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On Saturday, The Bee’s Editorial Board writes another letter to Fresno County Supervisor Bob Waterston, offering him some suggestions on how we think he can be a leader on the Board of Supervisors. Check out the "Dear Bob" letter in our lead editorial in Saturday's Bee.
Our Sunday Vision section has many treats for our readers, including farmer/author David Mas Masumoto writing another of his incisive monthly columns. As usual, Mas' commentary is brilliantly illustrated by artist Doug Hansen. The Masumoto/Hansen feature alone is worth the cost of the Sunday newspaper.
But wait, there’s more. You're getting other great stuff in Vision on Sunday. There's the Word for Word quote column on the back page of Vision. And our new -- and very popular -- Top 10 feature is right below Word for Word. This week's topic is a timely one: Hints that you’re wasting gas.
The Top 10 list is an interactive feature. We want you to send suggestions for topics and your best lines for possible inclusion in an upcoming Top 10 list. They must be original. No rip-offs from the Internet. We’ll be checking. Send your offerings to letters@fresnobee.com, fax them to (559) 441-6499 or mail them to: Valley Top 10 List, Vision Section, The Fresno Bee, P.O. Box 12504, Fresno, CA 93778-2504.
Our main Sunday editorial discusses positive news about improving the Valley's air and offers a reminder that much still needs to be done to make our air healthy again. On Sunday, you'll also meet another Bee letter writer: Kim Short, an investment adviser and intern pastor at Eastside Church.
The latest twist in the immigration debate is the uproar over a music producer releasing a Spanish-language version of the National Anthem.
Not surprisingly, the idea has ignited a firestorm of anger from many people who see the Spanish anthem as a further erosion of American values.
I don't think the anthem is as bad as all that, but I doing strongly believe that it is another example of misguided efforts to draw attention to the plight of illegal immigrants.
To me, it's the same as the uproar over students carrying the Mexican flag as they protested peoples rights to become American citizens. Both show a lack of respect to this country, and neither seem like worthwhile ways to prove you want to be an American.
And at the root, that is what this debate is about. These immigrants, regardless of their country, want to become Americans. They want the freedoms this country continues to fight for, and they want the advantages a free and prosperous society can offer.
I can't fault them for that desire, but I can ask them to recognize that Americans are understandably proud of our flag, proud of anthem and proud of our country. I would invite them to share that pride. Being proud to be an American doesn't mean you have to forget your roots. But it would be nice if once in a while people fighting to be Americans shouted "Viva America!"
We've been getting a lot of letters recently from people upset about rising gasoline prices, as readers of the Opinion page will surely have noticed. All of us are affected by the hikes, whatever explanation we prefer for the phenomenon. But a Mariposa man named David Givens might have more reason to complain than most of us -- yet he hasn't.
Givens lives in Mariposa. He works at Cisco in San Jose. That, according to a story in the San Jose Mercury News, gives him a daily commute of 372 miles. That works out to a 7-hour round-trip most work days.
It also works out to "$40 a day, $200 a week, $800 a month in gas money," according to the Merc.
Givens says it's worth it because in Mariposa he and his wife get to enjoy a lifestyle ion 7.5 acres that they couldn't come close to affording if they lived closer to the Bay Area. Well, yeah, but what a price to pay.
Gambling's in our blood, despite ample evidence that it causes a considerable amount of human misery. Here's a nice piece from Psychology Today by Nando Pelusi, a New York psychologist and faculty member at St. John's University.
He says the gambling urge came from ancient ancestors, who literally gambled with their lives trying to find food each day. "[There is a] possibility that a big score could be just around the corner, but you never know where or when you'll hit on it, parallels modern gambling: One more rock overturned and you find dinner."
And this: "For our ancestors, it was actually risky to avoid risk altogether. Sometimes the next big score really is just around the corner. If you find an edible critter behind one in 50 rocks, your foraging pays off, especially when the terrain is safe."
And this: "Playing the slots is designed to feel similarly risk-free, but in reality it's high-risk, low-yield, at least in the long run. You're practically guaranteed a net loss and have only the slimmest shot at the jackpot. Another disadvantage: Gambling doesn't teach you anything new, whereas the risks our ancestors took for survival had a steep learning curve—after overturning four dozen rocks, you've identified some helpful patterns."
I wonder how many people head off to one of the local casinos thinking it's just another wooly mammoth hunt. I know how many come home losers.
Is everyone at your office talking about the spanking case? Well, here too. We wrote about this bizarre case of abusive management and thought, wow, this is going straight to the late-night talk shows. Wait til Jay Leno, Carson Daly and David Lettermen hear about this one. Only in Fresno. Well, why should they get all the laughs using our Fresno material? Let's get the jump on them by cooking up our own Top 10 List of Valley Officials Who Deserve to Be Spanked. We immediately thought of Sheriff Richard Pierce for the morale problems his leadership created in the sheriff's department. Then Bob Waterston was next on the list for his incessant whining about the media and other oddball affectations.
