I am so proud of the Madera South High School Stallions Band and the Madera High School Marching Band that I’d take all of the band and color guard members, directors, sponsors, and band parents on a celebratory cruise — if only I had the money. My daughter and I attended the 5th Heart of California Tournament of Champions competition that was held Saturday evening, Nov. 15, at Memorial Stadium in Madera.

To say that I was impressed is an understatement. When I watched Madera High perform, I thought it couldn’t get better than that. How could any other high school in the Class AA division possibly top that performance? But I was wrong.

Four high schools later, Madera South took the field and I began to wonder. Was it my biased imagination (my granddaughter Bethany is a Madera South band member), or were these kids really very good? Apparently the judges agreed with me and awarded first place to Madera South and second place to Madera High. (Can it get any better that then that for Madera?)

I noted, also, that Madera South won four Caption Awards including Best Music and Best Effect and Madera High one for Percussion — really awesome in my opinion.

After we watched outstanding performances by 16 high schools, and before the awards ceremony, the Fresno State Bulldog Marching Band treated us to an exhibition. They ended their performance by storming the grandstands, tooting and blowing as they went. WOW!

I look back on last Saturday and wonder, where else could I spend an entire evening being entertained by some of the best young talent for $10 or less a ticket? And, although my granddaughter will be gone from the Madera South Band next year (she is a senior), I still want to attend future competitions. Is there such a program as an “Adopt a Band Grandchild” for the Tournament of Champions Day?

Viola J. Turner,
Madera

With Thankgiving just ended, I want to thank our President George W. Bush and our military for seven years of peace in America. I want to thank Bush for gas being $2 a gallon or less.

Because of the Democratic mortgage meltdown and Democratic policies millions of Americans will enjoy the last decent Thankgiving for the next four years.

With the Democrats in control of the White House, Congress and large municipalities, Americans are going to take it in the shorts with higher taxes and fees and mismanaged governments.

Want proof? Look at California and any state or city run by Democrats. I see a third world America on the horizon and the Quislings keep voting these socialists in office. As I travel between Oregon, California and Arizona, I see America disappearing into the sunset.

John Sanchez,
Kingman, Ariz.,
formerly of Madera

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By Chuck Doud
The Madera Tribune

Madera County is getting ready to open a new cell at its Fairmead dump. Cell is garbagespeak for a hole in the ground into which garbage is dumped and mixed with soil until the hole is full. Then another one is dug, until the landfill is full, and then you go looking for another landfill, which can be quite a problem.

Of course, there is more to it than that, as there seems to be more to just about everything else. When the digging starts, for instance, the work is closely observed so the bulldozers don’t disturb any fossils that may be found. Most garbage dumps don’t have to make that consideration, but ours does, because besides being a landfill, it also is a paleontological site, an ancient graveyard for mammoths and other animals which used to live hereabouts. On Page A1 of today’s Tribune, you will see a story about the county’s having purchased land for a new museum which will be built near the landfill.

That is great news, because once the museum is built, it will attract scholars and others from all over who want to see what sort of creatures shared the earth in the past.

But what will not be great news, probably in another 20 years, will be that the Fairmead landfill finally will be full, and unless we in Madera County have found another site for our garbage, we may have to keep it in our backyards.

Recycling will help our landfill last longer, and if we started composting, it might last longer still, and the county is even looking at “vertical expansion” — which amounts to piling garbage higher in existing cells. But beyond that, we could find ourselves stuck.

Between the gangs and the tweakers, the small town of Madera is being taken over.

Part of my job is to go to all of our construction job sites a couple of times a day. In the past few months, the graffiti around town has gotten so uncontrollable, we are now having to clean our own properties daily.

This means we have a gang problem escalating in Madera.

Now, as the economy continues downwards trend, we are making too many “good people” go wrong by leaving our cars and homes locked with our valuables inside. I drove by North campus yesterday, and three cars in row had their front windows broken out.

We need to wake up our police chief, or ask Fresno police chief Jerry Dyer to help Madera, since Fresno is chasing these “good people” to the smaller towns.

Rick Farinelli,
Madera

By Chuck Doud
The Madera Tribune

The complexity and size of the federal government are legend — the 1,302 separate bureaus and agencies, the 1.7 million employees (not counting those in the Post Office) are beyond the comprehension of most. Yet, little doubt exists that complexity and size will increase as years progress.

All those bureaus — from the big ones like the Department of Agriculture to the small ones like the Aeronomy Laboratory — didn’t establish themselves. They were established by either congressional or presidential order, probably with the best of intentions. Certain voters wanted their interests protected, or certain members of Congress wanted their pet projects handled, so along come the Air Resources Laboratory, the Climate Diagnostics Center, the Climate Monitoring and Diagnostics Laboratory and the Environmental Technology Laboratory … you see how it goes.

