Issue link: http://www.epageflip.net/i/813078
ChipThompson, Editor 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: Daily News 728Main St., Red Bluff, CA 96080 Facebook: Leave comments at FACEBOOK.COM/ RBDAILYNEWS Twitter: Follow and send tweets to @REDBLUFFNEWS TheRedBluffRound-Up was born almost 100 years ago when a few ranch hands de- cided to hold a rodeo at the Clough Ranch on the outskirts of Los Molinos. Soon thereaf- ter, the Round- Up moved to Red Bluff, where it subsequently be- came one of the world's most successful Round-Ups. The Round-Up we now at- tend is no longer confined to the arena at the rodeo grounds. Today's Round-Up has ex- ploded, to become an 11-day community celebration. A look at this year's activities will tell you just how big the Round-Up has become: April 1, Business decorating contest. April 13, Round-Up kickoff cof- fee. Sunrise Rotary Roving Jail rears ugly head. April 15, Red Bluff Rotary Chili Cook-off and Car Show. April 18, Red Bluff Rotary Tough Enough to wear Pink BBQ and auction. April 19, Bikini Barrel Racing. April 20, Thursday night mixer, Reyn- olds Ranch and Home Supply. April 21, Cowboy Golf Tourna- ment at Wilcox Oaks. Friday night: Round-Up performance. Friday night: After Party fea- turing Northern Heat. April 22, Kiwanis Club Pancake Break- fast. Red Bluff Round-Up Pa- rade. Saturday: Round-Up per- formance. Red Bluff Round-Up Concert featuring Chad Bush- nell and Granger Smith. April 23, Cowboy Church. Sunday: Tough Enough to Wear Pink Round-Up performance. The Red Bluff Round-Up provides 11 days of fun and frolic. Just as important, it gen- erates millions of dollars every single year. Virtually every one of those dollars stays in a com- munity that needs every nickel it can find. Let me give you just a couple of examples of what the Round-Up does for our community. When the State Theatre for the Arts decided to purchase the historic State Theatre a few years back, the Red Bluff Round-Up Board of Directors were first in line to write a very substantial check to sup- port ensuring that this com- munity has a beautiful per- forming arts venue for genera- tions to come. For the past quarter cen- tury, that same Board of Direc- tors has awarded the Round- Up beer sales contract to the Rotary Club of Red Bluff. This meaningful partnership has re- sulted in nearly 400 graduat- ing high school seniors receiv- ing scholarships to attend col- lege. Speaking on behalf of those 400 students and the Ro- tary Club of Red Bluff, thank you, Red Bluff Round-Up Com- mittee. You are the best. While it is easy to view the Round-Up as three days of ac- tion where a couple hundred cowboys drop by to try and win quarter million dollars by rid- ing bulls and horses for a mea- sly eight seconds, the truth is that the Red Bluff Round-Up is a business — and a compli- cated business, at that. As with any successful business, the Red Bluff Round-Up is success- ful only because of the dedi- cation, commitment and hard work of those who make it hap- pen. Let me tell you a bit about the Red Bluff Round Up Board of Directors. ••• JB Stacy: The newest mem- ber of the board, JB is a banker by trade, and is in charge of Round-Up concession opera- tions. Paul Wood: Paul, resident bean counter, is Board Secre- tary and Treasurer. More im- portantly, Paul may actually be a worse golfer than me. Zane Glines: Zane is a mem- ber of the legendary McKenzie family, and runs the activities taking place on the track. Zane mostly looks good on a horse. Corky Kramer: Not sure what he does on the board, and not sure he knows, either. Don Krois: I observed first hand Don Krois be the best son he could possibly be to his mother in her golden years. Tells you all you need to know about Don Krois. Jolene Kemen: This at- tractive young director is the brains behind the highly suc- cessful Tough Enough to Wear Pink program. Great job, Jolene. Rob Moore: Rob is a retired fireman, and spends much of his time officiating youth sports. Ken Stannard: Ken is in charge of PortaPotty place- ment, and filling soap dispens- ers. Like myself, Ken is an ex- ceptional athlete, and still holds the Red Bluff High re- cord in the 100-yard dash. Ben Sale: In addition to his duties at the Round-Up, Ben has quietly supported the State Theatre in several different ways. Ben Sale is a great friend to this community. Harry Dudley: Harry is one of those take-charge types who ensures everything is done properly. Additionally, he has supported the