Page 4 - Reedley Exponent 11-15-18 E-edition

The Reedley Exponent A4 Thursday, November 15, 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
Jon Earnest — Editor / Sports Juanita Adame — Panorama Editor Budd Brockett — Editor Emeritus
QUOTE
“My religion consists of a humble admiration of the illimitable superior spirit who reveals himself in the slight details we are able to perceive with our frail and feeble mind.”
Albert Einstein (1879-1955)
It is generally a given that, as members of the human race, we are possessed of five senses: sight, hearing, touch, taste and smell. Thomas Paine asserted that we should also be possessed with the additional aspect of com- mon sense — which is defined as good sense and sound judgment in practical matters. Syn- onyms would include good sense, sense, native wit, sensibleness, judgment, level headedness, prudence, discernment, canniness, astuteness, shrewdness, wisdom, insight, perception and perspicacity.
Faith House provides opportunity for city, neighborhood to work together
Fred Hall
It’s finally here. The Faith House emergency shelter house at 1697 W. Huntsman Ave. is up and running, with one family currently residing on site and an on-site manager handling the operations.
Faith House organizers and the city of Reedley, which drew criticism from southwest Reedley residents opposing the neighboring operation that they felt would attract increased crime to the area, invited community members to an open house the eve- ning of Nov. 8. The two-story house and surrounding property was attrac- tively prepared and decorated for the more than 100 visitors. The house, both interior and landscaping, certain- ly is attractive to the outside observer.
At the event, City Manager Nicole Zieba made a point to emphasize to concerned neighbors to get involved with the shelter and the benefits it can offer.
“I want you to know the process was controversial,” she told attendees. “I’m thankful for that. Because it got a lot of media attention, and people know about this house now. People know there are dire needs in this community when it comes to home- lessness.”
Zieba said that she, Police Chief Joe Garza and Community Develop- ment Director Rob Terry have vowed that the shelter “is not a house for
felons, probationers or a transitional house for drug addicts.”
Mayor Anita Betancourt offered thanks for volunteers and sponsors who helped the project become a re- ality.
“I’m so proud of our community,” she said. “For many years we relied on Open Gate in Dinuba. Now we can offer the services here in Reedley. I thank God for our city manager. She was in it from the beginning. Keep praying for us and our families who are in need.”
•••
Near the end of the Nov. 13 Reed-
ley City Council meeting, Zieba told the council and attendees that Garza was going to the fire-ravaged Butte County city of Paradise along with search and rescue personnel to par- ticipate in what tragically is likely to be search and recovery operations in- volving victims of the Camp Fire, As of Nov. 13, the aggressive blaze had become the deadliest in California his- tory with 48 people killed.
That figure was expected to spike, as more than 200 residents unac- counted for in the city with a similar population to Reedley. It already had burned 130,000 acres and was only 35 percent contained.
Reedley Fire Chief Jerry Issak said earlier this week that the depart- ment’s water tanker is in Ventura
County helping to battle another dev- astating blaze, the Hill Fire which has forced the evacu- ation of the city of Malibu. Isaak said John Agueda and Fabian Morales are the Reedley Fire personnel on board the water tanker.
Following hard on the heels of an election
in which California voters opted to tax themselves even more when it served no real demonstrable purpose, I have to question just how well common sense is represented in this state. Specifically, I’m referring to Proposition 6 wherein Californians chose to keep the most recent legislatively passed gasoline tax increase which is targeted to grow precipitously. Adding to all of that, Cap and Trade will return in 2020 to make the pain even worse. Numbers which I have seen indicate that the eventual cost will be 78 cents per gallon. That’s on top of the highest prices in the nation.
Additionally, we managed to elect several candidates whose cre- dentials and agenda (if any) are truly inexplicable. Money flowed into this area from the outside. That alone would make the voter suspicious of the motives. At least one seasoned candidate with a record of achievement was replaced by a novice who, frankly, I believe would have a hard time telling you why they were even running. To a degree, the California situation was mimicked in New York, where a bartender is being sent to the United States House of Representatives with a demonstrable lack of knowledge of the job. All this happened while others were returned to office who have ab- solutely no record of accomplishment during their lengthy tenures.
