Page 3 - Sanger Herald 10-4-18 E-edition

SANGER HERALD 3A THURSDAY, OCTOBER 4, 2018 EDITORIAL & OPINION
Random thoughts An object in motion tends to stay in motion .... no matter how many grand jury reports ...
By Dick Sheppard
What a great event and what a great game - and Tom Flores had a lot to do with making both of them special.
Tom took time to say
hello, shake hands, sign
autographs and pose for
photos with almost everyone at the Sanger Athletic Hall of Fame event last Friday afternoon. Then he went over to the stadium named after him to be grand marshal of
the homecoming parade and make the coin toss to start the football game between the Apaches and the Madera Coyotes. You can read about the game in today's sports sec- tion. The last minute may have been the most exciting minute of the Apache season so far. This week the Apaches will host Bullard at Tom Flores Stadium.
The Hall of Fame event was at the little red brick building in the park by city hall, between the Depot Museum and the library. That building, the kindergarten room of the old Harding School built in the '20s, will even- tually house Hall of Fame memorabilia.
Not many schools in towns the size of Sanger can say they have their own Hall of Fame building!
By the way, you have until Oct. 15 to get your nominations in for athletes, coaches, teams or contributors to be inducted at the next Hall of Fame banquet on May 4, 2019 at the community center. Nomination forms are available at the high school and the Sanger Herald.
•••
Waytogo to chamber of commerce boss
Tammy Wolfe and her staff and volunteers for a great Street Faire and Farmers' Market season.
•••
Waytogo to John "Doc" Bart for being
selected as the honored guest and featured speaker at the annual Sanger Marine Corps Ball and Veterans' Celebration on Nov. 10 at the community center.
•••
Not long ago one of the former grand
jurors involved in the recent investigation of how the City used and abused Measure S funds asked me if I thought the grand jury
reporthadchangedanything.Withcurrent complaints from planning commissioners - similar to former complaints from oversight members that triggered the grand jury inves- tigation - still fresh in my mind, I had to say, "No, no change."
I was never good with math. But Newton's laws of motion came to mind. Not the formu- las - or is it formulae - but the words, "... an object in motion tends to stay in motion with the same speed and in the same direction
..." or something like that. The point is, the directionthecityhasbeenheading -before, during and after the grand jury came to town - hasn't changed perceptibly.
For instance ...
The oversight committee complained about not getting accurate minutes of its meetings. The planning commission is now having trouble getting any minutes at all of its meetings.
The oversight committee complained about not getting timely, accurate and rele- vant information from the staff. The planning commission is complaining about not getting timely, accurate and relevant information from the staff.
The oversight committee complained about not having time to read and understand material before making decisions because
so much of it was presented just before a looming deadline. The planning commission is complaining about not having time to read and understand material before making decisions because so much of it is being pre- sented just before a looming deadline.
Nope, doesn't look like any change to me.
I can't help wondering if Sir Isaac Newton was envisioning the future of Sanger when he said, "An object in motion tends to stay in motion with the same speed and in the same direction ...no matter how many times the grand jury comes to town." (Or something like that.)
I've heard there are already those calling for another grand jury investigation. Why?
Sanger has had four - a record for a California city - grand jury investigations in less than 10 years. They haven't perceptibly changed the direction city hall is headed, or the culture at city hall, which is very differ- ent from the community's "...one town, one tribe, one team" culture.
If thecommunityreallywantsachange of direction it will have to make it happen by itself - at the polling place.
Stop counting on somebody else to do it. Stop hoping the grand jury will do it. Stop thinking your words of complaint to the city council will do it. Stop believing that any words alone - without votes - will ever have enough force to change the momentum, direction and culture at city hall.
•••
I still haven't decided whether whatever is happening at city hall that caused the reac-
tion by the oversight committee, members of
the planning commission and the grand jury is the result of some kind of grand plan or
is simply caused by subservient employees emulating their boss. In any case, whatever it is, it's being condoned by the city council, and that's where change has to start if change is really desired.
•••
"We have met the enemy and he is us."
- Pogo
Comments, complaints and suggestions may be emailed to sangerherald@gmail.com or may be made by calling 875-2511.
Dick Sheppard
In my OPINION
Time to end the Democrat
orchestrated delay tactics
By Fred Hall
identify as snowflakes who were non-existent back in the day. No one took umbrage at such pronouncements. Today, they do! Republicans were supposed to be rich and Democrats were working class folks, a dif- ferential which has been turned on its head in today's America. Hollywood, the media and the elite now control the Democrat Party.