Each of these bureaus must be funded every year, and to help guide Congress in establishing funding, budget requests are made.

These requests are hardly ever for less money than was appropriated the year before. Requests are typically for more than actually is needed. Seldom is it asked whether the bureau itself is needed.

Very seldom do the members of Congress actually know what the smaller bureaus and agencies are for. They have to take the word of other bureaucrats — the Office of Mangement and Budget, for example — that the smaller agencies are needed.

A few years ago, it was suggested that all federal agencies be required to close every three years or so, and then make a case before Congress for their continued existence. This idea didn’t go anywhere, but it should have.

By Chuck Doud
The Madera Tribune

I happened to be sitting in a waiting room the other day and was reading one of those magazines filled with stories about famous people, mostly movie stars, when I realized that to me most of the people weren’t famous at all. I mainly didn’t know who they were. The only ones I knew were the fuddy-duddies — like Madonna and her husband, Guy Ritchie, who were getting a divorce.

Madonna already is seeing Alex Rodriguez, the Yankees baseball player, and he will be ditching his wife of 16 years, Cynthia, who is the mother of their children, etc. She, of course, will get a big divorce settlement, but Alex can afford it, and if he can’t, Madonna probably can afford to kick in the difference.

Of course, Madonna is about 50 now and has wrinkles, and Alex won’t be a hot slugger much longer because he is getting of an age when baseball players start to slow down and strike out. It’s such a tragedy.

In other words, they are fuddy-duddies, which is how I happen to know them. I am a fuddy-duddy myself, and Mrs. Doud reminds me of that whenever I tell her that on the rare occasion when I watch the E! channel, they might as well be speaking Martian for all I understand what they’re talking about.

“You’re getting old,” she says. And she’s right.

She knows who all those hot babes and young studs are, and why they are best-dressed and worst-dressed, but I don’t. It isn’t that I have anything against the up-and-coming celebrities, I’m just still wondering about the old ones.

For example, I still believe that the smartest thing Ted Turner ever did was divorce Jane Fonda, but that’s just me. I still worry they might get back together.

The Santa Ana winds, they happen every year. It seems to me people should be better prepared.

If our astronauts can do what they do in space, surely the big three (car makers) should be able to put out electrical cars, right now.

The Army should use the modern weapons not yet used in Iraq or Afghanistan. Please let use them and be out of there.

History shows that homosexuals have been around for a long time. Now, they are more demanding, and the more educated men get into that more then the less-educated. If a celebrity or famous person is gay some people will think its okay and will want to do it also.

Joe L. Urena,
Madera

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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“Thank you, City of Madera,” began a woman’s call, “for the Crossroads Shopping Center. It is fabulous. Now, what about the trash houses and businesses across the street? Where are you, code enforcement?”

“I would hope, with the holiday season,” began a lady, “the calls to the Red Line become a little more positive. There are a lot of good things about living in Madera, yet all we see in the Red Line are negatives from people with no answers or solutions.”

“I don’t care what that lady says in the Red Line about your (columnist) Leon Emo,” said a woman. “I met him at the post office recently and he not only held the door open for me, both entering and leaving, but said good morning and tipped his hat like a gentleman out of the old west.”

A “Vietnam veteran and Marine” who “fought proudly for my country and love America” called about “Proposition 8 and Attorney General Jerry Brown urging the Supreme Court to consider if Proposition 8 is legal. I am just appalled that a few Supreme Court justices could have jurisdiction over the people. As far as I know it is the people that is running the government, not the government running the people. Then it becomes a dictatorship. We have voted against it. The gays seemed to be getting all the authority and all the attention.”

A gentleman called about the “auto industry wanting all the money to help them out. If I was running the country, I would help them just like they help Mr. Tucker.” (Note: Tucker was an automobile designer who produced the advanced Tucker Torpedo Sedan in 1948. Only 51 were made before the company folded early in 1949.)

“We didn’t win many games,” began a man’s call. “But the flag football league run by the Parks Department I hope returns next year. Me and my team had a great time playing on Saturday mornings.”

A man commented, “Now that one of the most miserable football seasons is over for Madera High I hope the school board and district is already searching for another coach. We can’t go anywhere but up if we get a new coach. We had a great freshman team this year, and they deserve better when they get to the varsity level.”

An Internet guest, self-identified as “Megg Lasswell,” responded to a defense of President George Bush that was printed in the Red Line on Nov. 18. She writes, “Let me tell you how many people have died on this war for oil, this horrid war that has made many an American ashamed of their country: over 4,000 Americans have died during this war (and) between 89,000 and 97,000 civilian deaths.”