How about you -- who's your choice for the list? Post your nominees to the blog or send the names of your nominees (and why) to letters@fresnobee.com .
I had no idea it's so easy to grant wishes. You can do it without it costing a penny out of your pocket. I heard again from Diana Rambo, executive director of the Make-A-Wish Foundation of Central California. Many of the children's wishes are about travel and it turns out you can donate your frequent-flyer miles to the organization. Here's the link: Also, vehicle, boat, RVs and trucks can be donated to Cars 4 Causes -- just designate the organization you want to receive your gift. Call 1-800-766-CARE..
In Sunday's Vision section, I wrote about two exceptional teenage girls I met recently, Chelsea Harkness and Kristina Fisher. Both are cancer survivors and both have had the good fortune to get wishes granted by the Make-A-Wish Foundation. Kristina was given her horse, Paint, when she was just 3 and Chelsea got to meet Britney Spears. These were life-affirming events for both girls during a very difficult time. Chelsea was battling leukemia at the time and Kristina had an inoperable brain tumor.
On Monday morning, I got the nicest e-mail from Diana Rambo, the new executive director for the Make-A-Wish Foundation of Central California. She did such a good job of explaining the needs and the mission of this organization, so I'll just share it all with you in her own words:
"Thank you, thank you, thank you. I am so pleased with your article, although very saddened about the situation with Kristina and Paint.
"I have been so concerned over the last few months about getting our story out -- the fact that all the funds raised here stay local to make wishes come true for Central Valley children with life-threatening medical conditions, and the fact that we are not grant or government funded. It's also important for people to know that in 20 years we have never turned down an eligible child (a physician must certify that the child has a "life threatening" medical condition). The Central California chapter has now granted over 951 wishes since 1986 and the need has become greater and greater each year.
This year alone over 100 children will be referred to our organization.
In addition to the obvious need for funding, we are always looking for volunteers all over the Valley (Merced to Bakersfield) to become wish granters - those are the individuals who contact the families after the child has become eligible for a wish. They meet the family and work with the child to find out what their heart's desire will be. There are four kinds of wishes -- I want to be, I want to go, I want to have, I want to meet. After the wish is determined, ( the physician must approve the wish also) the actual details of the wish are handled by staff, but the volunteers can be involved as much as they want to (wish announcement, send off parties for travel wishes, or purchasing and delivering a horse, for example).
Our volunteers tell us over and over how heart-warming these experiences are, and I too can attest to that now that I have been on my own wish visits. We know that in granting a favorite wish, the Make-A-Wish Foundation will be providing the wish child and family with extra special memories of joy and laughter, which are in dramatic contrast to the hospitals, doctors, and treatment programs. A wish offers a welcome respite - a time for just plain fun! And a wish creates memories that last a lifetime and help the children as they have to endure further treatments. Our mission is to enrich the human experience with hope, strength, and joy.
If you would like to help out with this worthy cause, here are the details on contacting Diana:
Make-A-Wish Foundation® of Central California; 83 E. Shaw Ave., Ste. 202; Fresno, CA 93710; (559) 221-9474 (WISH); (559) 221-9472 fax; (559) 803-5151 cell.
Apparently I’m not the only one who finds today’s story at the top of Page A1 totally bizarre. Readers visiting FresnoBee.com have made the “Workplace spanking leads to lawsuit” story the most viewed item today on the Web site. A former employee of Alarm One in Fresno is suing because she was spanked by her supervisors while her co-workers watched and jeered.
I just can’t even imagine a work environment where that type of behavior would be condoned by an employer as a means of building “camaraderie among the sales force.”
Lawyers for the company are saying the practice wasn’t discriminatory because supervisors spanked both male and female employees. Forget discriminatory – how about it’s just plain wrong?
Sometimes you know you’re really going to strike a chord with something. I thought that about my commentary Monday on the anniversary of the Armenian Genocide, and the shameful failure of both the Turkish and U.S. governments to acknowledge that horror.
Sure enough, the phone rang off the desk all day Monday, and I also got several e-mails, all praising the piece. Most were from Armenian Americans, but some were from odars like me who just get agitated by injustice on a grand and dreadful scale.
Usually when readers phone or e-mail, it’s to call me names. That comes with the territory of the Opinion pages. I thank the people who took the time to offer all those kind words this time. They were a nice change of pace. And here’s hoping that recognition will someday come and justice will be done, for the memories of the victims, the peace of mind of their descendants and for the integrity of history.
David Letterman has his Top 10 list and just about everyone else has taken a shot at mimicking the master. Some of these Top 10 lists are good; some are very, very bad. We’ve joined the Top 10 movement, and we think we can be successful because we have a very special weapon -- our readers. With your help, our weekly Top 10 list is going to be clever, funny and timely.
We've already started. We’re running our Top 10 list on the back page of Sunday's Vision section. This week’s topic was the Top 10 excuses for not putting away your garbage containers. We received a great response from readers so it must have had some funny lines. Check it out.
