Page 4 - Reedley Exponent 11-29-18 E-edition

The Reedley Exponent A4 Thursday, November 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
Spare me the petty complaints about Reedley’s Christmas tree
Jon Earnest — Editor / Sports Juanita Adame — Panorama Editor Budd Brockett — Editor Emeritus
QUOTE
“Just because your voice reaches halfway around the world doesn’t mean you are wiser than when it reached only to the end of the bar.”
Edward R. Murrow (1908-1965)
All those wondrous smells that so filled our homes this past week during the prepara- tion of Thanksgiving dinner have long since faded and assuredly any and all leftovers have since been consumed in front of the television set watching football or some other diversion. The page has now been turned and all our sur- roundings are suddenly filled with a special kind of hustle and bustle that is a signal to all that Christmas is just around the corner. Even at my age, there is still a real love for the holidays.
Fred Hall
Some regulars and visitors to The Exponent’s Facebook page were pretty harsh on the city of Reedley’s Christmas tree for 2018.
Barbs such as “branch of a tree,” “cheap and ugly,” “Snoopy tree” and “Charlie Brown’s tree” were sprin- kled among many comments when the tree arrived in town the afternoon of Nov. 20. Some suggested the city should abandon obtaining a live tree and simply invest in a large artificial decoration. Other’s suggested that the city can do better than what it brings down the mountain each year.
Is it really necessary to be so sar- castic and whiny?
Juanita Adame, our features edi- tor, clearly points out in her writeup on the tree in this week’s Panorama section why this selection may be skinner than in past years. The city had a nice tree picked out in the Southern California Edison-owned land in the Sierra Nevada, but the tree couldn’t be removed because of a nearby power line that made taking down the tree too risky and hazardous. The power lines weren’t spot when Greater Reedley Chamber of Com- merce officials initially scouted the tree, but the work crew sent to bring the tree down discovered the risk.
So it was on to a backup plan, and the city still was able to get the new tree to town the same day and have it put up. While the trees usually look very barren when they’re first lifted
into place, they fill up nicely once decorated. The city has some beau- tiful custom handcrafted ornaments that stand out when in place.
By the time the Tree Lighting ceremony commenced on Nov. 24, Reedley’s 2018 tree still cut a bright light on the downtown region. As ev- ery year, the tree will shine nightly through Christmas Day before being taken down the week before New Year’s.
So enough with the insults. If the city’s pick of forested foliage doesn’t meet your demanding specifications, offer the criticism to the city in a con- structive manner. Better yet, make a donation to the Reedley College for- estry department that goes and does the cutting. And on a week of Thanks- giving, be thankful that the city (and other Valley cities) has an area to be able to harvest a live tree every year. As wildfires and diseased trees continue to devastate California, the ability to get a live tree from the high Sierra onset a given birthright.
•••
So far, we haven’t heard any com-
plaints about another Reedley tradi- tion – the annual Electrical Farm Equipment Parade on the first week of December. This year’s colorful evening trek down G Street will take place on Thursday, Dec. 6, at 7 p.m.
While the initial deadline has passed to enter a float for the parade, there still is time to make a late entry
and be one of the
light-filled entries.
There is no strict
limitation on the
type of float en-
tered, but the spirit
of the event is to
take a farm equip-
ment vehicle of
some type (tractor,
wagon, harvester)
and adorn it with lights befitting the Christmas and winter holiday season.
Shelly Henderson, owner of Sweet Destination candy store in downtown Reedley and a Reedley Downtown Association officials, said applications still are being accepted (the price now is $40) to grow the 26-entry field.
Henderson said there also are eight food vendors that will be sell- ing at the intersection of 11th and G Streets. “We prefer it to be farm equipment, but we’re open to all en- tries,” she said. “We encourage keep- ing with the ‘Home Sweet Home’ theme.”
If interested in entering a float, call Henderson at (559) 977-6600.
•••
While the tree is up for the next
month, remember the driving rules at the intersection of G and 11th. No left turns, and be extra cautious yielding for pedestrians and vehicles with the right of way.
Enjoy the holiday season!
