Of cats and frogs

For the past few months we’ve heard from writers from the left-leaning coasts and a few in between disparaging our congressman. Borrowing a phrase from a dear departed friend, here’s a view from a Bako CIO. I’m very proud of the Kern native who sits in the Speaker’s office, who as a young man led his team in making Kern a majority Republican county in the 1990s.

Several months ago in these pages I predicted the onslaught of criticism from left-leaners.

I also predicted that Speaker Kevin McCarthy would be a master “herder of cats,” which he proved to be in leading the GOP to enter negotiations in a strong position. Now those negotiations have resulted in an agreement which, predictably, is opposed by a few on the far right and quite a few on the far left. The question now is whether the speaker and the president (in a phrase borrowed from Trey Gowdy) can “keep their frogs in the wheelbarrow.”

I’m sure Speaker McCarthy can lead his team, with a few exceptions on the far-right, to avoid default; it remains to be seen if the president can lead the larger group of far-left members to restrain their spending and avoid default. For the good of the country let’s pray that he can. — John Stovall, Bakersfield

GIVE CREDIT WHERE CREDIT IS DUE

Government takes a lot of flak when things go wrong, and it’s quite fashionable to assume all bureaucrats are inept.

However, give credit where credit is due and the many parties that made sure the Isabella dam was repaired before this very wet winter did things right.

Speaker Kevin McCarthy gets a lot of flak for his misplaced loyalty to Donald Trump, but like Bill Thomas before him he made sure to secure the funding for the Army Corps of Engineers to do the needed repairs to keep Bakersfield from flooding.

All the many government employees that did the work over the past few years deserve our gratitude.

The Californian coverage pointed out that many weirs were added along the Kern River since our last mega-wet year in 1983 and how much water they can divert to further reduce the risk of flooding. Thanks, engineers who did that, as well as adding the Emergency Spillway to the dam that they believe will not even be necessary this year despite the large snowmelt.

Ronald Reagan’s quote about “I’m from the government and I’m here to help” being a terrifying sentence does not seem to apply in this case. — Pete Tittl, Bakersfield

A BEAUTIFUL CASA DAY

As a CASA volunteer, it can be a challenge finding things to do with our kiddos. On Saturday, May 27, I had the privilege of going with my kiddo as well as a number of other kiddos, to the waterpark in Clovis courtesy of Lennar Homes.

Each child was accompanied by a CASA. It could not have been a better day for the kids. They started out the day by receiving backpacks from Lennar which thoughtfully included a full-size beach towel, sunblock and a small emergency kit, in addition to snacks for the kids.

They then embarked on a very nice travel bus, and arrived at the water park after about two hours.

My kiddo could not wait to get into the water, but alas, we had to eat lunch first. As soon as he had the requisite number of bites of pizza (yeah, I am one of THOSE), he moved quickly into the wave pool where he stayed the duration of the day. He absolutely LOVED the day.

Thank you to Lennar Homes, and to the staff members who gave up their Saturday for this event. It is a privilege to volunteer for this amazing organization. If you have any interest at all in volunteering, I urge you to consider becoming a CASA volunteer; it is an incredibly worthwhile endeavor.

SCHOOL VOUCHER LEGISLATION

Stephen Moore suggested Texas follow Arizona’s lead in school voucher programs. He touts the advantage of personal freedom on how to school your children. We’ve always had that choice, but what they want is to have government funded “private schools.”

Unfortunately, this is just another part of our lives they can profit from.

Think health care, HMOs getting rich on our health care or lack thereof. Does it ever make sense to add an element that takes from the budget for profit?

This just leads to corruption. In Arizona, for instance, state representative and private school owner Eddie Farnsworth stands to profit more than a million from his vote. Can we say conflict of interest? — Henry Barron, Bakersfield

CAN THE ‘TUBES’ WITHSTAND THE WATER?

Have the “tubes” at the Coffee Road bridge been engineering certified to withstand the 10,000 to 15,000 cubic feet per second water flows indicated in Steven Mayer’s May 24 article, “Isabella Dam outflow downstream toward Bakersfield sets new record high”?

If not, they should be removed before the high flows reach Bakersfield. If the tubes break loose they will create a dam at Coffee Road resulting in an extensive flood south all along Truxtun Avenue and the into the offices and homes. — James Morse, Bakersfield