When I attended high school and college there didn't seem to be any teachers or pro- fessors who felt compelled to spew their prejudice to a class of students who were there to learn and prepare themselves for the realworld. ThefactisthatIneverremem- ber politics being discussed in the classroom exceptinthecontextofhistory. Yes,they stilltaughthistorybackthen. AssoonasI was old enough, I cast my first ballot as a grown-up for John F. Kennedy.
Mom and Dad would have been proud!
Fast forward just a few years and every- thinghaschanged. VietNam,itwouldseem, was the beginning of a change in the values ofAmerica. Thatwouldalsohavebeenthe era when so many having the college expe- rience became so steeped in a misguided socialistic leaning learning experience.
That seemed to be the beginning of the liber- al spore being spread far and wide. Many of youngsters graduating college became teach- ers and professors. Thusly the wrong-headed idea of socialism continued to gain traction andtheproliferationbecameexponential.
The leading edge of the Democrat party of today identifies itself as socialist democrat, oftenwithhubris. Truthbetold,socialism has been an abject failure wherever it has been tried. The treasuries of once rich coun- tries are soon decimated and the next politi- cal leader on the scene is usually a dictator.
This current hearing by the Senate Judicial Committee has essentially become a seek and destroy mission using dirty tricks and obfuscation to delay the confirmation ofthisSupremeCourtjudge. Themanis extremely qualified and has already gone through six (now seven) FBI investigations.
Last week's ambush of weak-kneed Jeff Flake by two Democrat activists who had been paid by George Soros is ugly evidence. Doubt it was staged? How about the con- venient presence of a CNN television crew at that exact moment at that exact spot?
It's almost like wolves or coyotes hunt-
ing livestock. They always manage to cut the weakest one out of the herd and that's exactly what Democrats did with the Arizona Senator. Thiswholedelayandbesmirchtac- tic was planned and orchestrated.
I predict the FBI report will come back with no corroboration for the allegations but theDemocratsprobablyhaveanothertrick up their sleeve.
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.
Over the past couple
of weeks this nation has
undergone a political night-
mare which accomplished
nothing more than an
attemptto destroythelives
of a brilliant man, who is
the epitome of what a man
should be, and his lovely
youngfamily. Hewasacademicallyfirstin his high school graduating class, first among his graduating class in college and first among his peers in law school.
The most damning thing coming out of this was that this division of country and destruction of reputations was done by a political party in the pursuit of a really seedy agenda. BrettKavanaughhasareputa-
tion of being a strict constructionist of the Constitution and Democrats wanted none of that! Theyinsistedontheneedforanother Justice of the ilk of Ginsburg, Kagan, Breyer or Sotomayor who see the Constitution as “fluid” and adaptable to political needs. The law should never be a malleable thing which can bent at will for a political philosophy.
Accusations which appeared in the 13th hour—actually being brought forward after the initial Senate hearings had closed—dealt with claims which placed the proof of inno- cenceontheaccused. Thatarticulation,com- ing from Democrats on the Senate Judicial Committee is completely counter to any semblanceofAmericanjurisprudence. How would our democracy survive if simple accu- sations were considered proof of guilt?
My parents were hard core Democrats who grew up and came of age during the great depression that gripped the country duringthe1930's. Theyabsolutelyadored Franklin D. Roosevelt, the last President
to serve three terms and blamed Herbert Hoover, his predecessor. Hoover, who made many economic miscalculations, was serving during the '"crash of 1929."
Owing to the large numbers involved in the stock market involving stocks which were bought on margin, the losses were deep and painful but not necessarily the fault of PresidentHoover. But,asHarryTruman,a remarkable Democrat said, “The buck stops here.”
Roosevelt installed a number of govern- ment programs which were aimed at prop- ping up a terrible—almost nonexistent— economy. ThePresidentopenlyadmitted that he feared that many of his quasi-welfare programs were destined to become a nar- cotic but drastic measures were needed for millionsofstarvingAmericans. Thiswould be a small taste of controlled socialism and a new experience for this country.
My mother and father were classic exam- ples of what was termed, at the time,
"yellow dog Democrats." It was never intend- ed as a derogatory term but rather a way of saying that the individuals would vote for
a yellow dog before they would vote for a Republican. Thisrecentphenomenonis par- ticularly pronounced with a group which we
Fred Hall
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