The chime of bells, the crisp mornings and
evenings and the sound of Christmas music and carols can leave little doubt about the joyous season into which we are headed. It provides an environment where everyone’s spirits are inevitably lifted. Scrooges among us are shunned and forced to step aside from casting a shadow over the joy and festivities.
Now, if you have even a small smile on your face, I would advise you to avoid turning on your television set and risk being exposed to the negative spin being given politics, the recent elec- tions, crime and immigration being spewed by the nattily dressed reporters and talking heads. They are the individuals who truly believe that the world is breathlessly awaiting their pronounce- ments when nothing could be further from the truth.
I hate being repetitious but, as I have said many times before, journalism did not die of natural causes, it committed suicide. Advocacy and young reporters coming out of our colleges with limited skills and no understanding of the difference in a web blog and real journalism have landed a fatal blow to a once honorable profession. All of the unveiled blather appearing on blog sites, Facebook, Twitter and others occupying the social media sewer may claim to be publishers of the “news” but nothing could be further from the actual truth.
There was a time when if one saw it in a newspaper, one could bank on it being true and factual. That is no longer a fait au compli with the advent of advocacy journalism. People who call them- selves “journalists” have joined the political battles with thinly disguised opinions being offered as news.
We once took the time and we took the effort to verify the veracity of what was being reported. The opinion of the reporter was never a factor. Not so much in today’s “new” journalism. We used multiple sources and never anyone who was anonymous. Now, thanks to the New York Times, even writers of opinion pieces are allowed to remain anonymous. How far we have fallen!
Television and radio weren’t always the best sources because of the pressure to “get it on the air” first. Even those people are more concerned about how they look on the new high definition television screen and look for ways to make the story about them- selves as has Jim Acosta with CNN.
During the coming weeks and months, one should watch for a full-on attack on the electoral college by Democrat politicians and the media. Keep in mind that our Fore Fathers declared this country a republic and established our Electoral College to main- tain equality among all the states, demographic areas, and major cities. If every decision made by our governing bodies provided a pronounced edge to hugely populated states and cities, smaller locations would soon have no voice at all. States like New York, Texas and New York would be able to dictate to all of us.
Democrats in overwhelmingly “blue” areas proclaim they have been cheated because of one unified political persuasion of voting in lock step for a single party. Traditionally, densely populated locations tend to have more minorities and “immigrants” who tend to buy into the liberal agenda of more government and more cradle to the grave entitlements. Republicans tend to believe in individual accomplishment and avoid the agenda du jour of class warfare and envy or those who are successful. Refreshingly so, the recent mid-term elections indicated what appears to be the beginning of a full-on change of allegiance by minority voters to the Democratic party. Having been taken for granted for far too long, these individuals are seizing on issues which impact the lives of themselves and their families and discovering they have some real options to the old straight line party vote.
Without successful people who believe in a strong, rich Amer- ica, who would operate the businesses that are the very engine of the American economy? Without them and the hard working people who go to work every day who would provide the govern- mental largesse for those on the dole? Politicians are, or seem to be, destroying the very work ethic of self reliance which has made America great again. Do your part to maintain that greatness.
This country is probably more politically divided than at any time in our history. Citizens must be acutely aware of the shenani- gans of those in power who seek only to embellish that power. We can’t afford to throw away the very basics handed down to us through the Constitution, thereby allowing any entrenched politi- cian to further spread their roots.
But, as always, that’s only one man’s opinion.
Jon Earnest
Losing sight of the reason for Thanksgiving
By Paul Kengor
Guest columnist
Every year at Thanks- giving I trek into Barnes & Noble for an annual ritual of self-mortification. I go to the children’s section and glimpse the offerings for Thanksgiving. It never ceases to be a painful expe- rience.
A friend of mine works in that section, stocking the latest catalogue of books that the corporate folks funnel in. I recall my first Thanksgiving conversation with her a few years back.
“How are the Thanks- giving books?” I asked.
“You don’t want to know,” she groaned. She found only one book that mentioned giving thanks to God.
“Really?” I responded. “Who are they giving thanks to?”
“Well,” she said vaguely. “They’re just thankful.”
“’Thankful’ to whom?” I replied. She again empha- sized: “They’re just thank- ful.”
