Page 3 - Sanger Herald 8-30-18 E-edition

By Dick Sheppard
I don’t remember the name of a children’s game where players form a line and the first in line whis- pers a message to the sec- ond and so on down the line.
Players are supposed to repeat the message just as they heard it.
Dick Sheppard
istration.
Problems with communications among
city staff, administration and the Measure S Citizens Oversight Committee have been well documented by the Fresno County Grand Jury.
Unfortunately, similar problems with the city's planning commission are starting to bubble to the surface.
A perfectly good rant by planning commis- sion member Vincent Wall was probably wasted at the Aug. 24 meeting of the com- mission. It might have been more productive if the city council appointed liaison, Daniel Martinez, had been in the planning commis- sion audience to observe and report.
Wall, by the way, is the one who called it a "rant."
He was apparently trying to impress senior planner David Brletic, who provides support for the commission, with the need to do a better job of passing on information to planning commissioners.
Maybe, if commissioners are not getting messages from the top guy in the administra- tion, Tim Chapa, it’s possible Brletic is not close enough to the front of the line to be able to repeat messages from Chapa properly, if at all – which seemed to be the cause of at least some of the communication issues with the oversight committee.
Even if the problem is isolated to getting information distributed among commis- sioners, it’s possible Chapa will have to get involved at some point and should be kept aware of what's going on. That is one of the purposes of the absent liaison.
In either case, the problem and the solu- tion are ultimately Chapa's responsibility as the top guy - and while a rant at the commis- sion level is entertaining it probably is not
as productive as the same rant at a council meeting with Chapa and councilmembers hearing the message first hand. If Chapa is at the end of the line when he hears about Wall's message, the message he hears may not bear much resemblance to what Wall actually said or meant. That certainly seemed to be the case with many of the lingering problems at the oversight committee. It works - or doesn't work - both ways.
•••
Just heard from Sue Simpson, the chair-
person of the Measure S Citizens Oversight
Committee when the grand jury investigation was taking place. Sue said her response to the grand jury, on behalf of the oversight com- mittee, will be ready to submit next week.
It will be interesting to see how closely, if at all, it matches the city's official response.
You'll be able to read it in the Herald. •••
Congratulations to pastor Gary Duran and members of the Family Worship Center, the "ChanklaChurch." Theyhadaceremonial ground breaking last Saturday on the site where a new $2.3 million worship center will be built, on the northwest corner of Bethel and North avenues.
Bibles which belonged to some of the Family Worship Center's pioneers will be made a part of the cornerstone of the new church.
Even though pastor Duran is a great com- municator, when he first came to Sanger and the "Chankla Church" he didn't speak much Spanish. He tells the story of a member of the congregation praying, "Dear Lord, please help me understand pastor Duran's Spanish."
•••
Also a big waytogo to the Apache foot-
ball team for its big win over the Hanford Bullpups last Friday. The Apaches will play the Clovis East Timberwolves this Friday in Tom Flores Stadium.
•••
"We have met the enemy and he is us."
- Pogo
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Random thoughts It's a wonder we're able to communicate with each other at all ...
I do remember that by the time the last player finally repeats the message out loud, it usually has little resemblance to what the first player whispered to the second player.
I think it’s called “Rumor Game,” because it shows how an original comment becomes distorted as it passes from mouth to mouth.
Believe it or not, written comments don’t fare much better.
Humor me please.
Count the number of times the letter “F” appears in sentence No. 1, then quickly move on and read sentence No. 2 out loud to yourself.
Sentence No. 1 -
FINISHED FILES ARE THE RE- SULT OF YEARS OF SCIENTIFIC STUDY COMBINED WITH THE EXPERIENCE OF MANY YEARS
Sentence No. 2
A BIRD IN THE
THE HAND IS WORTHLESS
Now be honest.
If you didn’t count all six Fs in sentence No. 1 you didn’t really see what was written, you saw what you thought was written.
If you didn’t read the second “THE” in sentence No. 2 you didn’t really read what was written, you read what you thought was going to be written – and, don't worry - you’re pretty much normal, at least in the way you process information.
It’s a wonder we are able to communicate with each other at all.
