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6A Daily News – Wednesday, March 20, 2013 Opinion Dow Jones 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. 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 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 Editor: The financial news is that the Dow Jones industrial Average has increased from the Oct. 9, 2007 record of 14,164 to the current 14,500. The fact is, because of the 3 per cent annual inflation, the Dow must increase to 16,667 to set a new record. The awful effect of deficit spending and government imposed low interest rates has trashed retirees who rely on lifetime savings for their retirement income. The forty cents that government borrows from China for every dollar spent must be repaid. Higher taxes only cuts jobs. Inflation is difficult for most to understand. Government relies on the financial ignorance of most voters. The easiest way to understand inflation are two examples. In 1913 Ford took the unusual step of increasing workers pay to $5 hourly. By 2007 Ford workers received $85 hourly in pay and benefits. That is inflation. Upon graduation from engineering college in 1960, with three years full time work experience as an engineering technician, my starting salary was $6,600 yearly. Today a fresh out of college engineer, with no work experience, earns $66,000 yearly. That is inflation. Every year, a nonunion private sector retiree needs to cut spending 3 percent yearly to avoid spending more than the prior year and debt. That is inflation. The only solution to avoid inflation is to cut the number of government employees and spending each year until the deficit disappears. There is no magic wand. Joseph J. Neff, Corning Good ole' days Editor: A couple of times I have mentioned the good ole' days of the fifties. I forgot to mention that it was also the last decade that God was allowed in our public schools. In 1960, Madalyn Murray O'Hair filed a lawsuit against the Baltimore City Public School System and by 1963 the Supreme Court officially prohibited both prayer and Bible reading in public schools. God is out of the schools and Christian students have been denied the right to organize and meet on the school campuses. Christian Youths are out, LGBT Youths are in. God is out, violence and perversion is in. How many school shootings happened before 1960 and how many since? About a decade or so ago the Red Bluff High School had a male teacher who taught class dressed as a woman. Our schools have been confiscated by atheism and liberalism. History has been rewritten and children are being taught at an early age that same-sex rela- not approve of this Common Core Standards. tionships are normal. "The philosophy of the classNow we have Common Core standards. From the Daily News room today will be the philosophy of government March 15 "Common tomorrow." Abraham Core standards are Your Lincoln fewer, which will Les Wolfe, Red relieve some of the Bluff pressure and the money will come from Title II federal professional development money, he Editor: said." Caution: "Beware of An Easter story, forgive lawGreeks bearing gifts." This may breakers, illegal immigrants, not be all that it is cracked up to be. –Katy bar the door- and I.D. thieves and illegal drug open up your wallet and get abusers for they don't know your checkbook out because this what they do. Consider a suicide bomber is is just another boondoggle said to be a terrorist. An I.D. accomplished with little or no public input. With support from thief ads those who wish to the Bill & Melinda Gates Foun- destroy the economy. Not all dation, private corporations, illegal immigrants and drug including assessment and pub- abusers intend to destroy the lishing companies, funded the system. So the wild idea is to development of the standards. forgive all of them for not knowDo you suppose publishers have ing what they are doing to themselves and everyone else. Whoa. anything to gain? Need and want a challenge? Is this an effort by powerful Try using this prayer. God. and influential people and organizations to create a global edu- Please remind me everyday to cation system that will track our ask "how well do I carry the children and move them toward responsibility to enhance the a global perspective that seeks lives of others?" Please show me to erase state and individual sov- how to make living more pleasant to live. Please help me to ereignty? What do we know about the forgive others as Jesus did on curriculum or will the textbooks the cross. Amen. Learn to forgive yourself so already purchased meet the that you may forgive others. Just Core Standards? How much of the burden will eventually wind doodled. Steve Kelsey, Corning up on the local school districts? The Heritage Foundation does Turn Easter 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. Commentary Grocery night Editor Note: This column is an excerpt from Tom Purcell's new book, "Misadventures of a 1970s Childhood" available at amazon.com. Thursday night was grocery shopping night and the best night of the week. Right after dinner, my father and I would board our 1972 Plymouth Fury station wagon and head to the Del Farm grocery store. It was located in a small plaza one mile from our suburban home. Like all grocery stores then, Del Farm was a utilitarian place. There were no lobster tanks or gourmet food displays. The daily specials were written in black magic marker on torn sheets of white wax paper and taped to the front windows. Inside, everything was painted white and illuminated by the bare florescent bulbs that hung above. I got to push the cart as I helped my dad find the dozens of items on my mother's shopping list. The two watched their spending carefully, as my father was the sole breadwinner, but he'd usually give in a little. On a good night, he'd buy a box of Del Farm's fresh-baked oatmeal and chocolate chip cookies and a bag of Snyders of Berlin potato chips and onion dip (my mother's favorite). One Thursday a month, we'd stop at the beer distributor for a case of Pabst Blue Ribbon and twelve 64 oz. bottles of Regent soda pop. The small store was packed with boxes of beer. The store's owner gave me a pretzel rod, then the subject shifted to sports, new car models and other things that dads and beer distributor owners liked to talk about then. Sometimes, my dad and I would make a run to the drug store or drive to the butcher's in another plaza to get a Sunday pot roast. On the way home, we'd stop in at the "little store" — the privately owned convenience store in our neighborhood — to load up on lunchmeat and cheese. When we finally pulled the loaded-down station wagon into the garage, everyone in the house was alerted and the massive unloading process began. We usually got everything packed away by 8 p.m., just in time to head to the downstairs family room to watch "The Waltons." The ritual was the same every week: We'd bring down a bowl of ice and then open some bottles of Regent soda pop, the orange being our favorite. (Grape was the next most popu- know how important my father lar, followed by cherry, then was to my happiness and security. cola, then root beer.) Unlike too many I was usually the fathers today — unlike first one to open the the bumbling idiots Snyders of Berlin portrayed on television chips. And as I tore — my father was a open the heavy foil firm. He was demandbag, my senses were ing of us, but that is overcome by the smell what we craved. He of freshly fried chips. wasn't much good at I'd load them into a telling us he loved us, few bowls and set but he was a master at them on the tables. showing us his love And there sat my through repeated sisters and my parents, actions. watching "The WalTom I'm no expert on tons," eating the finest parenting or fatherchips ever made, siphood, but at 50, I know ping our soda and feelthis: ing safe and secure. When I open a bag of Snyder It was Thursday, after all, and the weekend was soon to come. of Berlin potato chips, I am The house was loaded to the hilt filled again with the security and with food, which was always a happiness that I felt so long ago fine feeling. My mother and because my mother and father father were together and with us were putting my needs first. and all was right with the world. I didn't know then how lucky Tom Purcell, author of I was to know such security. I didn't know that my happiness "Misadventures of a 1970's was a result of two people who Childhood" and "Comical put their children's needs so far Sense: A Lone Humorist Takes before their own that we didn't on a World Gone Nutty!" is a Pittsburgh Tribune-Review know they had needs. What a tremendous impedi- humor columnist and is syndicated ment we must have been to their nationally exclusively by Cagle Cartoons comfort. But I know it now. And I Inc. Purcell