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 Due to content or space limitations some comments may not be published Please limit your calls to two minutes or less. Repeat messages on the same subject adding to the length will not be published.

“The only way we’re going to have change in Madera,” began a woman, “is when we start voting for mayors in our town. The musical chairs needs to stop. Lets get rid of the (system) and get some people in here that can do the job right.”

“The postal service, now in Bonadelle Ranchos, is absolutely the pits,” said a lady. “I get other people’s mail and I know they are getting ours because we have lost so much mail. It would be nice if people out here would be kind enough to put other people’s mail back in the mailbox so the mail carrier could deliver it to the right people. We lost a bank statement, a credit card statement, that caused a late fee, and now our medical cards for our health insurance are missing. I know the mail carrier put them in someone else’s mailbox. This is uncalled for.”

Another person also expressed concern about their mail delivery. “I live just west of Town & Country Park and I have received other people’s mail several times. I hate to think what I have been missing. I called one of my credit card companies and they said they mailed their statement weeks ago. I happened to be home for a late lunch last week, and saw our mail carrier sorting mail to put in our separate boxes. She was talking on her cell phone while sorting mail. No wonder the mail gets mixed up.”

Once again several calls were received on the “graffiti and gang problem in Madera.” One caller said, “I cross the Lake Street bridge everyday and everyday there is new graffiti on the wall of the trail that goes underneath the bridge. We need to set up cameras or better yet, a sniper across the river, and get rid of these vandals.”

More than one caller agreed, “where there is graffiti there is gangs. It is time the police and city leaders do something, or it is time for a recall.”

An online reader, self-identified as “Johnaton,” writes of graffiti, “The problem is the parents that let their children roam at night and do the tagging. It is the values taught, actually not taught, at home that are causing the problem. Taggers are very good at avoiding being caught but the parents know, or should know that their children are not up to any good things.”

“Why does it take the city five vehicles, driving up and down, picking up leaves in the street that should have been put in the green barrels in the first place?” asked a lady. “Talk about a waste of city time and money.”

A woman also said, “we all want to save the environment and do our part by recycling.” She suggested, “Madera could help by placing dumpsters every six months in the neighborhood shopping centers to make it more convenient.” She said she had “garbage cans full of glass, plastic and grass. I am getting tired of having this around and Madera not doing anything to help us.”

(Editor’s note: The City of Madera has mandatory recycling, and provides cans for it. Also, there are at least three public recycling locations in the city.)

A caller, “after reading about the city giving $7,000 more to the skate park,” asked, “where are all the skaters that were at the council meetings at Bergon when this waste of taxpayers’ money was being proposed?”

He went on to mention the many “out-of-town skaters who said they would travel to Madera and promises of statewide competition and events. “The thing has not been run right from the beginning,” he said.

Another caller with a younger voice, said, “I don’t believe what I read in the paper about over 3,000 skaters, all different, using the park in one year. I go there at different times and I see the same kids day after day. Also, with the skate park open the days they are that would be a hundred kids a day. I doubt it.”

A female guest of the Red Line online writes, “I can understand your argument that the homeless are drunks, drug addicts, illegal, mentally challenged or any other label you want to put on them. However, have you walked in that persons shoes? …

“Let me educate you in real life, being homeless for many is just one paycheck away. Just ask the families in line at the Rescue mission in Fresno. Or ask me! I sure didn’t choose to be homeless. I know, because despite my teaching credential and my Master’s degree … it happened to me. Budget cuts can happen to anyone.”

An Internet reader, “Stacie Pike,” replied to a comment addressed to the late Krista-Rae Pike. She writes, “Jackie, you are not alone. Seems like the longer it gets the harder it is but we do not have to suffer alone. We all have each other and on Jan. 14 … the anniversary of Krista’s passing, we will be having an open house type of gathering. We will be serving ‘Frito Mess’ to anyone who comes, for Krista. It is a family traditional recipe that she was supposed to have cooked for the Holliers that night but never got the chance. Everyone who loved Krista-Rae is welcome in our home, any time…

“We will be here for you and you for us. Krista’s Krew, thats what I like to call us. All of us. The hours for Jan. 14 are from noon until the evening hours. Come and go as you like. Balloon release at 4 p.m.! Frito Mess for all! Corner of Bonadelle Ave. and Road 36, Madera Ranchos.”

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

Every once in a while I am reminded of the power of the word “please.” It is one of the most pleasing words in the English language — and please bear with me while I go on with this.
Mom did her best to teach me how to use the word please.