theater from day one, so much so that he and wife Betty even purchased our popcorn machine. Mike Dudley: In one of those "apple doesn't fall far from the tree" deals, Mike does a lot of stuff at the Round-Up, and he does it very well. He can often be found dragging dirt around the arena. Mike Growney: Mike has grown up — and is now grow- ing old — around the Red Bluff Round-Up. He's the fellow who fires that shotgun that begins every Round-Up Wild Horse Race. David Ramelli: Dave, Im- mediate Past President of the Board, continues to be an im- portant part of the Red Bluff Round-Up. Frank Moore: Frank carries the title of President Emeritus, and the Round-Up takes place in the Frank Moore Arena… .'nuff said. John Trede: Current Presi- dent and my very good friend, John is a third-generation board member who, along with his pretty wife Lana, son Des- try and a couple homely family mutts, has manned the Round- Up ticket sales counter for most of his now over-the-hill life. A keeper, John is. James Miller: James Miller serves as Round-Up General Manager. James moseyed in to town a couple years back from the great State of Tennessee or Kentucky or who knows where. The important thing is, James knows what he is doing; and the Round-Up is lucky to have him. ••• Sadly, this year's Round- Up will not be the same, as a few months back we lost our quiet but bigger than life Direc- tor, Harvey Camacho. No one worked harder. Rest in peace, Harvey Camacho. This one's for you. ••• See you at the Round-Up. BillCorneliusisalifelong resident of Red Bluff, a retired Chief Probation Officer, a champion of the State Theatre and an exceptional athlete. He can be reached at bill. cornelius@sbcglobal.net. WilliamTells Behind the scenes at the Round-Up Cartoonist's take April is the most miserable month of the year — because that's when I must make a mas- sive "contribution" to the federal gov- ernment. It consoles me, however, to learn what some of our greatest minds have to say about taxes. I found their quotations in Inc. Magazine: "We contend that for a nation to try to tax itself into prosper- ity is like a man standing in a bucket and trying to lift himself up by the handle." — Winston Churchill "They can't collect legal taxes from illegal money." — Al Capone "I don't know if I can live on my income or not — the govern- ment won't let me try it." — Bob Thaves Hey, Winston, progressives will never understand your point. Al, thanks to taxes, le- gitimate work, like crime, also doesn't pay. And Bob, you couldn't have described our si- lent business partner, the gov- ernment, any better. Here are some more gems: "The hardest thing in the world to understand is the in- come tax." — Albert Einstein "Today, it takes more brains and effort to make out the in- come-tax form than it does to make the income." — Alfred E. Neuman "A fine is a tax for doing something wrong. A tax is a fine for doing something right." — Anonymous If Einstein failed to under- stand tax complexity, none of us stand a chance. Alfred E., I rely on a super-smart CPA to help me comply with onerous tax re- quirements. And Anonymous nails the bizarre sense of pun- ishment I experience every April for the petty crime of working hard. Speaking of tax pain, here's more genius: "You don't pay taxes. They take taxes." — Chris Rock "Collecting more taxes than is absolutely necessary is legalized robbery." — Calvin Coolidge "It's income tax time again, Americans: time to gather up those receipts, get out those tax forms, sharpen up that pencil, and stab yourself in the aorta." — Dave Barry Chris, the government's un- derstanding of "contribution" is similar to its understanding of "investment;" in both cases, we pay. Silent "small government" Cal is my kind of president. And Dave, which brand of pencil do you recommend? I still worry about the popu- larity of Bernie Sanders' social- ist policies among the young. I hope they come to their senses and heed this advice: "America is a land of taxation that was founded to avoid tax- ation." — Laurence J. Peter "What the government gives it must first take away." — John S. Coleman "There's nothing wrong with the younger generation that be- coming taxpayers won't cure." — Dan Bennett The IRS — which, apparently, does have a sense of humor — posted a series of tax quotations on its website. Some of them are grand: A tax loophole "is something that benefits the other guy. If it benefits you, it is tax reform." — Russell B. Long "I am proud to be paying