We want you to help by sending suggestions for topics and your best lines for possible inclusion in an upcoming Top 10 list. These lines must be original. No rip-offs from the Internet. We’ll be checking.
Please send your offerings to letters@fresnobee.com, fax them to (559) 441-6499 or mail them to: Valley Top 10 List, Vision Section, The Fresno Bee, P.O. Box 12504, Fresno, CA 93778-2504.
Thanks for helping. This will be fun.
Police have been using MySpace.com to help them fight crime.
A Newsweek article published today reports: “A growing number of ordinary officers are working a new beat, turning to MySpace -- an online network of individuals linked through personalized home pages -- to collect clues and crack offline cases. Communication between cops and the two-year-old company has surged this year, with MySpace now contributing to about 150 investigations a month”
Last week investigators in Patterson arrested two teens on suspicion of burglary, vandalism and possession of stolen property after being led to the suspects when one of them logged onto his MySpace.com Web site from the crime scene.
Also last week, police in Riverton, Kan., arrested five teenage boys accused of plotting a shooting rampage at their high school on the anniversary of the Columbine massacre after a message authorities said warned of a gun attack appeared on a MySpace.com Web site.
Local police are using MySpace to track down parties in an effort to curb under-age drinking, said a colleague of mine, whose daughter was at a party when the police busted it up.
Children and teenagers are one of the fastest growing groups of Internet users. By 2005, 77 million children and teens were expected to be online, according to the Youth Internet Safety Survey.
My mom, as she was reading one of these stories in the paper on Saturday, said to me, “There are some scary stories about this MySpace.”
But I think it’s a clever tool for law enforcement to use. Wouldn’t it be scarier if the Columbine-style rampage hadn’t been thwarted before it happened?
Foung Vang’s plan to open a store in Fresno where he would slaughter live chickens and dress them for customers on order has caused all manner of collisions: legal interpretations, planning considerations, social and cultural differences. Neighbors around Vang’s proposed First Street site, between Olive and McKinley avenues, object to the odors, noise and nuisance they expect from the business. City staffers say it would violate a state law. There are health and sanitation considerations.
And, no doubt, there are some who object because they regard the practice as foreign - most of the customers would be Southeast Asian - or because the idea is just too icky to contemplate. There are people who who think chickens are born in plastic-wrapped foam containers. They are far removed from the blood and gore that accompanies meat processing, and want to keep it that way.
Like the site’s neighbors, I probably wouldn’t want it being done nearby, but if health and sanitation issues are addressed, I don’t much care whether live chickens are being slaughtered and sold fresh. Some people like them better that way. And I remember, as a child, watching chickens meet their maker at the hands of a farmer with an ax. All I could think about was how good that fried chicken was going to taste.
We are hosting a lot of folks from out of town this spring. We sent off a houseguest from Norway last week and we picked up my mother in law from Milwaukee, on Thursday.
I always find it interesting to know what people want to take home from Fresno after a visit. Live from Norway wanted two things: Fresno State's award-winning wine and that amazing cinnamon chip bread from Great Harvest Bakery. What do you give visitors that really says "Fresno"?
We' have a steady stream of folks coming for the next three months: two more from Norway, two teenage girls from Iceland. Then we take off for Slovakia and we'll need to take some hostess gifts.
These souvenir gifts going abroad are a little bit tricky because everything has to fit in the suitcase. Here are some of our usual gifts for visitors but most are way too obvious:
* Wine
* Local nonperishable foods like nuts, dried fruits, raisins, sunflower seeds etc.
* Jewelry or art by local artists and photographers (many are having their prints made into place mats and note cards now)
* California calendars -- Fresno calendars when they are available
* Books by local authors
* Sweatshirts and t-shirts
* Refrigerator magnets with their pictures (or our pictures) on them.
While I'm at it, here's what not to do. The last time we visited Europe, we took wine, pistachios and the makings for tacos. I thought bubble-wrapping everything would be just fine. Well, no. The wine and the salsa containers broke, making a nice tomatoey mess that went into half of our clothes. The bag with the pistachios also broke, mixing nuts into the brew. The corn tortillas even broke.
Nice, huh? So much for those international luggage handlers. We won't do that again. Make sure when you pack that stuff that you double or triple bag it, so even if it breaks, it won't stain your clothes.
More than 4,000 high school journalists and their advisers were in San Francisco this weekend for a national conference of the Journalism Education Association. I was very impressed by the quality of the journalism these young people produce, not to mention how inquisitive they are. This next generation of journalists is very good, indeed.
I had a front-row seat as a contest judge and a seminar presenter.
