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6A Daily News – Wednesday, July 17, 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. Homeless issue Editor: I live on Kaer Avenue and there is a homeless camp right out in the open in the neighborhood. The sheriff has been called and nothing happened. I have been chased by a half naked homeless man because I was walking on the road and I stopped to take pics of the mess. In the last couple of weeks, the camp grew from a two men to over a dozen people. I have video of a woman walking up a driveway and going through people's garbage that is right next to their door. There is as woman in a camper in the slough that leaves her dogs either tied up outside or locked inside the trailer. She comes and goes for days. When she is around there is a lot of foot/bike traffic between her trailer and the homeless camp under the Bell Mill bridge. One of the camps is on private property but the owner or renter is to scared to ask them to leave. The homeless people there are not friendly and I have seen my share of weird activity. It is not safe to be outside after dark nor to allow our children walk to and from friend's houses anymore. People have stopped walking their dogs in the area and Valley Vet stopped taking in emergencies after 8 p.m. 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 Historical footnotes Editor: The recent Tehama the Magazine had an article on Ellsworth's Folly that mentioned John Sutler and the discovery of gold at Sutler's Mill in 1848 and the population explosion that followed. On Memorial Day weekend some of John Sutler's relatives gathered at the old Sutter Ranch in Shingletown for a "Decade Party" to celebrate a number of milestone birthdays. All those honored are descendants of John Sutler's family. They included Phylis Sutter Henderson of Red Bluff who turned 90 this year; her brother Stan Sutter of Shingletown who turned 80; his daughters Lome Sutter Evers of Redding turning 60 and Tracy Sutter Gong of Fresno turning 50, and his granddaughter Miranda Gong, also of Fresno, who turned 10. This is one branch of the Sutter family descended from and delusion occurs is in the the union of Phillip Sutter and percentage of union workers Hattie Radabaugh. At a in today's workforce. reunion several years ago, Polson drones on that the this one branch of the family workers continually reject included some 128 organized labor due people. to union graft and the Your So not only was conduct of the nonJohn Sutter instruexistent union bossmental in the dises, hence their small covery of gold in percentage in the California and the workforce. resulting population exploIt seems obvious that dursion, his family managed to ing his career in the fast food add a lot to that explosion on industry Don must have had their own. Many of them still some issues. The reason of reside in Tehama and Shasta the small percentage of union counties. workers in today's workforce Just some interesting facts is very fundamental. EmployI thought the historically- ers' greed. minded might like to know. The Mitt Romney, WalPhylis Sutter Henderson, mart and crews mentality is Red Bluff maximize profits period. This mentality is why labor unions were formed in the first place. Without any type of representation or collective bargaining a worker must rely on the Editor: employers' integrity and genIn my opinion David Jan- erosity, and be subject to nott's July 6 letter was right management's whims, no on the money. matter how unfair or unjust. One must wonder, after The result is absolutely no job Don Polson's article of Nov. security typically at a sub13 encouraging citizens to standard wage package. turn their backs on our local As a lifelong Tehama Raley's workers during their County resident, I wonder struggle to maintain their what Walmart Distribution livelihood, is where he shops Center and Sierra Pacific's for food? Surely the man workers — if in no way faced would have to have more gall with retaliation by managethan Jerry Springer to shop at ment — would have to say to any Raley's' or UFCW affili- increased job security, pay, ate. medical and a pension plan. Where Polson's confusion Terry Van Dyke, Red Bluff Turn Polson's delusions Your officials STATE ASSEMBLYMAN — Dan Logue, 1550 Humboldt Road, Ste. 4, Chico, CA 95928, 530-895-4217 STATE SENATOR — Jim Nielsen, 2635 Forest Ave., Ste. 110, Chico, CA 95928, (530) 879-7424, 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 I don't understand how the welcome center that is due to open very soon is going in so close to a homeless camp. Please help. I hope that if the media gets in vovled the county will have to do something to make Red Bluff what it used to be. Lacey Stricklan, Red Bluff Commentary The window fans Exclusive excerpt from: "An Apple Core, a Toilet: Misadventures of a 1970s Childhood" by Tom Purcell. Even on the hottest nights of the summer, my father knew how to make our house ice cold. We lived in a modest twostory home typical of the '60s and '70s — red brick on the bottom, white aluminum siding on the top. There were four bedrooms upstairs and a master bedroom downstairs (my parent's room, which we added onto the back of our house in 1972). Only one house in our neighborhood had air conditioning back then. It was locked up tighter than Fort Knox. Most houses were wide open all summer. This allowed the outside sounds to come in and the inside sounds to go out. I woke every morning to the sound of birds chirping, a dewy chill in the air. I'd hear sausage sizzling in a neighbor's kitchen. A screen door slamming, a car starting, a father lumbering off to work. The afternoons were quiet — the older kids went on bike hikes or swimming at the community pool — but as evening arrived, the sounds came alive again. At dinner time, kids were called home through a variety of shouts, chants, bells and horns. Pork and chicken sizzled on grills. Families ate and talked on back porches. As darkness fell, a range of new sounds echoed throughout the neighborhood: a dog barking; a motorcycle downshifting on some faraway hill; Bob Prince and Nellie King broadcasting Pirates games on the radio; a baby crying; a couple squabbling... And window fans humming. My father was a master at driving the hot, stale air from our house. He installed an industrial fan in the attic that sucked the hot air upwards and pumped it through a roof vent. Then he put a window fan in the downstairs bedroom to pull cool air inside. It took him years to perfect his method, but by closing some windows and doors and adjusting others to varying degrees of openness, he tuned our house like a fine violin. He could drive down the temperature 15 degrees or more in a matter of minutes. I remember coming home on summer nights when I was in college. I'd open the front door and be greeted by a burst of cool air. Sometimes my father would presence of my father, who spent years tweaking be in the kitchen, leanand perfecting the ing on the countertop world to make things with his elbows as he better for his kids. He ate his favorite snack was an old-school — peanut butter crackdad. He lacked skill at ers and ice-cold milk. articulating his love, He'd hand me the so he dedicated himpeanut-butter-smeared self to showing it. knife and I'd smatter a I know now how couple of crackers. As profound his presence we chomped away, was. It established we'd mumble through a order where chaos and conversation about colemptiness would have lege or the Pirates or a Tom been. It permeated variety of other converevery nook and cransations sons had with ny of our home and their dads in the our lives. It is in me kitchen such nights. Other times, my father and still — it guides me still. That's why I shut off the air mother would be lying in bed in the back room, the lights off, the conditioning most summer television light flickering as nights and run the window fan Johnny Carson delivered his instead. Its wobbling hum fills monologue, the window fan me with peacefulness and calm humming. We'd chat for a spell — and reminds me how blessed I was to have such a dad. before I headed up to bed. I went to the hardware store Tom Purcell, a humor to buy a window fan recently. I columnist for the Pittsburgh put it in my bedroom window and have been trying different Tribune-Review, is nationally adjustments to maximize the syndicated exclusively by coolness in my place. Its sound Cagle Cartoons newspaper transports me to a time and a syndicate. Visit Tom on the Web place that I've been longing for at www.TomPurcell.com or email him at lately. It reminds me of the constant Purcell@caglecartoons.com. Purcell