The Madera Tribune won’t publish Monday because on Sunday we still will be making sure all our computers are plugged into the right sockets, and that all the phones ring when and where they should in our new building at 2890 Falcon Drive.
This will be the conclusion (we sincerely hope) of the first move the newspaper has made since it relocated to the building at East 7th and South E Streets some 50 years ago. Prior to that, the newspaper had spent decades at 110 N. D St., the building occupied today by lawyers Steve Mortimer and Kevin Schwin. Mortimer once told me his desk sits where the editor’s desk once was located.
When The Madera Tribune, then owned by Dean Lesher of Merced, was moved to 7th and E, the movers had to knock the bricks out of the side of the building to get the press out. A photo of that operation exists, and it will hang in the conference room of our new building.
That conference room will be named in honor of Les Hayes, who was general manager of the paper from 1963 until 1995, and then worked here later in advertising sales. It will show other historic newspaper and Madera photos as we find and restore them.
In fact, art will be a feature of the new building. It was designed to have plenty of interior wall space to show the work of local artists.
When we bought The Madera Tribune in 2002, we were pleased to find many beautiful prints, some of which we have displayed in our business office. Now, they all will be on display.
We hope you will make time to drop in and see the new building when you get a chance.
This is, after all, your newspaper. You support it with your subscriptions and your advertising, and like any local merchant, we appreciate your patronage.
While Haiti is suffering from starvation, disease and lack of everyday sustenance, in a disorganized society mismanaged by devious and exploitation-oriented leadership, these point men should be grateful that there are people in America who invested not just a few dollars donation but their time and dedication to show up on ground zero and embrace the impoverished society to help forsaken children to survive, believe in a better future.
It is an utter shame that the dishonest leadership — we know that they are decidedly trying to profit from drummed-up charges, which may be valid under unusual circumstances, but not applicable in an emergency situation that they are going through now — and they start acting like dogs, biting the hand that feeds them.
The world should unite, pull out from Haiti and set up all help organizations next door in the Dominican Republic — a more civilized country — until the disreputable brotherhood of leaders in Haiti show some gratitude and formal dedication to preserve the safety and mobility of men and women of good will who are tirelessly working for their country, attempting to bring hope and material help for the suffering.
Their devious action is not only an insult to the volunteers, but is a slap on America’s face, indirectly accusing our culture of being involved in child trafficking, slavery. At the same time it is a profound insult to the Christian community, implying that Christians are slave traders in the international market. These big-wig Haitians are confusing Christianity with voodoo practices.
God bless the children and the volunteers, and shame on the Haiti administration of impropriety. Pull out all the child care agencies and move next door until the leadership apologizes and ensures the security of all helpers and dismisses the falsely applied charges against all those who were so savagely targeted with demeaning accusations.
Dr. S.C. Menyhay,
Madera
This is a memorable week for the Madera Tribune family. We are moving our offices and printing plant to new quarters, at 2890 Falcon Drive, near the Madera Municipal Airport.
The move has been a big undertaking, involving much planning and the help of many contractors, including Basila Construction and their subcontractors, who built the tenant improvements in the Falcon Drive building.
We began the planning about two years ago when the Madera Redevelopment Agen-cy expressed an interest in purchasing our downtown property at East 7th and South E streets. At first, we tried to find another location downtown, but it eventually became clear to us that we couldn’t squeeze our operation into any available downtown locations without eventually becoming an unwelcome neighbor to those in whose vicinity we might relocate. We are, after all, a manufacturing operation, and we needed a location which could accept the comings and goings of big trucks and other vehicles at all hours of the day and night. The Falcon Drive neighborhood was developed for that, and so we wound up there.
It is not an unhandy address. It’s less than three minutes from the intersection of Schnoor Avenue and Avenue 16, and less than two minutes from the Avenue 17 off-ramps of State Route 99. We will publish maps to the location (there’s one in today’s paper) until people get used to our being there.
People have asked us to include a drop-off box for news releases at the entrance of the building, and we will do that.
Our phone numbers and e-mails will be the same.
