If somebody asked me, “What are the parks doing when nobody’s there, say, on Friday morning when the world is working its hours?” I’d say, “They’re listening. The parks are listening.”
And if somebody asked how I knew that, I’d say, “Because I heard them.”
We’re all ears in Madera.
Ken Butler,
Madera
For the last 10 years, I have been employed at Madera High School. For seven of those years I have been working on South campus as a Coyote. I taught Video Production, English, Digital Imagery and Journalism and helped design some of the rooms on South.
Then a few years ago I became the Work Experience Coordinator shared between the two campuses. I am now presently a 60 percent Coyote and 40 percent Stallion on my contract and still work on both campuses.
It has been interesting to watch both schools evolve into separate campuses. The personalities of the campuses, staff and students develop independently of one another. Different cultures, rules and schedules influence the makeup of these schools. The best thing about having two schools is we give two students the chance to be quarterback, safety, band leader, student body president and the list goes on. We double the opportunities for our students to succeed and experience life.
It is interesting watching the people have to take sides. The husband and wife that each coach on opposite school campuses, the cousins on opposite sides of the ball this Friday night or the teacher that has grown up wearing blue and now slips into purple will all be at the game between the two schools on Friday. For most they are still feeling a little awkward at times cheering against their alma mater and not wearing the blue sweater with the white M on it.
My motto has always been that we should cheer for Madera teams when they play other schools, but this is the night they play each other. I have looked forward to this night and dreaded it at the same time. If you look for me I will be the guy under the scoreboard in a lawn chair wearing a gray shirt. I will be cheering. I will be cheering for the city that finally has two high schools. I will be cheering for Madera. I always like to be with a winner.
Tim Riche’,
Madera
By Chuck Doud
The Madera Tribune
I have been reading a biography of Franklin D. Roosevelt, and in one chapter is a description of how he, the president, had to borrow a friend’s gasoline-ration cou-pons so another friend could drive to see him at his retreat in Warm Springs, Ga.
And that little scene reminded me of how the nation at that time, during World War II, conducted itself.
People weren’t perfect then, of course, but they behaved as if the foreign war they were fighting was a matter of extreme importance.
Not only did they put up with the rationing of gasoline, but also of tires, and nylon stockings, and meat, and eggs. You couldn’t buy a new car — none was being made because the carmakers were turning out tanks and airplane parts.
Instead of checking themselves into drug-rehab centers, celebrities went around the country and sold war bonds to pay for the military effort.
Today, all that is different. We pay for the war on terror and other deficit spending by borrowing the money — some of it from our former enemies, the Chinese communists.
We also borrow from the elderly. Virtually every extra dime that flows into the Social Security Trust Fund flows right back out again as a loan to the federal government.
I don’t know about you, but I found it troubling Tuesday night during the presidential debate that neither candidate suggested we behave any differently. Sen. John McCain brought up a spending freeze, but only on about a third of the budget. Also, he’d have to ram it down the Democrats’ throats. Sen. Barack Obama suggested using a scalpel on the federal budget, but didn’t say where. No original ideas from either candidate.
Maybe we need a new Roosevelt.
The premise for allowing gay marriage is the idea that anyone who truly loves another person should be allowed to marry that and enjoy the benefits of marriage under the law. It has been pointed out that should Proposition 8 fail, it would be opening up the door for legitimizing and legally sanctioning other types of relationships as well. This could include three-way relationships, incestuous relationships, and other nontraditional concepts. These relationships would, of course, all fall under the idea that it’s just people who truly, deeply, love each other.
Is this what we are really looking for? Are we prepared to have this taught in our schools? Please be aware that they are already teaching the concept of gay marriage and homosexual romance in the public schools of Massachussetts without parent notification. It is being taught to children in kindergarten and up through high school without any advance notification. None is required. Tolerance is an important concept that we all need to embrace, however, teaching that homosexual love is right or wrong is something that should be left out of public education. Gay people are already protected by the laws of California.
We need to vote yes on Proposition 8 and reafirm the importance of marriage between a man and a woman. We need to protect our rights as parents.
Bruce Frandsen,
Madera
By Chuck Doud
The Madera Tribune
Proposition 2, which purports to have the welfare of animals at heart, actually would do a lot to make many farm animals far less comfortable than they are now, with no benefit for the consumer.
“If it passes,” according to Ballotpedia.org, Proposition 2 “will create a new state statute that prohibits the confinement of farm animals in a manner that does not allow them to turn around freely, lie down, stand up, and fully extend their limbs.”
Backers of Prop. 2 believe that chickens, calves and pigs raised on confinement would be happy if these critters had a little more room to move around. But there is no proof of that.
