Last week, we witnessed the inauguration of President Barack H. Obama. It was a historic day, a day personally gratifying to me because of the multicultural makeup of the crowd. To see all the different races and colors mixed throughout the crowd was wonderful. I believe we have finally begun to turn the corner on prejudice, racism and racial injustice. 

I got four days of peace and a feeling of harmony, then the old America brought me back to reality. Two separate incidences occurred, thousands of miles apart, but with the same racial hatred and indifference. 

The first involved Mayor Charles Tyson of South Harrison, N.J. Mayor Tyson was his community’s first black mayor. Mayors are elected for one year terms in South Harrison, and this was his second term., According to Mayor Tyson, he was forced to resign, citing death threats against him and his family. His tires had been slashed, and racial epithets were painted on his home along with other property damage. The letters KKK were painted on a racially disparaging poster left on his front lawn. A well known neo-Nazi, Bill White, has been indicted on federal civil rights violations.

The other incident happened here in Madera, This past saturday at the BJ Robinson Gym on the campus of Thomas Jefferson Middle School. It involved two teams playing in the basketball tournament. Prior to the game and during the game between Desmond Middle School and Saint Anthony’s Parochial School from North Fresno, several of our African-American student athletes were called “niggers” by players from Saint Anthony’s .

After the game, my younger brother was crying uncontrollably. I assumed it was because his team had lost, and he had an opportunity at the end of the game to possibly send the game into overtime or maybe win in regulation. But when I asked him why he was so upset, he told what he had been called during the game. Naturally, he was upset and didn’t want to hit the opposing player and be ejected from the game, then get into more trouble at school for fighting. I applaud his decision not to resort to violence. He did the right thing.

After the game he told my mother and me what he had been called. He knew the players’ numbers who had called him nigger. I immediately went to one of the players and his mother and asked if he had called my brother a nigger. Of course he and his mother denied the sweet little angel would ever use such language. As I spoke with the mother, I was becoming surrounded with parents from Saint Anthony’s telling me to calm down and just let it go.

Well, I’m putting MUSD, Desmond Middle School and Saint Anthony’s on notice: I will not let it go, not until my brother and the other two young men have received an admission of guilt by the opposing players, a written and a public apology for calling these fine young student athletes “nigger.” I also want them after the public apology to shake hands and move on with their lives.

I know to some of you reading this it seems like a lot fuss over kids being kids. I was there and I saw the effect it had on my brother and his two fellow teammates. You cannot know the effect this word has on a person unless you are African-American. I could try to describe it to you but, you’ would never fully understand, I can tell you from years of having to endure being called “nigger” here in Madera and in every other place I’ve ever lived, it hurts down to the core.

So, my family and I are willing to do whatever it takes to insure these young men receive their written and public apology.

Fred Thomas,
Madera

By Chuck Doud
The Madera Tribune

It’s hard to say what the eventual effects of the $819 billion economic stimulus initiative will be, because the effects of the last trillion- dollars-plus in stimulus packages also are unclear. The tax refunds sent to almost all of us early last year, and the wheelbarrows of cash sent to the financial industry last fall don’t seem to have done what they were expected to do, which was turn the economy around.

Maybe we just need to be patient, and remember some unpleasant facts about our present-day economy:

* First is that a great deal of what we buy isn’t made in the United States. Those who went out and spent last year’s tax rebates, as they were supposed to do, probably bought things that were made abroad, and as a result, a lot of the money that was spent didn’t stay in the U.S. very long.

* Second, last year saw the largest transfer of wealth from the U.S. to foreigners in our history. It occurred during the runup in oil prices. That money will never return to us, except, perhaps, in the form of loans, on which we will pay interest. Add insult to injury.

* Third, our experiment in “free” trade has not been a success — at least not for the U.S. as a whole. In fact, we have taken a pounding. Our balance of trade is way out of kilter, not in our favor. Nobody really knows how much the trade deficit is, but here is what Warren Buffet told The Associated Press in 2006: “The U.S trade deficit is a bigger threat to the domestic economy than either the federal budget deficit or consumer debt, and could lead to political turmoil … Right now, the rest of the world owns $3 trillion more of us than we own of them.”

The trade deficit now, nearly three years later, is even more than that, and growing.

The only thing in which we seem to lead the world any more is in consumption of goods made elsewhere.

