Page 3 - Sanger Herald 1-11-18 E-edition

SANGER HERALD 3A THURSDAY, JANUARY 11, 2018 EDITORIAL & OPINION
Random thoughts Random thoughts are not owing at a caffeine fueled pace this week ...
By Dick Sheppard
The Urban Dictionary describes "writer's block" as a usually temporary psychological inability to begin or to continue work on a piece of writing.
My mind is not pouring
out random thoughts at its
usual caffeine fueled pace this week.
It's still stuck in last week, the first week of the new year, trying to process a series of events that began Tuesday evening.
That's when I found out my nephew, Larry Falce, a San Bernardino County deputy sheriff, had been killed by a career criminal who would have been locked up behind bars anywhere but in California.
About the same time, I learned my neighbor, my friend and my hero, Wilbur Plaugher, had died unexpectedly.
It was a long night.
Then, with only about two hours sleep,
on Wednesday morning I had to have my best four-legged friend for the past 17 years, Dundee, euthanized.
That's a lot to process and Dr. Deepak Chopra, the alternative medicine advocate, says that kind of night and morning will disrupt the balance of the brain and it needs time to come back.
I've been told more than once that my brain isn't all that well balanced anyway so it didn't take much to tip it over and it's still in the process of trying to get back on its feet - or something like that.
So, don't expect anything too profound in today's Random Thoughts column.
•••
My nephew was off duty when he was
killed by a man the San Bernardino County district attorney Mike Ramos described
as a "career criminal." Ramos said Alonzo Leron Smith had been in jail multiple times and previously went to state prison for street terrorism and sale of marijuana as an admitted gang member. Smith was supposed to serve 12 years but was released after the charges were overturned because he acted alone instead of committing the crimes with another gang member, the district attorney said.
That probably only makes sense in California.
Smith savagely attacked my nephew after a minor traffic accident. Larry never regained consciousness.
Senseless.
How do you process something like that? Larry's funeral was this Tuesday.
•••
Wilbur, who is in every cowboy and rodeo
hall of fame in the world was probably the best man I've ever known.
The news of his death posted on the Sanger Herald Facebook page was viewed by more than 170,000 people. There was a common theme in the Facebook comments of the hundreds of people who mourned his passing - Wilbur was their hero.
You don't expect someone like that to just up and die.
Seems like it was only a few weeks ago Wilbur was working his cattle ranch outside Sanger almost every weekday and preaching somewhere on Sunday.
His daughter Shelly Plaugher Cotter told me Wilbur was recovering from surgery and was looking forward to getting back out to the ranch.
Wilbur was always trying to convince me how much fun I would have helping him put in new fence posts and stringing barbed wire.
There will be a celebration of Wilbur's life at 10 a.m. tomorrow, Friday, at Peoples Church in Fresno.
•••
It’s been difficult this past week, life
without Dundee.
She finally got to rest, after more than 17
years of taking care of me. The vet said she was about two years old when she showed up on my doorstep and just never left - until last Wednesday.
She always let me know when it was time togotobed,togetup,toeat,togoforawalk – and where the special treats were.
She was my caregiver and my mental health therapist. She was interested in what I had to say when no one else was and she let me know she loved me no matter how many things I screwed up or how many drinks I had with buddies at the Oasis before I came home.
The same night Larry and Wilbur died
Dundee's back legs stopped working. She was so weak she couldn’t get up. She didn’t want to eat, not even her favorite treat.
The doctor came Wednesday morning. I held Dundee close – told her I could learn to fend for myself, she had taught me well. I told her how loved she was and thanked her for giving me such happiness and for her unwavering companionship and unconditional love.
She was ready. She wanted to rest. The doctor gave her a shot and she fell asleep, and then another that was basically an overdose of sleeping meds. I held her and kissed her and whispered to her well after herpassing. AndIcried.
•••
I was still trying to process all that when
Juanita Adame who covered the Thursday city council meeting for me told me about comments from the dais about some kind of mysterious "settlement."
A request to city hall based on the California Public Records and the Freedom of Information acts produced an agreement, dated March 29, 2017, between the city
and Ellen "Ellie" Palomo, a former police department administrative assistant, showing the city paid her $190,000 to settle a wrongful
termination lawsuit.
I remembered when that suit was filed
several years ago and based on what I knew about it I could not understand the $190,000 payout. Maybe it will make more sense when I'm processing information a little faster than I am right now.
