Issue link: http://www.epageflip.net/i/340349
"I'mconfused.I thought July 4 was the day our country de- clared independence from King George III of Great Britain." "Actually, according to ConstitutionFacts. com, that's not so. The Continental Congress declared independence from Great Brit- ain on July 2, 1776." "Then why do we cele- brate our independence on the Fourth every year? Is that when we started the American Revolution?" "That is a common mis- understanding, as well. The American Revolution began in April 1775, more than a year earlier." "I'm stumped. Was the Fourth the day Thomas Jeffer- son wrote the first draft of the Declaration of Independence?" "Nope. Thomas Jefferson wrote the first draft in June 1776. Also, Jefferson didn't write the Declaration alone." "He didn't? I always thought he was the sole author." "A common misconception. In fact, the Continental Con- gress appointed a five-person to write the Declaration. It in- cluded Jefferson, Benjamin Franklin, John Adams, Rob- ert Livingston and Roger Sher- man." "How about that." "Though Jefferson wrote the first draft, it was changed 86 times by other members of the committee and other members of the Continental Congress." "Interesting, but what the heck happened on July 4?" "That was the day that the Continental Congress, after two days of discussion and de- bate, agreed on the final word- ing of the Declaration of Inde- pendence." "And that was also the day members of the Continental Congress signed the document and sent it off to old Georgie?" "Actually, they didn't sign the Declaration until Aug. 2, 1776. Nonetheless, July 4, 1776, became the date that was in- cluded on the final handwrit- ten draft, and that is the date people associate most with our independence." "Interesting stuff, but when did the Fourth of July become a national holiday?" "Well, for the first few de- cades after the Declaration was signed, our young nation didn't celebrate its indepen- dence on any date. Be- lieve it or not, by the 1790s, the Declaration would become contro- versial, and some had no desire to celebrate it." "Two decades after it was signed, it became controversial?" "Bitter partisan conflicts existed then, as they do now. ConstitutionFacts.com says that the Democratic-Republi- cans, who admired Jefferson and the Declaration, argued with the other party, the Fed- eralists, who thought the Dec- laration was too pro-French and too anti-British." "Our politicians haven't changed much, have they?" "In 1817, 41 years after the Declaration, John Adams com- plained that Americans were uninterested in their past. By the 1820s and 1830s, however, new parties rose to power that 'considered themselves inheri- tors of Jefferson and the Dem- ocratic-Republicans,' says Con- stitutionFacts.com . They circulated copies of the Dec- laration, which featured July 4, 1776, as the day it was final- ized." "The sound like modern-day tea partyers!" "Then something else hap- pened that would further ce- ment 'July 4' in the minds of many. Both Thomas Jefferson and John Adams would die on July 4, 1826, exactly 50 years after July 4, 1776." "That's some interesting stuff!" "In any event, over the years, Americans began cel- ebrating America's indepen- dence on the Fourth. Finally, in 1870, almost 100 years after the Declaration was written, the Congress declared July 4 to be a national holiday." "Things sure do move slowly in Washington." "This Fourth of July will mark the 238th anniversary of the Declaration, a fascinat- ing document that opened our country's doors to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness — and tremendous opportu- nity for millions." "We surely have had a good run. I hope we can keep it go- ing." "We can keep it going so long as all Americans under- stand the uniqueness of the American experiment and what makes it work. It all be- gins with our Declaration, which we can all learn more about." TomPurcell,authorof"Mis- adventures of a 1970s Child- hood" and "Comical Sense: A Lone Humorist Takes on a World Gone Nutty!" is a Pitts- burgh Tribune-Review humor columnist. Send comments to Tom at Purcell@caglecartoons. com. Column Fourth of July fast facts Believe it or not, by the 1790s, the Declaration would become controversial, and some had no desire to celebrate it. Walbridgeodorissue Editor: The residents on Walbridge were finally allowed to be on the city agenda after being de- nied since 2010 right after the Greenville Rancheria eight- home subdivision was built. Mr. Crabtree refused our requests to be placed on the agenda stat- ing the city was working on the problems. Their idea of "working on the problem" was to focus on my home. Every test that was available was used. My home kept coming up negative. We