Another person, “JP,” writes, “Look at it this way. If you are walking down the other side of the street with a gun holstered on your hip, and I come over and kick your butt just because you might use that gun against me, I’m guilty of assault and battery. When Bush does it to Iraq, it’s alright?”

An online reader, “Amused,” writes, “It amuses me how people can still defend President Bush even after seeing where we are now after his eight years as president. I wonder what fantasy world they live in.”

A Web site visitor, self-identified as “Hm …” writes, “It’s interesting how people who claim that groups of people —the Mormon Church and people that voted Yes on 8 — are bigots and Prop. 8 itself is bigotry, yet they turn around and do the same thing to these groups of people —mainly the Mormons— when they protest its passage.”

An Internet guest, self-identified as “Nicole,” writes on same-sex marriage, “For those of you using religion to back your arguments — do people who are not of your religion get married? … Most homosexuals, and an increasing number of people in general, don’t care if their marriage is sanctified or recognized by any church or religious group. What they want is equal footing …

“There is, simply put, no sound, logical, secular argument against gay marriage and in time, this nation will realize that.”

Another reader, self-identified as “No …” writes, “Proposition 8 was/is to restore the traditional definition of marriage, which has existed in this country since its creation. It is only an added fact that religious groups support it, too, because of their own beliefs.

“Also, according to all of the oppositions’ arguments, I should also be able to marry a horse, cow or any other animal. Going by what has been said… who is to define what love is?”

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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

The Republican Party is wringing its hands and saying, “Oh, woe is me!” in the wake of the significant Democrat victories in the Nov. 4 elections — not only in the presidential race, but in the House and Senate.

They were grieving in the same way in 1992, when Bill Clinton won the presidency from incumbent George H.W. Bush, and Democrats also had control of Congress.

People were asking whether the GOP was a party of the past, and whether it had a philosophical leg to stand on any more.

It didn’t take long for the GOP to come back. In 1994, under the leadership of Rep. Newt Gingrich, R-Ga., the Republicans issued their “Contract With America,” and regained control of Congress.

Not all the provisions of the contract were implemented, but they caught the imagination of the American people at a time when they already were getting fed up with what they perceived as Democratic inability to move forward.

Some of that, of course, was caused by Republican opposition to Democrat initiatives, but the Republicans were able to capitalize on that.

One of the things on which the Contract With America was based was simplification of government. People perceived then, and probably still do, that the federal government is too complex for any single person to understand, and as a result is out of control.

Making government smaller and more accountable is still an issue with legs, but the Republicans will have to seize on it and make it their own again. Will the party have the opportunity to do that by the mid-term election? The answer, and how it is articulated, may determine the Republican party’s future.

I am disappointed by the passage of Measure 1A.

I think this rail system will just be another government boondoggle with a bunch of do-nothing employees bringing in big bucks. Just because France and Japan have theirs doesn’t mean we have to have one.

Where are we going to get the electricity to power it? Nuclear power? Did they mention that? This thing was sold as a rapid transportation system between L.A. and San Francisco, with stops in between. How many stops? Bakersfield? Visalia? Fresno and more? Going to feel like a jackrabbit, Zero to 200 between stops.

How many people can it hold? What’s the break-even fare. Or do we care? Remember, we have to have parking lots at each stop. How big are they going to be? Are we going to have security (TSA) before boarding? How soon do we have to be at the station before departure? Is it going to run on time? Where in L.A. and San Francisco are the stations going to be? Can I get off at Disneyland or the Wharf?

Take a mental trip from Madera to Disneyland. Add up your driving time to the station. Factor in all the time. Parking, security, stops, de-training, transportation to Disneyland, etc. Now, once you are there, figure in a trip to Long Beach. How do you get there? How do you get back?

The High Speed Rail might be fun, but that’s about it. It will be as fast to drive and have your wheels with you, than to take the “Rail.” Let’s make 99 better and put in monorails to places like Yosemite and Kings Canyon.

We could eliminate all vehicle traffic in the parks and service them by monorail. Elevated to eliminate conflict with wildlife. Smooth and swift to and from the park. We could even have a Virtual Reality Train. You get on in Fresno. The lights go out. Then the lights come on and the windows are filled with the magic of the ride. Through the tunnel we go and out into the splendor of the valley. A little mist hits your face as you go past Bridle Vail. The smell of pine fills the car. All this and you never leave Fresno! Now That’s a tree-hugger adventure.

Ahhh California. Where men marry men, idiots make the rules and we follow.

Bill Hoffrage,
Madera