I judged the editorial writing competition on Friday, and the students wrote excellent -- and extremely passionate --editorials about the topic they were presented with: Internet predators. More than 100 students wrote editorials on deadline. Our committee judged seven of them as superior-- the top category. Here are the winners. My prediction is that you’ll be reading them one day: Alexandra Garnhart-Bushakra, La Grande High School (La Grande, OR); Raphael Graybill, Great Falls High School (Great Falls, MT); Katie Heaton, Grace Davis High School (Modesto, CA); Neha Jaganathan, Cupertino High School, (Cupertino, CA); Maria Krauter, East Bakersfield High School (Bakersfield, CA); Lisa Larsen, Wenatchee High School (Wenatchee, WA), and Mai Nguyen, Charles Wright Academy (Tacoma, WA).
I also presented a seminar on editorial writing, and it was packed with more than 200 students. They offered dozens of ideas on subjects for editorials and columns. The topics included illegal immigration, racism, dress codes, cafeteria food, student drivers, junk food, closed campuses, curfews, underage drinking, campus bullies, lack of teen centers, restrictive rules at schools dances, abortion and evolution.
We had a great time debating editorial positions, and often there were several students arguing all sides of some hot-button issues. These young people are bright, well read and they have strong opinions. They'll make great editorial writers.
The story of Kristina Fisher of Madera and her horse, Paint, is featured in my Sunday column on Page J3 of today's Vision section. Kristina and Paint both have fought cancer together for about 16 years.
Paint's time, however, is coming to an end. Kristina, 17, has had Paint since she was 3, a gift from the Make a Wish Foundation. It is now her heart's desire to have him cremated, so she can keep his ashes with her always. The $3,000 cost is beyond the family budget so Kristina's trying to raise the money in time.
After the Vision section went to print on Friday morning, Kristina's family changed the location of the Kristina and Paint Forever Fund. It's now at Golden 1 Credit Union, 1934 Howard Road, Madera, 93638. Checks can be made out to Kristina Fisher.
April 21 -- 96 years ago, the world lost Samuel Langhorne Clemens, better known by his pen name Mark Twain.
An American humorist, novelist, writer, and lecturer, Twain may have been the most popular American celebrity of his time.
Ernest Hemingway once said: "All modern American literature comes from one book by Mark Twain called Huckleberry Finn. ...all American writing comes from that. There was nothing before. There has been nothing as good since."
Part of what made Twain such a great writer was how accessible his works were, to everyday people. And he had volumes to say on lots of subjects. Here’s a link to a Web site with a collection of his quotes.
Twain had a real way of putting journalists in their place: “I am personally acquainted with hundreds of journalists, and the opinion of the majority of them would not be worth tuppence in private, but when they speak in print it is the newspaper that is talking (the pygmy scribe is not visible) and then their utterances shake the community like the thunders of prophecy.”
Saturday is Valley Voices Day on the Opinion pages, a day reserved for commentaries by local writers. This week, we've got Matt Jendian of Fresno State writing about the outstanding volunteer efforts going on at the university. Julia Barsamian of UC Berkeley is writing about the Armenian genocide and Kenneth Martens Friesen talks about the glories of living free of fossil fuels.
The Vision section cover, coming up Sunday, features a look at the debate over the death toll from Chernobyl coming up on its 20th anniversary. Victor Davis Hanson files his column from Libya and says you'd be surprised the good things that are happening in the Middle East thanks to the invasion of Iraq.
On the Opinion page, we talk about a new shelter in Reedley for domestic violence survivors that's designed to serve people from the rural areas. I have a column on the op-ed page this week about two very brave teen cancer survivors. Jim Boren continues to hammer away on ID theft -- it's one of the nation's most destructive, most insidious crimes and it must be dealt with seriously by lawmakers. Look for the Word for Word column on the back page, and a new feature, the Valley's Top 10 List. This week it's the Top 10 reasons for not taking in your trash bins. It's fun. Don't miss Maureen Dowd commenting on Rummy and our Decider in Chief.
When President Bush declared this week that he's the "decider" and that means he gets to "decide what's best," it reminded me of the thing we used to say when we were kids: "You're not the boss of me." The new version might be: "You're not the decider of me."
There's no doubt that the president is the decider when it comes to the tenure of Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld. Rummy stays because Bush said so -- very decidedly, or is that decideredly.
Decider seems to be the new hip word. People are calling the president the decider-in-chief, while others suggest that he's a "decider not a divider." I'm not sure why all this strikes me as funny, but it surely does.
Here’s another of my pet peeves -- correspondence I end up dealing with that starts out “Dear Sir.” It used to annoy me back when I did hiring as a restaurant manager. Cover letters that started that way rarely got scheduled for an interview. These days, I come across it several times a day while sorting the mail we get for Letters to the Editor.
Why “Dear Sir”? Is a woman incapable of being an editor (or a restaurant manager)? I know it’s done as a gesture of courtesy, but “Dear Sir or Madam” wouldn’t bother me at all and still shows courtesy.
Don’t assume you’re just dealing with a man. We’ve come a long way, baby.
Perfect timing. Sometimes you get an idea at just the right moment. Last week we had a houseguest from Oslo. She was only in California for a week and my husband and I were working so we didn't get to do a lot of traveling with her. We wanted her to have at least one really special evening in Fresno, so we splurged on a dinner at Echo.
