Page 3 - Sanger Herald 8-23-18 E-edition

SANGER HERALD 3A THURSDAY, AUGUST 23, 2018 EDITORIAL & OPINION
Random thoughts Chamber boss Tammy Wolfe has big, big plans for this year's Farmers' Markets ...
By Dick Sheppard
Sad, sad situation at Sanger Park which, to
hear the city council and the police chief tell it, has been taken over by a recent influx of homeless meth heads.
The council is consider-
ing putting a police substation in the park to put more focus on police presence and hope- fully discourage bad behavior.
Whenever bad guys become uncomfort- able in one place, they simply move to anoth- er place. So, why don't the cops come up with a very conspicuous, very portable substation - one on wheels - that can follow the bad guys from place to place and maybe herd them right out of town?
•••
Speaking of police - congratulations to one
of my favorite police officers, Ralph Salazar, the resident gang expert, who has been pro- moted to sergeant!
Should have happened a long time ago. •••
Congratulations also to recently retired Greg Velasquez, who served the community as a police officer from 1989 to 2018.
Perhaps Greg's most conspicuous moment as an officer was in 1995 when he succeeded in talking Charlie Salinas into releasing hos- tages he held at Me-n-Ed's on Bethel, putting down his weapons and surrendering. (Salinas was killed by Sanger officers in 2012 in what was ruled as a suicide by cops.)
Vasquez, with a roomful of supporters in attendance, was honored by the city council at its Aug. 16 meeting.
•••
New Sanger firefighter/paramedic Joshua
Brockett, who was introduced at the Aug. 16 council meeting, is a Reedley High School graduate. But he only hesitated a moment when asked which team he would be cheer- ing for last Friday when the Apaches were hosting the Pirates.
"The Apaches of course," Brockett said with a sheepish grin and probably with his fingers crossed.
Joshua is the grandson of a couple of longtime good friends, Budd and Dorothy Brockett of Reedley.
Budd and I practically grew up together in the news business. He was the longtime editor of our sister newspaper, the Reedley Exponent.
•••
The Apaches will be in Hanford this week
to play the Bullpups,≤ who blew out Hanford West last week 63-6.
It will be the first real test of the season for the Apaches and they would appreci- ate the support of the 12th man on the field Apache Tribe - the student cheering section - and the Nation - the rest of us.
Game time is 7:30 p.m.
Be sure to head for Hanford early enough to stop by the Superior Dairy for some ice cream before the game.
•••
Even a grand jury investigation and a
big turnover of personnel on the Measure S Citizens Oversight Committee have not put an end to the drama that seems to infuse every oversight meeting.
Johnny Perez, at the beginning of only
his second meeting, announced he wanted to resign as the chairman of the committee. City clerk Becky Padron told him to put it in writ- ing.
Can't wait for the Sept. 4 meeting to see
what happens next.
•••
Chamber of commerce boss Tammy Wolfe has big, big plans for this year's September series of Street Faires and Farmers' Markets, starting with a "Night at the Carnival," com- plete with a Ferris wheel, on Sept. 8 in down- town Sanger.
She added a new I'm-not-so-sure-how- much-of-an-attraction-it-will-be this week when I agreed to let city manager Tim Chapa try to hit me in the face with a pie, just to get the evening started off right.
I guess I owe it to Tim.
He'll get three pies to throw and since he's more of a soccer than a baseball player I won't have to worry unless he finds a way to use his foot. But, I doubt he could keep his foot out of his mouth long enough for some- thing like that.
Comments, complaints and suggestions may be emailed to sangerherald@gmail.com or may be made by calling 875-2511.
Dick Sheppard
In my OPINION
It's possible the very last thing we need is
GUEST national commentary
Democrats continue to stall on Kavanaugh,
but Grassley pushes forward
one more law!
By Fred Hall
still sage advice for today's young reporters. Real news people are not, nor should they be, bloggers, faceBook or u-tube posters. We fear the ethical line has been blurred for journalists since social media has provided un-vetted access to the masses who are consumersofinformation. Today,it'sthe number of “clicks” that is used to measure a writer'swork. Culturallyandintellectually, that is society's loss.
There is not, nor do we expect there will ever be, any sort of repeal or modification of theFirstAmendmentaspennedbyourFore Fathers. Thearticleissosuccinctlywritten astowardoffpoliticizationbythosewho seekvictoryatanycost. Bewarned,though, they will try.
Moving right along while looking for a seguefromtheprevioussubjectto thisone; it appears that there probably isn't one but we have to wonder anyway, why is that when we elect our representatives they feel it's imperativetowritesomenewlaworregula- tion. Therealreadyhavetobethebetter part of 500 gun control laws on the books and yet, the opposition will not be happy without repealoftheSecondAmendment. Namea subjectandonewillprobablyfindthesame case exists. When a new law or regulation passes an old one should be repealed!
“Where you find the laws most numerous, there you will find also the greatest injus- tice.” - Arcesilaus, Greek philosopher.
“Good people do not need laws to tell them to act responsibly, while bad people will find a way around the laws." - Plato, Greek phi- losopher.
“The more laws and order are made prom- inent, the more thieves and robbers
there will be." - Lao-Tzu, Chinese philosopher.
