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GregStevens,Publisher Chip Thompson, Editor EDITORIALBOARD 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@ redbluffdailynews.com Fax: 530-527-9251 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 Givethanksthisdayforsomeindirect blessings of liberty, including the behav- ior-beyond-satire of what are generously called institutions of higher education. People who are imprecisely called educa- tors have taught, by their negative exam- ples, what intelligence is not. MelissaClick is theUni- versity of Missouri academic who shouted "I need some muscle over here" to prevent a photojournal- ist from inform- ing the public about a public demonstration intended to in- fluence the pub- lic. Click's ac- ademic credentials include a University of Massachu- setts doctoral dissertation ti- tled "It's a 'Good Thing': The Commodification of Feminin- ity, Affluence and Whiteness in the Martha Stewart Phe- nomenon." Her curriculum vitae says she studied "ad- vanced feminist studies." Ad- vanced. The best kind. University of Missouri law students, who evidently cut class the day the First Amendment was taught, wrote a social media policy that included this: "Do not comment despairingly [dis- paragingly?] on others." A grammatically challenged Ithaca College professor pro- duced this cri de coeur re- garding the school's pres- ident: "There have been a litany of episodes and in- cidents during [his] ten- ure here which have led to frustration because, when brought to his attention, the view of the protesters is that he has been unresponsive." Symptomatic of Ithaca's in- tellectual flavor is another professor, who says agricul- ture is "capitalist, racialized patriarchy." The University of Wiscon- sin, Milwaukee, an irony- free campus, declared the phrase "politically correct" a microaggression. The master of Yale's Pierson College said his regrettable title reminds distressed students of slav- ery. Wesleyan University's student government threat- ened to cut the school news- paper's funding because it published a column critical of campus leftists. Wesleyan created a "safe space," aka a house, for LGBTTQQFAG- PBDSM students (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Transsexual, Queer, Ques- tioning, Flexual, Asexual, Genderf—-, Polyamorous, Bondage/Discipline, Domi- nance/Submission, Sadism/ Masochism). A Washington State Uni- versity professor said she would lower the grade of any student who used the term "illegal immigrants" when re- ferring to immigrants here il- legally. Another Washington State professor warned in his syllabus that white students who want "to do well" in his "Introduction to Multicul- tural Literature" should show their "grasp of history and social relations" by "deferring to the experiences of people of color." Another Washing- ton State teacher, in her syl- labus for "Women & Popu- lar Culture," warned that stu- dents risk "failure for the semester" if they use "derog- atory/oppressive language" such as "referring to women/ men as females or males." The University of Tennes- see's Office of Diversity and Inclusion, worried that stu- dents might be uncomfort- able with gender specific pro- nouns (he, she, him, her), suggests gender-neutral noises (ze, hir, xe, xem, xyr). The University of Califor- nia system's sensitivity audi- tors stipulated that "hostile" and "derogatory" thoughts include "I believe the most qualified person should get the job" and "America is the land of opportunity." The University of Wisconsin, Ste- vens Point's list of racial mi- croaggressions includes "America is a melting pot" and "There is only one race, the human race." Some Johns Hopkins Uni- versity students proclaimed themselves microaggressed by the possibility of a Chick- fil-A restaurant on cam- pus. Chick-fil-A's CEO defines marriage as Barack Obama did until 2012. Mount Holy- oke College canceled its an- nual production of "The Va- gina Monologues" because it is insufficiently inclusive re- garding women without va- ginas and men who, as the saying goes, "self-identify" as women. "Gender," said a student, "is a wide and var- ied experience, one that can- not simply be reduced to bi- ological or anatomical dis- tinctions," and the show "is inherently reductionist and exclusive." Writing in the University of California, Berkeley paper, two geographically challenged stu- dents objected to a class fea- turing Plato and Aristotle and other "economically privileged white males from five imperial countries (England, France, Germany, Italy and the United States)." A branch of the Uni- versity of California, Irvine's student government passed a resolution against the display of flags. Written by a student in the School of Social Ecology ("transformative research to alleviate social inequality and human suffering"), the reso- lution said flags are "weap- ons for nationalism" and "con- struct" dangerous "cultural mythologies and narratives" and "paradigms of confor- mity" and "homogenized stan- dards" and interfere with "de- signing a culturally inclusive space." Students on Columbia University's Multicultural Affairs Advisory Board sug- gested trigger warnings for persons who might be trau- matized by reading, say, Ovid's "Metamorphoses," wherein some myths por- tray bad sexual behavior. But a feminist blog warned that the phrase "trigger warning" itself needs a warning at- tached to it because it might remind people of guns. But, then, the word "warning" might [substitute word for "trigger"] fright. So, today give thanks that 2015 has raised an important question about American higher education: What, ex- actly, is it higher than? GeorgeWill'semailaddress is georgewill@washpost.com. George Will The low depths of higher education Cartoonist's take Thanksgiving was my fa- ther's favorite holiday. At the time I did not agree. There was an absence of presents, and whereas the food was great, it usu- ally meant go- ing up to my Un- cle Stan's house high on the hill overlooking the Ide Adobe below. It was boring for a teenager. Af- ter walking out on the front lawn to check out the spectacu- lar view, and then sitting down for dinner and the small talk, that was about it. And it was the small talk that was boring. It was always about the weather or the meat plant where father was