We always enjoy Chuck Doud’s editor’s corner, but we particularly enjoyed his editorial Saturday June 14, “Water crisis could change our lives.”

We agree with every point Mr. Doud made regarding what the residents of Madera County can expect because the water crisis is coming. In fact, with the uncontrolled development and the upcoming release of water from Friant Dam into the San Joaquin River for the salmon, it’s right around the corner.

The only correction we would suggest is regarding the last paragraph where he states, “Right now the only good news is that the Madera Irrigation District had the foresight to establish its water bank.” Mr. Doud is right on the target regarding the fact that the Madera Water Bank is necessary, because it will be the salvation of not only Madera’s farming community but also all of Madera’s residents.

We would like to set the record straight by suggesting that is wasn’t the Madera Irrigation District’s (MID) foresight, but Ron Pistoresi who at that time was president of MID’s board.

For many years, while sometime neglecting his farming operations, Ron spent hundreds of hours and many days attending meetings up and down the state of California and going to the state capital, meeting with the governor’s staff, state Senate and Assembly leaders. Ron also met multiple times with Sen. Dianne Feinstein and congressional representatives Radanovich, Cardoza, Costa, and staffs.

He also single-handily put the Madera Water Bank together, including the purchase of the Madera Ranch, while experiencing from time to time opposition from some of the MID board members.

It wasn’t until late 2006, when it appeared the water bank was going to become a reality, that other people started getting involved for whatever reason.

Kudos to Ron Pistoresi for the Madera Water Bank becoming a reality and a sincere thank you, Ron, for all your hard work and devotion making the Madera Water Bank come to fruition.

Randall McKinney,
Madera

By Chuck Doud
The Madera Tribune

A friend of mine was complaining the other day about ants in her house, and it got me thinking that I had heard that if one surrounds one’s house with a barrier of minced garlic about two inches high, the ants will not cross it. That means running a lot of garlic through one’s blender, though, so it may be less trouble just to move to another house, one that doesn’t have ants.

There is the option of having someone come to your house and lay down a swath of poison, which is what we do at our house, but some people are squeamish about that. They are afraid their cats and dogs will lick up the poison and get sick, but I can tell you from experience that doesn’t happen.

The cat at our house is not a poison licker. She only goes for the high-end cat food. She won’t eat ants, either, although you would think they would be easy pickings for her. All she does is watch an ant when one ventures across the patio, having perhaps been over at the neighbors when the sprayer man came around. The cat does this while lying splayed on the concrete in the shade. She will move her eyes, and maybe her head just a little, but when the ant gets out of her line of sight, she just looks away or shuts her eyes and goes back to sleep.

Which makes me think the cat has finally figured out how to handle hot weather. She lies on cool concrete, where there might be a little breeze, and only moves when I trot out with breakfast or supper.

Sometimes the backyard bluebird will land on the lawn, and the bird and the cat will stare at each other, but neither has the energy to chase or be chased.

It can be that way in the middle of summer. I know how they feel.

I cannot believe we have become a “nation of non-thinkers.” Unless I went to sleep and woke up in Russia, then I believe the U.S. Constitution is still the guiding body of this great nation: 100 senators, 435 congressmen/wo-men, one president and nine Supreme Court justices equals 545 individuals out of 300 million (plus/minus a few illegals) that run this country.

Those 545 individuals are directly, legally, morally responsible for the problems we have in this country. Those 545 individuals (all politicians) are the ones who create problems and then campaign against them. If the Republicans, Democrats and independents are against deficits, why do we have deficits? If the politicians are against inflation and high taxes, why do we have inflation and high taxes?

You and I don’t propose a federal budget. The president does. You and I do not have the constitutional authority to vote on appropriations, the House of Representatives does. We do not write tax codes, Congress does.

I have not said anything about special interests and lobby groups for one reason: They have no legal authority; they have no ability to coerce a senator, congress person or president to do anything. Even if they offer our politicians $1 million, it is the politician who has the power to accept or reject it. It is the legislator’s responsibility to determine how she/he votes.