fi- nally hired a plumber to do the camera test. This test is done by inserting a camera into the sewage pipe and navigating it through the pipe until it gets to the city's sewage hookup. The camera is able to see if there were any cracks or other block- ages that could create a prob- lem. There were no problems. The city didn't believe the outcome so they did the same test the next day, which came to the same conclusion. We asked to be reimbursed as the city told us this was the ulti- mate test that would actually achieve a result. However, the city continually said it still had to be my house. It took us over six months to get a refund and a lot of paperwork between Mr. Crabtree and myself. On June 3 we spoke to the council through the public com- ment period. The council asked Bruce Heinz, the Public Works director, to write a report on this issue. On June 17, we were on the agenda. We received our copies of this report on Friday before the meeting. The distortion of the truth overwhelmed me. Test results taken on my house was a falsification of the real results, I know, I was there. Mr. Heinz is still blaming our homes, now stating that our home's rooftop vents are not long enough and that they do not have a filter over them. Now this is what he says about Greenville Rancheria sub- division. 1) As required by the Sewer Use Regulations included within City Code Section 18.13(B): The property owner is responsible for the inspection, maintenance, and repair of a home's interior plumbing and private service lateral. Truth, Land owned by Native Ameri- cans is exempt. 2) The flushing of a system needs to begin at the top end of the system which starts at the pump station which in this case is the station on the Green- ville Rancheria. This pumping station and its associated force main is not owned or main- tained by the City of Red Bluff so their investigation has added several intricate issues. In other words they have to get permis- sion to even look at it, and the Public Works staff has no con- trol over the operations and maintenance of the pumping facility. This pumping station pumps 1800 gallons per day and needs to pump sewage down- hill, then across the old city dump, and then back up the hill to reach the main manhole to hook up to the city sewage. This pipe is 2250 feet in length. This pump is currently programmed to operate on a slowly reoccur- ring cycle. Mr. Heinz also said, "The flow characteristics within the force main is problem- atic", which means a significant amount of pumped raw sewage remains in the low points of the 2250 foot length, which is over 95% of the total length. 3) Typically, long force mains are designed with frequent sealed service clean outs along their length to facilitate clean- ing and locating blockage. The Greenville Rancheria force main lacks these components. In other words, they were ex- empt from having to comply with city codes. My understand- ing is this pumping station can- not withstand the flushing of the lines. High volume flush- ing of the entire system can cre- ate siphon pressures that can potentially damage the force main. 4) The City does not want to take over, either the com- plete ownership, or the oper- ational maintenance of this plumbing station, because they would need to assume the on- going costs, and eventually, re- placement costs which are deemed impractical. Either op- tion would create both mainte- nance issues and significant ad- ditional expense to the city and a lot of headaches. My analy- sis is that the city would rather shift the blame to the home- owners of Walbridge. 5) City participation in own- ership or operational mainte- nance is expensive and instal- lation of additional sewer line clean outs would be necessary to accommodate effective oper- ational maintenance. My take of this is if the city gets away with this by making private homeowners go through expensive on-going tests, ex- tending vent pipes, and use of costly filters, all homes and businesses around the River Park and Chamber of Com- merce will have to do the same due to the same unpleasant smell. Plus all the homes and businesses around the slough, which experience the same stench, will have to do the same as well. I believe the city is responsi- ble for the lack of enforcement and for not abiding by their own city codes. No one should be exempt from the city codes, they are there for a reason. How you can keep yourselves from going through this: Call Bruce Heinz at 527-2605 ext. 3055 or any council member and voice your ideas and concerns. — Kathy Nelson, Red Bluff Innocent victims Editor: Drones killing terrorists may include innocent victims. How many people take med- icines with side effects com- pared to those who prefer to