I knew Tim Woods and his expert crew would make it a night to remember. I'm so glad we did. It was a lovely experience, from the wine in the sweet glasses to those unbelievable desserts. That night, Tim told me he was tiring of the restaurant business. I didn't take him seriously. I thought he was talking about taking on another side business, which didn't surprise me. When you are energetic and talented in so many fields (food, art, design, gardening, writing, architecture), it's hard for one enterprise to keep your interest. My response was quite selfish: "Good, then you can have time to write again."
In Echo's early years, Tim wrote a food column for The Bee, a very good one. He stopped writing when the restaurant became so demanding that he no longer had time. I hope he'll find a way to get to the computer again to share his expertise and insights, even if it's just a blog. Let's encourage him. Send him a message
What is it about California mayors ducking their city duties and wanting to run local schools districts? Fix the problems in your cities before taking on the schools.
It was a bad idea for Fresno Mayor Alan Autry wanting to gain control of the Fresno Unified School District by appointing its school board members and it’s a bad idea for Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa wanting to take over L.A. Unified.
The best way to help the schools is to create economic opportunities for families. School test scores follow the poverty line. Part of the reason that the schools are having problems is that mayors haven't been doing their jobs in helping their citizens rise out of poverty.
Message to these far-reaching mayors: Improve the economic plight of your citizens and you’ll improve the performance of the schools in your communities.
Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger is supporting Villaraigosa's school takeover bid. But political analysts say that may be more about the governor looking for political support in an election year than being in love with the idea. Such a plan is expected to be popular with voters, who are frustrated with the public schools.
Here's an idea: Fix the potholes in your city, pick up the garbage on time, reduce crime, control the gangs, build some parks and relieve traffic congestion. If you can do all that and no new problems spring up, think about solving the schools' problems.
It is beyond arrogance to stick your nose in someone else's business when you aren't keeping your own house in order. Tend to your knitting.
Connie Schneider, the nutrition, family and consumer sciences advisor for the University of California Cooperative Extension in Fresno, is one of the experts quoted in today's New York Times on the resurgence of the McDonald's fast-food chain, and the price some of its customers are going to pay for that upswing.
The company, which has, with great fanfare, introduced salads and other "healthy" foods in recent years, is riding a wave of cholesterol and sodium to greater profitability. It seems that the recent rebound in McDonald's stock has been driven by its Dollar Menu, which features items heavy on fat and salt, and not by the higher-priced healthier choices.
Those cheaper choices are preferred by younger customers, especially teens, who are largely ignorant of -- or indifferent to -- the health effects that may be causing themselves later.
The items are aimed particularly at black and Latino customers, whose propensity for obesity and diabetes is even higher than their white neighbors'.
"Restaurant advertising looks very fun and social ... But fast-food ads don't show you what happens when you're in your 40s and your cholesterol's high and your heart has to work really hard to pump," Schneider says at the end of the article.
Round and round it goes, and the rounder and rounder we get.
In a statement Monday, Cardinal Roger Mahony invoked the name of the patron saint of workers -- Saint Joseph -- while calling for workers and students to take care of business before joining a protest rally.
Though I'm a Protestant, not a Catholic, I have always been fascinated by the stories of the Catholic saints and how they came to be honored. As a teenager, it was very cool to wear a St. Christopher medallion so, of course, I had to have one though I hadn't a clue about the life of this revered man.
A few years later, when I was The Bee's features editor, I remember a luncheon at the home of the late Beverly Kees, who executive editor of The Bee from 1988 to 1993. She had divided the newsroom into a number of task forces to brainstorm new ideas. Part of the fun of serving on a task force was meeting at her lovely historic home on Huntington Boulevard. She was a great cook, so she made us all lunch after each meeting.
At one of the task force luncheons, she gave each of us little metal medallions of the patron saint of journalism, which according to the American Catholic directory, is St. Francis de Sales. (I wonder if Wall Street's investment bankers know that?)
As she pointed out the little gifts, she noted that while she wasn't a Catholic, she figured, "Can't hurt, might help."
Curious? Here's a full listing of all the saints and their stories.
Sometimes the Fresno County Board of Supervisors seems unclear on "the vision thing," as the first President Bush used to say. Supervisor Henry Perea prudently raised the issue of billboard guidelines and this was the response from two of his colleagues:
"The barometer for me is when people complain in my district, and I'm not hearing that," Supervisor Bob Waterston said. "I think we have a good policy in place. If there's something I'm missing, then certainly I'm willing to listen to it."
Phil Larson agreed: "I really don't see a problem with it."
Gentlemen, gentlemen, the idea of good planning is to decide how you want your community to look, and put good policies in place before there is a problem or when the problem is small. The Fresno County way, however, is too often ignoring the problems until the damage is done, constituents and businesses are calling and the supervisors' backs are up against the wall.
