Page 4 - Mid Valley Times 2-3-22 E-Edition
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Thursday, February 3, 2022 | 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
In my OPINION California continuing to
mirror DC incompetence
Section vote should return some logic to prep sports playoff format
Fred Hall — Publisher
Jon Earnest — Editor
Dick Sheppard — Editor Emeritus
  The Biden administration has proved itself to be so incompetent that it provides “low hanging fruit” for those of us looking to expose poor decision making and even outright cor- ruption on the part of our governmen- tal officials. It's so easy to be critical of that bumbling group that we often overlook the hot mess that inflicts us right here at home in California.
It appears that the Central Section's prep sports postsea- son playoff format is returning to a logical format, following a fall sports season that brought some truly head-scratching brackets.
According to local prep sports authority Nick Papagni with his Pagmeter page, league representatives throughout the section — stretching from Madera County in the north to Kern and San Luis Obispo coun- ties to the south and southwest – approved by a 27-16 vote to return to previous seeding by human committees with the section CIF. In fall 2021, the sec- tion instituted a format where seeding for divisions was de- termined by computer using records as a prime factor.
The new format resulted in some bizarre matchups by the computer. A good example was Reedley High School, which had a perfect record before dropping its final regular sea- son game to Sunnyside. The Pirates' "reward" for a great record was being moved up to divisions from Division 5 toDiv.3whereithadaNo.15 seed and road game against perennial state small schools power Strathmore.
Also, the top three teams in the Central Sequoia League were placed in three different divisions; Dinuba ending up a high seed in Div. 3. At the same time, large schools from Fres- no that had poor records were dropped into lower divisions, with more than one sub-.500
football team reaching the section semifi- nals or finals.
There also
was perplex-
ing bracketing
in other fall
sports, girls
volleyball and water polo. More of the same would have been expected later this month with baskwetball and soccer. But the vote on Feb. 1 apparently will bring back the old playoff format, effective with winter sports and continuing forward. That's definitely good news for smaller schools.
Jon Earnest is news-sports editor for The Times.
Gavin Newsom and his gang of
“toadies” in Sacramento have managed to carry the levels of malfeasance to a whole new level. Contrary to what the governor would have you believe concern- ing economic recovery from the pandemic, California has the highest unemployment rate in the country. That dovetails nicely with the fact that we have the highest homeless and welfare rate of all 50 states and the Dis- trict of Columbia. With such poor numbers obvious to even the most diehard of Californians who vote Demo- crat, one is left to ask why, then, does our government do everything possible to attract even more poorly edu- cated people from impoverished backgrounds.
Adding to that gigantic illegal immigration motivation already provided, California is busy adding additional freebies to people from all over the world if they can get here. Free driver's licenses, prescriptions and housing will now by joined with cost free medical — to the pa- tient — for people from all over the world. It doesn't take a great deal of research to discover the people expected to underwrite all of this largess will be the taxpayers of California. Remember that, prior to this last knee-jerk reaction from the Senate, Assembly and Newsom deal- ing with free healthcare and food it was already costing California taxpayers $26 billion to subsidize that part of our economy. That's not a real good deal unless you're a member of the “swamp” in Sacramento or Washington D.C. Somebody always has to pay!
With the announcement this past week that we would be eliminating SAT and ACT scores for college admit- tance, there is every indication that California's public education system is perfectly capable of home-growing poorly equipped students from our own ranks. Appar- ently just being mentally capable of IQ numbers only slightly above room temperature is enough to qualify for a taxpayer-funded education here in the "Golden” state. A diploma isn't worth much if one has no defin- able skills upon completion. That diploma probably was printed and produced in China, anyway.
China and others have clearly definable plans to dominate in math, sciences and other disciplines which have advanced the technological and economic advance of mankind. We fear that our universities are more con- cerned with racial and gender studies. That's where your student is exposed to the idea of using your “correct pro- noun,” social justice, ethnic studies and a theory of the development of this country's economic development that would take us right back to the dark age of racism.
If you find yourself unable to believe those assertions just take the time to compare the performance of our students against other states and countries. Neither is reflective of scores which would make anyone proud but California ranks at the lower end of the scale. Maybe the time has come to seriously consider school choice.
In the meantime, let's all say a collective prayer that those old men we've elected to represent us in Washing- ton who are responsible for sending our youngsters off to war have managed to avoid any more poor decisions and curb their substantial egos.