I might have said, “Can I go outside and play?” And her reply would be, “Can I go outside and play … what?” And I would reply, “Can I go outside and play, please?”

By the time I was old enough to go to school, I was pretty good at using please. “May I please go to the bathroom?” I would whisper to my teacher. And off she would send me down the hall.
The word please may be a verb or an adverb.

One person may say, “This song pleases me.” That is the verb usage.

Another may say, “Please shut that &%^$ thing off!” That is the adverb usage.

Please is the difference between a request and an order. When I was in the Army, the officers never said “please.” They didn’t have to say it. They had the power and I didn’t.

When the balance of power is more even, however, the word please can shift things in one’s favor. “Please give me a chance to tell you of my product’s benefits,” an eager salesperson might write to a prospective customer.

The word “pleasant” is based on the word please, because it describes something that pleases you. If it displeases you, it is unpleasant.

Pleasure is a state of happiness and enjoyment. “Please do that again,” we might say about something that has given us pleasure.

Some people think saying “please” demeans them, but that isn’t the case. However, you can say it in a demeaning way — “puh-leez!”

I am pleased that you took your valuable time to read this, and I thank you for it.

By Chuck Doud
The Madera Tribune

I am still taking delight in the wonderful gift Mrs. Doud gave me for Christmas. It was exactly what I wanted. It’s exactly the right color. It’s exactly the right size. I look at it every day with admiration and appreciation.

It is a new refrigerator. It showed up a few days before Christmas, and I walked right past it at first, because it didn’t look all that different from the old refrigerator. Sometimes, the first thing I do when I walk in the house is open the refrigerator, but this particular evening I was headed for the hallway leading to the back of the house, where we have a small reading room with a white chair. I was in a mood to get some reading done.

But Mrs. Doud appeared at the entrance to the hallway and said, “Turn around!”

“Huh?” I replied.

She pointed back at the kitchen. I turned around. And there was this thing of beauty, this joy forever, this magnificent obsession become reality. The new refrigerator. It had a red bow on it.
I went to it and opened the door, and realized that all my dreams had come true. This refrigerator was one of those that has the refrigerator on top and the freezer in a drawer on the bottom.

For years, I have been grumbling about having to bend over to see into the refrigerator, because the freezer was on top and the refrigerator part was on the bottom. But times have changed, making that setup inconvenient.

I don’t know whether you have noticed this, but the force of gravity has increased in recent years (probably as a result of global warming), making it harder to for one to straighten one’s back up when one has been bent over looking into a refrigerator.

Having the refrigerator on top is a stroke of genius, and I still can’t believe my good fortune. I hope I feel that same way later this week when the payment on it is due.

By Chuck Doud
The Madera Tribune

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger’s plan to shut down state government offices two Fridays a month starting next month amounts to showboating as much as it does to saving the state money. In fact, in some cases, it may cost.

For example, if the Department of Motor Vehicles is closed every other Friday, as planned, it will cost the state money. The DMV is a revenue-generating department. It ought to stay open seven days a week, at least 10 hours a day, so that people who need to transfer car titles, renew licenses, get new licenses and solve all the niggling problems of driving, buying and selling cars can get their business done, pay their bills and go on their way. And the state can put the money in the bank.

That is called customer-service management, and it works.

I personally have always had pleasant, helpful service at the DMV, but it has been accompanied by the need to stand in line for sometimes an hour, even 90 minutes to get waited on. A person has to schedule that extra time, and it isn’t always easy.

Although I’ve never had it happen to me, I have seen people stand in line for 90 minutes only to find out they are in the wrong queue, or have the wrong paperwork.

If a person could go to the DMV in the evenings and on the weekend, lines probably would be shorter, people would not try so much to scam the state and money would flow from those offices into the state coffers much faster.

Grocery stores that close later than 5 p.m. have known this for many years. To close at 5 p.m. would be a death knell for a grocery store in these days of people having to do their shopping after they get off work.

If the governor is trying to get more money into the state treasury, I say he should expand the DMV hours, not close the offices.

By Chuck Doud
The Madera Tribune

They want to throw financier Bernard Madoff back in jail, instead of letting him live in his $7 million New York apartment while he awaits trial on charges that he ran a $50 billion Ponzi scheme, defrauding people of billions. It seems he has been violating terms of his bail by sending jewelry worth $1 million or so to friends. The feds want to take those baubles from him, sell them and give them to the people he allegedly defrauded.