These observations, throughout the years, by renown philosophers who are obviously
a helluva lot wiser than I, seem to epitomize the modern era dilemma with which our soci- ety is faced. We tend to elect lawyers to rep- resent us in government and, as one would expect, they pass laws or create commissions whoappointbureaucratswho,inturn,then produce rules and regulations, telling us howtoliveourlives. Law-abidingpeopledo everythingpossibletolivebythoserules, whilescofflawsdonot. It'sjustthatsimple.
The next time some says to you, “There ought to be a law...” think about it for a while. It's possible that is the very last thing we need is one more law!
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.
By Natalia Castro
TheRepublican-controlledSenatehasa strongopportunitytoremindvoterswhythey gave the GOP a majority in the 2016 election. The Senate's top priority in the next few weeks will be confirming President Donald Trump’s second nomination for the Supreme Court, Brett Kavanaugh. Kavanaugh is a qualified jurist who has undergone a trans- parent and thorough vetting process, further delays in his confirmation are nothing more than continued obstruction by Democrats in the Senate.
Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) scheduled Judge Kavanaugh’s hearing for September 4th and expects the process to take 3 to 4 days. But Democrats in the Senate already have plans to delay the confirmation.
Already, Kavanaugh’s confirmation has taken an unusually long time. September 4th will mark 57 days since President Trump announcedKavanaughashispicktoreplace Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy, whohasdecidedtoretire.
CommitteeconsiderationsforSupreme CourtJustice’sSoniaSotomayor,ElenaKa- gan, and Neil Gorsuch all took between 47-48 days.
Now, Democrats have decided to further delay the process by threatening a lawsuit against the National Archives for what he claims are Judge Kavanaugh’s full records. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) filed a Freedom of Information Act request for additional records on Kavanaugh, and is suing to receive them before the Sep- tember 4 deadline.
This is despite the fact that Grassley's
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Fred Hall, publisher Dick Sheppard, editor
Lifestyles editor: Mike Nemeth
Sports editor: Mike Nemeth
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team has compiled “over 4,800 pages of judi- cial opinions Judge Kavanaugh wrote, over 6,400pagesofopinionshejoined,morethan 125,000pagesofrecordsproducedfromhis White House legal service, and over 17,000 pages in response to the most comprehensive questionnaire ever submitted to a nominee,” according to Grassley.
As of now, the Judiciary Committee has gathered more than 184,000 documents re- garding Kavanaugh’s work.
This is more than the approximately 70,000 compiled on Chief Justice John Rob- erts, the 173,000 compiled on Justice Elena Kagan, and the 182,000 compiled on Justice Neil Gorsuch.
Democrats have no reason to delay this process; they are stalling the confirmation of an extremely qualified Jurist.
Kavanaugh has served on the D.C. Court of Appeals for ten years and was described by SCOTUS Blog editor Edith Roberts as hav- ing “impeccable academic credentials and sterlingreputationinconservativepolitical and legal circles.”
KavanaughattendedGeorgetownPrep, Yale,andYaleLawSchoolbeforeservingasa clerkforJusticeKennedy.
Judge Kavanaugh is the most qualified candidate to replace Justice Kennedy. Chair- man Grassley should be commended for pushing through with Kavanaugh’s hearing despite the fits from the left. Following the hearing, the Senate should move swiftly to confirm Judge Kavanaugh.
Natalia Castro is the Public Outreach Co- ordinator for Americans for Limited Govern- ment.
An award winning 2018 member of the California Newspaper Publishers Association
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With the recent kerfuffle
over the First Amendment
of the Constitution perhaps
it's time we put both sides
of the argument into con-
text. Formergovernment
officials complain loudly aboutthecancellationof
their security clearance as
somehow violating their First Amendment right after they've literally lost touch with commonsense. Anti-Trumpmedianowclaim thatsomehowheisinfringingontheirright tofreedomofspeechaswell. Here isthe FirstAmendment,pureandsimple:
"Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the free- dom of speech, or the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances.”
It'sexactlythatsimple. Nowhere,within thatveryconciseparagraphdoesitindicate that the issuance of a security clearance is a God-given birthright. Millions of Americans donothaveclearancesandmanagequite nicely. Theirrighttofreespeechisunim- peded. No where therein does it indicate that when an individual, private or public,
is under attack verbally or otherwise from members of the free press, he is estopped from retaliation.
Government officials should, in our hum- ble opinion, be routinely stripped of security clearances once they vacate the position whichrequiredsuchaclearance. Inthecase of John Brennan, the furor being created reaches such levels as to make one seriously questionhisulteriormotives. Itwouldseem, more than anything, it is a resume enhancer for Mr. Brennan as he sits in a pundit's chair at MSNBC, a virulent anti-Trump television channel.
Among the others who appear slated
for removal of security clearance is James Clapper, who has a similar job as Brennan overatCNN. Followingthesetwomen, there's a long line of individuals from the FBI andJusticedepartmentswhohavebeenfired ordemoted. Asfarasmostofthemedia whocomplain,Icanonlyscratchmyhead because while trying to hide behind this very second amendment, they have lost all touch withobjectivity. Frontpagesareoftendiffi- culttodiscernfromopinionpages. Whatever happened to ascertaining and reporting who, what, when, where and why without the fin- gerprints of the writer all over the piece.
I once heard an old-time editor tell a young reporter, “ I don't want to know what the hell you think were the underlying social issues, Ijustwanttoknowwhathappened.” That's
Fred Hall