Page 4 - Reedley Exponent 10-11-18 E-edition

The Reedley Exponent A4 Thursday, October 11, 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
Jon Earnest — Editor / Sports Juanita Adame — Panorama Editor Budd Brockett — Editor Emeritus
QUOTE
“If you live long enough, the venerability factor creeps in; first, you get accused of things you never did, and later, credited for virtues you never had.”
I. F. Stone (1907-1989)
Political partisanship and activism reached its nadir with the recent confirma- tion hearings in the Senate for Brett Kavana- ugh. Thankfully, in a brief moment of sanity, the seat on the Supreme Court was approved by a bare majority and, with the exception of one approving Democrat from West Vir- ginia, the vote was strictly along party lines. If confirmation were strictly based on quali- fications, as was intended by the founding framers of the Constitution, that vote should have been unanimous.
No excuse to stay holed up inside this weekend — it’s Fiesta time
Fred Hall
There aren’t a lot of excuses for not coming to downtown Reedley this Friday and Saturday, Oct. 12-13, for the 53rd annual Reedley Fiesta.
Weather shouldn’t be an issue. High temperatures won’t be much above 80 degrees either day, and early morning temperatures for Saturday’s walk run events should be cool and comfortable in the 50s. The parade temperatures should be in the 60s and it shouldn’t be overly hot for the milestone 50th frog jump contest.
There won’t be Friday football conflicts with the vendors booths and King & Queen coronation in the bandshell on Friday night. Reedley High School’s game is Thursday, Oct. 11, in Fresno while Immanuel High has a bye this week. On the collegiate level, Reedley College’s unbeaten squad is playing in Gilroy while Fresno State’s home game with Wyoming isn’t until 7:30 p.m., more than three hours after the Fiesta has closed up for 2018.
In addition to the parade, walk run and frog jump contest, there are plenty of food and games and vendor
booths. It’s usually the city’s premier event of the year, and is an ideal oc- casion to see familiar faces and pos- sibly meet a few new ones.
•••
The Exponent is doing its second
general election year Q&A profile with candidates in two local races. Last week’s issue featured the Reed- ley City Council District 4 race be- tween incumbent Ray Soleno and challenger Lee Ky; this week’s Q&A on Page A2 features the State Center Community College District candi- dates for Area 4 — incumbent Ron Nishinaka and challenger Magdalena Gomez.
We’ve asked five issues-related questions of each candidate, and hope to provide you with some in- sight into the candidates. As always, study your election guides and make an informed choice for a representa- tive in these two races.
Remember, mail in ballots should arrive to registered voters’ residences this week. You can either send in an early ballot, drop it off election day or vote the tried and true method at your local precinct site.
Other Opinions
••• Karen Wiebe
invites members of
the public to offer
financial support –
or even ride along ifyou’reuptoit—
as the Reedley resi-
dent plans to pedal
65 miles as part of
her 65th birthday
celebration on Saturday, Oct. 20. Her 16th annual We-Be-50 Plus bike ride again will raise money for Reedley’s Community Youth Ministries.
Wiebe said she continues to ride to raise money for CYM so that children and young people in the community can be reached for Jesus Christ. CYM is expanding its RiverKids program to include middle school and high school students. The programs are not fund- ed by grants and must be paid for entirely by donations. All money goes directly to CYM.
Anyone interested in riding along for all or part of Karen’s ride can RS- VP by email to wiebejoyful@gmail. com or call Gordon Wiebe at (559) 351-8484.
Today, decisions on who is qualified to serve on this august body, are almost always based on “whose seat” it is. We’ve al- lowed the court to be divided into liberal versus conservative justices. That’s just wrong! Anyone who is chosen should, first and foremost, be a strict constructionist of the Constitution. That document was intended to serve as the law of the land and should not be construed as being malleable in terms of popular issues such as social justice, the environment and others which are cur- rently in vogue. We’ve allowed this hugely important third branch of government to become politicized. That never should have been allowed to happen.
The idea of a jurist being able to, on his or her values, inter- pret the law is a reasonably recent phenomenon. Nationwide, law schools taught by liberal law professors have espoused the theory that a law’s interpretation can be based on social criteria and shaped to fit the views of the judge. We see it every day, es- pecially with the election of Donald Trump, where a lower court judge comes up with such a convoluted ruling that no one really believes it will pass muster on appeal. That seems OK with many of today’s Democrats. They seem pleased with having temporar- ily impeded that which will eventually amount to true, unbiased justice.
Following hard on the heels of last weekend’s confirmation vote, impeachment of a sitting Supreme Court Justice has been placed on the table by Gerald Nadler of New York and Nancy Pelosi of California. Nothing could be more destructive to the American system of jurisprudence. The very idea of having a Supreme Court where no one’s job is safe will assure that no deci- sion can be completely trusted. Thank heaven, the wisdom of our Founders saw the necessity of people placed in such a position having the security of a lifetime appointment was a necessary element.
There has been a great hue and cry from politicians and their enablers in the media about how divisive our current president has been. Talk about the pot calling the kettle black! One of the tactics of politics has always been to divide and conquer, but the real onset seemed to take place during the first Clinton admin- istration. Here was a group of people drawn together to form a “war room” whose very essence was attack and destroy anyone who opposed either their views or agenda.