Yet, they would have us believe they are innocent. They are giving us a con game. The president did not create the deficits, Congress did. The president can only propose a budget, the sole responsibility for passing it rests with the Congress. They alone originate, approve and appropriate all things including taxes. So, what exists is what they want to exist.

If your tax code is unfair it is because they want it unfair. If your budget is in the red, it is because they want it in the red. If they do not pay into Social Security, but are on an elite retirement plan (not available to we the people), it is because they want it that way. Our Congress is incompetent and irresponsible. What we really need to do is vote all of them out of office, clean house and start fresh.

God bless this great nation.

Bill Jones,
Madera

Like elsewhere, Madera is losing much-needed jobs. It is encouraging to see that the Madera County Road Department has created a position of pothole identifier.

Driving on Avenue 17 recently I noticed a white ring painted around selected potholes. Thirty to 60 days (maybe even two months) later someone put a little cold patch in these selected pot holes. There were others close by, even a shovel handle’s length away, but no, only those selected ones got the cold patch.

I guess this stems from the Clinton lesson on what is. Is is or is is not? At Avenue 17 and Golden State we have a new hotel. Someone got the cart before the horse and put an island in the middle of the road. The city side is paved with curbs and gutters; however, the north side (still in the county) is just half done. Navigating west from the freeway you have to turn right, bounce over that “new” patch and then turn left to get back in your lane on westbound 17. This “new” patch already has a white ring around it so the pothole identifier must play golf.

How did this happen? Wasn’t this contract work? Did this hole fall out of the asphalt truck and go unnoticed? This is a factory pothole, and needs to be fixed by the contractor. If the Road Department needs another pothole identifier, I am qualified. I know one when I see (feel) one.

Bill Hoffrage,
Madera

By Chuck Doud
The Madera Tribune

Some people — heck, a lot of people — believe we are in a recession, and maybe we are. But it still remains a fact that by the traditional measures we are in a slowdown, not a recession.

What we may be in, however, is a suck-flation. That is a time when money is being sucked from one part of the economy to another, usually to the detriment of the little guy or gal.

A good example of this is the price of gasoline. Those of us who buy gasoline are seeing our money sucked into the gas pump by higher prices, money we once would have used to pay the occasional restaurant or bar tab, money that we might have used for a new pair of pants.

In his advertisements on the subjects, billionaire T. Boone Pickens calls it the greatest transfer of wealth in history — sending $500 billion a year to foreigners who sell us oil.

That is a lot of money, almost what Congress wastes a year. (Actually, I’m overstating. Congress probably doesn’t waste more than $200 billion in an average year.)

Everything we use has a gasoline component — the amount of gasoline that was used to the item, be it food, clothing or a component of something else to where we can buy it.

Suck-flation is a bit like inflation, but with inflation, most of the money from rising prices stays in the economy. Because we import so much of our oil, that is not true with suck-flation. With suck-flation, that money goes away and we hardly see any of it ever again.

We know this will kill our economy if it keeps up. But we also know that in the past, when oil prices have risen, they also fall, sometimes quickly.

When that happens, we might get whew-flation, characterized by a big sense of relief.

By Chuck Doud
The Madera Tribune

The European Middle Ages, as we look back on them, seem pretty awful. We call them the Dark Ages. They ran from the time Rome fell, in the mid-400s, to the mid-1400s, when printing was invented.

That’s about 1,000 years in which people lived what seems a hard life from our standpoint. But maybe it wasn’t so awful. People put up with the Middle Ages for 1,000 years, so at least some were satisfied. Great buildings were built, in some places the arts flourished. Only a few could read, but only a few needed to.

The invention of printing changed that suddenly. Books became available at a relatively low cost, and people had a reason to learn to read. Navigation techniques improved, and sailors felt confident in going beyond the traditional limits of exploration. New lands were discovered. By 1492, the Western Hemisphere had been trod upon by Europeans who were intent on conquering it for their own.

A new age had begun.

But nobody is likely to have said, “Okay, you guys, the Middle Ages are over and the Modern Age has begun.”

As far as that’s concerned, nobody probably said, “Okay, the Age of Classical Civilization is over and the Middle Ages have begun.”