The eye of the beholder sees beauty, art and junk in its own way. To my eye, this police mural is neither beautiful nor art. As for a theme, I am lost. I would have to have that explained.

If I were to commission a mural for the Madera Police Department I would use the 3-D effect on the ol’ Daylight passenger express coming through with a policeman standing next to his Harley, whistle in mouth and a hand raised protecting children from getting too close.

That would mean something to me.

Maybe this artist should take the words of our new president to heart when he talked of personal responsibility and sacrifice. Don’t know for sure, but I bet he voted for him.

Tell him his work is unacceptable (the truth) and send him down the road, thank you very much.

Bill Hoffrage,
Madera

By Chuck Doud
The Madera Tribune

As you are reading this, I probably will be at my doctor’s office, getting my regular checkup and also getting a bawling out for not getting enough exercise and packing too much weight.

The doc does his best to keep me healthy, and I do my best to find ways around his rules.

Most of my exercise comes from moving my fingers up and down on a computer keyboard, so I definitely don’t have fat wrists, but for some reason I can’t get rid of what Mrs. Doud calls my “muffin top,” that little (okay, not so little) roll of fat that sits around my waist like a bicycle inner tube.

I just about got rid of the muffin top in October, but along came the holidays with their motto of “eat more food than you ever will need.” Even with the holidays, I thought I had kept the muffin top at bay, but then last week, it popped up, and the scale on which I was standing redlined.

I usually try to eat sparingly, and while I’m not exactly the Jack LaLanne of Madera, I do try to walk around a little. One of my favorite exercises is walking around the grocery store aisles, looking at labels on packages and thinking about how good things taste. Maybe some of the calories in those packages float out and land on me, and that explains why I usually weigh more than I think I should, and way, way more than my doctor thinks I should.

Mrs. Doud suggests that I walk farther than around the grocery store.

“Why don’t you take the cat for a walk?” she once said.

Well, as you probably know, cats don’t go for walks, although our cat needs to. She eats more than I do, and has turned into a 25-pound blimp. The next time I take her to a vet, the vet probably will duct-tape her mouth shut.
Maybe that’s what the doctor will do to me today.

On Jan. 22, Superintendent John Stafford of Madera Unified School District wrote a letter to the opinion page of the Madera Tribune in which he tried to raise the anger of the citizens of Madera by explaining the cost of the litigation regarding the establishment of district elections in the unified school district. By explaining his bewilderment at the cost, he tried to “sell” to the readers the concept that MUSD was totally cooperative with the concept, planning and execution of the plaintiffs desire to establish district elections. Had MUSD done this, they would have saved Madera schools a lot of money but, as those who have followed the case closely know, that never happened. His letter is full of misrepresentations and half-truths.

Stafford is correct when citing that we had some top-notch law firms, the Lawyer’s Committee for Civil Rights and another which has offices overseas and a Seattle University professor well known for his work in voting rights issues. Yes, MUSD understood we had some of the very best working with us on this issue. Despite that knowledge, the district ignored two written threats to sue from these lawyers leaving them no choice but to do just that.

He next states that “Although Madera Unified did not agree with the allegations in the lawsuit, the district did not oppose it, preferring instead to “devote resources to education, not litigation.”

Not so. If they had, they would have had the same or close to the same success that Hanford School District had in limiting exposure to attorney’s fees that could otherwise be devoted to education. MUSD stated in court that this was a business decision. If you look closely at their actions, you will see that if that was the case then they made some BAD business decisions that led to them to the point where they are today; having to explain themselves with half truths. It is called “damage control.”

Superintendent Stafford, in his first paragraph, states, “This demand comes despite Madera Unified’s cooperation in an expedition of the claim brought to them.”

Please, Superintendent Stafford, show some sense that you respect our intelligence. Cooperation means you worked with the other party to resolve the issue. In reality, you fought us all the way until the County Board of Education committee refused to rubber stamp your acceptance of map number one of the three you presented at the board meeting. The people of this community can read. They read The Madera Tribune. It was well reported that Madera Unified opposed our contention the illegal elections not be held. The people read that the court mandated that Rebecca Martinez, Madera County Clerk, not validate the school board elections.

Just imagine had you ceased your desire to continue the fight. After all, it makes good business sense. Think of the money you would have saved. Just from that point it would have been hundreds of thousands of dollars. Had you decided to acknowledge us, when our concerns were first presented, even more money would have been saved! In fact, you would have avoided paying any attorney’s fees because no suit would have been filed if you had responded to either of the two letters our attorneys sent.

