Active wildfire season heralds need for more volunteers
Residents of Kern County have faced an above-normal wildfire season as more disasters threaten to upend more communities. Larger and more intense wildfires are being driven by more frequent hot and dry conditions, and continue to frequently displace our neighbors.
This growing need for help means that the American Red Cross is seeking new volunteers to support families facing their darkest moments.
The Red Cross depends on volunteers — representing 90% of its workforce — to provide shelter, comfort, hot meals, health services, recovery support and more to families left in need after disasters. In the last two months, dozens of local Red Cross volunteers have opened nine shelters for wildfires that have displaced Kern County evacuees — sometimes even affected by the wildfire themselves. In the middle of the night or during a weekend, volunteers jump into action to ensure their neighbors are provided comfort and care when it’s needed most.
Team-oriented people who want to make an immediate difference should visit redcross. org/volunteertoday to join the Red Cross. There is a critical need for local Disaster Action Team, Shelter Services and Health Services volunteers.
We’re grateful for the outpouring of community support our volunteers have received this summer. We couldn’t fulfill our mission without the dedication these outstanding volunteers show our community and beyond. We hope you sign up to put on the red vest alongside them.
— Hector Vazquez, executive director, American Red Cross, Kern County and Eastern Sierra Chapter
A SHOUTOUT TO STAFF AT BROOKDALE SENIOR LIVING
I would like to give a shoutout to the complete staff at Brookdale Senior Living/rehabilitation on Calloway Drive. The entire staff is the definition of caring while being professional.
The education and training they exhibit is beyond reproach. Not a person from administration to the variety of support staff along with specifically trained personnel are unapproachable to residents and family. To specifically name persons would only eliminate names that should be given.
Thank you to al!
— Rex Wanlass, Bakersfield
THE BIG PICTURE
A recent Community Voice by Andy Wahrenbrock brought up two interesting points but, in my opinion, missed the big picture. The first was that “Since the opening of the Federal Reserve Bank, in 1914, America has… eras[ed] 97% of the dollar’s purchasing power.”
That sounds terrible, but if you consider how much better off the average American is with housing, transportation, clothing and diet compared to 1914, maybe that loss of purchasing power isn’t so bad.
Second, there was a quote from John Adams, “There never was a democracy yet that did not commit suicide.”
Adams was a brilliant guy who shared a distaste for pure democracy (every decision is decided or reversed with a vote) with many of our Founding Fathers, which is why they put checks and balances into our constitution. Adams said that in 1814, 210 years ago, and our democratic republic is alive (though threatened).
None of the countries who were ruled by monarchs in 1814 still are. All human institutions have flaws, but looking at the big picture seems to show that the federal reserve system and democracy have worked pretty well.
— Jay C. Smith, Bakersfield
FACILITATE A TWO-STATE SOLUTION IN ISRAEL
In just the past week, Netanyahu has targeted and assassinated two Iran-backed military commanders on foreign soil, one in Beirut and one in Tehran. The Hamas commander that was assassinated in Tehran was considered a moderate and was part of the U.S.-led negotiations to end the relentless bombing and destruction of Gaza by Israel, to open the flow of desperately needed aid to starving, injured and dying Palestinians (39,000 Palestinian civilians killed to date), and to secure the release of the remaining Israeli hostages.
These assassinations by Netanyahu’s Israel followed an Israeli bombing of an Iranian embassy in Syria last April, committing yet another violation of the Geneva Convention and “rules of engagement.”
Netanyahu has been convicted in the WCC of the genocidal massacre of those Palestinian civilians, denying the necessary aid, the total destruction of Gaza, and the banning of outside press coverage to reveal his many war crimes. It is obvious that Netanyahu’s intent is to provoke his Arab neighbors into a regional Middle East war in order to draw the U.S. into it, and also for the purpose of deflecting attention away from his pending prosecution at home. A large-scale war in that region could potentially lead to World War III.
