• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer

The Valley Citizen

Pursuing truth toward justice

The Valley Citizen

Pursuing truth toward justice
  • Arts
  • Education
  • Environment
  • History
  • Nature
  • Politics
  • Wit
  • About

Anthony Canella May Have to Hide Out

August 26, 2013 By Eric Caine Leave a Comment

Anthony Canella
Anthony Canella

Now that he’s been outed as pro-labor by the Bee’s Judy Sly, Anthony Canella may have to start wearing a disguise and hide out in his own district. Canella is the Republican State Senator from Ceres. He recently co-sponsored Senate Bill 7 (SB7), which puts pressure on cities to pay prevailing wages for locally-funded projects or lose state construction funding.

Needless to say, this isn’t the kind of politics that goes over well with Modesto’s civic leaders. In fact, it’s hard to say which are loudest, their shouts for, “jobs, jobs, jobs,” or their outcries against a minimum wage.

Speaking of civic leaders, many of them are the kind of people who wouldn’t lift a toothpick for less than a 25% return on investment. These are the “job creators” who want upfront money for their housing tracts and strip malls and guaranteed profits even if the public has to foot the bill for infrastructure, police protection, and social services. When these guys say America was built on “Free Enterprise” there’s always a heavy emphasis on “Free.”

No question our movers and shakers have gotten strong from all their hard work: When it comes to paying the help, they don’t even need vice grips to leave pinch marks on their nickels.

They say people hereabouts don’t need a living wage because of the cheap housing costs, but that’s before you figure in the two-hundred mile commute to a decent pay check. At today’s gas prices, that’s a hefty addition to a mortgage payment.

By the time you factor in the increased car and home insurance premiums brought about by our prominent place at the top of the nation’s crime statistics, we’ve tacked on another bill, and that doesn’t include the extra dead bolts and alarm systems a person needs just for an early enough warning to get the shotgun loaded before the burglar gets in.

According to our leaders, laborers have it too easy. It’s not like they’re schmoozing with the leisure class at a mere four-hundred bucks an hour like the local land use attorneys. Nor are they sweating over a drafting board trying to figure out how to cram three-and-a-half bathrooms into a four thousand square foot house like one of our local architects. All these guys are doing is wielding hammers and pry bars in the July heat, or maybe resurfacing roads with boiling asphalt while the temperature climbs into the triple digits.

When Anthony Canella was Mayor of Ceres, he balanced budgets, built reserves, and funded twenty-one new police officers. Republicans are up in arms about his support for the working man, but to many of us he sounds like one of the greatest Republicans of all.

Theodore Roosevelt made history during the Anthracite Coal Strike of 1902, when he gave as much respect to laborers as he did owners. He later insisted on the workingman’s right to join unions even as he warned against abuse of union power. Anthony Canella may receive brickbats and boos from today’s extremists, but from the long view of history, he’s in the best of company.

 

 

Filed Under: Featured, Politics Tagged With: Anthony Canella, Judy Sly, SB7, Senate Bill 7

Reader Interactions

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Note: Some comments may be held for moderation.

Primary Sidebar

Off The Wire

California faces catastrophic flood dangers ? and a need to invest billions in protection
California faces catastrophic flood dangers and a need to invest billions in protection
A new state plan for the Central Valley calls for spending as much as $30 billion over 30 years to prepare for the dangers.
www.latimes.com
Oakland will get millions for the ?inhumane? crisis at one huge homeless encampment. Officials say it?s not enough
Oakland will get millions for the “inhumane” crisis at one huge homeless encampment. Officials say it’s not enough
Gavin Newsom’s administration has awarded Oakland a $4.7 million grant to come up with…
www.sfchronicle.com
Alaska?s Fisheries Are Collapsing. This Congresswoman Is Taking on the Industry She Says Is to Blame.
Alaska’s Fisheries Are Collapsing. This Congresswoman Is Taking on the Industry She Says Is to Blame.
Mary Peltola won her election by campaigning on a platform to save the state’s prized fisheries. A powerful fishing lobby is standing in her way.
www.politico.com
Jimmy Carter's final foe: A parasitic worm that preyed on millions in Africa and Asia
Jimmy Carter’s final foe: A parasitic worm that preyed on millions in Africa and Asia
One of former President Carter’s biggest hopes is wiping out an infectious parasitic disease that’s plagued humans for millennia. How close is he?
www.latimes.com
Climate Extremes Threaten California?s Central Valley Songbirds - Eos
Climate Extremes Threaten California’s Central Valley Songbirds – Eos
A “nestbox highway” in California’s Central Valley is guiding songbirds to safe nesting sites and giving scientists a peek at fledgling success in a changing climate.
eos.org
Alaska Republican touts benefits of children being abused to death
Alaska Republican touts benefits of children being abused to death
Republican David Eastman suggested the death of child abuse victims could be a “cost savings” to wider society.
www.newsweek.com
Editorial: Newsom's drought order amid wet winter threatens iconic California species
Editorial: Newsom’s drought order amid wet winter threatens iconic California species
Gov. Gavin Newsom has effectively ended environmental regulations protecting California rivers and migratory fish by extending drought-year waivers.
www.latimes.com
Two-thirds of McPherson Square homeless remain on street, D.C. says
Two-thirds of McPherson Square homeless remain on street, D.C. says
As of Thursday, just two of the more than 70 residents of McPherson Square had been placed in permanent D.C. housing.
www.washingtonpost.com
More Building Won?t Make Housing Affordable
More Building Won’t Make Housing Affordable
America’s housing crisis has reached unfathomable proportions. But new construction isn’t enough to solve it.
newrepublic.com
Why YIMBYs are about to sue the daylights out of cities across the Bay Area
Why YIMBYs are about to sue the daylights out of cities across the Bay Area
Housing advocates are about to deliver a message to the Bay Area: Comply with state…
www.sfchronicle.com
At the heart of Colorado River crisis, the mighty 'Law of the River' holds sway
At the heart of Colorado River crisis, the mighty ‘Law of the River’ holds sway
At the heart of tensions over water allotments from the Colorado River is a complex set of agreements and decrees known as the ‘Law of the River.’
www.latimes.com
Biden restores roadless protection to the Tongass, North America's largest rainforest
Biden restores roadless protection to the Tongass, North America’s largest rainforest
The Tongass National Forest in Alaska, a focus of political battles over old-growth logging and road-building in forests for decades, has received new protection from the Biden administration.
theconversation.com

Find us on Facebook

The Valley Citizen
PO Box 156
Downtown Bear Postal
1509 K Street
Modesto, CA 95354

Email us at:
thevalleycitizen@sbcglobal.net

Footer

The Valley Citizen
PO Box 156
Downtown Bear Postal
1509 K Street
Modesto, CA 95354

Email us at:
thevalleycitizen@sbcglobal.net

Subscribe for Free

* indicates required

Search

• Privacy Policy

Copyright © 2023 The Valley Citizen

Dedicated to the memory of John Michael Flint. Contact us at thevalleycitizen@sbcglobal.net

Editor and publisher: Eric Caine

Website customization and maintenance by Susan Henley Design