Later in court, the judge acknowledged to you and MUSD that we were very close in our ideas and for both sides to work together and come to a quick resolution. After the court hearing, we were expecting to sit down with you and MUSD to settle the remaining issues.

But no, you and your team decided to exclude us and came up with your now infamous three maps. More money, big money spent. Here come our attorneys, back to a meeting, of which we had been informed of just one or two days before. At the meeting we acknowledged to you and the MUSD what we felt. Map one violated federal law and that we would follow through with further state or federal court action. And not to my surprise the MUSD board voted on map one, again making our team start preparations for more litigation federal court. More money spent.

Your attorneys and your demographers presented your case to the committee. We actually felt you wanted the committee to vote on the map that night. That’s when I went to the podium and spoke to the committee to the fact that they had just been presented with a lot of information and needed time to decipher it all. All of this time our attorneys are working on paperwork to address the issue in federal court.

Money did not need to be spent had you and MUSD invited us to the table to work towards a solution from the beginning. Only when the committee refused to rubber stamp your decision on map 1 did you and MUSD decided to invite us to a phone conference a couple of days later.

Now I ask you Mr. Superintendent, tell the people of Madera, how long did it take you, MUSD and our team to come up with a solution? Hours. Hours, not days, not weeks, not months … hours.

Just imagine, Madera, had these businessmen made this simple business decision before litigation was commenced when they had ample notice, or at the beginning or even after the judge had stated in court that from what he read in the attorney’s briefs, it looked like we had a strong case. Just think of all the money your business-oriented school board would have saved.

Citizens of Madera, we can have a debate as to the value of district elections vs. at large elections. But when the superintendent tries to raise your anger with half-truths and misrepresentations, we have to set the record straight.
Everything we stated can be proven with research. Anyone can go to the Madera Tribune, the courts and MUSD and ask for the minutes of the board meetings and the County Board of Education Committee meeting.

Superintendent Stafford says that they, he and MUSD, do not understand why we did not approach the district directly to engage in a civil discourse over our concerns. Nothing they said, nor any action they took indicated to us that they would act in good faith if we had “approached” them. There were many times that they could have taken and shown strong leadership and ended the process and maintain a hold, and control the cost of the litigation. Instead, for whatever reason, they chose a different path.

As for the final cost, there is a process. MUSD negotiates with our attorneys and if they cannot come to an understanding, then the court will make a determination.

Carlos Uranga, Jesse Lopez and Esther Rey,
Madera

By Chuck Doud
The Madera Tribune

Some of us are wondering what will happen to the 224 terrorism suspects who now inhabit the graybar hotel at the Guantanamo Naval Base. A few of them will be sent back to their home countries. A few of them, their nationalities undetermined, will be sent to any country who will have them. And quite a few will wind up in prison in America.

The wardens of federal prisons, such as Leavenworth, don’t seem to want them. The prison staffs would have as much trouble protecting the terrorism suspects from the rest of the inmates as they would keeping them in custody.

Some suggest they should be sent to Alcatraz. That island tourist attraction in San Francisco Bay is a former federal prison, and could become one again, probably at no more cost than fixing up a place for them at a federal prison elsewhere.

Of course, there is one problem. The Democrats of San Francisco, who have been lobbying for years to have the Guantanamo prison closed, wouldn’t hear of it. A move to Alcatraz would be a classic case of Not in My Back Yard syndrome.

Some of the people already released from Guantanamo go back to their countries and rejoin terrorism groups.

“Two Saudis formerly jailed at the U.S. prison camp in Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, have joined Al Qaeda’s Yemeni branch,” says the Christian Science Monitor. Well, that’s nice.

Many of the remaining Guantanamo tenants are Yemenis (Yumpin Yemeni!). The Bush administration suggested sending them to Saudi Arabia to participate in a program the Saudis have to reform Al Qaeda operatives so they are fit to live with civilized people, but the Saudis want no part of them.

Some 520 detainees already have been released from Guantanamo, so there aren’t that many left. But if the Saudis and the San Franciscans won’t have them, who will?

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.

Due to a receiving error a message was printed incorrectly last week. It should have stated: A lady said, “I would like to thank the Madera County Social Services Department for dedicating their conference room to my daughter, Julie Moore. I know she would have loved the thoughtfulness of all her friends.”

