Page 4 - Dinuba Sentinel 5-3-18 E-edition

Opinion
A4 | Thursday, May 3, 2018
In My Opinion
Politics, political correctness rHun amok in educational system
aving been born, raised basics and prepare and educated in this great our children for entry country it has always been into a world that is
Fred Hall - Publisher
my assumption the best educated
and highest skilled among us would rise to the top of various fields and professions based on that criteria. Imagine my surprise when I opened last Sunday's daily newspaper to read an article bemoaning the fact that Cal Poly was 54 percent “white.” There was no mention of any sort of record of academic achievement by the student body, only a condemnation for their being “too white.”
What ever happened to the concept of excellence and achievement?
Why are all of our institutions in today's marketplace judged on their diversity? We read no percentage
of diversity figures for professional sports except for ownership and management! Why have we progressed so far and yet have a dual standard for measuring achievement?
No country surpasses America in providing an equal opportunity to achieve success, but one should not find the thumb of government placed on the scale in an attempt to produce equal results. The simple truth is that we are not all born equal in terms of skills and aptitude. Genetics and the environment in which we are raised are important factors and can't be simply changed by wishing it were different.
Certainly everyone should be provided an equal opportunity
but politically correct social experimentation in our schools and institutions of higher learning will have very little impact on the natural order or the results. We simply wind up “dumbing down” the common denominator.
After the recent fiasco at Fresno State, which does not appear to be an isolated incident, the American public needs to address the current phenomenon of politics and political correctness that seems to have run amok in our educational system. Professors as well as high school teachers need to keep politics out of the classroom. How tough is that?
An education should deal with
Guest Column
MBring back May Day
Fred Hall
far different from much of the fantasy which is thrown in on an ancillary basis and deemed education. These instructors
are most certainly entitled to their
personal political views but classes and the classroom should never be used to indoctrinate and intimidate our young students.
One more thing: Instructors, when you do make statements of a political nature try to rise above being so stupid and insipid as to embarrass yourself and the institution for which you work.
I just decided—as an afterthought— to throw in some items for discussion over morning coffee or adult beverages in the evening, my impressions on each topic.
• Global Climate Change:
Personally I see no empirical evidence of such an occurrence. The guys who are trying to convince us can't even tell us, with any degree of certainty, when we might expect our next rain might fall much less what our climate will be like in the next 50 years!
• High Speed Rail: It's so far over budget and so underfunded that it's extremely unlikely it will ever finish even though the Governor continues to gather money from other sources
in his attempts at a legacy. It, if ever finished, will serve such a small part of our population it makes no sense!
• The $53 Billion Increase in
Gas Tax: This is a crippling load
on California's economy and is not earmarked for road improvement! Much will be spent on bike trails, HSR and other pork barrel projects!
• Propositions 47 and 57: Need immediate repeal! These do nothing but provide comfort to our criminal element and place citizens at greater risk!
But, as always, that's only one man's opinion.
Fred Hall is the publisher of The Sentinel.
Guest Column
Behind the Cinco de Mayo celebration
T
the Cinco de Mayo celebrations in Rose Anne Vuich Park in Dinuba. The Cinco de Mayo celebrations here consist of a parade, a carnival, food and craft booths, musical acts and other talent performances. Vendors come from around the area to sell items as diverse as t-shirts to toys. There are information booths from community groups as well.
By the time the Park is cleaned up on Sunday and the carnival pulls up stakes, thousands of people will have visited the Park to take part in the Cinco de Mayo festivities.
Many long-time Dinuba residents know the
history of the Dinuba Cinco de Mayo celebration. With exception of two years in the 1990s when the celebration went dark in our community, a celebration of Cinco de Mayo has been happening here for forty years. LNTC has been organizing the event since 1994 when the leadership program began.
For those area residents participating in the
LNTC leadership development program of almost
ten months, Cinco de Mayo is an opportunity to
learn organizational and community development skills. Under the auspices of the Dinuba Chamber
of Commerce, LNTC participants manage the entertainment and event line-up, learn to interact with vendors, and organize the Saturday parade.
For LNTC participants, Cinco de Mayo weekend is the culmination of months spent learning about how to work as a team while learning about how government, business, and civic organizations function to make northern Tulare County a great place to live and work.
Through their efforts with the Cinco de Mayo program, LNTC participants help earn funds to keep down the cost of participation for future leadership classes. Among the costs are a trip to Sacramento to interact with government leaders to learn how state government functions, and monthly program meetings to learn about various economic, governmental, and civic organizations. There is also the stipend for a facilitator who works with participants monthly to help them learn develop into leaders. Many LNTC program graduates move on to take up leadership roles in local government or within local community organizations.
Cinco de Mayo celebrations seem
to be widespread in the United
States. Many people believe that
this is a holiday to celebrate Mexican Independence, but it is not. Mexican Independence is celebrated on September 16. According to the Smithsonian Magazine, “Cinco de Mayo is a holiday that commemorates the victory of the Mexican army over a far larger French force in the Battle
his Thursday, after months of organizing efforts, the Leadership Northern Tulare County (LNTC) class of 2018 will help open
Sandy Sills
ost of the world recognizes Of course, these May 1 — May Day — as changes haven’t International Workers’ happened in a
of Puebla on May 5, 1862.” It was the first battle the French had lost in over fifty years. Celebrations in Mexico are largely regional, confined mostly to the Mexican state of Puebla.