Maybe some of that fun little exercise in information processing explains at least a small part of the communication problems that exist with the City of Sanger's commit- tees and commissions and the current admin-
In my OPINION
It is personal and it is political and it is
SANGER HERALD 3A THURSDAY, AUGUST 30, 2018 EDITORIAL & OPINION
We welcome guest columns at the Herald
Let's stipulate, for the record, that Donald Trump was elected President of The United States in 2016. Thats unarguable! One would surely realize that to be a fact - cut and dried- but it appears that many partisans from aca- demia, the media, Republican never Trump haters and members of the Washington swamp that truly is the deep state are having a real problem.
All of this in spite of the fact that, under an electoral college system outlined by our Constitution, enough American citizens affirmed the fact that it was their decision that this was the man to whom they wished to place the destiny of our country for the next four years.
Immediately it became apparent there were a large of Americans who are mem- bers of the Democrat party as well as the Republican establishment who were not going to accept the results of that election. Somehow their candidate Hillary Clinton (Democrats and even some Republicans fall into this group) failed to convince enough people that it had already been ordained by the media and powerful members of her own party that she would become the chief execu- tive by acclamation.
The hard-working rank and file that repre- sent middle America had seen enough of the slouch toward socialism that was so appar- entunderPresidentBarackObama. Inane restrictions and regulations had become
a huge drag on an economy attempting to recover. Thevotersweretiredofastagnant economy and were weary of hearing how “America was never that great” and what we were seeing was going to be the new reality inthisproudcountry. Afertilefieldofdivi- sive politics were being sold with increasing effectiveness by academia, the media and Ms. Clinton's own political party.
“You can fool some of the people all of the time and all of the people some of the time but you can't fool all the people all of the time.” ThankHeaventhereareenoughpeo- ple left in America who do have the capacity tothinkforthemselves. Thosebrightlights ofdiscernment duringdarktimeshavebeen instrumental in electing a man to office who displays no pretense.
Donald Trump does not “poll test” every- thinghesaysordoes. Whenonesetsaside the fact he is a billionaire, Mr. Trump is clos- er to the thinking of the average American than anyone we've had in quite sometime, at leastthat'smyopinion. Heisabusinessman
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way out of control ...
By Fred Hall
Herewegoagain! The efforts to impeach Donald Trump began even before his inauguration and con- tinue unabated to this veryday. Frankly,it'san unabashed view of just how really ugly hatred for a single individual can be!
Fred Hall
who has fought the wars required to enrich an economy which had been allowed, even encouraged one might argue, to languish in the doldrums for over a decade.
Have any of you stopped for a moment
to analyze the results of the millions of dol- lars spent to try Paul Manafort on charges inspired and driven by the Robert Muller “Russian collusion” investigation? Basically everything derived from this media-driven frenzy could have been ascertained by a basic Internal Revenue Service audit. The man was convicted of tax evasion and tax evasion is certainly within the I.R.S. purview! We simply did not need all of those expensive lawyers.
Immediately newspapers, electronic
news reporting services and social media exploded with the breathless reports that President Trump was on the cusp of being impeached. Lannie Davis, a Clinton syco- phant and attorney for the President's per- sonal lawyer, Michael Cohen, almost fell over himself to announce that his client had “the goods” on Mr. Trump and would soon spill it all to Robert Mueller. Mr. Davis has since walked all that back, much to the consterna- tion of CNN, MSNBC, CBS, NBC, ABC, The Washington Post and The New York Times. It now seems the truth of the matter is that Mr. Cohen knows nothing!
Here we are, well into the second year of an investigation which has revealed nothing which has anything to do with its original mandate: Russian collusion and malfea- sance on the part of the Trump campaign. Our understanding is that, at this point, the wrongdoing is with the FBI, The Justice Department and the Hillary Clinton cam- paign. There certainly appears, at least to me, enough overt evidence of interference in a Presidential election by the Democrats and their National Committee as well as high-placed individuals in the government to require more than a little scrutiny.
Two years of pursuing an individual with a group that enjoys extraordinary power, financial resources and autonomy and one would be able to indict anyone, including
the Pope! This is personal and political and spun completely out of control when Muller's group dug up charges that are 10 years old to charge Trump associates. No one seriously doubts that those charges, which previous prosecutors passed on, have any purpose than place pressure on Manafort and Cohen to “flip” and invent testimony intended to tar- nish the duly elected, sitting President of The United States.
But, as always, that's only one man's opin- ion.
In addition to the Sanger Herald, Publisher Fred Hall oversees two other Mid Valley Publishing newspapers - Reedley Exponent, and Dinuba Sentinel. He can be contacted by phone at (559) 638-2244 or by email at fred@ midvalleypublishing.com.
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