In fact, studies show that hens confined to cages stay in better health than so-called “free-range” hens (which don’t really range all that freely, because if they did, they would be eaten by coyotes and other predators).
The cages for laying hens keep the chickens off the ground and out of the dirt, leading to cleaner hens and cleaner eggs.
If cage-rearing were harmful to the chickens, most egg farmers would be broke by now because farmers with none-caged, and presumably healthier chickens would be raising more eggs and keeping their hens longer. They don’t.
It is possible to raise chickens without using cages, but they still must be confined, kept clean and looked after. That is costly, and makes the eggs more expensive to produce.
Prop. 2 would kill most of the California egg business (and therefore kill most of the California laying hens — thanks, voters), would make eggs more expensive for Californians and would cost the state in lost taxes.
We would continue to eat eggs, of course — which were laid by caged hens out of state, even out of country.
Vote no on Prop. 2.
By Chuck Doud
The Madera Tribune
One of the odd things about economic difficulties such as we’re now experiencing is that some investors totally park their good sense at the curb and put their money into things they normally would have considered nutty ideas.
One of these ideas is raising exotic livestock such as llamas, alpacas, ostriches, emus, mink, chinchilla and even worms.
When I had a farm a few (well, more than a few) years ago, I was always running into people who had moved from town into the country to make their fortunes in the ostrich business. They would buy five acres and a house, put up a fence and start looking for ostriches to buy.
This was actually the hardest part of the setup — finding ostriches. You don’t see a lot of them, like you see cattle, sheep or hogs. People who raise ostriches are specialists, who raise the big birds to sell … to other ostrich farmers.
True, some ostriches get made into meat and feather dusters, but most are kept on hand to catch the eye of would-be ostrich farmers.
This one person I knew couldn’t find any ostriches near where we lived, so he took his pickup to Texas where a guy with a drawl was just waiting for him to show up.
The Texan provided a story about how rich my friend was going to get by raising ostriches, and sold him a male and four females for about what he would have paid for a nice herd of cattle.
On the way back from Texas, my friend noticed that the ostriches were kicking the stuffing out of the pickup, and they wouldn’t eat the food the Texan sent along.
Once they arrived at his farm, the ostriches all became ill and nearly died. He eventually got out of ostriches after losing more than he could afford. The last I remember, he was thinking about raising worms. Don’t you get into it.
All comments are edited for length and content. Due to content or space limitations some comments may not be published. Please limit your calls to two minutes or less. Repeat messages on the same subject adding to the length will not be published.
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Among many calls concerning the football team, a man said, “year after year our freshman football team goes 9-1, 8-2. When they get moved up to the varsity level we can’t even play on the same field as the teams we play. It’s coaching. The kids are playing against the same kids as before. It’s stale. It’s not football they’re playing. Get him out.”
A man called in response “to the person (last week) calling our current football coach a legend. When you coach for nearly 30 years you better have close to 200 wins. Do the math. The guy is a legend in his own mind.”
Another caller had similar comments. “How can you call somebody a legend that hasn’t even won a league title or hasn’t even won three games in league play? The guy’s been wanting to leave Madera for how many years, and he can’t find another job, so he’s sitting here collecting a pay check from Madera Unified.”
A woman wondered why we were not writing about “the freshman (football) team. They are doing so well. You are just bringing our boys down by not talking about it. I wish you would do more.” (Note: With four high school varsity sports and a limited pool of local sports writers, it would be hard to cover freshman sports at any of the high schools.)
“I went to the (Old Timers Day) parade on Saturday,” began a woman, “and I loved it, especially the marching bands. The only complaint I had was (that) the Madera north (Madera High School) pep squad and flag bearers had their undergarments showing… That wasn’t very tasteful.”
Another lady called “in regards to the Madera parade. I really enjoyed it. But I was disappointed in all the business cards and all the flyers left behind. The garbage that was left, and no one around to pick it up. They didn’t even bother to clean up downtown.”
A woman responded to “the lady complaining about the policeman in the alley. She should be grateful that they are patrolling the area that way. Otherwise her house would have been broken into three times over. Also the woman who was complaining about panhandling; you shouldn’t be so hard on these people. Be grateful you have something with the economy the way it is.”
The announcer for the football games called in response to last week’s caller complaining about his way of announcing the games. “I am the announcer and I do it on a voluntary basis. I have not gotten any complaints from any other fans or administrators or athletic director. I do this because no one else wanted to do the announcing. I am out there for the kids. If I was out there for my own benefit, I would not do it for free.”
“Last Saturday was your monthly edition with Mo’s Meanderings,” began a gentleman. “I really enjoyed how it was not your typical travelogue you read in Sunset or the AAA magazine. Mr. Emo made a wonderful story out of it, and still gave all the information on the Renaissance Faire.”
