and spirit to purchase 83 creatively decorated bras. We raised $3,020 at this year’s auction.
We invite the entire commu- nity to join us for the Reedley Relay for Life Event at Reedley High School on Saturday, April 14. We will have a fun-filled 24-hour event with opening cer- emonies beginning at 9 a.m. We close our event with a ceremony at 8:30 a.m. Sunday, April 15.
Thank you, Reedley!
Lisa McAndrews Reedley Relay for Life Event Chair
By Benjamin V. Allison
Guest columnist
On the night of Sunday, March 31, 1968, Lyndon Ba- ines Johnson began one of the most famous addresses of his long career.
“Good evening, my fel- low Americans: Tonight I want to speak to you of peace in Vietnam and South- east Asia.” LBJ announced that a small contingent of reinforcements were being sent to Vietnam, and that American bombers would no longer target the area north of the 20th parallel in Vietnam, which contained 90 percent of the North Vietnamese population.
But then came this shocker: Johnson declared his unequivocal withdrawal from the 1968 presidential race: “I shall not seek, and I will not accept, the nomina- tion of my party for anoth- er term as your president.”
Johnson’s “Withdrawal Speech” came in the wake of one of the great crisis pe- riods in American history: the Tet Offensive. During the Vietnamese celebration of the lunar new year, or Tet (Jan. 30), the Vietcong and the People’s Army of (North) Vietnam launched a massive surprise offen- sive throughout most of the South. Though techni- cally a tactical victory for the anti-communist forces, there was a sense both do- mestically and internation- ally that the United States had lost.
As historian Robert Dallek writes, “[t]he prin- cipal casualty of the Tet offensive was U.S. public opinion,” and indeed, public opinion polls revealed that LBJ suffered a massive drop in popularity. Unfortu-
nately for Johnson, the situ- ation only worsened when, during a national broadcast on Feb. 27, CBS’s Walter Cronkite, the “most trusted man in America,” gave his views on the war, conclud- ing that “we are mired in stalemate.” LBJ also faced pressure from within the government, as doves in both Congress and the Pen- tagon urged disengagement.
Given the intelligence failures that resulted in the strategic surprise of the Tet Offensive, and the con- tinued flow of optimistic reports from the military, the pressure on the admin- istration to solve the Viet- nam problem kept mount- ing. Concerns regarding the military situation were heightened by General Westmoreland’s sudden re- quest for additional troops, which soon exceeded the congressionally approved ceiling by 180,000. In his first significant questioning of extant policy, incoming Secretary of Defense Clark Clifford expressed his frus- tration with the situation: “there is a very strange contradiction in what we are saying and doing. ... We should give some very serious thought to how we explain saying on one hand the enemy did not take a victory and yet we are in need of many more troops and possibly an emergency call up.” Per Walt Rostow’s suggestion, the president assigned Clifford to lead a group in studying the ques- tion. Johnson also allowed former Secretary of State Dean Acheson to conduct his own investigation.
Johnson continued vacillating as he received pessimistic reports from
both Clifford and Acheson. While LBJ considered dif- ferent options for begin- ning the peace process, he encountered a series of do- mestic political challenges which pushed him closer to disengagement in Viet- nam. On March 13, Senator Eugene McCarthy won 41.9 percent of the vote in the New Hampshire primary, which put the president on notice: the American peo- ple were displeased with him. McCarthy’s success prompted longtime LJB ri- val, Robert F. Kennedy, to enter the race on March 16, despite his previous state- ments to the contrary.
On March 23, John- son responded positively to speechwriter Harry McPherson’s recommen- dation of unilaterally halt- ing bombing north of the 20th parallel and demand- ing the cessation of North Vietnamese supply lines along the Ho Chi Minh Trail as a condition for beginning negotiations. Additionally, at Clifford’s suggestion, Johnson invited the “Wise Men” — ex- and non-admin- istration advisers — to give him their views on the war. The last time that the Wise Men had met (November 1967), they overwhelmingly supported Johnson’s Viet- nam policy, encouraging him to keep pressuring the North Vietnamese. Hav- ing been briefed the night before, the Wise Men met with Johnson on March 26, and expressed their (gen- erally) now-pessimistic views. Johnson seemingly remained undecided until the last few days before the speech. On March 28, his advisers met to discuss the speech, which they decided
needed to be “about peace.” They wrote a “peace” draft, which Johnson accepted. On March 31, Johnson de- livered his address. Four days later, the North Viet- namese government agreed to preliminary talks; for a variety of reasons, full talks would not begin until November.
Johnson’s decision to make the March 31 “With- drawal Speech” came from two key factors.
First, Johnson acted in what he deemed to be the best interest of the coun- try. He reluctantly realized — perhaps too late — that Vietnam was a losing fight, and sought to rectify the situation. Second, Johnson acted carefully, so as to polish his historical repu- tation. Johnson’s care in this regard is clearly dem- onstrated by the facts that he (1) allowed a great deal of debate over Vietnam pol- icy in February and March 1968, and (2) took so long to come to a decision; he did not wish to make a snap judgment and endanger the lives of his soldiers, nor did he wish to leave South Viet- nam at the North’s mercy. Unfortunately, he was un- able to end the war.
LBJ’s twin announce- ments, now 50 years old, riveted a divided nation.
Benjamin V. Allison is a senior history major (mi- nors in national security and biblical & religious studies) at Grove City (Pa.) College. He is interested in a variety of topics in history, political science, and theology, and aims to become a profes- sional historian of U.S. dip- lomatic and political history in the “long” 20th and 21st centuries.
Jon Earnest / The Exponent
Reedley High School senior Victoria Ro- driguez talks March 23 during a brief lunchtime rally and protest at the high school to inform people about the situa- tion in Syria. Behind Rodriguez holding a sign is student Emilio Septien Ruiz.
duce soaring air fuel costs, and make it affordable for young people to train to become pilots. Currently, there’s a shortage of qualified pilots that’s ap- proaching crisis levels in the need to meet the demand of consumer air pas- sengers.
On a personal note, the planes are quiet, almost shockingly so. The only apparent loud noise levels are when the aircraft first leaves the ground. Starting the planes up and the taxiing process are almost whisper-like.
We’ll share more on the electric
Remembering LBJ’s ‘Withdrawal Speech,’ 50 years later
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