•••
Then Tony Gonzalez, a member of the
Measure S Citizens Oversight Committee, stopped by the Herald to show me three pages of responses from the city attorney and the finance director to questions Tony asked about how the city is dealing with Measure S public safety money.
I may change my mind when/if it starts working a little better. But my impression right now is that the city is trying very hard to totally eliminate the words supplement and supplant from any conversation about Measure S. That's only important because it's the very essence of the intent of how the money is supposed to be spent.
Maybe it will all make more sense to me next week. Then again, maybe not.
Comments, complaints and suggestions may be emailed to sangerherald@gmail.com or may be made by calling 875-2511
Dick Sheppard
In my OPINION
'Suppose you were an idiot and suppose
you were a California government official. But then I repeat myself.'
By Fred Hall
Mark Twain only slightly paraphrased
woman dead and yet be held blameless un- derourstatelaws. Thereisstillachancethis miscreant may face no punitive action of any kind. How wrong is that? It's a safe bet that, even if he is deported, he will soon be back in California for a seventh time - thanks to our open arms sanctuary state policy.
Hand in glove with this movement one will find some really peculiar people who would blame the police first for everything.
A friend recently shared his solution for po- lice units who are called out to intercede with black-clad mobs from ANTIFA and any of the other similarly over brainwashed and under- educated groups. His solution, which I thought was spot on, would be for the police to hand out job applications to this hygienically challenged bunch. That should clear the campus quads and city streets or wherever they are plying their trade.
Consider for a moment some of the real is- sues which are facing California and the in- ability of our current government to address or deal with any of those. Affordable housing has become a tremendous burden to a state with the infrastructure for about 20 million people which has grown to roughly 40 million.
A large portion of that can be directly attrib- uted to fuzzy or even uncontrolled immigration policies. Our governor recently invited every- one to move to California. Perhaps they can be put in the vacated housing made available by a working class flight from our state because of the ever-increasing cost of living due to taxa- tion, and regulation.
Very soon one will either have to be wealthy or on welfare to afford to live in this beautiful climate. We're so far ahead of things that the governor is helping address the climate on a worldwide basis. Maybe while he's at it he can join with all of his air agencies and boards and arrange for some rain.
Perhaps I've saved the dumbest for last. These same deep thinkers are working on tax- payer sponsored, state administered and con- trolledFREEhealthcareforeveryone. Please explain to this country boy where the funding for that one will be derived.
But, as always, that's only one man's opinion.
In addition to the Sanger Herald, Publisher Fred Hall oversees three other Mid Valley Publishing newspapers - Reedley Exponent, Dinuba Sentinel and Parlier Post. He can be contacted by phone at (559) 638-2244 or by email at fred@midvalleypublishing.com.
Perhaps you’re as con-
fused as I am about all the
measures flowing from Cali-
fornia government officials
which appear to be complete-
ly counterintuitive. If not, it
would be deeply appreciated
if, after reading this, you
would take moment, put pen
to paper, and explain some of the seemingly inane actions of our governor, senate and as- sembly.
Marijuana is now legal in California which has an overwhelming number of citizens who appear already stoned all the time. The gov- ernment was so anxious to get this one on the books they moved on legalization with none of the supporting mechanism for administering or monitoring its implementation. It appears the only thing which we know for sure that is up and running is another huge bureaucracy that hereinafter will be called The Bureau of Cannabis Control. We think it would be inter- esting to read their job description although we doubt there is one. The charge of most state agencies is in itself a joke.
This seems to be just one more item over which the California attorney general will be suing the United States because no thought was given to making sure our standards matched those of the federal government.
Light up another one California and spend taxpayer money going after your Uncle Sam! After all, what do we have to lose? Between the actions of Jerry Brown and Xavier Becer- ra, California is rapidly becoming a national joke.
California continues to decriminalize fe- lonious actions in a seeming effort to empty our prisons, while showing more interest in protecting the rights of law-breakers over law abiding citizens. Our streets are becoming less safe but the miscreants walking around free as birds help free up taxpayer money for what strikes liberals as more pressing social programs. After all, our lay-abouts must be made comfortable in their life mission! This political posturing requires an absolute discon- nect with the cost of the mayhem created by that element. Democrats don't seem real picky about voter blocs.
We are still in search of any rational ex- planation of how a criminal illegal alien in the San Francisco area could shoot a young
Fred Hall
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