A regular caller wanted to “congratulate Chuck Doud. He eliminates rhetoric and finds a point and plays it out, unbiased. Thank you, very much.” He also mentioned he “misses Jim Glynn and his article.”
After seeing “a police officer in his patrol car at the Cleveland and Country Club railroad crossing, and a car parked right behind the officer on the tracks.” The caller wondered “after a big article in the paper stating that was illegal to do” why the driver wasn’t cited. “He (the officer) let him get away. Why don’t we practice what we preach?”
An online visitor, self-identified as “Michelle Johnson,” writes, “Are we taxpayers paying for each school to have their Web sites on the Internet? If so then it is a waste of taxpayers money. They are outdated, useless, and just taking up space. I tried to access Desmond’s classroom Web sites to review what homework was assigned. The homework was for last year. The school Web site was dated for graduation last year.”
Web readers reacted to a column by Chuck Doud that was skeptical of how prudent it would be to rebuild the lower parts of New Orleans if another flood hit.
“Doctorj2u” writes, “Here is an idea for you. Why not supply New Orleans with the flood defenses found in most of the other great world ports? What the Corps of Engineers is doing is patching the present woefully inadequate levees. Why? Because Congress will not fund the project. They are setting up the next disaster, not the millions of Americans in southern Louisiana.”
“Jinx” writes, “Three years into the rebuilding and yet one can still walk through areas that look like a bomb went off yesterday. Three years and the homelessness rate is still growing because of the lack of housing. … $126 billion (to rebuild the Gulf Coast) in three years —some of it still not dispersed, a lot of it wasted— sounds like a whole lot of money, but compare it to the projected $859.9 billion we will spend this year alone on the war and on it doesn’t sound like all that much to rebuild our own country.”
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Thank you for your calls. Remember, the Red Line is open for your messages 24 hours a day by calling 674-4478, or by visiting www.maderatribuneredline.com.
By Chuck Doud
The Madera Tribune
When you drive north along Interstate 5, and you cross the southern line into Shasta County, you enter a group of counties which wish they weren’t part of California, and when you cross the California border into Oregon, you are in a group of counties that wish Oregon wasn’t their home. You are in that group until you cross the northern Douglas County line.
Those counties, 12 in all, have since 1941 been calling themselves informally the State of Jefferson.
They believe California and Oregon give them nothing and take everything — their water, their rights to cut timber, their agricultural heritage.
They believe their counties — and their wishes — are ignored by Sacramento and Salem, and they would like to go out on their own as the 51st state.
About 900,000 people live in that area, which would make it one of the smallest states in population, but it would not be the smallest state in land area. According to the San Francisco Chronicle, the State of Jefferson would be about the size of Wales.
Politically, the movement crosses the lines between left and right. People from both camps believe the time for secession may not be far off — or at least may be in the lifetimes of many of the younger people now living. The would-be state of Jefferson includes a beautiful coastline, abundant forests, crop lands of many types and much fresh water.
I can feel a certain kinship with those folks. In our San Joaquin Valley, we produce most of the state’s agricultural wealth, yet our political positions, especially in environmental issues, are largely ignored. Perhaps we could start thinking about the state of San Joaquin, which could extend from the coast range all the way to the Nevada border, from San Joaquin County in the north to Kern in the south. It could be a good thing.
It was brought to my attention that our female soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan are having to do without certain female items and are having to tear up T-shirts to meet their needs. Also, they are in need of toothbrushes and a variety of creams and lotions, shampoos and soap.
The subject was brought up at the Women’s Auxiliary District meeting. The president of the American Legion Auxiliary wants to make sure something is done to fill the need. She says whoever wants to join her call Auxiliary President Gloria Barnes 661-1910.
Myself I feel the Army is not fully taking care of our female soldiers, who are moms, wives, sisters, daughters and loved ones. Let’s not twiddle our thumbs.
Joe Urena,
Madera
A grievous mistake has been made in the Tulare County case of Ramadan Abdullah versus Eric Telen.
Murderer Abdullah gets life, after giving death to a police officer. Officer Telen left a grief -stricken widow and children. Psychiatrists say that anyone who commits a murder is insane at least during the act of the felony.
What a licentious message to send to all potential murderers. By this definition, all murderers could escape the death penalty, by reason of insanity. This killer should fry in the electric chair.
The Holy Bible has been discarded. It proclaims that if a person takes an innocent life; his life should also be taken away, because humans are created in the image of God. Some judges think they can over-rule Almighty God.
Judge Ralph Nunez you should be ashamed.
Jerry C. Moore,
Madera
