Issue link: http://www.epageflip.net/i/8563
6A – Daily News – Thursday, April 1, 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 health care Editor: I want to commend President Obama and the Congress mem- bers who voted for health care reform. 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. When several letters address the same issue, a cross section of those submit- ted will be considered for publi- cation. Letters will be edited. Letters are published at the discretion of the editor. Mission Statement We believe that a strong com- munity newspaper is essential to a strong community, creating citizens who are better informed and more involved. The Daily News will be the indispensible guide to life and living in Tehama County. We will be the premier provider of local news, information and advertising through our daily newspaper, online edition and other print and Internet vehi- cles. The Daily News will reflect and support the unique identities of Tehama County and its cities; record the history of its com- munities and their people and make a positive difference in the quality of life for the resi- dents and businesses of Tehama County. 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 In my day neighbors used to help neighbors, 31 million Americans have no health insurance, why not give them a hand? Moreover, I'm old enough to remember when many called President Roosevelt's Social Security plan a Communist/Socialist plot. Ryan Jones, Red Bluff Fishing memories Editor: I would like to somehow comment or commend Les Wolfe on his fine letter in the opinion portion of the Tehama County Daily News and of somehow just telling it like it really is. I would like to state here that I did collect some pay- checks from Vanel Corpora- tion when they built the Red Bluff Diversion Dam in 1964. The pay was not bad, but the reason was not good. There was, as I recalled it, a fish hatchery put in at the same time to somewhat compensate for the fish lost because of the dam, which miserably failed. As I somehow remember it our family moved to Los Molinos in 1936, and among Thanks for other things I was hooked into becoming an avid steelhead fisherman, and somehow it has lasted all the rest of my life. I do remember at the time I considered salmon some- what of a trash fish. They were, in my opinion, only good for laying eggs for the steelhead to feed upon. Dad worked at the hatchery sometimes in the fall and would bring home a lot more salmon to eat then I really cared for, but they were not too bad smoked. But I still love fishing for those ocean run trout even if I give most of them away. I can still recall the time Andy Osbern — he was the music director at the Red Bluff High School — and I were fishing on the same riffle on the Sacramento River, and Andy had cataracts in both eyes and asked me to tie a fly on for him, which I did, but he could see good enough to tell me I had not tied it on good enough to meet his approval. I do remember some of the times when we would be fish- ing the river, and it would be so cold we would have to build a fire to keep our lines from freezing over, and we would hang these fish up on a tree, and I am sure they would be considered trophy fish today. I know I had a boat tied at the west end of Oklahoma Avenue in Dairyville and would have to carry a rain coat in the boat to cover up my fish if I caught them to keep other fishermen from seeing them and following me to see just where I was catch- ing them at the time. I am sure fishing will never be the same in my lifetime here on the Sacramento River, but it may get a tad better. I have been living a few miles up river on the Klamath River for a lot of years and we still do have some fish. everyone is a super mom or super dad, able to juggle the multiple tasks of finances, working, cook- ing, cleaning and childcare. Many people are overwhelmed and unable to handle the stresses of the day to day without help. When men and Your Turn Robert Emerson, Red Bluff Settle differences with cooperation Editor: Coffee or tea, the one thing we agree is that it is time to start mak- ing changes because the current system isn't working very well anymore. Another thing I believe we have in common is the desire for our children and our children's children to have healthy and joyful lives. The only way to guarantee that is to ensure that strangers' children have good lives as well. The kinder and more compassion- ate a society is, the safer our own children are. Beetle Bailey's comic on Sun- day summed it up by a man who lost everything being happy to join the military because not only would he have a job, he would be taken care of as well. We need a civilian form of alternative lifestyle like the mili- tary for those who are not making it in the competitive world. Not women go to work in the military, no matter what their tasks, they come home to food, shelter, health and recre- ation. Why don't we provide that for those