suffer the consequences of in- action. — Steve Kelsey, Corning Your opinions Cartoonist's take By Ron Paul This week Americans will en- joy Independence Day with family cookouts and fireworks. Flags will be displayed in abundance. Sadly, however, what should be a celebra- tion of the courage of those who risked so much to oppose tyranny will instead be turned into a cele- bration of government, not liberty. The mainstream media and op- portunistic politicians have turned Independence Day into the oppo- site of what was intended. The idea of opposing — by force if necessary — a tyrannical government has been turned into a celebration of tyrannical gov- ernment itself. The evidence is all around us. How would the signers of the Declaration of Independence have viewed, for example, the Obama Administration's "drone memo," finally released last week, which claims to justify the president's killing American citizens with- out charge, judge, jury, or over- sight? Is this not a tyranny sim- ilar to that which our Founders opposed? And was such power concentrated in one branch of government not what inspired the rebellion against the English king in the first place? The "drone memo," released af- ter an ACLU freedom of informa- tion request, purports to estab- lish the president alone as the ar- biter of who is or is not a terrorist subject to execution by the US government. There is no due pro- cess involved, just the determina- tion of the president. Thus far the only American citizens killed by the president are Anwar al-Aw- laki and his teenaged son, but the precedent has been established, according to the memo, that the president has the authority to kill Americans he believes are terror- ists. Even the New York Times, which generally backs whatever US administration is in power, is troubled by the White House's le- gal justification to claim the au- thority to kill Americans. A Times editorial last week concluded that: ...the memo turns out to be a slapdash pastiche of legal theo- ries — some based on obscure in- terpretations of British and Israeli law — that was clearly tailored to the desired result. I agree with the New York Times' conclusion that, "[t]his memo should never have taken so long to be released, and more doc- uments must be made public. The public is still in the dark on too many vital questions." Coincidentally, in addition to the "drone memo" released last week, a broader study of the US use of drones was also released by the Stimson Center. The study, co-chaired by Gen. John Abi- zaid, former U.S. Central Com- mand (CENTCOM) commander, concluded that contrary to claims that drones help prevent wider conflicts by targeting specific in- dividuals, the use of drones "may create a slippery slope leading to continual or wider wars." In fact, the study concluded, the use of drones overseas is likely counterproductive. "Civilian ca- sualties, even if relatively few, can anger whole communities, in- crease anti-US sentiment and be- come a potent recruiting tool for terrorist organizations," the study found. Seven years ago I wrote in an Independence Day column: Only the safe-guards and limita- tions that are enshrined in a con- stitutionally-limited republic can prohibit a nation from lurching to- ward empire...I hope every person who reads or hears this will take the time to go back and read the Declaration of Independence. Only by recapturing the spirit of inde- pendence can we ensure our gov- ernment never resembles the one from which the American States declared their separation. On Independence Day we should remember the spirit of re- bellion against tyranny that in- spired our Founding Fathers to set out our experiment in liberty. We should ourselves celebrate and continue that struggle if we are to keep our republic. Ron Paul is a former Congressman and Presidential candidate. He can be reached at RonPaulChannel.com. Another view Celebrate Independence Day by opposing tyranny GregStevens,Publisher Chip Thompson, Editor EDITORIAL BOARD How to have your say: Letters must be signed and provide the writer's home street address and home phone number. Anonymous letters, open letters to others, pen names and petition-style letters will not be allowed. Letters should be typed and no more than two double-spaced pages or 500words. When several letters address the same issue, a cross section will be published. Email: editor@red bluffdailynews.com Phone: 530-527- 2151ext. 112 Mail to: P.O. Box 220, 545 Diamond Ave., Red Bluff, CA 96080 Facebook: Leave comments at FACEBOOK.COM/ RBDAILYNEWS Twitter: Follow and send tweets to @REDBLUFFNEWS Tom Purcell OPINION » redbluffdailynews.com Wednesday, July 2, 2014 » MORE AT FACEBOOK.COM/RBDAILYNEWS AND TWITTER.COM/REDBLUFFNEWS A6