president and Uncle Stan the Kill Floor manager. Eventu- ally the television was turned on with pro football games to take up some of the time, but even then it seemed the games were held between teams that were not contenders. Nowadays, Thanksgiving in our family is spent in a more lively and congenial mode. Of course the women of the house must spend much time and en- ergy in preparation, but they appear to be geared for it and thrive on it. After dinner, additional folks straggle in from other ven- ues, ostensibly for the play. I don't know how this busi- ness got started, but for many years, we have had plays; corny plays with questionable hu- mor. They are usually myster- ies, often with sound effects, the latter because the setting is the much abused "dark and stormy night." I used to churn out a play for most holidays, but lately there are no complaints when we use previously written plays. Who cares? Who remem- bers lines such as "The bul- let hit her…and it's in her yet," which demands the question "What is her yet?" So goes the holiday at our place and a good time is had by all, at least that's what they tell the missus and me. In a way, it is a gift without the Xmas wrap. Maybe father was right about Thanksgiving. He was usually right. Too bad he did not run for public office. They might have named the new courthouse after him. ••• Pencils. Do you still use a pencil? Are you concerned about the lead in it? In 1564, in Borrowdale, Cumbria, a pure deposit of graphite was found which was a type of lead. A year later, the German natural- ist Conrad Gesner described a wooden writing tool that con- tained the substance. Nicolas Conté perfected the pencil more than a century later by mixing graphite with clay and gluing it between two strips of wood. In 1850, John Eberhard Fa- ber opened a stationary shop in New York, and an early pen- cil enthusiast, John Thoreau — father of Henry David — devel- oped the graphite-grading sys- tem. Faber grew to dominate the market. He had a machine that produced a special flat fer- rule, the metal band at the top of the pencil, and a clip that made it possible to extend the eraser. The eraser had been im- proved by adding pumice to the rubber to give it grit. Sources say that a pencil achieves its ideal length when it is sharp- ened three times. It is my ob- servation, as a dedicated pen- cil user, that a pencil that has been sharpened a dozen times loses its usefulness for it is just too short to grip properly. That said, it is often amusing to ob- serve a left handed person try- ing to write in a convoluted po- sition with a short pencil. As a post script to this fas- cinating history of the pen- cil, apparently John Faber died of a mysterious illness at 56. Sources say of lead poisoning. ••• Sightem: A pickup truck parked in front of Dolling In- surance with the word "Trump" emblazoned on the side. This suggests that anyone can run for President, and anyone can get insurance. How to scrub the word off is another matter. Probably best to sell the truck while the name is still of inter- est. ••• We plant new trees down in the grove in memory of those who have passed on. One such is a redwood planted for our son-in-law's father and it is now 30 to 40 feet tall. A new one of that specie was dedicated Thanksgiving Day in honor of the mother of B. Kelsey of Bur- lingame. Barbara is the wife of cousin Wild Bill Kelsey, and both will exclaim "Awwww" when they see it and envision its eventual growth to come. ••• Garrison Keillor, he of the ra- dio show "Prairie Home Com- panion," is one of our leading humorists today, and his mono- logues are funny and inventive. He recently compared an auto repair shop with the Lutheran Church in his imaginary "old hometown of Lake Wobegon." He said that Liz, Pastor of the church, recently had her auto in the shop for a tune up, and Gar- rison compared the one occu- pation with the other. Wounded automobiles were brought in to the shop and healed. However, Lutherans came into the church in similar condition but seldom could testify they were made whole, in fact were often em- barrassed about the sins they had confessed to Pastor Liz. Maybe you had to be there. ••• When hearing of a terrorist attack such as the recent one in Paris, we think of it as an infre- quent and isolated attack. How- ever, sources say there were 13,463 terrorist attacks in 2014, which breaks down to 1,222 per month, 37 each day and one at- tack of brutality every 40 min- utes. No wonder we see uni- formed police on television ev- ery day and night. We may think we are watching old busi- ness, when in reality it is prob- ably just new terror being un- leashed hourly. ••• A lawyer was approached by the devil. The devil said he would arrange for the lawyer to win every case, to make twice as much money by doing half as much work, be appointed to the Supreme Court and live to be 100. In return, the devil wanted the soul of the lawyer's wife and children. The lawyer thought for a moment and then replied, "So…what's the catch?" Robert Minch is a lifelong resident of Red Bluff, former columnist for the Corning Daily Observer and Meat Industry magazine and author of the "The Knocking Pen." He can be reached at rminchandmurray@hotmail. com. I say A livelier Thanksgiving celebration these days Some Johns Hopkins University students proclaimed themselves microaggressed by the possibility of a Chick-fil-A restaurant on campus. Chick-fil- A's CEO defines marriage as Barack Obama did until 2012. George Will Robert Minch StateandNational Assemblyman James Gallagher, 2060Talbert Drive, Ste. 110, Chico 95928, 530895-4217, http://ad03.asmrc.org/ Senator Jim Nielsen, 2634Forest Ave., Ste. 110, Chico 95928, 530 879-7424, senator.nielsen@sen- ate.ca.gov Governor Jerry Brown, State Capital Building, Sacramento 95814, 916445-2841, fax 916 558-3160, governor@governor. ca.gov U.S. Representative Doug La- Malfa, 507Cannon House Office Building, Washington D.C. 20515, 202225-3076 U.S. Senator Dianne Feinstein, One Post St., Ste. 2450, San Francisco 94104, 415393-0707, fax 415393-0710 U.S. Senator Barbara Boxer, 1700 Montgomery St., San Francisco 94111, 510286-8537, fax 202 224-0454 YOUR OFFICIALS OPINION » redbluffdailynews.com Friday, November 27, 2015 » MORE AT FACEBOOK.COM/RBDAILYNEWS AND TWITTER.COM/REDBLUFFNEWS A5