Issue link: https://www.epageflip.net/i/107996
6A Daily News – Wednesday, February 6, 2013 Opinion DAILY NEWS RED BLUFF TEHAMA COUNTY T H E V O I C E O F T E H A M A C O U NTY S I N C E 1 8 8 5 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 letters from its readers on timely topics of public interest. All 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 cannot exceed two double-spaced pages or 500 words. When several letters address the same issue, a cross section of those submitted will be considered for publication. Letters will be edited. Letters are published at the discretion of the editor. Unsung hero Gun control Editor. I just thought our community should know that Retired Gunnery Sergeant Milton C. Goings, who applied for a Toys For Tots unit to provide services for Tehama County only, and successfully obtained it. The USMC issued Tehama County their independence to raise their own chapter in 2009, and has since raised more than 2,400 toys, and more than $5,000 in grants for out children. Walmart Red Bluff, and Toys R Us in Chico have been wonderful participants, along with our small businesses all over Tehama, who have donated thousands of toys, filling huge container boxes, and monies have been donated by individual wonderful and loving citizens throughout the areas. This is an unsung hero and I feel he should be recognized for his wonderful work, not for his sake, but for the rest of us. Milton and his volunteers raised more than 2,400 toys these past three years, with each year yielding more than the year before. God bless people with his kind of dedication and we are glad he is in Red Bluff. Thank you to a silent hero who made such a great contribution to us with love, honor and dignity, and sheer determination to make a difference. Bravo Milton! Lisha Goings, Red Bluff Editor: Just when I thought all the political posturing was over with for a while, now it will begin again. I cannot express the sorrow I feel for the families of those children massacred in Connecticut. All I have been able to think about for the last two days is not just the children that were killed, but also the survivors. They will suffer from this for the rest of their lives. And now the anti-gun lobby will demand that we outlaw all guns, because everybody knows that guns kill. So let's do that. Let's gather up all the guns in the United States and melt them down and make farm implements out of them. And then nobody will ever get shot again. Right? I mean it worked with drugs didn't it? We outlaw all those class A drugs and now nobody uses them and crime has all but disappeared from our city streets. We don't know what causes a person to go off like that young man did in Connecticut or any of the other recent outbursts, but that is what we need to work on. The politicians can stand up and make speeches about gun control and the NRA can lever their congressmen to mitigate any legislation that would deprive us of our guns but until we recognize that it isn't the gun that is the problem there will be no progress in our efforts to stop these senseless 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 Lofty perch Turn Your officials STATE ASSEMBLYMAN — Dan Logue, 1550 Humboldt Road, Ste. 4, Chico, CA 95928, 530-895-4217 STATE SENATOR — Jim Nielsen, 280 Hemsted Dr., Ste. 110, Redding, CA 96002, 530223-6300, Fax: 530-223-6737, senator.nielsen@senate.ca.gov GOVERNOR — Jerry Brown, State Capitol Bldg., Sacramento, CA 95814; (916) 445-2841; Fax (916) 5583160; E-mail: governor@governor.ca.gov. U.S. REPRESENTATIVE — Doug LaMalfa 506 Cannon House Office Building, Washington, DC 20515, 202-2253076. U.S. SENATORS — Dianne Feinstein (D), One Post Street, Suite 2450, San Francisco, CA 94104; (415) 393-0707. Fax (415) 3930710. Barbara Boxer (D), 1700 Montgomery St., Suite 240, San Francisco, CA 94111; (510) 286-8537. Fax (202) 224-0454. Mission Statement We believe that a strong community 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 vehicles. The Daily News will reflect and support the unique identities of Tehama County and its cities; record the history of its communities and their people and make a positive difference in the quality of life for the residents 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 acts. I remember when Reagan Editor: shut down the state mental hospiMr. Merhoff needs to come tals. I was living on Emery Street in San Jose when they closed down off his lofty perch. A man Agnew State Hospital. Emery of his caliber to make such a statement, "They disStreet had several played the ubiquitous boarding houses. They Your Don't Tread On Me were soon filled with flags, so I assume they ex Agnew patients. were of the Tea Party Most of them were not persuasion. Incidentalviolent, but they also ly, that phrase was were not capable of taking care of themselves. We employed by members of the had a guy lived upstairs from me. Southern Confederacy during He liked to put on ladies panties our Civil War." The rattle snake flag was first and walk around the neighborhood. The police used to bring used as a standard of the Amerihim home. He was all right 'til can Revolution. The Gadsden his government check ran out. I flag and other rattlesnake flags mean what was he going