The U.S. has all the leverage it needs to force Israel to stop creating havoc in Gaza, the West Bank, and across the Middle East, and compel Netanyahu into doing what’s right. Our leaders just need the backbone, follow their conscience, resist the dark money from AIPAC, and facilitate a twostate solution in Israel, bringing true peace to the region.
— Richard Thesken, Bakersfield
COMPLIANCE WITH THE 10TH AMENDMENT
Wade Eagleton seemingly let his imagination and his political preferences run amok in his Aug. 1 letter to the editor (“Women’s lives are at risk.”) He listed every conceivable rationale for the Supreme Court’s recent ruling on Roe v. Wade — except the correct one.
It’s very simple.
This same ruling should have been effected 50 years ago at its initial opportunity. It is required compliance with the 10th Amendment to our Constitution, which says: The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.
The court’s rationale had nothing whatsoever to do with abortion. It was simple and appropriate compliance with this amendment. And nothing else.
There are many other extra-Constitutional powers usurped by the federal government that should receive a similar ruling. Not doing so is one reason the federal level of our government is much larger that it should be.
We’ll be a better nation if added rulings based on the 10th Amendment were effected.
— John Pryor, Bakersfield
YES, I WANT TRUMP IN THE WHITE HOUSE
This is in response to the recent opinion letter “This Falls On Trump.” What “America” are you living in right now? In not quite four years under Bidenomics, we’ve seen inflation through the roof; two major wars erupt, one of which could easily become nuclear; the embarrassment that was the Afghanistan “withdrawal,” which caused the unnecessary deaths of 13 service members and the leaving behind of enough armaments that went immediately into the hands of warlords; the decline of our military due to the woke mentality!
We’ve seen a southern border policy that’s allowed untold millions of illegal immigrants, unvetted, to stroll into our country using up our medical and welfare systems! I could go on but I’m limited with space restraints.
But in answer to your question: Yes! I want Trump back in the White House! It will be 10 times better than what we’ve had the last four years! And let us not forget the weaponization of the DOJ and FBI. MAGA!
— Gary Summers, Taft
CONSIDER LIBERTARIAN CANDIDATES
The Chase Oliver / Mike ter Maat campaign is an important one to watch. As a millennial myself, it is amazing to see someone under 40 years old bold enough to run for the highest office in the land. But it’s not just refreshing to see someone of one of the newer generations being active traveling around the country to campaign.
Chase holds important Libertarian principles. Some of his platform involves taxing average Americans less, staying out of foreign wars while we concentrate on building up our own country, and finally chipping away at our national debt.
I once had a coworker from Venezuela who told me that before she fled to the U.S., she recalled having to race for products at grocery stores when the store opened.
We got a taste of that during the COVID times, and thankfully we don’t have to race for toilet paper the way we once did. But if we continue the path of reckless spending, our economy turning into Venezuela doesn’t seem so far off. We can see that with the higher prices at our local grocers. Even at ALDI, which is known to be a more affordable grocer, I’ve noticed the price of nuts increasing 20% to 30% compared to when I used to go.
We need to stop the irresponsible handling of our economy now. I don’t believe Biden and Trump can stop the bleeding; they’re like a Band-Aid for a massive gash. We need plenty of gauze with a careful hand.
— Chris Sicam, Bakersfield
WHY WOULD ANYONE PICK TRUMP?
I’ve been racking my brain trying to figure out why anyone would vote for Donald J. Trump. His one and only job as president was to be presidential, and we all know how that worked out.
Even though he was frequently on the golf course, he still had direct control over his party’s policies, and the tax cuts they voted in never delivered the promise of growth. The pandemic at the end of his term ushered in death, massive job losses, and horrific inflation. Budget deficits ballooned, and his tariff and trade deals never brought back lost factory jobs.
Trump proudly talks about his economic legacy, but it was his lack of leadership that worsened the country’s financial nosedive. His policies did little for the average worker, and his international trade policies hurt small business and alienated allies. Trump’s “art of the deal” didn’t help national manufacturing — much to the delight of Iran and Russia. If Trump gets his way, gasoline-powered vehicles will be all you can buy in 10 years.
