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6A – Daily News – Wednesday, September 15, 2010 Opinion D NEWSAILY RED BLUFF TEHAMACOUNTY T H E V O I C E O F T E H A M A C O U N T Y S I N C E 1 8 8 5 Mountain lions Editor: I found the Saturday headline. "DFG: No signs of mountain lions in Red Bluff" ironically humorous and naive at best. Just Friday evening we almost Greg Stevens, Publisher gstevens@redbluffdailynews.com Chip Thompson, Editor editor@redbluffdailynews.com Editorial policy The Daily News opinion is expressed in the editorial. The opinions expressed in columns, letters and cartoons are those of the authors and artists. Letter policy The Daily News welcomes let- ters from its readers on timely topics of public interest. All let- ters must be signed and pro- vide the writer’s home street address and home phone num- ber. Anonymous letters, open letters to others, pen names and petition-style letters will not be allowed. Letters should be typed and cannot exceed two double-spaced pages or 500 words. 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How to reach us Main office: 527-2151 Classified: 527-2151 Circulation: 527-2151 News tips: 527-2153 Sports: 527-2153 Obituaries: 527-2151 Photo: 527-2153 On the Web www.redbluffdailynews.com Fax Newsroom: 527-9251 Classified: 527-5774 Retail Adv.: 527-5774 Legal Adv.: 527-5774 Business Office: 527-3719 Address 545 Diamond Ave. Red Bluff, CA 96080, or P.O. Box 220 Red Bluff, CA 96080 ran over them on Adobe Road coming into Surrey Village. The cubs played and danced in our headlights as we watched in amazement. They are not afraid of us. The lioness was already across the road waiting in the brush. There were three of us in the car. We all saw them. They were coming up from the river, following one of the deer trails. Probably had their nightly drink of water and getting ready for the hunt. They went up the hill, next to several houses. The issue is too many deer, so they have ample feed. They won't leave on their own. We need to move them or scare them out. The lioness is in training mode. The cubs are medium dog sized. She is training them on the hunt. This will be their territory. She may range elsewhere, when breed- ing season comes, but this area is the cubs’ home. Right now the cattle are still on summer range, but will soon be back. In the spring the rodeo stock broodmares come in to foal out. We don't need the cats dining on livestock. I called on Friday night to report this incident, first to the police who said it is a county issue, call the sheriff. I did and was for- warded to DFG in Sacramento (916) 358-1300. I talked with Crystal, who gave me a local DFG # 530 225-2300, where I was for- warded to a recording that said if this is a "public safety issue call 916 358-1312. I called and got Crystal again. She said to call the Redding number on Monday. Unless the lion was still in sight and threatening, she can't do any- thing. Simply put, I didn't get any- where on Friday night. Then Sat- urday the headlines about no lions. So, today, Monday, I started over. I called the local number. On the third attempt, the call was answered and the person put me through to "wild life manage- ment," where I got a recording and left a message. I then recalled the sheriff department and spoke with Zak, who patiently listened to me. He agreed that the cats are here and said he would take the info and try to get through to the DFG. Maybe coming from the sheriff's office it will have more meaning. Somebody's going to have to get hurt, or their prized horse or pet killed before something gets done here. Or the cats get shot. I hate to see any of that happen, when we can prevent it. Pro-active is always better than re-active. The DFG saying there are no signs of lions in Red Bluff, is like the housing industry saying prices aren't falling. Ha. Paula Holden, Red Bluff Camp a negative for neighbors Editor: The olive growers won't share the pain associated with a neighborhood migrant camp near Woodson Bridge and South Avenue in Corning. Several of the problems in our Corning neighborhood migrant camp include: It takes 45 minutes for the sheriff to respond to loud music com- plaints, three unsolved property thefts costing $4,500 this past decade, neighbors will need to add the cost of security lighting and home invasion alarms, camp owner doesn't participate in repair of the private road damaged by camp occupants and there will certainly be many abandoned vehicles, and the county seldom enforces code violations. Neighbors will loose proper- ty value. The migrant camp for 140 on a small plot of land is a neg- ative for the neighborhood. Joseph Neff, Corning Red Bluff bluff Editor: The strategy of the right, at this time, is to emphasize sover- eignal freedom because liberals have been usually seen as weak on defense, more interested in spreading socialism, get alongism and general huggy buggyism. Sovereignal freedom is one of the three elements that compose freedom. There are three ele- ments to freedom. Sovereignal is a national freedom. Basically, the strength to defend against takeover and enslavement by another nation. It is the most important, of course. Because you can’t have the other two without the first. The second is civic. That’s simple. The right to be heard. The vote. The third is personal freedom. The freedom to go about and do as one choos- es without restriction. So there. Within one para- graph, you actually know what freedom really is. It’s more