The financing of campaigns and the presence of special interest groups are dead giveaways to the reason for supporting or avoid- ing some candidates and initiatives. One can easily establish if the interest is in our local area or it is strictly financial and self serv- ing. Make no mistake about it, there are many who would like to take control of this tiny sliver of the state that is the remaining conservative voice in California. What happens if we were to lose the remaining thread of conservatism and sanity in the entire state?
While we are speaking of common sense, can anyone explain to me how, almost a week after the election, states like Florida and Arizona were continuing to find entire boxes of uncounted votes in some pretty obscure places? It reminds me of the year when the Democrat party found a box of ballots in the trunk of a car which turned out to be instrumental in Al Franken’s election to the Senate from Minnesota.
Making the “discovery” of those ballots even more extraordi- nary would be the fact that the initial count in the state might have been 51 percent to 49 percent. the newest addition breaks 70 percent to 80 percent Democrat. Now, I know that anything is possible but it sure as hell strains credulity that the divergence from the norm is so great.
On another note, an adult, somewhere, is going to have to stand up and apply the law to bring an end to the homegrown terrorism currently being employed by disparate groups like ANTIFA. We see freedom of the press being defended so fervently, while the right of individuals and others to speak their mind is subject to threat of bodily harm. Thank you Maxine Waters, a product of California, and others for advocating the spread of the spore for hatred.
Over the weekend, I took time to read an analysis of the elec- tion in another newspaper. Their conclusion that the failure of the current offering of a water bond went down to defeat because of “bond fatigue” on the part of voters. I see it a bit differently. There have been ?????none???? water bonds on the ballot since 1990 and all have succeeded. Unfortunately, without regard for how they were worded, not a single one seems to have improved the water situation here in the Central Valley. Bureaucrats and environmentalists seem to take complete control over any additional availability of money and completely overlooked the needs of the farming community which is the very heartbeat of the economy in our Valley. There only are so many times that politicians can pull the wool over the eyes of voters. The old saw which goes, “Fool me once, shame on you; shame me twice, shame on me” comes to mind.
True resentment arises over Proposition 6, which we strongly believe was intentionally incorrectly and misleadingly worded when it appeared on the ballot. The wording was such that the voter was led to believe that by voting “yes,” they were taking away the repair of our roads. Truth is, your “no” vote allowed the state to continue with the 12 cents per gallon tax that they had passed earlier. There is money for the repair of roads in our previous system, had it been used correctly. They simply must stop “stealing” road repair money is assist in the High Speed Rail project, which is neither viable nor will it ever be finished.
Money taken from the economy and the individual taxpayer for use by a governing body has a very poor shelf record. They blow through it like a “drunken sailor” and inflict great economic harm on the goose which is busy laying the golden egg.
But, as always, that’s only one man’s opinion.
Jon Earnest
Actually, 14th Amendment prohibited birthright citizenship
By Harold Pease
Guest columnist
Most constitutional ex- perts know that there exists no birthright citizenship in the 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. Lib- ertyUnderFire and others have made this case for many years. Unfortunately House Speaker Paul Ryan, represents the class of pol- iticians least informed on this subject when he said “As a conservative, I’m a believer in following the plain text of the Constitu- tion and I think in this case the 14th Amendment is pretty clear,” If he were a constitutionalist he would know better.
Currently the Demo- cratic Party leadership do not care whether it is, or is not, constitutional as they view all illegal immigrants as future democrats. The ignorance of the establish- ment press too is over- whelming. So we make the case once again.
Most have sympathy for those who were infants or born here when their parents illegally crossed the border and have lived here all their lives and know no other country. The 14th Amendment seems to validate such sympathy IF WE IGNORE SIX WORDS: “All persons born or natu- ralized in the United States and subject to the jurisdic- tion thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside.” A more careful read, how- ever, shows that such was specifically and purposely denied, not supported. Con- sider the phrase “subject to the jurisdiction thereof.” The purpose of the clause was to guarantee citizen-
Other Opinions
ship to freed slaves, (al- ready residents) and their descendants after the Civil War. It had nothing to do with immigration. Recipi- ents were already subject to the jurisdiction of the United States.
