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4A – Daily News – Friday, September 10, 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 Republican Congress letter response Editor: 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. 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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 I’m sorry to have written a letter that upsets this young man so much. I’m 77 years old and been around the world a lot as well as lived in many parts of the US. My early years were equally educational but that was before teachers unions and the political motivation of the professors. Since the majority of your life has been in the education environment your liberal views are understandable. You should know by now that most of the state schools are liberal and you obviously fit in well. I think you’ll find that more people become conserv- ative a little later in life while working and finding that their paychecks are always being reduced by higher taxes. These taxes are being increased by our governments so they can spend more. I?m happy to see that you don’t mind the Obama tax and spend programs since you and your generation will be responsible for them. I sug- gest you still think you’re smarter than everyone else, since you took the time to tell us of your educational accom- plishments. As this ends, I will still be a conservative and you will be a liberal and we’ll both be stuck with ever increasing taxes and cuts in government spending. Maybe it’s time to give this some thought. I wish you luck. Don Perry, Corning Old papers raise good questions Editor: Dang Chip, those old papers were fun. I wish the print could have been a little larger or clearer but I always like look- ing back at what we thought were important events. Espe- cially, the ones that were. On C-3 you have a strange but true that states that at some places on the Panama Isthmus you can see the sun rise in the Pacific Ocean and set in the Atlantic Ocean. I've looked at my maps and I can't find any place that that would be possi- ble. I can't think of anyplace on the planet that that could occur. At the narrowest point on the isthmus — about 30 miles across — you can probably see the sun rise in the Atlantic to the north and set in the Pacific to the south but that is about as strange an arrangement of the waters to the land that I can think of. If someone has an answer to that riddle I'd love to read about it. You posited an idea for people to write in some questions? I’d like to know something about the flood that wiped out Miller's Resort in Dairyville, like when it hap- pened and maybe read some reprints about the whole flood. I had to be living in California at the time and I can't recall any news on what had to be one big flood. I remember the Your Turn Yuba City flood as I was in high school at that time — class of '57 RBUHS. But this flood had to be after 1961. Fred Boest, Red Bluff Out of Iraq? Editor: Are we really pulling our military out of Iraq? Come on, let's be upfront about this. There'll be the fifty-thousand soldiers left in Iraq along with another fifty-thousand of those $1000 per day "rent-a-soldiers" from the for-profit military con- tractors. Then, there's the massive American Embassy [military fort?] we built with our taxes. This building covers ten acres and is five stories high. A total- ly ridiculous expenditure. What do you bet? We'll still have fifty thousand soldiers in Iraq come the year 2030. Shoot, the Korean war was over in July 1953 and we still have thirty- two thousand soldiers in that country. In fact, America spends twice the money to defend Korea as do the Koreans! Next is the eternal war in Afghanistan. They don't call Afghanistan the "graveyard of empires" for nothing. Going back over 2000 years, Afghanistan led to the defeat of: Alexander the Great, the Ottoman Empire, and the Roman Empire. Russia spent ten bloody years [1979 to 1989] trying to win a useless war there. Now, America is following along in the footsteps of all these other defeated empires. We're losing three soldiers per day along with over a dozen gravely wounded. What's the point of it all? We can't win and it's getting worse everyday. The Republican war-mon- gers are desperately hoping for some kind of winning victory in Afghanistan. They have a dream of those heart-warming victory parades we saw at the end of WW II. Sorry, it ain't never going to happen. The combination of these two wars have taken the lives of over 4,400 American sol- diers and cost us taxpayer over $3 trillion. If we had kept our noses out of those two useless and illegal wars those soldiers would still be alive. And we'd have enough cash to bring our off-shored industrial factories back home to Ameri- ca with full employment again. Donald L. Ward 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. No way to start a conversation Commentary There is an old stereotype of Christians who like to do street corner evangelism in which the would-be evangelist approaches a total stranger and asks, "If you were to die tonight do you know where you would be going?" It is a legitimate question to contemplate if you believe – as I do – that Jesus Christ really is the sole way, truth and life that matters – a life that can draw one into relation with God and into abundant life forevermore. But it is no way to begin a con- versation. That is the long and short of it if we recognize that life is found in relationship to God and to one another. Such an in-your- face approach cancels relation- ship and is thus no way to start a conversation. The plan to burn copies of the Quran in Gainesville, Fla., is – at best – no way to start a con- versation. Pastor Terry Jones of Dove World Outreach Min- istries is quoted as believing we must stop apologizing for who we are as Americans and place the blame for Sept. 11 squarely where it belongs – on the mili- tant Islamists who killed three thousand Americans in cold blood. There is truth in that belief. The innocents who died, and the soldiers who have died since to bring freedom of thought and action to Aphganistan and Iraq are not the aggressors here; mil- itant Islamists are. But how does an act as immature, nasty, and in-your-face as burning the Muslim holy book advance that point of view? The answer is that it does not. I speak now as a Christian to those who accept the parameters of the Christian Faith. But let us remember that if what I say is true, then it is true for all, regardless of belief or prefer- ence. The Christian Bible calls on followers of Christ to bless and forgive their identified ene- mies, and to worship God in the distribution of the food and drink of Jesus’ own supper as the way we engage spiritual warfare. I praise God for the troops who defend us with weapons of earthly warfare; yet these are the weapons of defense and the scriptures we hold dear direct us to go on the offensive when we are able – using the weapons of heaven if we would seek victory rather than stalemate. Norma- tive Christianity uses these weapons of spirit and normal Christians have no use for hatred. Pastor Jones’ brand of the faith is as aberrant as that prac- ticed by the Rev. Fred Phelps when he pickets the funerals of soldiers killed in com- bat. Do these aberrant Christians have the right to do what they do under our nation’s first amendment? The courts who uphold the right to burn our flag have guaranteed them the right to burn books using the same logic. Yet we remain ashamed to harbor flag burners; we should be ashamed to harbor book burners as well. Well, what about the plans to build an in-your-face Muslim cultural center on the site of Ground Zero in New York City? who do not comply with the urging. We can call upon our own government to stop using taxpayer funds to fly this New York Mulla around the world to raise funds for his pro- ject. These are legiti- James Wilson Guest View This too is within the rights of the people in question – and it is every bit as immature and nasty as the plan to burn copies of the Quran. Of course there is something that patriotic Ameri- cans can do about this building that lies within our own rights under the first Amendment. We can urge contractors and others to refuse to work on the project. We can boycott those mate ways to defend ourselves. Or both groups can get out of each others’ faces. Muslims can halt their plans to build at Ground Zero. Aber- rant Christians can put away their matches and lighter fluid. We can look for some good ways to start a conversation. This is a good way to go on the offense if we are really con- cerned about spiritual warfare as the Christian God ordains it. Looking for conversation grounded in both truth and love is the Christian way. James A.Wilson is the author of Living As Ambassadors of Relationships and The Holy Spirit and the End Times – available at local bookstores or by e-mailing him at praynorthstate@charter.net.