Do you really have to wait for people to call and tell you they want their unincorporated neighborhoods to look good? Do you really want to wait until the problem is so severe that your only choices are ruined scenery or taking chainsaws to a bunch of expensive billboards?
Remember, the job description calls for leadership, not crisis management.
We’ve begun interviewing candidates for the Fresno City Council as part of our recommendations process for the June primary election. Scott Miller, who wants to replace Tom Boyajian in District 1, met with our Editorial Board today. The other candidates in the race are Cliff Archer, Charles “Chuck” Riojas, Alan Michael Schroeder and Blong Xiong. They will meet with us over the next several days.
The only other council race in Fresno is in District 3 where incumbent Cynthia Sterling is being challenged by Ignacio C. Garibay and Manuel Toledo.
We’ve already interviewed candidates for Fresno County sheriff and Fresno County superintendent of schools. We've also seen a handful of the statewide candidates so far. Our goal is to have our recommendations in the newspaper well before the election.
The Editorial Board meetings allow us to ask in-depth questions and hear the candidates’ proposals and vision for the jobs they are seeking. In addition, Editorial Board members attend some forums and debates, review the candidates' literature, view or listen to their political advertisements and talk to their supporters and opponents. We also read the news stories covering the many races.
Then the five-member board meets to decide which candidates we will recommend to voters in a series of editorials that will begin running before the election. The Editorial Board includes Publisher Ray Steele Jr., Deputy Editorial Page Editor Russ Minick and Associate Editors Gail Marshall and Lisa Maria Boyles. As editorial page editor, I chair the board.
I'm going to refer to a previous column I wrote explaining the election editorials that we write: “They are merely our opinions -- we hope they persuade readers -- but you are free to accept or reject the positions we take, just as you may agree or disagree with our editorials on school policy or national defense.
“We hope they become part of the community debate, and that they spur our readers to think deeply about the public-policy issues we raise and the people who want to become our leaders.
“Some readers say they adamantly oppose anything we support. That's OK by us. We appreciate them taking the time to write or call. Opinions are what we deal with on the editorial page, and we learn from those who disagree with us.
“We also get calls around election time from some readers asking when we are going to publish our recommendations so they can vote against the candidates we recommend. Some may follow them precisely, while others may pick and choose.”
As long as we’re tossing numbers around, let’s try to be accurate.
I keep seeing references to the Great San Francisco Earthquake and Fires of 1906 as the largest natural disaster in U.S. history. This may depend on how you look at it.
By sheer numbers of human lives lost, the hurricane that devastated Galveston, Texas, may hold that distinction with 6,000 to 12,000 casualties.
When I asked my colleagues at other newspapers about this discrepancy, here’s what a couple had to say:
“Modern scholars think the SF toll was set artificially low at the time (bad for business) and probably was really between 3,000 and 6,000.” -- Todd Engdahl, assistant editorial page editor, The Denver Post
“Decades of meticulous research by an archivist in San Francisco has produced a death list of 3,000 and growing from the San Francisco quake. City fathers appear to have deliberately understated the death toll for fear of scaring off investors in the post-quake rush to rebuild.” -- Gary Nelson, The Arizona Republic
Author Austin Bay sent me this information from the Weather Almanac: "On Sept. 8 we observe the centennial of the Great Galveston Hurricane of 1900, the greatest natural disaster, by number of deaths, in United States history: 8,000 by accepted figures, perhaps as many as 12,000. The tragedy killed more Americans than any other natural disaster.”
But there are other ways to measure destruction besides just looking at the number of lives lost.
Rob Bignell, opinion page editor of the Desert Sun in Palm Springs, made this point: “San Francisco arguably was a more important port and cultural center than Galveston at the time of the disasters, so SF affected the economy much more deeply and likely carried more weight on the national psyche. I suppose it would be the modern equivalent of 9/11 occurring in Duluth, Minn., rather than New York City - even if more people died in Duluth, it wouldn't have the same symbolic impact."
It’s fun to read about the sesquicentennial wagon train travels. The wagon train assembled in Firebaugh earlier this month to help Fresno County highlight its history and count down the days until its 150th birthday celebration April 19 in Fresno.
Teacher Bill Coate has been leading four covered wagons pulled by mules; the "pioneers" are fifth-graders from the 11 towns who have spent the night on the wagon train and travel with it to the next town, learning about pioneer life along the way.
Some of my favorite books growing up dealt with the pioneer experience, from the Laura Ingalls Wilder “Little House” series to “Patty Reed’s Doll,” which dealt with the Donner party’s fateful trip west over the Sierra Nevada in 1846.
Around the same time I was getting into the “Little House” books, our nation was going through the celebration of its bicentennial in 1976. My interest in stories of the pioneers may have been piqued by news of the Bicentennial Wagon Train that traveled cross country to celebrate the event. I remember it made stops in Ohio, where I grew up.
What a great opportunity for the Fresno County fifth-graders who are getting a taste of what it was like to travel in those wagon trains as our nation was settled.