Tomorrow, I will write a bit about how fun it is to move a newspaper.
I would like to congratulate our Madera Tribune, which will be moving to a new building this month, to 2890 Falcon Drive, after being almost 50 years in the present location at East 7th and South E streets.
I also would like to thank our newspaper for all the baseball coverage they gave me when I was the manager of the Madera Merchants baseball team.
I remember in 1962, when we were playing in the Calif-Mexican-American League, we were playing the Stockton Caballeros in our league opener and we defeated Stockton 9 to 8, and I had Monte Pearson, who played with the New York Yankees in 1938, and he threw out the 1st pitch, and Mr. Henry Preciado, who played with the San Francisco Seals, threw out the second pitch and the Madera Tribune photographer was there to take pictures. And in 1985 our mayor, Mrs. Margaret Medellin, threw out the first pitch to start our new season, and also the Madera Tribune photographer was there to take pictures.
Also I remember March 16, 1995, I was recognized by Mayor Herman Perez and the City of Madera, for the work I had done for the youth of Madera and also the Madera Merchants baseball team that I started in 1950. And once again our Madera Tribune was there to cover the story.
On Saturday, Feb. 24, 2007, at noon, the Madera South High School officially named its varsity baseball field Eddie Chapa Field, and once again our Madera Tribune photographer, Wendy Alexander, was there taking pictures of the dedication. I also remember when the Madera Tribune used to have a door slot on E Street where I used to to drop our information after a Sunday afternoon game.
At this time I would like to thank all of the sports editors and photographers who covered all those games in the years that the Madera Tribune was at this location on East 7th Street. I would name them all, but I am afraid, I would leave some out.
I also remember when the Madera Tribune was located at 110 D street, right where Steven R. Mortimer, attorney, and Kevin Schwin, attorney, now practice.
So, Madera Tribune, you’ve gone a long way since then.
Although I admit to not knowing much about it, I have to believe that the 10 Baptist missionaries from Idaho who were detained late last month while trying to take 33 children out of Haiti are getting a bad rap.
They were not kidnapping the children. In fact, parents of the children say they had turned them willingly over to the missionaries to get the kids the heck out of Haiti, which over the past 30 years has been one of the world’s major headquarters of natural disaster, pestilence, war, famine and death.
It must have seemed like sending the kids off to church camp, to get them out of Haiti and into a safer and more nurturing environment.
The Haitian officials are all upset about this because Haiti has a highly restrictive law about foreign adoptions — a law written by none other than Jean-Claude “Baby Doc” Duvalier. This was a man whose benevolent dictatorship led to the deaths of more Haitians than the recent earthquake. In fact, next to Duvalier, the earthquake would seem like a visit from a favorite uncle.
It has been said the law was written to make sure that adequate bribes would be paid Haitian officials who had no other means of support.
But all that aside, nobody has said the Baptist missionaries were taking the children to eat them or sell them. What were they going to do with the kiddies? The missionaries’ stated intent was to educate them, feed them, keep them from harm … evil stuff like that. This all would be done not in Idaho — oh, spare them from that ordeal — but in the Dominican Republic, that well known hotbed of economic stability, normal life expectancy and literacy next door to Haiti.
Meanwhile, the Idahoans perspire heavily in a Haitian jail, pondering the proposition that rare is the good deed which goes unpunished.
I would like to publicly thank the two young men of the graffiti abatement patrol who recently took care of the unsightly graffiti that has infested the 300 Block of South H and South G streets. I had been reporting this situation since late August over the graffiti hotline, but to no avail.
The graffiti, just like a cancer that remained unchecked, was growing. I made contact with the crew as they were taking care of a similar type of thing over in the west side of the alley paralleling the freeway off of South I Street, and they took care of the situation promptly. It is very much appreciated by the residents of this area. Thank you, again.
A story in the Saturday San Francisco Chronicle tells about a coffee shop in North Oakland that decided to ask its customers to shut their computers off, turn off their cell phones and talk to one another instead of staring at computer screens or punching the telephone keys.
