The Delta Smelt is a small fish that lives in the Sacramento River Delta between the Pacific Ocean and Stockton. These 5cm long fish also live up and down the entire Pacific Coast, from California to Alaska. In 1993 it was listed as a threatened species  under the Federal Endangered Species Act due to growing concern over agriculture’s effects causing their population to shrink. In 2008 the Fish and Game Commission worked to try and move the fish from threatened to endangered and in 2007 a California Federal Judge imposed limits on water pumps supplying the Central Valley with water for agricultural and residential purposes.

I consider myself to be a pretty environmentally responsible person, and in fact have not consumed a piece of meat in over six years. But when one small fish begins to threaten the entire livelyhood of California, environmentalism becomes less important than basic economic survival. California provides more agricultural products than any other state or country in the entire world. Over 99% of the worlds almonds, artichokes, dates, figs, kiwifruit, olives, persimmons, pistachios, prunes, raisins, clovers, and walnuts are grown in California. California is also the leading producer of dairy, strawberries, and garlic. 

Not only is all of this food important to sustaining supplies in our country and around the world, but the jobs that are needed to produce this food are vital to the San Joaquin Valley’s population. Small communites like Mendota and Firebaugh are heavily reliant on the money brought in by agriculture and thousands of seasonal workers migrate here every year to work in our fields. These people have communities, children in our public schools, pay taxes, and help to maintain the biggest industry in our state. Without them we would have almost no one to work our fields, seeing as how most California residents would scoff at working a job like that.

Many of the farmers in the valley come from a conservative background and likely voted for McCain and Bush before him. Conservatives rarely miss a beat when it comes to battling environmentalists, whether it be over global warming or overfishing in our oceans.

However, in this situation it seems the right wing has decided to side with the environmentalists. This position that they’re taking is certainly intriguing, but once you realize just why they’re doing it, you may want to let out a sigh, a moan, or perhaps even scream. The reason that farmers have not joined the actual farm workers in this Water March is because of straight and simple racism. They don’t want to be seen as siding with the Mexican immigrants who work our fields here in the valley.

Someone gave me a quote today that explains the situation nicely:

“Ask a Republican to choose between their Conservative values and racism and they will choose racism, every single time.”

This quote rings especially true in this water situation. I only ask the people of Fresno and the Central Valley one thing; please look past these imagined racial barriers for once and do what is right for this state. Conservatives are always talking about doing what is best for our nation, and this is a chance to step up and do that for once. The United States is in a recession, California is in a drought, so let’s help ourselves and do what we do best: farm.

For more information on the water crisis currently plaguing California visit: http://www.calwatercrisis.com/

So this planned Tax Day “Tea Party” has been getting a lot of media attention lately. For those of you who aren’t aware of what this is, it’s a gathering of people protesting some of the decisions that have/are being made by the new (Obama) Administration. One of the main things being protested is the levels of spending and taxing going on right now, people are worried that we are creating a debt that our grand children will be repaying.

I find quite a bit of humor in this whole situation. It’s like the tables were completely turned overnight and Republicans are now saying the same things that Democrats had been saying for the past eight years under the Bush Administration. I wonder if these people realize just how much exactly was spent on the was in Iraq and in other military endeavours. Now that we’re spending money on actually helping people instead of killing people, it’s like the end of the world has come for many Right Wingers.

We have to fix the current mess brought on by the Bush Administration somehow, and quite frankly I haven’t heard any viable ideas from the conservatives on this one. Also, the economy does seem to be on the up-and-up now, as it’s quite obvious from a lot of peoples attitudes. I think a lot of people have just finally adjusted to not being able to spend so carelessly, and in the end I think this economic crisis will prove to be a good lesson for current generations who have never seen the effects of such a situation before.

The fact that these people are just now beginning to realize how badly our government has been screwing us in recent years is scary. Even to the most liberal person it should be obvious that Obama hasn’t brought the radical change he spoke about during his election. Don’t get me wrong, I like a lot of the guys’ policies, but he’s making a lot of the same mistakes that all politicians make. I guess part of this could be that he just wants to maintain a more moderate public opinion so that he can pick up a second term and make some real changes without the same political consequences, but it’s too early to tell if that is the plan.

