Page 4 - Dinuba Sentinel 4-25-19 E-edition

Opinion
entire world! We’ve managed to
strip away all of the mandates that
new arrivals in this country be self- sustaining by providing them access
to tax payer largesse in this country which features more and more socialistic offerings. No longer are they asked, or required, to assimilate into the American culture, nor is learning the English language a requirement. Anyone who has ever read the Bible is aware of what happened to the Tower of Babel.
A study released by the Federation for American Immigration Reform found that by providing education, health care, law enforcement and social and government services to illegal aliens and their dependents costs Californians $25.3 billion per year. That means that the state’s approximately three million illegal aliens and their 1.1 million U.S.-born children costs the average California household, headed by a U.S. Citizen, $2,370 annually.
• Funding the K-12 education for children who themselves are illegal aliens as well as the children of illegal aliens accounts for the largest share of the cost to taxpayers at $14.4 billion. These services include standard public school education and supplemental English language instruction. Despite federal funding, the average per pupil expenditure is $10,450 every year.
• Justice and law enforcement costs — policing , court, and incarceration— associated with illegal aliens soared to more than $4.4 billion.
• Medical services cost taxpayers approximately $4 billion, including $388 million associated with 68,000 births to illegal alien mothers.
• Public assistance—low-cost meal programs, free immunizations, etc— are available to residents regardless of legal status. The $792 million price tag for these services is borne by California taxpayers.
Stein concluded his report by saying, despite overwhelming evidence that illegal immigration represents an unsustainable fiscal burden to the state, the California legislature and local governments across the state continue to provide new benefits,
new services and new privileges to illegal aliens, even as the state neglects the needs and concerns of other Californians. The costs will continue to grow so long as the state continues to reward illegal immigration and impedes immigration enforcement. California taxpayers will continue to be the losers in this unhappy scenario.
In complete fairness, we do understand that illegals do pay taxes and proponents of illegal immigration are quick to point that out. The unvarnished truth is that the taxes collected from illegals amount to about $3.5 billion annually. That still leaves a deficit well north of the $20-plus billion mark, which this costs all of us every year!
It would appear to the average observer that, although there is a huge hue and cry from the political class for “immigration reform,” the simplest beginning to a solution would be to
Fred Hall
of entry should be the only permissible way to legally enter this country!
History is replete with examples
of corrupt and devoid of rationale immigration policy
Fred Hall - Publisher Rick Curiel - Editor
In My Opinion
ITllegal immigration is unsustainable
he United States of America observe the laws has the most dysfunctional that are already in immigration systems in the place. Official ports
has been in the hands of our political class. Native Americans were denied naturalization while, according to the Treaty of Guadalupe-Hidalgo which resulted in The United States acquiring Colorado, Arizona, New Mexico, Texas, Utah and Nevada from Mexico, the Mexicans who remained were granted citizenship.
It was not uncommon for politicians, such as William “Boss” Tweed, to manipulate the naturalization process to win elections. Tweed was successful in getting approximately 30,000 Irish American voters naturalized in the
six week run-up to an election. As a reminded, Tweed was a part of the infamous Tammany Hall political mess that ruled New York during that time period.
In 1980 Jimmy Carter, in an attempt to repair and restore relations with
the Cuban government, opened the floodgates for an influx of Cuban refugees into the United States. For years prior to his move, Cubans fled that Communist country in small boats and rafts with many being lost at sea.
The 125,000 refugees involved in the Carter deal sailed from the small town of Mariel and acquired the tag
of “Marielitos.” Fidel Castro repaid Carter’s generous humanitarian act by emptying jails and mental institutions in Cuba and including them in the boatlift. It became obvious that the gesture of friendship was being abused and the movement ended in about five months.
Throughout history our handling of immigration and foreigners has really been a “mixed-bag.” Our country has, through the years, been extremely benevolent in sharing the freedoms and bounty this country has to offer with so many people from distant lands. Many decisions were made that may seem cruel under today’s standards but, in fairness, should be examined in the context of the times which they occurred.
Space here does not provide us the luxury of being able to truly examine the happenings and what was in the heart of Americans when the events of the past occurred. The one thing, of which we are sure, is that we cannot continue to provide an increasingly socialistic society and leave the door wide open. Put yourself in their shoes. Sneaking in is pretty easy, especially with the border as open as it currently is; potential punitive action for getting caught is minimal; and the rewards include lots of free stuff, especially if one comes to California.
But, as always, that’s only one man’s opinion.
Fred Hall is publisher of the Dinuba Sentinel.
Guest Column
e true cost of having the convenience of Amazon
A
mazon is a company that’s drunk on profits and market share.
Last year, the online retail giant netted $11 billion in profits while paying $0 in taxes. The company controls nearly half of all online sales in the United States, and its Amazon Web Services division is the leader in providing cloud-based computing services, counting Netflix and the U.S. government among its major clients.
You’d think that with all this money, Amazon would be a leader in tackling climate change, since it’s the biggest threat to our planet — and since Amazon uses massive amounts of energy. However, after taking some steps in the right direction on clean energy, Amazon has since made it clear that profits are the only thing that matters.