Easter Monday always makes me smile. Though it's not a big deal here, it's a big festive occasion -- particularly for the teenagers and young adults -- in Slovakia, which is home to two of our former exchange students, Michal and Zuzi.
Here's what they do in Slovakia on Easter Monday: The men and boys go to their favorite women, drench them with cold water and then hit them with little willow switches. It's a tradition that goes back eons. According to the Heart of Europe Web site: The tradition was that if the girls wanted to be beautiful, healthy and full of life, they must not try and avoid the water soaking or the whippings.It was believed that by whipping the girls with the freshly made whip, all the fertility and life powers from the willow tree would be transferred into the girl. The women respond by giving the guys chocolates and other treats. In America, the guys would probably be tossed right into the nearest swimming pool for antics like that but in Slovakia the women take it as a compliment.
I try to be really culturally sensitive, but this I did not get at all. . Well, when I first heard about this custom, I was horrified. What a mean thing to do! Michal thought it was great and he defended it in our long discussions about it. Zuzi said the girls in her house just hid out for the day. (My father wouldn't dare do that to my mother, she told me...!) Well, of course, Michal thought it was just the greatest fun and bragged that his beautiful girlfriend had the most guys coming to her house to pour water on her. The more times you change clothes, the more popular you are.
OK, that's it, I told him. Next year, I am arming my Slovakian sisters. So I sent him an Easter box with candy and toys for him, but in boxes marked like Easter candy, I hid some pretty powerful squirt guns for his girfriend and his mother. I felt a little bit guilty about it for just a moment because I really try to be respectful of everyone's traditions. But then I recovered, thinking of the many times Michal threw me into the family swimming pool.
If you're interested in how all this Slovak tradition got started and why it endures, here's an explanation: Easter Monday blues"
We’re losing our privacy in more and more places, especially as video cameras are installed in all sorts of public and private areas. Some say that if you’re out in public, you shouldn’t expect privacy, so smile and don’t sweat it.
That may make sense on an intellectual level, but do you want every move you and your family make in public tracked on video or by still photography? Should voyeurs, for example, be able to take close-up video of your children while they are playing in the park? Would it be okay if they took that video and put it on the Internet?
This is becoming more likely with the widespread use of camera phones that now also take video. In 2004, more than 233 million camera phones were shipped worldwide, according to a story in the San Francisco Chronicle today. By 2010, there is expected to be 900 million camera phones in use around the world. The Chron story takes a fascinating look at the privacy implications of all this gadgetry.
Technology has made great strides, but has our society fully considered how it is changing our world?
In the early days of 1942, Fresno was a crucial site in the roundup and evacuation of Japanese and Japanese Americans from the West Coast, in the anxious days after Pearl Harbor. An "Assembly Center" was set up at the county fairground, where men, women and children were hastily gathered, with few belongings, and sheltered for a while before being shipped by train to various internment camps around the country. A smaller center opened in Pinedale on the old Sugar Pine lumber company site, to process internees from the Pacific Northwest.
Now a plan is in the works to build a small memorial at the Pinedale site -- the fairground got a similar memorial some years ago -- and the proposal will be before the Fresno City Council tomorrow afternoon. It ought to have unanimous support.
The internment was one of those tragic episode in our history that still has lessons to teach us. To honor those who suffered the injustice is important, but it's not enough. We must remember such mistakes, or we are likely to repeat them. The news these days is full of reminders that we are not yet free of the enervating diseases of racism and bigotry.
Now I'm really curious about what's going on in the race for Fresno County sheriff. The candidate who is supposed to be the outsider, Cal Minor, seems to be supported by all the insiders. See this story in today's Bee.
In all my years observing politics, I have learned that special-interest groups don't support someone they don't plan to be cozy with, so this must mean something.
Minor, a retired California Highway Patrol captain, is being squired around the county's West Side by rancher John Harris. You'll remember that Harris had a connection to one aspect of Sheriff Richard Pierce's many problems. The Sheriff's Department set up an "unofficial" office at Harris' Coalinga feedlot. The office had a computer that allowed access to confidential law enforcement information. The Attorney General's Office criticized Harris Ranch's chief of security for having the computer in his private office. That's a big no-no because private folks aren't supposed to be able to run criminal checks on people using the law enforcement computer system.
But there's more on the "outsider" candidate. Minor has a big campaign sign on Ron Sawl's property at Palm and Shaw. Sawl owns the private security firm that hired Pierce as a consultant. Pierce's 16-month consulting job for Sawl's company was embarrassing for the sheriff, even though the AG ruled that Pierce didn't techinically violate conflict-of-interest laws.
And, of course, Minor has been endorsed by the Fresno Deputy Sheriff's Association. You can't get much more insider than being backed by the department's deputies.
There's nothing wrong with these groups supporting Minor. But it wouldn't be accurate to say Minor is the outsider in the sheriff's race. There are too many conections to think this is all coincidence.