That is a bit of a change, particularly in a part of the country where every fifth person who has enough money to go to a restaurant owes his or her living to the dot.com business in some way.
Knowing that, you would expect that these patrons would hotfoot it down the street to the nearest restaurant which couldn’t care less whether its patrons are on line, as long as they are plunking down $5 for a cup of coffee or $6 for a croissant. (I know, I know, those prices are higher than they are here, but we are talking about the Bay Area.)
Just the opposite happened, according to the Chronicle story. Instead of being miffed at being asked to unplug and close their laptops, or power off their cell phones, the patrons were grateful.
“When I get away from the computer, it’s a relief,” one patron was quoted as saying.
“Laptops cut people off,” said another. “I think it forms a social divide.”
“It’s really changed the feeling of the place,” said another customer. “It’s really nice.”
One expert on such subjects, a professor of robotics, said shutting off the tech devices was like a sabbath — an Internet sabbath.
He called addiction-like behavior with our electronic devices a big issue, a global epidemic.
“It’s an enormous problem,” he said. “We’ve developed this ‘checking behavior,’ like a nervous tic. And it’s very seductive. I love technology, but we need boundaries.”
The ancient rabbis knew this, he said. They insisted on one day a week free of distractions. How right they seem to have been.
Your bold subject line on Page A1 of the Tribune, dated Feb. 2, saying cabins were “burgled” kind of made me sit up and take notice. I wondered if burgled is a word. Sounded weird to me. Perhaps burglarized or burglared might have worked but couldn’t understand burgled.
Couldn’t seem to pronounce it, either. Correct me if I’m wrong.
Not an English major, just a simple laywoman.
Barbara Diebert,
Madera
(Editor’s note: Yes, Barbara, burgled is a real word, the past tense of burgle. This word is a bit like Google, when you say you google something. It is a verb made up from a noun, burglar. In the late 19th century, folks decided it was easier to say “I’ve been burgled” than “I’ve been burglarized,” which requires the pronunciation of one more syllable. Thus is our beautiful language forever simplified, not always for the best.)
We are a people who just can’t keep things in perspective. Take the big Toyota crisis, for example. With all the news stories about some models of Toyotas’ gas pedals sticking, you would expect to find the ditches laden with Toyota cadavers along every freeway, the results of sudden-speed-up crashes; you would expect to find Toyota rear ends sticking out of the windows of bakeries and butcher shops where they had barged in, either after their accelerators stuck or their brakes failed.
But, no. While dealing with a sticking accelerator or failing brakes no doubt causes drivers to break into a sweat, it just hasn’t happened all that much. And Toyota is trying its best to take care of the problem.
What started out as concern over a design problem grew into the Hurricane Katrina of recalls. Toyota even stopped selling its cars. And you have to give Toyota credit for that. (They’ll need it later.)
But the vast majority of Toyotas on the road right now are performing just fine.
Mrs. Doud, for example, thinks her Toyota runs like Jackie Joyner-Kersee. She can’t find anything wrong with it, except that sometimes she has to have it washed and vacuumed. It doesn’t wash and vacuum itself.
Her model and year of Toyota has not been recalled. If it had, she would have taken it to the Toyota dealer and told them to call her when they were through with it. Then she would have just gone on driving it.
Whatever the faults with Toyotas, or with any cars, there is nothing any manufacturer can do to make their products perfectly safe.
That is especially true when it comes to the part of the vehicle over which they have no control, which is the driver.
Drivers who drive drunk, or play with their cell phones, or try to eat lunch or put on makeup while driving are far more dangerous than any manufacturing problem. Next to them, sticking accelerators are sought-after accessories.
Music Video: “John Wayne Gacy Jr.” by Sufjan Stevens
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All comments are edited for length and content. Because of content or space limitations, some comments may not be published. More than one comment from the same person during the same week will normally not be published. Please limit calls to two minutes or less.
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A visitor to the Red Line Web site, self-identified as “Donna Williams,” wrote, “I simply do not comprehend the mindset of school officials, from Arne Duncan — the current U.S. Secretary of Education — to the Madera Unified School District’s Board of Trustees to Mr. Stafford the superintendent. Someone please explain to me why any administrator would make more money and have more benefits than a teacher does?
