Committed parents: Letters to the editor, Feb. 27, 2019

Committed parents key to education

“We believe parents can be really great partners in identifying what needs to be done at a school” was the quote by Carrie Hahnel in The Bee article (Feb. 9) regarding underperforming FUSD schools. Having worked at one of these schools for more than two decades, let me share a few observations:

▪ Children having children. Multiple times I’ve had 13-year-old students with parents in their mid-20s. Several times I’ve called home and, when I do get a working number, I get a parent that I have awoken from a drug/alcohol induced slumber slurring their speech — at noon!

▪ I’ve seen parents at promotion ceremonies at our school wearing “Fu#% the Police!” T-shirts. I’ve sat at parent conferences with parents tatted up their neck with the teardrop under their eye. A substantial percentage of our parents don’t work and never graduated high school. Are these the parents Ms. Hahnel expects to direct school-based decisions?

If poverty stricken California keeps ignoring the real issues and instead embrace lunacy like “restorative justice” that fails to provide proper discipline to students, we’ll continue to see “inmates running the asylum.” Show me a school that excels and I’ll show you parents that care.

A congregation of one is result

Mr. Rick Meador (“As The Who sang, smile, and grin,” Feb. 7), just remember, the rabbi who praises himself has a congregation of one (”Fiddler on the Roof”).

I’m just sayin’…

Turks trample over American values

The American values that we take for granted are made apparent by those who disregard or exploit them. In 2017 when Turkey’s President (Recep Tayyip) Erdoğan was confronted with peaceful protestors (mostly Kurds) during his visit to Washington, D.C., he had no qualms about ordering his bodyguards to cross the line of D.C. police and beat up the demonstrators.

Recently in the Los Angeles area, a masked individual broken into two Armenian community schools to hang Turkish flags throughout the campuses. The police called this act a hate crime.

Similarly, Turkish corporations show little appreciation of the concept of shared interest, so necessary for doing business in the United States. This past month a proposed visit to Fresno by three Turkish agricultural trade organizations was cancelled due to objection from Armenian growers as well as the larger Armenian community.

Considering that the Armenian Genocide resulted not only in the murder of 1.5 million people but also the confiscation of Armenian property, Fresno Armenians found it unacceptable to entertain Turkish companies that still profit from the plunder of the genocide. The Turkish organizations responded by denying the reality of the genocide and essentially calling potential business contacts liars.

Housing expert gave key help

I want to give a “shout out” to John Shore at the Community Housing Council of Fresno for doing a terrific job for the Valley.

I was buying a home using an FHA loan. I noted that the down payment required was almost twice the typical amount required by FHA. My loan officer said there was not much he could do for me. I knew something was fishy. So, I asked John Shore, the executive director at CHC to review my loan document.

Mr. Shore’s reviews prompted the loan officer to make some edifications that saved me a total of $4,500.

Soon after that event, the loan officer notified me that I must pay for a second appraisal fee and a new application fee because certain FHA rules were not met. I went back to Mr. Shore for advice and was able to avoid paying these faulty fees.

Please be aware! Not everyone is honest … Some will take advantage of you regardless of your social or professional status. Look at what happened to me; it can also happen to anybody regardless of social/professional status or skin color.

Thank you, John Shore, for the terrific job you do for the Valley.