Among all that jewelry was 16 wristwatches, according to the Associated Press, and I think that says something about Madoff.

A person only needs so many wristwatches, unless he or she is a wristwatch collector. I, for example, have three. One I wear every day, one was given to me by my kids, and although the band comes apart, I keep it because they gave it to me. The third is a watch given to me when I graduated from the eighth grade. I’ve had some others, which were cheapos which stopped and were tossed.

The Wall Street Journal, which appeals to people in Madoff’s income range (as well as to schmucks like me) in December was advertising new Cadillacs on its front page and new wristwatches on its inside pages. The wristwatches and the Cadillacs cost about the same. I don’t know it for sure, but I suspect the wristwatches Madoff sent to his friends were the kind being advertised in the Wall Street Journal, not the kind I have.

Now, if Madoff had one, or two, or even three of those really nice Cadillac-priced wristwatches, I suppose it would be understandable. It would give him one to wear on each arm and a backup, in case one accidentally fell into the toilet.

But if a guy has 16 wristwatches, it means he’s a little careless with his money or he has too much of it. Either way, you don’t want him handling yours.

By Chuck Doud
The Madera Tribune

Concerns have been raised about how the Madera County Board of Supervisors will approach the task of replacing former County Auditor Robert DeWall, who decided to retire after being accused of dereliction of duty by the Madera County Grand Jury.

The concerns grew out of county administration building murmurings that the supervisors not only would want to name a replacement for DeWall quickly, but would want to make the auditor’s job permanently appointive.

County Clerk-Recorder Rebecca Martinez and Treasurer-Tax Collector Tracy Kennedy- Desmond both spoke before the supervisors last month, saying they felt it would be a mistake to make the auditor’s job appointive. That would destroy the auditor’s independence, they said.

Commentator and county observer Dale Drozen said Tuesday he thought that whatever the supervisors do, they should explain it well in advance and make the procedure transparent, as they did when they chose Michael Keitz to replace District Attorney Ernie LiCalsi, who last year was elected to the superior court.

Both concerns were heightened when the supervisors on Tuesday appeared to be appointing Jim Boyajian, who had been DeWall’s No. 2 employee, to replace DeWall. But that turned out not to be so.

Boyajian, who has helped hold the auditor’s office together during the DeWall crisis, was appointed acting auditor, to sign checks and run the office while the supervisors sort out what to do next.

What they should do next is make sure they choose the new auditor with the same deliberation and openness they used to replace LiCalsi. And at this point, except for a few suspicions, there’s no indication they plan to do otherwise.

To make the auditor’s job permanently appointive, the supervisors would have to put the question before the people at an election. They aren’t authorized to take the power to choose the auditor from the voters.

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.

A man called “to complain about the Tribune.” He spoke of “the last few days and articles in there,” and specifically mentioned two articles. “The one on child slavery. You get down to the middle of a sentence and it ends. I looked through the paper and it (the conclusion) is not there. This morning (Tuesday, Dec. 30) I have ‘Pieces of the Past’ and going to (Page) B2 down at the bottom it reads ‘something was crush,’ not crushed but ‘crush’ and it ends right in the middle of the sentence.” The caller wondered “if you people have a proofreader down there?”

“A New Year’s resolution to the police and city leaders,” suggested a gentleman who called on New Year’s Eve. “Get rid of the graffiti taggers. I just drove down Howard Road and every building, Little League dugout, and structure has been tagged. I think I am speaking for most people when I say get rid of the graffiti, get rid of the gangs. If you don’t, the people will eventually solve the problem.”

Another caller had a similar viewpoint. “We, the people of Madera are sick of the gangs and graffiti that are coming here from Fresno. They are forcing them out. They (Fresno) evidently know how to solve these problems. It is time our city leaders, police, judges and law enforcement here do the same.” The caller suggested a slogan, “get tough on taggers.”

A lady “just wanted to comment on the shuttle service during New Year’s Eve and the party goers. It’s a great service for our community and thank you to whoever put it on. It was very appreciated and saved a lot of lives.”

“Do you think you could, please, get a recorder, or voice mail,” suggested a lady, “for circulation. That way we could stop the paper or get a vacation pause in delivery? Some of us don’t seem to be able to get through during regular business hours. I think it would be nice if you had some other way to make a request.”