An examination of several historical records on the Battle of Puebla show that it was one Mexican victory in an interlude between French victories. The Battle of Puebla was also a brilliant example of understanding the combatants, of knowing the terrain, of using
the correct strategy, and of maximizing resources to achieve a positive outcome. The Battle of Puebla was also an opportunity for the 33-year-old General Ignacio Zaragoza to demonstrate significant leadership.
Sometimes, the experience of organizing Cinco de Mayo here in Dinuba seems like a battle. There have been years when LNTC classes have been substantially “under-staffed”. One year, the group had three participants, each of whom already had full-time jobs. Participants had to work hard, to pull out internal resources they might not have known they had to make this important community event happen.
In much of the United States, celebrations of Cinco de Mayo have lost much of the historical connection
to the Battle of Puebla. In Dinuba there are definite echoes of the grit and determination it took for a much smaller force of Mexican soldiers to win against the better-equipped French. By the end of the Dinuba Cinco de Mayo celebrations, the effective end of their program year, LNTC participants will have become better strategic thinkers, knowledgeable about their community, and able to contribute to making northern Tulare County a success.
Sandy Sills is CEO of the Dinuba Chamber of Commerce.
Day. Here in one of the few countries that doesn’t, it’s worth pausing to ask how U.S. workers are doing.
At an event last December, Fight for $15 organizer Terrence Wise recalled “going to bed at night, ignoring my own stomach’s rumbling, but having to hear my three little girls’ stomachs rumble. That’s something no parent should have to endure.”
Wise was marking the launch of the Poor People’s Campaign: A National Call for Moral Revival.
Last month, the Institute for Policy Studies and the Poor People’s Campaign released The Souls of Poor Folk, a report on 50 years of change in the issues that affect working people, and particularly those at the bottom. We looked at systemic racism, poverty, militarism, and ecological devastation.
We found some startling and unhappy results. For the most part, workers like Wise are struggling hard to get by.
With the destruction of industries and the cities that housed them, the nature of our economy has shifted. Although the official unemployment rate is low, employment today often means low- wage work that offers little job security.
Our society’s treatment of workers has changed, too. For example, 28 states have passed so-called “right to work” laws that undermine the ability of workers to organize.
That’s meant steadily declining union membership, which keeps workers from getting their fair share of the wealth produced by the U.S. economy over the past 50 years. Despite enormous growth in the overall economy, wages for the bottom 80 percent of workers have remained largely stagnant.
In 2016, there wasn’t a single county or state in which someone earning the federal minimum wage could afford
to rent a two-bedroom apartment at market rate. Yet today there are 64 million people working for less than $15 an hour.
Meanwhile, nearly one in five families have zero or negative net worth. That number rises to over a quarter of Latin American households and 30 percent of black households.
Saurav Sarkar
vacuum. It’s not
a coincidence
that while most Americans are struggling, just three individuals — Bill Gates, Jeff Bezos, and Warren Buffett — together own as much wealth as half
of the country combined.
It’s also probably no coincidence
that the American politicians backed by billionaires don’t recognize May Day.
People in power made choices like passing “right to work” laws that have led to these outcomes. And it will
have to be other people — people like Terrence Wise — that set things right. At that same press conference where he described his family’s plight, Wise talked about how the Fight for $15 had helped raise the wages of 20 million workers and promoted their fight for
a union.
Starting the day after Mother’s Day,
the Poor People’s Campaign plans to engage in 40 days of civil disobedience in at least 30 state capitals and Washington, DC. It aims to show how systemic racism, poverty, militarism, and ecological devastation are all interconnected, and all undermine workers today.
Among numerous demands, they’re calling for federal and state living wage laws, a guaranteed annual income for all people, full employment, and the right to unionize.
These steps will restore a sense of well-being and economic security to America’s workers and give them what the hollow promises of politicians cannot: dignity. Join them this May Day at www.poorpeoplescampaign.org and make it one to remember for U.S. workers too.
Saurav Sarkar is the research coordinator for the Poor Peoples Campaign at the Institute for Policy Studies. Distributed by OtherWords. org.
Letters to the editor
Illegal is illegal?
We as a people are becoming a lost nation. It’s OK
to ban “God” out of our total lives, if not personally, by accepting those who drag us down. So many days where those five-year-olds to 40-year-olds believe those who violently protest just about everything. When they don’t like what is done or said different from them they lose their minds.
This year our once proud America, the nation who
adhered to passed laws, has turned its collective souls against good to do evil. No longer does our government work for our nation’s good but runs toward rebate minds, hardened to the party no matter what. Eyes closed to ignorant things, especially here in California. Illegal has no fear of laws as no one party believes all is OK.
Russ Glasscock Cutler
The Dinuba Sentinel welcomes submissions of letters to the editor on topics of local relevance. Word limit is 350. Letters are considered once per month for each submitter.
Letters must include the author’s name, phone number and address for verification. Mail to 145 South L Street, Dinuba,
CA, 93618, or e-mail to editor@thedinubasentinel.com. Letters will be edited for length, grammar and clarity. Libelous letters will not be printed.
Guest columns will be considered for publication -
E-mail editor@thedinubasentinel.com. Word limit is 650.
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