A few years ago, Amazon had no commitment to using any clean energy. After damning reports from Greenpeace, campaigning by groups like Green America, and pressure from the company’s own shareholders, in 2014 Amazon made a quiet announcement that the company would eventually move to 100 percent renewable power to run its massive servers.
Unlike many IT companies, Amazon set no firm timeline for reaching its goal.
Since then, the company has slowly been adding clean energy to power its servers, finally hitting 50 percent
in 2018. Recently, Amazon announced it will be adding three more wind farms (only one of which is in the U.S.), a couple of months after Greenpeace raised concerns that Amazon was backtracking on its clean energy commitments.
Moving its power sources to solar and wind makes economic sense for Amazon. As the price of solar, and wind in particular, continues to fall, large corporations are increasingly able to lock in long-term contracts to purchase clean energy that saves them money.
Yet as the company adds clean energy in bits and pieces, it’s also aggressively pursuing opportunities to help the oil
Pastor's Corner
Mitchell Zimmerman
and gas industries.
According to a recent expose in
Gizmodo, Amazon has been pitching its technology as a way to help fossil fuel companies automate their operations to save them money. And, just last month, Andrew Jassy, the CEO of Amazon Web Services, went to the premier conference of the oil and gas industry to pitch the company’s services to increase oil
and gas exploration.
So, Amazon’s approach to energy
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.
A4 | Thursday, April 25,, 2019
After Easter
is clear: power the company’s servers off fossil fuels for years and only move to clean energy when the price is right. At the same time, seek lucrative contracts with dirty energy companies to keep the fossil fuels flowing.
That’s why 4,500 of Amazon’s own employees issued an open letter to CEO Jeff Bezos and the board calling for Amazon to meaningfully address climate change.
As consumers, we need to ask ourselves: Is Amazon a company we want to do business with?
Amazon Prime is all too convenient, but if the price of that convenience is increasing the profits of one of the world’s wealthiest companies that continue to put profits over people and the planet, is it worth it?
Amazon does listen to its customers. It was concern over its image that got the company to announce a commitment to renewable energy in the first place. If we make clear that protecting the planet matters to us as customers, and if we threaten to take our business elsewhere if Amazon doesn’t get more serious, we can get the company to move in the right direction again.
Todd Larsen is the Executive Co-Director for Green America for Consumer and Corporate Engagement. Distributed by OtherWords.org.
This Easter Christians remembered important events in the last week of Jesus’ life on Earth: His entrance into Jerusalem as a king (Palm Sunday),
His death on the cross (Good Friday), His entombment (Holy Saturday), and His resurrection from the dead (Easter or Resurrection Sunday). I think that it’s beneficial to remember the sacrifice that Jesus made for us during this time of the year, but it’s not the only time that we should do so.
God also invites us to remember Jesus’ sacrifice every time we celebrate communion, or the Lord’s Supper. The Thursday night that Jesus was arrested, He celebrated the Passover with His twelve disciples for the last time. After their meal of roasted lamb, bitter herbs and unleavened bread, Jesus instituted a new ritual that would celebrate the sacrifice that He would make the following day (Friday) as He hung on the cross. He took the unleavened bread and said—“take, eat; this is My body which is broken for you; do this in remembrance of Me,” (1Corinthians 11:24).
Jesus also took a cup of grape juice that they were drinking during that final Passover and gave it the following meaning—“this cup is the new covenant in My blood, This do, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of Me,” (1 Corinthians 11:25). So every time we celebrate communion, or the Lord’s Supper, we are remembering the sacrifice Jesus made for us. We proclaim faith in Christ’s death for our salvation—“for as often as you drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death till He comes,” (1 Corinthians 11:26).
In other words, the followers of Jesus will take part in communion, or the Lord’s supper, until the day Jesus comes back to take them home. The Bible doesn’t point out any particular day or date that this special event should be celebrated on, but we do this because Jesus has commanded us to do so to remember His ultimate sacrifice
David Pikop
to bring hope and salvation to our world.
We don’t just remember Jesus’ resurrection on Easter. God
also invites us to remember that significant event every time we attend a baptism, or experience
it ourselves. You see, baptism represents three things: 1) Jesus’ death, 2) burial & 3) resurrection. Notice the following explanation of what baptism means: “therefore we
Join the discussion
were buried with Him through baptism into death, that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life,” (Romans 6:4).
So we don’t just celebrate Jesus’ death and resurrection on Easter, but have the privilege to do so during the entire year when we partake in communion and experience baptism. Communion, however, is not only designed to look back and remember Jesus’ sacrifice, but it also an opportunity to look forward to Jesus’ second coming—“for as often as you drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death till He comes,” (1 Corinthians 11:26).
Just before Jesus died on the cross, He promised His disciples—“I will come again,” (John 14:3). That promise was repeated in the last verses of the last chapter of the last book of the Bible, Revelation 22:20—“surely I am coming quickly.” I hope that all of us can respond to that declaration by saying—“Amen. Even so, come, Lord Jesus!” God bless you.
David Pikop is pastor of the Dinuba Seventh-day Adventist Church located at 325 N. Eaton Ave. Helpful information can be found on their website: dinubaca. adventistchurch.org