“The secretary of education, the Board of Trustees and Mr. Stafford do not instruct my child in math, history, English, science, and other basic critical thinking. It is the teacher in the classroom all day.”
A woman responded to a letter to the editor from Jeanne Martin. The letter, published Jan. 14, claimed “a veteran teacher costs tens of thousand dollars (more) for a period of 35 years than hiring a new or less senior teacher. She (Martin) failed to quote the senior teacher’s salary. Could she or the Tribune find out and print it. That would be interesting.” (Editor’s note: That information varies according to the teacher’s education and years of service. In Madera, teachers at the top of all educational and time-in-grade scales make about $65,000 a year plus benefits. Starting teachers make about $36,000 a year plus benefits. On average, California’s senior teachers are the highest paid in the United States; however, some individual school districts in some other states pay more.)
An online reader, self-identified as Krissann Samaniego, commented on a letter by teacher Brian O’Donovan that praised Superintendent John Stafford.
“This sounds like Human Resources’ damage control,” she wrote, “It would be much more effective with specific examples of the ‘great’ things Stafford has done. I like to see numbers and facts. Otherwise, everything is just an opinion and opinions aren’t worth very much.”
A lady “had some information for (columnist) Leon Emo about food. He needs to know that carrot cake can count as a vegetable, too.”
A woman called “about the (Madera County) Animal Shelter” and expressed some ideas. “Maybe they can make up the cuts that are going to be made by asking the casinos to be a partner with them. They can also go to the local stores and charities.
“They also need to educate people better in getting a puppy, then when they don’t want it anymore they get rid of it, and get a new one.”
A woman responded to last week’s caller, who wondered why Judge Edward Moffat’s funeral reception was not held in his church’s hall. This week’s caller said, “It was unfortunate why it was not held at Holy Spouses Hall.
“There was a call to the person who handles the reservations for Holy Spouses Hall for the celebration of life for Judge Moffat. It was only fitting the celebration be held at Holy Spouses since he was so involved with the (Catholic) church, church clubs and the school.
“The caller was told that the rental for the hall was $750, and that was the discounted price. The Madera Elks Lodge stepped up and was honored to have the reception at their facility, and at no charge. The Elks and YMI members did a wonderful job, food was great and the members worked their hearts out to make sure everyone was as comfortable as possible.
“It is too bad Holy Spouses Hall had to charge so much that the family used some place else. The Elks also donated the food that was left over to the Holy Family Table.”
“After being a lifetime member, this is why I dropped out of the (Catholic) church,” said a man. “It was disgraceful when they said they would have to charge for Judge Moffat’s reception. All they want is money, more land, and then, more money. Thank God for the Elks Lodge. Their members appreciated what a wonderful community member Judge Moffat was and didn’t charge the grieving family anything.”
A woman asked, “I wonder when the county and city are going to clean up these properties that constantly have furniture and junk in front and back of their houses? They have trailers and such. This town is looking like trash. … This is America and you should keep your house neat and, if you don’t, the city and county should enforce it.”
“Just a comment on Monday’s article by Chuck Doud,” said a man. “He’s either so ill informed or doesn’t know what he’s talking about when he wants to give us another Contract with America. That group of legislators and congressmen was the most corrupt in money-grabbing. He needs to research it. They gave us the mess, the wars, the economy, that we are in now.”
A regular caller said, “The Obama administration is one lie after another. Shame on him.”
A reader of the Red Line Web site, self-identified as a “Madison parent,” said, “I was at a James Madison 5th and 6th grade awards assembly and I was shocked to discover that neither the principal nor the vice principal were there to congratulate our students. This is messed up. We want our students to do good, but when they do the people in charge don’t even care enough to be there. What a shame!”
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Thank you for your comments. Remember, the Red Line is open for your messages 24 hours a day by calling 674-4478 or by visiting the Red Line online at www.maderatribuneredline.com.