People in the future make those delineations.

The Egyptians, Romans, Greeks and other civilizations of those times probably would have been surprised to see most of their advancements destroyed or ignored in later centuries, just as Middle Agers would have been amazed by the steam engine, by cars, by computers.

What will future Earthlings think of our time in history 400 years from now? Will they be in another Dark Age, looking back on us with scorn or envy? Will people become illiterate again, as they seem to be doing? Or will ours be considered a Dark Age?

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.

+ + +

“I am calling concerning the downtown area,” began a woman. She recited the “Humpty Dumpty” nursery rhyme, and added, “our downtown is a disaster. Since the owners and the tenants are so happy with the conditions let them keep it that way. I will be going to Fresno for my shopping needs.” (Note: The tenants have expressed dissatisfaction about downtown conditions.)

“I got an idea,” said a male caller, “why not paint the whole town with dirt?”

“I don’t object to all the bright colors downtown. I’m not Hispanic,” a lady said, “but they give a lot of flavor to the area, which is largely Hispanic.” She suggested to the business owners about their signs, “if they could be in English and Spanish, for those of us that don’t speak Spanish, it would help draw in all parts of the community.”

Another woman called “about the businesses downtown, (and) the colors of the buildings. The city should really go and look at the buildings and condemn the bad ones and maybe put these new businesses downtown instead of those other places.”

She also said, “I went to a thing for teachers and they were only hiring teachers that spoke Spanish and English. Isn’t that the worst discrimination?”

An online reader responded to a letter to the editor from Cari Dusek, who was upset that a teen mom, profiled in the Tribune, was receiving a college scholarship while Dusek had not qualified for financial aid. The reader writes, “What exactly did you expect her to do? Give up? Put the kid up for adoption and fall into despair? You left the house at 18, (but) this person had a child … and now has an opportunity to better both her life and the life of her child.”

Another Internet guest, self-identified as “Amanda,” expressed concern for the teen moms profiled in the Tribune. She writes, “I was a teen mom in Madera in 1980. I married my baby’s father and had many years of physical and emotional abuse. He also abused our children. I think you should maybe point out the negative points of having an intimate relationship before you are mature enough to handle it, the struggles financially and emotionally you go through trying to be a single mother, and the struggles you unknowingly put your children through.”

A man said, “as I drive by the new Burrito King it is a beautiful restaurant and I eat there, but I still miss Laurine and the great service at the Village Restaurant. The restaurant was something special that Madera had for a long, long time and we all miss it.”

A man “was wondering why there was no ramp for people in a wheelchair” near a local (chain) shoe store. He feared for “people having to go around and to the back of the cars that are going to be pulling out of the stores. Longs and the Laundromat do have ramps.”

The same man called concerning a different subject. He said he lives in a Housing Authority residence and wondered, “Why is it we pay a monthly rent, but when anything needs to be fixed we get charged $28 to get it fixed. Isn’t that what we pay a maintenance crew for? Why should we have to pay?”

“My eyes are burning, itching,” began a man who is a frequent caller to the Red Line. “The air’s polluted, who’s to blame? Mother Nature with lightning strikes, arson, whatever. Smog in the valley is the worst it’s ever been. It’s not manmade, it’s a natural cause.” He wondered “where that fits in with the global warming theory?”

“I read this morning where (Vice-President Dick) Cheney had his heart checked,” said a lady. “I didn’t know the guy had one.”

After reading yesterday’s (July 14) paper, and seeing “nothing but news from Associated Press on the front page,” a man asked, “did all your local reporters take the weekend off? Where’s (Tami Jo) Nix, (June) Woods, (Leon) Emo and the others?”

A man said he “liked the picture of the mayor going down the slide,” and suggested maybe the children in the picture “gave her a push.”

A man who “drives down East Olive every day past Sierra Vista,” asked, “now that the (power) pole has been removed to open the eastbound lanes when are they going to open it?”

