Editorial

EDITORIAL - I really don't want to take my column space to write anything else about Kim Jong-un. There is so much going on in America and the world that I would rather write about. Here we are again with this idiot dominating the news in our country. I don't think anyone has ever liked this weirdo. For the past decade we have simply brushed him off as the North Korea Kook. Former NBA basketball player Dennis Rodman has been there to play basketball and the dictator referred to Rodman as the highest-ranking diplomat to visit North Korea from the United States. Huh? Rodman is just a retired professional basketball player. He was a great player.

In the last few years our country has had to take Jong-un in all dead seriousness. He has been test launching one missile after another with the hopes of achieving the kind of missile that would reach the United States. You see how much everybody loves America? I do think we have some friends. My wife and I visited France recently and everyone was very congenial to us in that country. Jong-un is not a friend. I wouldn't go to North Korea. Do you remember what they did to Otto Warmbier from Cincinnati? They held him captive for 17 months and sent him home 99% dead in a coma. He died shortly after being returned to Cincinnati. No American should be allowed to visit North Korea.

EDITORIAL - Hate speech doesn't work for any person or group in America. The result is always hurt. The shooting of Majority Whip Steve Scalise at a baseball practice is further proof.

Here are some of the comments and other rhetoric that Sean Hannity recently remarked about on an evening broadcast and his website. 

GUEST EDITORIAL - As if our third disrupted school year is not challenging enough, the universe delivered a powerful blow to Madera South High School and our entire community. Toward the end of the summer, we learned one of our most beloved and trusted teacher-leaders had fallen ill. Many of us tried to follow his progress with worry and prayers. Sunday night, after a valiant battle to return to his wife, grown children, students, and work-family, Mark Lohuis passed on. For those of us who knew him well, the word "mentor" fails to capture what he inspired. Mark was a moral compass in our lives and his sense of professional ethics was powerful and dignified. To many of us, Mark's advice was profound and his loyalty was powerful. 

With all he had to give, Mark LOVED Madera South High School and has been an essential pillar of Stallion Pride since the school's founding. He believed in the underserved and underappreciated who needed us most. Mark believed in students with a fierce relentlessness you only find in screenplays. The difficult students were his specialty and therefore the specialty of the entire Stallion PE department. Mark challenged us to serve them with devotion informed by his deep faith in God. He believed in high expectations, accountability, self-responsibility, compassion, and above all, redemption. Everyone was worth one more effort and one more expression of goodwill. No task, effort, or gesture was beneath him if it lifted up a student or colleague.  

EDITORIAL - The nationwide homeless crisis has existed in Fresno County for many years and only worsened throughout the pandemic. To effectively address homelessness communitywide, both in the metropolitan and rural communities, partnerships between local governments and community-based organizations mustcontinue. Without these partnerships, the political will that galvanized the COVID-19 response and directed our homeless community into housing and support services will fizzle. It was this collaboration and funding alignment that brought over 200 households (or over 400 individuals) into housing within weeks during the pandemic, many for the first time, yet there is much more to be done.

Prior to 2018, homelessness in our community was being managed with resources provided through the US Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD). The HUD Continuum of Care Program1provides funding for efforts by nonprofit providers and state and local agencies to quickly rehouse homeless individuals and families. Annually, the Fresno Madera (Continuum of Care) receives about $10 million to maintain and add limited permanent and transitional housing, supportive services, and homelessness prevention. In addition to that funding, the County of Fresno and the City of Fresno receive limited direct funding for homeless-related matters.

SACRAMENTO – Assemblymember Adam C. Gray (D-Merced) released the following statement after being stripped of his position as Chair of the Assembly Governmental Organization Committee. “History repeats itself.

“Five years ago, I fought to pass legislation to hold the State Water Board accountable for the devastating economic impacts the state water grab will inflict on the people living in my district and the greater San Joaquin Valley. Despite active opposition from legislative leadership, my bill was approved by a narrow committee vote, and I was summarily removed from my position on the Assembly Water Committee.