The sad part about this whole Tea Party business is that I get the feeling a lot of people are just up in arms now because we have an African American President in office and a lot of the “good old boys” just don’t take that very well. Personally, I hope they get over themselves before someone does something racist and dumb enough to embarrass the entire right wing. With the talks of White Supremacy groups being on the rise in the news lately, it seems like some things might get out of hand, I would hate to see someone become a terrorist in the name of “patriotism”.

I am glad that the right wing is actually participating in protest and voicing their opinions, as in the past most of them probably would have called any protestor a hippy simply for being against the government. Not even six months ago most of them would have called someone a terrorist for not supporting the government unconditionally, four and eight years ago they screamed cries of treason when people suggested moving out of the country because of Bush, during the Bush Administration they would have called an organized anti-government protest a terrorist act. Today the Governor of Texas, Rick Perry, said that the government “has become oppressive in it’s size, it’s intrusion into the lives of our citizens”, seemlingly forgetting that it was Bush who increased domestic spying to an all time high with wire taps and other shady methods unveiled under the Patriot Act. Today, the tables have turned and the right wing is doing all of the same things that they hated the democrats so much for doing. It’s funny how things change.

What exactly is going on with the Fresno Police Department lately? First there was the narcotics officers luring drug dealers to town in order to steal their cars, resulting in the Major Narcotics Unit being temporarily shut down. Then officers decided to issue an unwarranted beating on a homeless gentleman who had done nothing wrong. Now a 23 year old man was killed in a hail of 35 bullets after being confronted by police while pulling his handgun from his trunk after a day of target shooting.

To me it seems as if the Fresno Police Department no longer knows how to do actual police work. They also seem to have forgotten that their motto is “to protect and to serve”, as it’s been a long time since I’ve seen a cop from Fresno do either of these things. The modern Fresno Police Department has transformed itself into more of a business than a police department, which is quite obvious if you’ve driven much around Fresno. Officers on motorcycles line the streets (I’ve personally seen four of them within a couple hundred feet on Friant next to Woodward Lakes) issuing tickets for every traffic violation, no matter how minor, that they can muster up.

It’s no secret that Fresno can use all of the money it can get its hands on right now, but these problems need to be fixed the right way, not by giving motorcycle cops so much overtime that they make $100,000 per year. I understand being a police officer is a high risk job, but that’s a salary I would expect a tenured FBI agent to make, not a local traffic cop (who may not even see much crime at all).

It’s not surprising that nothing ever gets better within the department, with Jerry Dyer, the Chief of Police, being nothing more than a local celebrity and politician these days. It’s embarrassing to go to an event in Fresno and see Dyer and Mayor Ashley Swearengin parading in front of the press like they’re walking down the red carpet at the Oscars ( I witnessed this myself at the final day of filming for Extreme Home Makeover here in Fresno). 

For the quality of work being produced right now by the department, we certainly shouldn’t be giving them as much money as they are receiving currently. The fleets and fleets of new police vehicles and toys are nothing but slap to the face of local taxpayers in a time when most citizens cannot afford much more than paying their bills.

Even with all the money that the FPD is getting these days, they can’t seem to produce quality officers through their training. In the recent shooting death of Steven Willis by the Fresno Police Department, he was shot at 35 times by two officers after pulling a pistol out of his trunk when returning home to his apartment. That means that the officers actually emptied their clips, reloaded, and continued firing. Steven was hit with 14 bullets, 3 of which hit him in the back. Either these officers are so afraid of the local citizens that they panicked and acted unbecoming of a police officer, or they were hit men killing their target. To shoot that many bullets at someone, let alone in a heavily populated apartment complex, is completely unnecessary and over the top. I would even go as far as to say that those officers posed more danger to the residents of that apartment complex than the criminals located in Fresno ever could.

There has been local calls for hiring someone to audit the FPD, but hiring someone to audit them is just the start. The entire department needs to be reformed from top to bottom, beginning with getting rid of Jerry Dyer. People need to be able to trust the police for them to do their job well, and right now in Fresno that just isn’t possible.