An online reader, self-identified as “Larry R. VanZant,” responded to a column by Charles Doud about military service and recent presidents. His comment begins, “As a military combat veteran, I can say that although military service is not necessary for a president to succeed, it is definitely an advantage … any leader benefits from a background in which decisions are made not only impacting one’s own safety, but the safety of dear comrades. Heroic exploits in the performance of such duties serve to enhance this dynamic …”

+ + +

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

Democrats in the California Legislature say the state budget should be balanced at least in part by increasing income taxes on the rich. They justify this by saying the rich can afford it.

That is the argument for the graduated income tax system, both federal and state, under which poor people are taxed at lower rates than middle class people, and upper middle class people pay a higher rate than middle class, and rich people pay still higher rates.

And, under that system, some people who are poor not only don’t pay any taxes, but actually get payments — sort of reverse taxes — for being poor.

I don’t really mind that system too much, because Mrs. Doud and I are not rich, or even upper middle class, so we pay our share, but not much more than that. To keep from having to pay more than our share, we have had a gentleman who is a lot smarter than we are about those things take care of our taxes for years. So, for us, the system is okay.

But it is not a good system for running a country or state.

First, it isn’t fair. For example, why should poor people, who get a lot of tax benefits in the form of services, not have to pay any taxes? And why should rich people, who already pay a higher rate than the rest of us, get stung for more? That kind of thinking made us revolt against the British. The Brits taxed the colonists just because they could.

Second, the system doesn’t provide the income that government needs. What happens, for example, if the rich suddenly get poorer, as they are likely to do this year as the stock market drops and many investments lose their value?

Third, it encourages governments to overspend in the expectation of getting more money from the rich, loot which may not materialize.

A flat tax would be fairer.

Perhaps there is a lapse of memory, but I seem to remember that our city fathers talked of doing downtown Madera in a Western theme and painting the buildings in two shades of beige. McMahns did their part in remodeling. It seems to me that outsiders with their colors are being catered to and be damned with what the citizens want.

I understand the buildings are all in need of repairs, and rent is cheap. Real estate people have to follow codes, laws and can’t close escrow until those strict codes and laws have been met. It works the same for Section 8 rental owners.

I’m told that the garish colors have helped to increase their businesses. It doesn’t matter what colors other nationalities are used to and like in their country. Don’t turn Madera into the country they choose to leave for a better life.

We have lived here most or all of our lives and want to be proud of how Madera looks. Visitors, buyers and people driving through town get a real wakeup. Why would others want to open a business downtown?

All the money that has been spent to beautify the streets and such, and then one drives downtown and gets a very different picture of Madera. I would like the Tribune to tell us who is the city color approval committee. The outlandish color on the buildings on East Yosemite is a shocker. You’re going against what the citizens of Madera want, and that isn’t right. They should not be changing Madera into what they chose to leave.

Madge Openshaw,
Madera

By Chuck Doud
The Madera Tribune

Mrs. Doud has been trying to get me to exercise more than by just bending over to get my shoes off at night, and so I have been looking into the latest exercise rage. It is not, as you might imagine, looking at teenagers making fools of themselves on YouTube. Logging on to YouTube by myself is an exercise I haven’t mastered.

Rather, I am thinking of becoming a traceur, as practitioners of parkour are called. Traceurs look like modern dancers, “jumping, rolling and vaulting over, under and through objects found in typical urban settings,” according to a report on this subject by The Associated Press. Parkour has its roots in France, and you see it sometimes on TV.

I closed my eyes to imagine what being a traceur would be like while I was sitting on 6th Street waiting for a train to go by the other day, and I could see myself jumping up on the railroad crossing arm, vaulting to the top of the flashing-light standard and leaping over the top of the train to the crossing arm on the other side, then jumping over a car into the Sears parking lot.

From there, I would run along Gateway Drive to Yosemite and leap from car hood to car hood until I vaulted into Courthouse Park, where I would leap over people taking naps and playing cards. I would gallop along the rail edge of the bridge over the 99 freeway, and then run at full tilt until I got home, where Mrs. Doud would say, “Where have you been? Dinner’s waiting.”

At that point, someone behind me honks, and I jerk awake to see that all the cars in front of me have already crossed the railroad track and are heading for the intersection.

So much parkour exercise has worn me out already.