Let’s chip in to soothe Mendes’ frazzled nerves

I read with alarm an account in the April 15 Bee about big, bad Buddy Mendes, chairman of the Fresno County Board of Supervisors. He shouted down at Janaki Jagarnath, who had the audacity to represent constituents in the hard-pressed community of El Porvenir, who have trouble paying for their families’ drinking water.

Chairman Mendes thundered that Ms. Jagarnath and her “leftist buddies” – in Northern California, of all evil, conspiratorial regions! – were in cahoots in a dark conspiracy yet to be detailed by powerful Chairman Mendes.

Reading the account of Chairman Mendes’ verbal assault on Ms. Jagarnath, I naturally envisioned Zeus hurling lightning bolts upon lowly mortals.

From her photo, Ms. Jagarnath appears neither threatening, conspiratorial nor menacing. She sought only affordable drinking water for the people of El Porvenir. (I’m so old I remember the days when elected government representatives like Mr. Mendes considered themselves to be public servants. Imagine that!)

Therapy would be expensive, so we taxpayers, employers of Chairman Mendes, might consider a collection to buy him a soothing private spa, perhaps with several gently rocking rubber duckies to calm or even forestall his future tantrums.

This story was originally published April 22, 2016 at 8:17 AM with the headline "Let’s chip in to soothe Mendes’ frazzled nerves."