Fortunately, a contributor to these pages answered my question as to why anybody would vote for Trump: Because it’s better to elect a convicted felon and egomaniac than a Democrat. Well, there you go. Would DJT’s ego allow him to press forward the hard work that Biden put into avoiding a national depression? But hey, Magadanians always go for that strong-man image they hold so dear.
— Gilbert Gia, Bakersfield
POLITICAL REALITY OF FIRE
Last Sunday’s “Fires in the West are becoming bigger, more consuming” was responsive, informative and enlightening. Thank you.
Author Heather Hollingsworth revealed a root cause that even Yale’s expert did not, “Decades of snuffing out fires at the first sign of smoke,” not just climate change.
She also revealed a powerful tool to combat them: “Use smaller controlled fires, as indigenous people did for centuries.” Despite experts complaining that massive fires are unavoidable due to climate change, this state’s fifth largest economy in the world still has resources to fight if used.
But missing is the political reality. Gov. Gavin Newsom has sounded the alarm for fire season preparation in past years, noting the Camp Fire and 81 lives lost there. But in reality his resolve shrunk to pushback by environmentalists, repeating consecutive years of unprecedented fire seasons.
The problem became national, to which President Trump responded by threatening federal intervention.
Experts blaming climate change removes the responsibility to respond to current conditions, which is doable with political will, but politicians’ will to sanction gas and natural gas while transferring to renewable sources of electricity, when the fires at home are the state’s biggest polluter.
Such hypocrisy while lesser polluters face greater state control First things first: manage state forests, fires and their unprecedented smoke pollution. For the planet, God is still in control.
— Blair Budai, Tehachapi
US OVERDUE FOR FIRST FEMALE CHIEF EXECUTIVE
The day after President Biden bowed out of his reelection bid, I felt an immediate shift in the direction of the presidential election of 2024. No longer was it a contest between two dreary, old men nobody cared about in the first place. Now, with a 59-yearold Vice President Kamala Harris inserting youth and energy into the campaign, the race has been upended.
Call it the Kamala vibe. A political sea change. Whatever it is, it is a good feeling to know the United States of America is long overdue for its first female chief executive. The days of the older white male president are over, long over. They have botched the job too many times.
Two examples come to mind: Richard M. Nixon, and the events of Jan. 6, 2021. Kamala Harris spent more than 25 years as a California local and state prosecutor, first as San Francisco district attorney and then as state of California attorney general, as well as United States senator from California from 2017-2021. If anyone in this election cycle can contain the dictator-for-a-day, Vice President Harris, the prosecutor extraordinaire, can stop the desperate despot in his tracks!
— Jeffrey Weese, Bakersfield
BIG PHARMA STANDS BY THEIR MAN DAVID VALADAO
Recently candidates for Congress submitted their fundraising reports to the Federal Election Commission. If you look at Rep. David Valadao’s fundraising report, you will see that Valadao has taken over $240,000 in contributions from drug companies since he’s been in Congress.
It’s no wonder that Valadao sides with Big Pharma instead of us who have to pay the high price for medicine. Valadao voted more than 30 times against the Affordable Healthcare Act that a lot of families rely on for health insurance!
As a diabetic and someone who suffered a stroke two years ago, I am ever aware of the importance of proper health-care management.
Whether it is you yourself, a beloved family member or devoted friend this decision impacts most of us in some way. A lower cost for these lifesaving medications is felt by those using the ACA, private insurance or Medicare.
So, whose side did David Valadao take: Valley families or drug companies? Well, the drug companies, of course. He voted against lower prices for diabetes medicines for seniors. And the drug companies keep rewarding him with more campaign contributions.
Next time The Bakersfield Californian runs a piece on Valadao and healthcare I challenge our paper to talk about Valadao’s votes that make healthcare more expensive for all of us. We need to understand the truth. We can pay the price for success, or we will pay the price for failure. The choice is ours.
— Catherine Romley, Bakersfield