to do? were widely used during the Would you hire a guy that might American Revolution. There was in the middle of his shift strip no standard American flag at the down to ladies panties and wan- time. People were free to choose their own banners. der around your store? The Minutemen of Culpeper Last time I saw him he was living in St. James park down- County, Va., chose a flag that town. I bought him lunch and looks generally like the Gadsden gave him a few bucks and after flag, but also includes the famous that I don't know what happened words of the man who organized the Virginia militia, Patrick to him. We have people in this coun- Henry, i.e. "Liberty Or Death." Merhoff and others, with a libtry that need help. They're not lazy. They really aren't capable eral indoctrination from an instiof living with the rest of us, and tution of higher learning, that if we continue to ignore them; if look down their noses at the we turn away when they cry out common folks who work for a for help, these things will contin- living and the many service men and women who rallied for the ue to happen. So let's cut the oratory short second amendment — the right and see if we can figure out a to keep and bear arms — would way to make some substantive be there for the first amendment progress in mental health care in so he can continue to make stupid remarks. this country. Les Wolfe, Red Bluff Fred Boest, Red Bluff Commentary Say it ain't Joe Maybe he's just what America needs. Then again, maybe not. I speak of Vice President Joe Biden — who, according to Politico, is "intoxicated" by thoughts of being inaugurated as president in 2017. He'd be delighted to "finish what Barack Obama started." Well, who better to finish what President Obama started than Uncle Joe? I'll bet he'd be even better at runaway government spending, lack of budget discipline and total disinterest in addressing entitlement growth, tax reform and other essentials for getting our economy going. I'm certainly no fan of Obama's policies, but here's one area where he really falls short: He's not funny. Bill Clinton was funny. He reminded us, said Dennis Miller, of the guy in the college fraternity who used to tap the keg. President George W. Bush was plenty polarizing during his two terms, but he was funny, too. The press filed reports every time he bumbled his words. And Bush gave late-night comics almost as much material as Clinton. "As you all know," said Jay Leno after Bush left office, "George Bush is no longer president, so they'll be no monologue (tonight)." There was a lot of truth in Leno's statement. Obama doesn't make good fodder for late-night comics. That's partly because late-night comedy writers tend to skew left and largely agree politically with him. But it's also because there's not much funny about him. During the last presidential campaign, says the Daily Beast, citing a study by George Mason University, late-night comics did twice as many Romney jokes as Obama jokes — David Letterman did five times as many. The Romney jokes pulled no punches. With the exception of Leno, however, the Obama jokes hardly ever made Obama the butt of the joke. Here's a typical example: "Yesterday, Mitt Romney's son Tagg said that during the debate he wanted to punch President Obama for calling his father a liar," said Conan O'Brien. "He also wants to punch his father for giving him the name Tagg." Which brings us back to Biden. If there's anything most people agree on in these polarized times, it's that every time Biden things like debt, deficits and speaks, he delivers gifts from the potential economic collapse. That machine just comedy gods: might put an old polit"If we do everything ical character like Joe right, if we do it with into the nation's highabsolute certainty, est office. there's still a 30 percent My preference is chance we're going to for a bold, results-origet it wrong." ented reformer, such "When the stock as Republican market crashed (in Louisiana Gov. Bobby 1929), Franklin D. Jindal — someone Roosevelt got on the with the guts to attack television and didn't our problems boldly just talk about the, you and ideas that will get know, the princes of Tom the needed results. greed. He said, 'Look, I worry that the here's what happened.'" majority will reject (FDR's first inaugurasuch ideas, however, tion wasn't until 1933, and nobody had TVs to watch in and that our transformation into a slow-growth, high-tax, high1929.) "Stand up, Chuck, let 'em see debt, European-style state is ya," said Biden to Missouri state inevitable. Ah, well, if old Joe becomes Sen. Chuck Graham, who is president, at least we'll get some confined to a wheelchair. Yes, old Joe is a tremendous decent late-night jokes out of it. source of humor, though here is Tom Purcell, a humor something that is not so funny: He actually could become presi- columnist for the Pittsburgh dent — and could continue the Tribune-Review, is nationally spending, government expan- syndicated exclusively by sion and lack of leadership Cagle Cartoons newspaper syndicate. Visit Tom on the Web Obama has started. Obama's machine was skillful at www.TomPurcell.com or ehim at turning out new voters — many mail of whom don't worry about Purcell@caglecartoons.com. Purcell