A woman who “remembered an article in the paper (in December) about a house at Cleveland and Tulare and an elderly gentleman in his ‘90s that lived there. They said it would be repaired within a couple of weeks.” Evidently it hasn’t been done. “It’s very cold,” said the concerned lady, and asked, “if you could do a follow up article on them. Thanks,” she concluded, “you guys do a great job.”

A woman responded to last week’s caller, who left a message about the city’s 2025 plan and an injured animal she saw. This week’s caller said, “She talks about the kids getting off the bus and three-quarters of the kids trying to kick, step-on or shoot (with rubber bands) the poor animal. And why didn’t you go and rescue the cat? You’re knowledgeable enough about the city’s plans, surely you could have gone over to the cat before the kids got to it. You need to quit complaining, get off your butt and start doing something about what you’re complaining about.”

“I’d like to see all the signs in the City of Madera and Madera County with Spanish translations,” began a man. “This includes all the streets, the boulevards, major highways, and” he continued, “I’d like to see all the STOP signs with a Mexican sign that reads ALTO. That way our south of the border, non-English speaking people —if they can read— can read traffic signs in the language of the country they came from. Because in the year 2025 Madera will look just like Tijuana, Mexico.”

A (concerned) man called in response to an Opinion Page column on the inauguration by Chuck Doud on Jan. 20. He said, “Mr. Doud, the gift that the oil prices dropped to $34.39 a gallon. That was an enormous gift for Mr. Obama. I’m wondering, traveling around Madera, have you noticed the price of gas has jumped anywhere from 6 to 8 cents a gallon and continues to rise? So who really got the gift here? Certainly not the American people.”

He also said, “This is the first time in our history with the inauguration of a president the stock market dropped so severely.” (Note: Though Tuesday provided the greatest drop, of 27 inauguration days when the stock market was open, the Dow dropped on 19, including the first inauguration of President Ronald Reagan when it dropped 1.9 percent.) “So much for Mr. Obama’s presents. Think twice Mr. Doud, look around.”

“I don’t believe the national bird of Madera is on the endangered species list,” said a man. “The little black bastardly crow. The other day I was over at the shopping center by Kragen’s and Carl’s Jr. near Mervyn’s. That shopping center parking lot is atrocious. The trees are even whitewashed with crow feces. (For) anyone that is driving through Madera and stops at Carl’s Jr. to eat, what a horrible sight and horrible impression they have of Madera because we can’t do anything about our national bird of Madera, Calif. This is ridiculous.”

A lady asked about “the inauguration and a local soldier who got to dance with Michelle Obama,” and “why there wasn’t something in the paper.” (Note: An article appeared on this turn of events shortly after her call.)

A woman quoted the article on the Madera soldier who danced with Obama. She said, “His parents had been living here in the United States for 30 years and they were using an interpreter. What a pity that the family did not take the initiative to teach their parents to speak the language with all the problems we have with immigrants.”

A man “asked again, because it has been asked before, whatever happened to all the blue and white (Madera High School colors) that was supposed to go up on Stadium Road after Madera High beat Madera South in football? Nothing has been done. Did someone speak with forked tongue?”

After reading an article about the “school district hit with a $1.2 million claim,” A man said, “those three individuals, Maria Esther Rey, Jesse Lopez and Carlos Uranga have no concerns for Madera Unified School District. A lawsuit not only asking the school district to pay $1.2 million to their attorneys. They could care less what happens to the schools. All they want is their money.”

Another caller said of the lawsuit, “these people are doing no good for the school district with their lawsuit. Heaven forbid they win because only the children will suffer.”
With the decrease in budget this year “of over $6 million and who knows how much after that, there will be the inevitable loss of jobs and programs. The City of Madera must be rolling in cash, buying $100,000 pictures. Do these people ever talk to each other?”

Another man questioned “a mural for a $100,000? It is the same irresponsibility as is on the state and national level that brought on the largest financial crises since the great depression. Bad choice, (City) Council.”

A man left his name and then complained about the city’s graffiti abatement program. “I wish they would stop using all their chemicals because they sprayed my fence and got my dog sick and killed all my plants. If this keep up I’m going to report them to OSHA.”

Thank you for your calls. Remember, the Red Line is open for your messages 24 hours a day by calling 674-4478, or by logging on to maderatribuneredline.com.