A man said, “you hear so much about the governor trying to fix the state deficit. So far nothing has been said about our elected state officials salaries, state-furnished cars, credit cards, per diem payments. Why can’t they do something useful?”

A woman commented “for all the talk concerning revitalizing downtown and fond memories of places of the past in Madera, imagine my shock and disgust upon seeing a man squatting and defecating against the wall of the (Bergon) senior center near the old water tower. Does anyone think they do this in Old Town Clovis or even downtown Chowchilla?

“Madera’s downtown has officially become third world. It is both disturbing and disgusting. I have lived here over 40 years and the plight of downtown is embarrassing and inexcusable.”

Several people did not receive their Saturday paper. A woman said, “I repeatedly called The Madera Tribune and circulation (department). Nobody answers at any of the numbers. According to the paper, somebody is supposed to be there until 11 a.m. on Saturday. Are these people not showing up for work?”

A visitor to the Red Line online writes in response to a letter by Madera’s mayor, “There are far more important and horrible issues facing our city than graffiti and shopping carts. I challenge our new mayor to actually do something about important problems that cause these other things, problems such as poverty, homelessness, gangs, crime etc., instead of focusing on the result and ignoring the source of the problems.”

A Web surfer, self-identified as “Floydy,” also replied to the mayor’s letter, and writes, “Those are two of the most trivial, cosmetic problems facing Madera. Looks like you guys are in for another year where the best, most exciting thing that happens in the city is a new strip mall.”

An online guest, self-identified as “Jackie,” writes to the late Krista-Rae Pike, “Lately its been harder and harder to only glance at your picture, watch your videos now and then, just to try to keep from crying. I think of you and wish you were still here. You are so gorgeous in all your pictures and I love looking at them. I wish you were here in person to talk about and see everything thats been going on… so much has happened in the past year! I miss your advice, hugs, and giggle. You’re an amazing girl, Krista, and I love you very much!”

After one Internet reader very sharply criticized a letter by a bus driver, another responded and writes, “It is always important to know the other side of the story too instead of thinking that you are perfect and everyone else is a slacker that just does whatever they want wherever they want. The true problem here is not the drivers, dispatchers etc. It is the way the whole system is run. So, before you blame someone you do not know, you should do some research and find out the other side of the story so you can make wise and informed decisions about whatever it is.”

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

International diplomats are doing all they can now to get Israel to stop its war against the Hamas militants, citing the suffering of Palestinian civilians, and it is understandable why they are putting forth such effort. As the Israelis fight the Hamas, civilians are suffering and dying because of the Hamas habit of hiding
among normal people.

But I have a question: Where were these diplomats when the militants of Hamas were lobbing rockets month after month from the Gaza Strip into Israel? Why did those diplomats not go to the forces of Hamas and give them a good bawling out, like they are giving the Israelis now? Where was the diplomatic outcry against unprovoked attacks by Hamas against civilian peoples in Israel? Where was the diplomatic outcry against the smuggling of arms into the Gaza Strip by Hamas? Where was the diplomatic anger against attacks by Hamas on its political foes, the Fatah? Where were those diplomats?

Let’s see. Maybe they were in bed. Maybe they were in their offices or vacationing. But we know where they were not. They were not standing in protest at the United Nations or elsewhere protesting attacks against free a people. They were not standing in protest of Hamas’ government by treachery, or against its closing of newspapers, murdering of Christians or against its using hospitals and other public buildings to stage attacks against its political opponents, al Fatah.

Where were those diplomats in years past to raise protests when the Palestinians, under the late Yasser Arafat, broke every condition of every treaty he ever negotiated with Israel — conditions, by the way, which the Israelis kept?

It is tempting to believe that if they had been as fervent in their criticism of Hamas as they are of Israel, this war might not have started.

I would like to publicly brag about having the best neighbors in the world. Jerry and Barbara Orosco live across the street from me, and I couldn’t ask for anyone nicer.

When my well went dry they allowed me to hook up to their water supply until I had a new well and pump put in, which seemed to take forever.

It is a little bit of a walk from my front door to the road where the newspapers are thrown each morning. I use a cane and walk with difficulty. Almost every day they have picked up my papers and placed them just outside my front door. On rainy days a large amount of water collects between my yard and the roadway. One of them “swims the moat” and still puts the newspapers at my door. There are many other kindnesses shown to me throughout the year too numerous to mention.

Thank you Jerry & Barbara; I wish everyone had terrific neighbors such as you.

Cal Crane,
Madera