I repeated the exercise this past Sunday. It was again agonizing. Among the books featured in the kids’ display: Five Silly Turkeys, How to Catch a Turkey, Where is Baby’s Turkey?
Notice a theme?
Of course, not all tur- keys. One “Thanksgiving” book particularly caught my eye: Fangsgiving. Presum- ably a nod to the vampires involved in the pilgrims’ courageous endeavor.
Well, that isn’t Thanks- giving.
To be sure, I certainly have no objection to people being thankful. Gratitude
is a good thing. During Thanksgiving at our family table, we take turns naming something were thankful for. But that must come af- ter giving thanks first and foremost to God. God is the starting point. For Thanks- giving in America, that was the intent. That’s the lesson here, and should be the les- son especially in books for children provided by educa- tors. If we’re teaching about Thanksgiving, how can we not teach that?
I was recently alerted to a Thanksgiving Day les- son at the website educa- tion.com, a go-to source for teachers. On the main page was a 60-minute lesson plan titled, “Giving Thanks for Thanksgiving.” “Thanksgiv- ing offers an opportunity to teach young students about early days in the original colonies,” the plan informs us. “Students will discover the purpose and people in- volved in the first Thanks- giving.”
So far, so good. But read
on.
The introduction in-
structs the teacher: “Call students together. Ask stu- dents to think about some of their favorite holidays and what they like to do on these holidays. Tell students that Thanksgiving is coming up. Ask students what some of their favorite Thanksgiving traditions are. Read Thanks- giving Day.”
Thanksgiving Day is one of three books recom- mended, none of which— notably—mention God or religion. Not one. There are, however, bounti- ful references to Native Americans, various tribes, corn, stuffing, potatoes,
popcorn, yams, jelly, and turkeys. The Creator even gets trumped by cranberry sauce.
The “review and clos- ing” portion of the “Thanks- giving” lesson concludes with these exciting guide- lines: “Have students line up to present their Thanks- giving fact and what they are thankful for. Congratu- late the students on their hard work. Encourage ev- eryone to dig into the yum- my food and enjoy having a Thanksgiving feast to- gether!”
Dig in, kids, without a thought of thanking the Al- mighty.
Welcome, pilgrim, to the new world — a place, inci- dentally, that the pilgrims long ago fled to for religious reasons.
Speaking of which, why was Thanksgiving started in America?
In 1789, America’s first president proclaimed a “day of public thanksgiving and prayer.” George Washing- ton implored the heavens to “pardon our national and other transgressions” and urged the citizenry to practice “true religion and virtue.”
Imagine that. In fact, try to imagine a modern lesson plan at education.com ask- ing students to line up and share their favorite virtue, or (gasp) Biblical character or verse, or prayer.
How inappropriate would that be? It wasn’t to Abraham Lincoln.
In 1863, President Lin- coln urged his countrymen to set aside the last Thurs- day of November “as a day of Thanksgiving and Praise to our beneficent Father
who dwelleth in the Heav- ens.”
Subsequent presidents continued this civic-reli- gious tradition. It was, af- ter all, just that: a public holiday proclaimed to give thanks explicitly to God.
President John F. Ken- nedy, in his first Thanksgiv- ing proclamation, offered a civics lesson as well as a prayer: “More than three centuries ago, the Pilgrims, after a year of hardship and peril, humbly and rever- ently set aside a special day upon which to give thanks to God. They paused in their labors to give thanks for the blessings that had been bestowed upon them by Di- vine Providence.” Quoting the Bible, President Ken- nedy affirmed: “It is a good thing to give thanks unto the Lord.”
Sure is. But that, ladies and gentlemen, was the old America. In the New Ameri- ca, we apparently know bet- ter. Leave it to our modern- ists to try to redefine and remake Thanksgiving in their own image. And must our schools seem so aller- gic to giving thanks to God, even at Thanksgiving?
Look, obviously it’s good to be thankful. If we’re teaching children about Thanksgiving, however, let’s at least teach them what it was supposed to be about.
Paul Kengor is profes- sor of political science and executive director of The Center for Vision & Values at Grove City (Pa.) College. His latest book (April 2017) is “A Pope and a President: John Paul II, Ronald Rea- gan, and the Extraordinary Untold Story of the 20th Century.”
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