than one thing. It’s three things put together. Your Turn There is sometimes a tension between two or more of the three elements of freedom. A conflict between them. Two examples are the Japanese being put in camps during World War II and the increased police power after 9/11. People saw the number one freedom, sovereignal, as threat- ened. So they compromised the personal freedom element to support the most important one. If people see a threat to sover- eignal freedom, they will com- promise personal freedom until the threat is removed. So, I will leave it up to you to decide if, for example, Muslims building a center a few blocks from Ground Zero is really a big threat to our sovereignal freedom so that we must vote all weak kneed liberals out of office so we won’t be overrun by terrorist, anchor baby Muslims. Whatever scare it takes to fool you into worrying about your sovereignal freedom so you will vote for perceived sover- eignal strength, it’s called a bluff. In Red Bluff, we know how to bluff a monstrously big bull into doing something that, if it had a brain, it would know it really doesn’t have to do. Because it is difficult to get such a big, strong and headstrong ani- mal to do something if he does- n’t want to do it. So we fool him. Little puny us scares him. We bluff him. There’s a lot more bluffing going on outside the rodeo than there is inside. James Bryant, Red Bluff Your officials STATE ASSEMBLYMAN — Jim Nielsen (R), State Capitol Bldg., Room 4164 P.O. Box 942849, Sacramento 94249; (916) 319-2002; Fax (916) 319- 2102 STATE SENATOR — Sam Aanestad (R), State Capitol Bldg., Room 2054, Sacramen- to, CA 95814. (916) 651-4004; Fax (916) 445-7750 GOVERNOR — Arnold Schwarzenegger (R), State Capitol Bldg., Sacramento, CA 95814; (916) 445-2841; Fax (916) 558-3160; E-mail: gover- nor@governor.ca.gov. U.S. REPRESENTATIVE — Wally Herger (R), 2635 Forest Ave. Ste. 100, Chico, CA 95928; 893-8363. U.S.SENATORS — Dianne Feinstein (D), One Post Street, Suite 2450, San Francisco, CA 94104; (415) 393-0707. Fax (415) 393-0710. Barbara Boxer (D), 1700 Montgomery St., Suite 240, San Francisco, CA 94111; (415) 403-0100. Fax (202) 224- 0454. We can fix what ails us Commentary Sure, the economy is a mess and the future isn't looking so hot. But we've had big problems before -- we've solved them before. Take polio. According to the book "SuperFreakonomics," it would be hard to invent a more fright- ening illness. Polio struck chil- dren. Nobody knew how it was contracted. There was no pre- vention or cure. And it hit hard every summer. My Aunt Cece contracted polio in the summer of 1951, just as she was starting the eighth grade. She came home from school with a high temperature, feeling very ill. The next morning, her legs gave out as she tried to get out of bed. By that evening, she was so weak she could barely move. The public was in such a panic that the ambulance driver wouldn't take her to the hospital for fear that other patients might become infected. The Health Department quar- antined her family -- a notice was placed on their front door. My mother and her four other siblings were forbidden to leave their home or accept visitors for two weeks, the lifespan of the virus. Within two weeks, polio had ravaged my aunt's body. Her arms and legs were paralyzed to varying degrees. She could bare- ly lift her head. It would be a year before she could go home. She would need crutches for the rest of her life. In 1952, America had its worst bout with the virus. More than 57,000 polio cases were reported nationwide. Of those, 3,000 died and 21,000 were par- alyzed permanently. Had a preventive for polio not been found, say the authors of "SuperFreakonomics," the Unit- ed States would now be caring for at least 250,000 long-term polio patients at an annual cost of $30 billion. In the 1950s there was an abundance of fear and doubt. But we didn't dwell on what was wrong. We did what Americans always do. We focused on the solution. The March of Dimes -- the largest charitable army the coun- try had ever known, according to David M. Oshinsky, author of "Polio: An American Story" -- mobilized millions to raise money. A long line of researchers, including Jonas Salk, refused to accept defeat. Togeth- er, we won. On April 12, 1955, Salk's vac- cine was declared safe and effective. It's easy to find clar- We are in the midst of sig- nificant challenges now. Our economy is stagnant. We're on an unsustainable spending path. There is an uneasy sense that things will get plenty worse before they get better. ity regarding events that took place about 50 years ago, but polio in the '50s certainly was dire. We responded well to the challenge. Though her legs were left partially paralyzed, my Aunt Cece dwelled on what she could do, not on what she couldn't. It took her two years of rehabilita- tion before she was able to get around on her own. She'd even- tually marry and have four chil- dren and seven grandchildren. Tom Purcell now. But we've been here before -- hello, late 1970s -- and good peo- ple came forward with new ideas, innovations and government poli- cies that resolved our problems. We kicked polio's butt, and I'm hopeful we'll do likewise to the challenges facing us Tom Purcell, a humor columnist for the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, is nationally syndicated exclusively by Cagle Cartoons newspaper syndicate. Visit Tom on the Web at www.TomPurcell.com or e-mail him at Purcell@caglecartoons.com. ———