taxes in the United States. The only thing is — I could be just as proud for half the money." — Arthur Godfrey "Taxation with representation ain't so hot, either." — Gerald Barzan Russ, we're overdue for real tax reform, and hopefully, Re- publicans can pull it off. Ar- thur, I could be just as proud for a quarter of the money. And Gerry, you're spot on. Here are some more interest- ing quotes from the IRS site: "People who complain about taxes can be divided into two classes: men and women." — Unknown "Income tax has made more liars out of the American people than golf." — Will Rogers "Where there is an income tax, the just man will pay more and the unjust less on the same amount of income." — Plato Well, then. I guess tax woes have been around for a while. Tom Purcell, author of "Misadventures of a 1970s Childhood" and "Wicked Is the Whiskey," a Sean McClanahan mystery novel, both available at Amazon.com, is a Pittsburgh Tribune-Review humor columnist. Send comments to Tom@TomPurcell.com. Tom Purcell Some taxing quotations for Tax Day While it is easy to view the Round- Up as three days of action where a couple hundred cowboys drop by to try and win quarter million dollars by riding bulls and horses for a measly eight seconds, the truth is that the Red Bluff Round- Up is a business — and a complicated business, at that. Tom Purcell I knew when Donald J. Trump was elected president of the United States that he might prove a long-awaited savior to those disillusioned, abandoned Americans who support en- forcement of our nation's immi- gration laws and, more gener- ally, yearn for an immigration policy that actually serves the interests of rank-and-file Amer- icans over those of illegal im- migrants and their enablers, apologists and open-borders zealots. So far, The Donald has not disappointed. Illegal border crossings have plummeted, and the Border Patrol is elated that they can now do their jobs in- stead of holding out welcome mats for illegal trespassers. But when it comes to the en- vironment and U.S. population stabilization (necessary for en- vironmental conservation and sustainability), I was not ex- pecting President Trump to morph into Theodore Roosevelt or even Richard Nixon. These two Republican presidents did more than any others — in- cluding Democrats — to raise awareness about conservation (Roosevelt) and overpopulation (Nixon). I regret to say that Trump's actions on the environment and population have not pleas- antly surprised me. Two in par- ticular suggest that he is well on his way to becoming, as I argued in analysis earlier this year, "the worst environmen- tal president in American his- tory," the "anti-Roosevelt" that I dubbed him. In the space of barely two weeks, first Trump tore up many of the climate-friendly initiatives of former President Obama and then he threw out American support for interna- tional family planning efforts at the United Nations Popula- tion Fund. Both actions reveal a star- tlingly short-sighted and igno- rant world view on the part of the new president. The refusal of the U.S. government to sup- port international family plan- ning efforts virtually ensures that in the not-so-distant fu- ture even more jobless and des- perate people will be fleeing their overpopulated, overbur- dened and violence-plagued homelands, and trying to sneak into our country. On March 28, President Trump, joined by a hopeful co- terie of coal miners and coal, oil, and gas industry executives, signed an executive order scut- tling some of Obama's most vi- sionary energy and climate reg- ulations. On the chopping block was Obama's signature effort to combat global warming, the Clean Power Plan, which had mandated that by 2030 carbon dioxide emissions from U.S. power plants be 32 percent be- low 2005 levels. Symbolically, Trump's defi- ant gesture took place at the headquarters of the Environ- mental Protection Agency (EPA) itself. Earlier, Trump had delighted his campaign sup- porters by appointing a climate change denier, Scott Pruitt, as EPA head. Former Oklahoma Attorney General Pruitt, an in- veterate EPA adversary, had spent years suing the agency he now administers. Leon Kolankiewicz Trump trashes sustainability twice in two weeks Bill Cornelius Symbolically, Trump's defiant gesture took place at the headquarters of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) itself. OPINION » redbluffdailynews.com Wednesday, April 19, 2017 » MORE AT FACEBOOK.COM/RBDAILYNEWS AND TWITTER.COM/REDBLUFFNEWS A6