Saturday is Valley Voices Day on the Opinion pages, a page reserved for commentaries by local writers This week, we've got retired history teacher Ron Genini comparing San Francisco's reaction to the 1906 earthquake to the response to Hurricane Katrina's demolition of New Orleans. George Kauffman, a retired chemistry professor at Fresno State, writes his thoughts about Earth Day and Armen Bacon of the Fresno County schools, gives her take on a general malaise she feels infecting us all.
The Vision section cover, coming up Sunday, features a very hopeful program in Kenya that's teaching rich countries a better way to help poor countries. I Victor Davis Hanson says it's time to use straight language for illegal immigrant behavior. On the Opinion page, we talk about the need for a new dam and Pam Rowse profiles one of our letter writers, Linda Vonk. Jim Boren says it's silly to take these city rankings very seriously. Look for the quotes column, Blogging Across America and witty comments from Maureen Dowd on Iran and Thomas L. Friedman on Hamas.
I just received a slick notice in the mail telling me that Lt. Gov. Cruz Bustamante is having a big fundraiser May 7 at the Fresno County Sportsmen's Club. It’s called “Cruz Rides Again,” and tickets range from $75 for individuals to $5,000 for sponsors.
Bustamante is running for insurance commissioner so it will be interesting to see how many insurance companies, their employees and industry lobbyists will saddle up with Bustamante for this Western-themed fundraiser.
Our favorite lieutenant governor has already drawn criticism for all the insurance money he’s taken. Before that, it was about all the Indian gaming money he received in the 2003 governor's recall campaign. But hold onto your wallets. This latest campaign could cost you real money.
Here’s an important civics question: Why do you think the insurance companies suddenly believe Bustamante would make a great elected official?
Answer: He’s running for the job that regulates insurance companies.
So when you complain to the insurance commissioner about being gouged when you pay your car insurance premium or that your homeowner’s insurance wouldn’t pay when you submitted a claim, you’ll know the reason you got blown off by the office that's supposed to protect you. The insurance companies gave money to the insurance commissioner. You didn’t.
The crowded race for Fresno County sheriff is expected to heat up in the next few weeks as the candidates attempt to break from the pack in the June primary. Although there has been a lot of maneuvering behind the scenes, the public face of the campaign has been quiet. The top two vote-getters will make the November runoff, and it's time for the candidates to distinguish themselves as voters begin zeroing in on this race.
Retired California Highway Patrol Capt. Calvin Minor got an early boost with his endorsement by the Deputy Sheriff's Association. Sheriff's Capt. Colleen Mestas was endorsed Thursday by the Fresno Chamber of Commerce. Those key endorsements should help both candidates. Sheriff's Capt. Jose Flores, a member of the Clovis City Council, has some name recognition because of his two terms in elective office. The two other candidates are Assistant Sheriff Margaret Mims and Deputy Sheriff Chris Curtice.
Sheriff Richard Pierce announced in January that he wasn't going to seek a third term.
Proposition 82, the universal preschool measure on the June ballot, got a boost from the Democratic candidates for governor. Treasurer Phil Angelides and Controller Steve Westly are supporting Rob Reiner’s preschool initiative, but Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger is opposing it.
The measure would be paid for by increasing taxes on rich people in California. Prop. 82 would ding individuals making more than $400,000 a year and couples making more than $800,000 a year. That would generate $2.4 billion a year.
Studies show that quality preschool increases student performance, especially among youngsters who enter school because of economic disadvantages. But if preschool works so well, shouldn’t it be paid for by all taxpayers?
I support state-sponsored preschool, but I'm not persuaded yet that the funding mechanism in Proposition 82 is the best way to go. But I'm still open to the argument for the measure.
I am touched by the efforts of Misty Nilo and her fiance, Daniel Thomas, to step out of their own private grief to help others. Misty and Daniel live with his parents in northeast Fresno. On March 21, their 11-month old baby, Aidan, fell in the backyard pool and on March 23, he died at Children's Hospital, Central California. In a
Clovis Independent story, Misty said, "I wouldn't feel I was doing him any justice if I just sat here People don't think how quick children really are and how much people should watch them ... If you don't have a fence, get it up now especially with summer coming." These are very wise words. Aidan couldn't even walk yet and had never opened the back door, yet on that awful day he found his way outside while his grandpa was babysitting. That family will never be the same. Ironically, the supplies for constructing a fence around the pool were on order. The family planned to put the fence up in two weeks.
Aidan's grieving family is not alone. Another child recently drowned in a Fremont apartment complex pool while his mother did laundry. If you have a child or a backyard pool or both, it's not too soon to refresh your memory on water safety. We don't often have little ones visiting, but we do have a pool. Misty's words certainly have gotten my attention... and her entire family has my deepest sympathy.
I’m intrigued by the concept of a new charter school that will open in August (article).
Valley Arts and Science Academy will focus on those areas as well as history and music. It will start its first year with classes for kindergartners through thir |