The concept of “anchor babies” refers to those whose parents are illegal immigrants into the United States and while here have a baby. That baby, (excluding the six words) then inherits full citizenship and even the right later, as an adult, to sponsor his/her own illegal parents in their quest for citizenship. The debate for or against the practice of allowing citizenship for ba- bies of illegal’s born in the U.S. rages on with virtually no one going to the source of the alleged authority — the crafters of the 14th Amend- ment of the Constitution.
Senator Jacob Merritt Howard, architect of the 14th Amendment, actu- ally structured the Amend- ment, (one of two defining the legal status of freed slaves after the Civil War, the other being the 13th which gave them freedom), to prevent that very inter- pretation. He said: “This amendment which I have offered is simply declara- tory of what I regard as the law of the land already, that every person born within the limits of the United States, and [already] sub- ject to their jurisdiction, is by virtue of natural law and national law a citizen of the United States. This will not, of course, include persons born in the United States who are foreigners, aliens, who belong to the families of ambassadors or foreign
minister accredited to the Government of the United States, but will include ev- ery other class of persons.”
It was he who insisted that the qualifying phrase “subject to the jurisdiction thereof” be inserted. Those crossing our borders ille- gally are clearly foreign- ers not residents, and not subject to the jurisdiction of the United States, and thus are specifically ex- empt from citizenship. No- tice also the exclusion of babies born of ambassadors while here. The record of the Senate deliberations on the 14th amendment shows no other interpretation.
There is no such thing as automatic citizenship from this amendment without serious distor- tion of it. In fact, Lyman Trumbull, co-author of the 13th Amendment outlaw- ing slavery, addressing the definition of the phrase “subject to the jurisdiction thereof,” asked, “What do we mean by complete juris- diction thereof? Not owing allegiance to anybody else. That is what it means.”
Those crossing our bor- ders illegally have juris- diction or allegiance else- where and thus cannot have birthright citizenship. How can a child of such a par- entage have what his par- ents clearly do not have?
How many are born il- legally in the United States per year? Statistics are dif- ficult to validate but the Pew Hispanic Center study estimated 340,000 in 2008 alone and recent research has doubled illegal entry from 11 to 22 million, so births from illegals are also presumed double. The Cen- ter for Immigration Stud- ies estimated the annual
cost providing healthcare, education, and food stamps for many, and all other inci- dental costs at $2.4 billion — and that was based upon the presumed 11 million.
Citizenship was de- nied Native Americans until 1924 as they owed allegiance to their Sioux or Apache or Blackfoot, or whatever, Indian na- tions and thus were not yet “subject to the jurisdiction thereof” of the nation they lived within. Certainly one must cease to be at war or conflict with the conquer- ing country. So just being on U.S. soil did not make them citizens automati- cally until the “jurisdiction thereof” part of the Amend- ment was satisfied.
Many of our Mexican friends send portions of their pay checks home to Mexico and plan to return to their native land upon re- tirement with pensions and/ or social security sent to their “first” country from the country they extracted their wealth — the United States. Some vote in Mexi- can elections from here. It is indeed hard to argue that they are not instead subject to the jurisdiction of anoth- er land other than the Unit- ed States--and most admit it. Again, the 14th Amend- ment specifically denies birthright citizenship.
Harold Pease is a syn- dicated columnist and an expert on the United States Constitution. He has dedi- cated his career to studying the writings of the Found- ing Fathers and applying that knowledge to current events. He taught history and political science from this perspective for more than 30 years at Taft Col- lege in Kern County.
Continued prayers and good thoughts for the safety of all firefight- ers, along with comfort to all who have lost loved ones and property.
••• Congratulations are in order for
the Reedley College football team, which capped off an unbeaten regu- lar season Nov. 10 with a 46-34 victory over Hartnell College in Salinas. The 10-0 Tigers now will host the Ameri- can Division Championship Bowl this Saturday, Nov. 17, against the DeAnza College Dons.
It’s an opportunity for the com- munity to come watch one of the pre- mier junior college teams in Califor- nia try to wrap up a perfect season. Kickoff will be at 2 p.m. in Reedley High School’s Sal Gonzalez Field. There’s not many better waist spend a November afternoon than watching a high-stakes football game involving quality teams.
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