Back here in California we'll continue to wrestle with the problem of how such a rich, beautiful state with so much to offer could be so mismanaged that people are now leaving in droves because they find the taxation so oppressive or they don't want their children educated this way.
But, as always, that's only one man's opinion. Since I have no doubt about my “pronoun” or gender I'll con- tinue to sign off that way!
Four good reasons not to go to war in Ukraine
Fred Hall
QUOTE
“Inanimate objects are classified scientifically into three major categories - those that don't work, those that break down and those that get lost.”
— Russell Baker (1925-2019)
   Jon Earnest
   By Rivera Sun
Guest columnist
The last thing any of us need is a war with Russia over the Ukraine. You don’t need to know much about foreign poli- cy to know that. Let the pundits and talking heads argue about the nuances of NATO and war maneuvers at the border of Russia. For most Americans, there are at least four sensible reasons (beyond the basic hor- ror that is war) to oppose esca- lating this conflict with Russia.
First, we’re still reeling from the pandemic. Across the United States, many hospitals are facing staffing challenges as nurses get sick. They’re also struggling with bed shortages as their wards are packed to capacity with COVID patients. Our families are still grappling with long COVID and multiple deaths of relatives. We’re strug- gling to stay in our houses, keep the lights on, get the kids to school (or not) and so forth. We can’t even get groceries deliv- ered across the country because our truck drivers are calling-in sick. Who has the bandwidth to fight a war with Russia?
Second, we’ve got other ways to spend our money. With 140 million citizens at or below the poverty line, we don’t need to spend trillions on war. We could spend those tax dollars on school lunches, heating bills relief, job training programs, affordable housing vouchers, student debt cancellation, liv- ing wages, better healthcare, or even social security increases. If it’s a choice between a point- less war none of us really under- stand and giving We, the People, a fighting chance of a good life, I know what I’d choose.
Third, if we need a global emergency, let’s not invent one. Instead of going to war with Russia, let’s join forces with Russia (and China, for that mat- ter) and tackle the climate crisis head-on. With wildfires burn- ing a thousand homes in Colo- rado, heat domes blistering the Pacific Northwest, hurricanes wreaking havoc up and down the eastern seaboard, drought depleting the west’s water sup- ply, insects and disease killing off our forests, and so forth, we’ve got enough on our plate at the moment.
Fourth, we’re 100 seconds
to midnight. According to the scientists who run the Dooms- day Clock, we’re closer to utter disaster than we’ve ever been. Going to war with Russia is like playing chicken and pressing the throttle down harder. Do we re- ally need to get to 10 seconds to midnight to realize this is a ter- rible idea? Instead of rattling the sabers (or nuclear warheads), let’s roll back the Doomsday Clock by getting serious about abolishing nuclear weapons and ending our shameful status as a rogue nation with thousands of terrifying, illegal nukes.
How many reasons do we need to not go to war with Rus- sia over the Ukraine? Instead of a foolhardy plunge into yet an- other military conflict, let’s look closer to home and take care of the many crises we face in the United States. Be sure to tell your elected officials this - they may not have gotten the memo.
Rivera Sun, syndicated by PeaceVoice, has written numer- ous books, including The Dan- delion Insurrection. She is the editor of Nonviolence News and a nationwide trainer in strategy for nonviolent campaigns.
 Love for support of the Reedley Museum
I would like to share such amazing, special, wonderful, out- standing and terrific things that happened for the Reedley Mu- seum in the court of three days.
I go around town telling people the museum is open on Tuesday and Saturday from 9 a.m. to noon (it's under the wa- ter towers). I'm known as the
museum lady, the hat lady and two funny guys call me the street walker.
On Jan. 22, a nice young man gave me $5 for the museum. Wow! Then 10 minutes later a nice gentleman asked if I took donations. He gave me $20! The happiness made my day.
Two hours later, I was tell- ing people the wonderful things that happened and a lovely lady gave me $10 for the museum.
I couldn't stop smiling the rest of the day!
Then on Jan. 24, I mentioned the great money gifts at the Nearly New thrift store, where I also donate a little time. A man heard my wonderful news and was happy about the dona- tions. He then gave me $20!
Some moments don't get so surprising — or wonderful!
Vicky Andersen Reedley
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