who don't do well in the rat race? A disabled person who shares meals and chores is more competent when not faced with the challenges of what we currently call the normal life. Why don't we have a civic life center in every town, that benefits the town instead of homeless shel- ters, instead of welfare, instead of disability? No child should know home- lessness, the chaos of loss and hunger, or the fear of abandon- ment. At present, other than the mili- tary, or a monastery, there are not really any community options for healing, rest and renewal. Some people love their independence, but for others, it is pure torture and fear. Why can't we have options? I really don't want a revolution, because you can't control a mob once it starts moving. Let's just make changes and stop the insani- ty that is brewing. Let's sit down and share a pot of tea and a cup of Joe because we are Americans and our differences is what makes us rich in ideas and possibilities. Vivian Keller, 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. Tea Parties mark a milestone in civil rights Commentary The most pivotal scene in our nation’s recent civil rights histo- ry was not as some would assume, electing the more qual- ified, younger and dynamic presidential candidate — of a different party than George W. Bush — who also happened to be half African, but it was, in fact, the self-proclaimed Tea Party protesters hurling racial epithets at members of Con- gress. Let me explain: Congress- man John Lewis of Georgia was a Freedom Rider in 1961. He was beaten bloody by police on several occasions. Those doing the beating likely used epithets to add some insult to injury. As a then speaker and repre- sentative of the Student Nonvio- lent Coordinating Committee, he was just an uppity young black male and the cops were just the establishment shielded by 100 years of the rest of the county looking the other way. Civil Rights was not as for- mer House Speaker Newt Gin- grich recently described just a law that “shattered the Democ- ratic Party for 40 years.” It was a bloody war with years of car- nage to battle crippling institu- tionalized racism. A time when the law was segregation; blacks were equal, just separate. Plus, with all this talk of the biblical — meaning ancient — definitions of marriage, people of mixed races couldn’t legally get married in some states in this country until the aptly named Loving Decision was handed down by activist judges on the Supreme Court in 1967. They ruled unanimously in favor of a Virginia couple whose bedroom had been intruded on by police who then arrested them for violating Vir- ginia’s Racial Integrity Act. Their sentences were commuted on the condition they leave the state. As many have pointed out President Barack Obama was born in 1961 and if his parents happened to live in one of the several anti-miscegenation states they could not have been legally married at the time. And of course women were not allowed to vote nationally until the passage of the 19th Amendment in 1920. And as much as homosexuals are dis- criminated against today, up until 2003 sodomy laws in some states criminalized homosexual- ity. “Created equal” didn’t just happen once the Declaration of Independence was approved. So after a year of rigorous debate over health care reform, a year of sound bites and selling points and hysteria, at last the whip count was in and there was going to be a final vote in the House. A small group of irate protesters were at the Capital. En route to hear the President’s speech on Saturday at the Long- worth House office building, the afore- mentioned civil rights champion now Con- gressman Lewis was called “nigger,” as was Congressman James Clyburn of South Car- olina. Congressman Barney Frank of Massachusetts, an out gay man was called “faggot” by the crowd. Speaker Nancy Pelosi was degraded on signs — to less outrage mind you. What it pointed out wasn’t that progress is stagnant, because those words exist and are still in use, what it pointed out was how far we’ve come: Those who used to be the vic- tims of legalized racism, homo- Tina Dupuy phobia and sexism are now law- makers. The words once used against the powerless by the authorities are now the desper- ate yaps of the outer perimeter. The Tea Partiers’ smears are like a war wound that doesn’t cause disability just aches every so often to remember the fight. But most importantly, those middle-aged puffy white people screaming insults at members of Congress are a specter of the past. They’re the civil disobedience equiva- lent of a telegram. Their vocabulary is clearly analog. The battle cry for Tina Dupuy is an award- winning writer and the editor of FishbowlLA.com. Tina can be reached at tina@tinadupuy.com. the Tea Parties has been that members of Congress need to listen to the American people. But to an observer of the people walking past jeers, members of Congress are now more than ever, the American people. ----