Over the years since then it seems to have gotten progressive- ly worse until we have reached the point where a media which should be completely unbiased has now become overtly slanted in their reporting. Trump stories are unabashedly negative and any reports of positive accomplishments in terms of the economy and international affairs are noticeably absent from coverage. If you are part of the reasoned, rational group of American citizens the best way to deal with all this insanity is get active and involved. Make sure you cast a vote this November to make your feelings known. It’s the last, best weapon we have.
By this point in time you should already have or will soon receive your vote-by-mail packets for the general election on Nov. 6. These are the same voter packets which were once called absentee ballots. Times have changed dramatically when today so many either mail in their choices or are certainly encouraged by the government to do so. Time was it was almost a ritual to show up at the voting precinct to express your wishes. Not so much during these thoroughly modern times. Voting, one of our most precious rights, has been reduced to the level of a mail order item.
My wife and I have succumbed to the modern trend but still take our ballots, once we’ve marked them, down to the precinct location to be recorded. For us, there is a greater feeling of par- ticipation in something special when we extend that little bit of effort. It just somehow feels as if we are more involved in this democratic process.
When your packet arrives, there should be a booklet enclosed that should objectively present both sides of the issue and the exact wording of the wide array of initiatives appearing for your up or down vote. Remember to get past the titles on these propo- sitions because, more often than not, they are misleading. I can still remember one which was titled ‘The Safe Schools Initiative’ when it was an actually a get out of jail free card for felons.
Remember, also, that High Speed Rail was approved by a vot- ing public which had essentially been misled about funding and other issues.
As always, we refrain from making any recommendations be- cause we feel that our readers are erudite people who will make good decisions after doing the necessary reading and research on issues and candidates.
I do find it interesting however that many people have told me they consult the local daily newspaper to see who and what they recommend. They, then, go out and cast their ballot in the opposite manner of what that learned group of scribes have rec- ommended.
Jon Earnest
But, as always, that’s only one man’s opinion.
The culture of America’s religion of hedonism
By Gary Welton
Guest columnist
While visiting a breath- taking butterfly exhibit in the south, we saw two large rare butterflies, apparently mating. The interpreter, however, in- dicated that at this stage of their late adult lives, they were no longer fer- tile. One observer in our group asked, “Then why are they mating?” The in- terpreter replied, “Just for fun, I guess, just like the students at the local university.”
If there was any secret to the level of sexual she- nanigans happening in our colleges and universities, the recent stories coming from Yale fraternity par- ties since the 1980s have removed all doubt. Our elite college and universi- ties have a long history of being institutions of hedo- nistic binging. For an an- nual fee of only $50,000 (or $60,000 at some colleges), you can get a ticket to wild parties that combine sex, alcohol, and recreational drugs. Some students man- age to get an education at the same time, but far too many sneak through with inflated grades or become part of the collective drop- out rate at American col- leges.
The sex binging in our culture (often with ques- tionable levels of mutual
consent) has become so pervasive that managers, news professionals, and celebrities are resigning (or being imprisoned) on a daily basis. The drug hab- its have become so univer- sal that many companies have ceased employment drug testing, not being able to find enough applicants who can pass the tests. The evening news has be- come so graphic that Tom Wolfe’s “I Am Charlotte Simmons” feels like the normal American experi- ence.
Dare I suggest that our culture has become a hedonistic environment in which we are more con- cerned about the worship of pleasure than we are in worshipping God, in con- tributing to the common good, or in investing in our future employability.
By contrast, there are still some adults who seek to invest in the next gener- ation, wanting to know the best strategies for rearing a child who will become a positive contributing mem- ber of society. Research recently published by Ying Chen and Tyler Vander- Weele suggest that attend- ing church on a weekly basis is associated with greater life satisfaction, stronger character, lower probabilities of marijuana use, later sexual initiation, and fewer lifetime sexual partners. In addition to
measuring church atten- dance, they also measured prayer and meditation behaviors, which yielded similar results.
This research project, conducted under the De- partment of Epidemiology and the Human Flourish- ing Program, both at Har- vard University, measured thousands of children first as young teens and then with 8-14 years of follow- up data. The longitudinal design included statistical controls for sociodemo- graphic characteristics, maternal health, and pre- existing differences on the outcome variables of interest.
If the results were sur- prising, we would demand that the research be rep- licated by other research- ers. In fact, however, the results are consistent with many other studies con- ducted over the last sev- eral decades.
Obviously, we don’t go to church primarily for the sake of promised health benefits. Nevertheless, the findings are compelling. Life satisfaction is higher for those who sit and listen to sermons about pleasing and obeying God than for those who do not attend church. The practice of religion appears to predict greater life satisfaction than the practice of en- gaging in wanton binging bashes of sex, alcohol, and
drugs.
The students in my
classes, at this small Chris- tian college in Grove City, Pennsylvania, deal with all the same temptations that surround college students across the country. Never- theless, there is a different culture here in which there is less social pressure to engage in the self-defeat- ing binge behaviors. The data suggest that students attending here are more likely to actively engage in and benefit from a rig- orous academic program than students who live for the three-day weekend binges.
We all ought to be bur- dened about the stories coming out about our pub- lic figures. We are now living in a culture with a broad consensus of wor- shipping hedonism. There is, however, another way to live, another way to rear our children, and this faith- based alternative predicts a higher life satisfaction. You (and your children) need to be in church this week.
Gary L. Welton is assis- tant dean for institutional assessment, professor of psychology at Grove City (Pa.) College, and a con- tributor to The Center for Vision & Values. He is a re- cipient of a major research grant from the Templeton Foundation to investigate positive youth development.
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