By Chuck Doud
The Madera Tribune

I saw a lady stopped at the traffic light at Yosemite Avenue and I Street the other day, and she was putting on makeup using a mirror in the back of her visor. She also was talking. Since nobody else was in the car, and she was wearing one of those Star Trek earpieces, I assume she was talking with somebody on the phone.

Then, the light changed, but she didn’t drive ahead. She just stayed put, applying makeup and talking. Then, the driver behind her tapped his horn, and she drove ahead, but before doing so, she gave the driver behind her the universally recognized one-finger salute.

I can’t understand why she did that. I sometimes daydream at a stop sign, and have to be reminded by a driver behind me that I should get going, but I always respond with a friendly wave. I don’t mind being honked at when I’m in the wrong.

I am in the wrong a lot. I take a cup of coffee with me in the car in the mornings, and I used to sip it as I drove. That was idiotic. If I had had to stop suddenly, I would have had a lap full of hot coffee, and who knows where I would have steered my car while I was jerking around in my seat.

Sometimes I would eat a sandwich while driving, which is stupid and illegal.

Since taking a driving course (at the invitation of the state after getting a speeding ticket), I have been trying to change those habits. Now, I appreciate being honked at when I do something dumb.

That doesn’t make me a much better driver, or a better person, but it does help keep me from getting killed, or from killing somebody else.

Out on the road, we are all in it together. That lady (who probably won’t read this; she didn’t look like someone who reads much) should have been glad somebody cared enough to honk at her. It will help keep her and others safe.

By Chuck Doud
The Madera Tribune

We are told that one of the reasons John Thain was fired was that he spent $1 million decorating his office, and that he paid his chauffeur $200,000 a year.

Thain was the CEO of Merrill Lynch when it was purchased in September by Bank of America. Merrill Lynch is a firm of stockbrokers based in New York. Bank of America is the bank down the street. We have a B of A in Madera.

Thain was fired this week after Merrill Lynch lost $15.3 billion in the fourth quarter of 2008, a loss about which he neglected to tell Bank of America.

The last day or two, since finding out about Thain’s million-dollar office renovation, I have been trying to decide how I would spend $1 million decorating my office. So far, I have come up with a coat of paint, some new mopboards and a new chair mat. A chair mat is what you put on your floor to keep the chair from wrecking the carpet.

About the only way you could come close to spending $1 million decorating my office would be to paper the walls and ceiling with $100 bills, but even that, including the wallpaper paste, would require only a mere $567,000. If I did that sort of decorating, I wouldn’t need the paint job or the mopboards.

Mrs. Doud probably would say she didn’t like the color.

The offices of the people at the local Bank of America didn’t cost $1 million to decorate, or if it did, they were cheated. The executive offices look just like the rest of the bank, which is neat and functional, but not high on the fancy-meter.

The executives don’t have $200,000 chauffeurs, either.

Merrill Lynch was founded in 1914 by Charles Merrill, who probably is rolling over in his grave. Did he spend $1 million redecorating his office then? I’d bet not. He probably would have gone for a new coat of paint, new mopboards and a new chair mat.

By Chuck Doud
The Madera Tribune

Mrs. Doud and I watched President Obama being sworn in on television, and were we ever glad we weren’t there in person. Had we been there in person, we would have been shivering behind 1.5 million other shivering people, trying to get a glimpse of the big oath-taking on one of the giant TV sets on the Capitol Mall.

You can have all that discomfort. The thrill of being there for the big event couldn’t have held a candle to sitting in our living room, drink- ing coffee and nibbling on toast while Obama and Justice John Roberts muffed the oath.

If we had been there in person we wouldn’t have known the oath had been muffed, because we would have been shivering too hard to care. On television, in front of the couch, not only could we see the flub, but we could see it very often when the television channel we were watching played it over and over again about 50 times.

The implication was, “What kind of president is this guy going to be if he can’t get the oath right?”

The next day, when Obama took the oath again, this time in the White House where it was warm and there weren’t 1.5 million people standing there shivering, there was no bungle. The chief justice and the president got it right that time, which shows you what a Harvard Law School education can do for you. Hooray, the country is saved.

We went to a college football game once, in which our favorite team was playing the host team in one of those high stadiums. We were seated so far up, we could see the passengers’ faces in passing 747s.

We knew a game was being played on the field, but it could have been lacrosse, for all we knew. I think if I go to another big football game, I’ll take a portable TV so I can see what’s happening down on the field.
For football and inaugurations, give me TV every time.