Issue link: https://www.epageflip.net/i/190281
6A Daily News – Thursday, October 10, 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. When liberals became scolds "Ex-Marine Asks Soviet Citizenship" -- Washington Post headline, Nov. 1, 1959 (concerning a Lee Harvey Oswald) "He didn't even have the satisfaction of being killed for civil rights. It's -- it had to be some silly little Communist." -- Jacqueline Kennedy, Nov. 22, 1963 WASHINGTON -- She thought it robbed his death of any meaning. But a meaning would be quickly manufactured to serve a new politics. First, however, an inconvenient fact -Oswald -- had to be expunged from the story. So, just 24 months after the assassination, Arthur Schlesinger, Jr., the Kennedys' kept historian, published a thousand-page history of the thousand-day presidency without mentioning the assassin. The transformation of a murder by a marginal man into a killing by a sick culture began instantly -- before Kennedy was buried. The afternoon of the assassination, Chief Justice Earl Warren ascribed Kennedy's "martyrdom" to "the hatred and bitterness that has been injected into the life of our nation by bigots." The next day, James Reston, the New York Times luminary, wrote in a front-page story that Kennedy was a victim of a "streak of violence in the American character," but especially of "the violence of the extremists on the right." Never mind that adjacent to Reston's article was a Times report on Oswald's communist 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 such as feminism, abortion and ical dominance. Punitive liberalism preached sexual freedom. The bullets fired on the necessity of Nov. 22, 1963, could national repentance shatter the social confor a history of crimes sensus that characterand misdeeds that had ized the 1950s only produced a present so because powerful new poisonous that it murforces of an adversaridered a president. To al culture were about be a liberal would to erupt through socimean being a scold. ety's crust. Foremost Liberalism would among these forces become the doctrine of was the collegegrievance groups owed bound population redress for cumulative -baby inherited injuries George F. bulge boomers with their inflicted by the sense of entitlement nation's tawdry histoand moral superiority, ry, toxic present and vanities encouraged by an intelominous future. Kennedy's posthumous repu- ligentsia bored by peace and tation -- Americans often place prosperity and hungry for herohim, absurdly, atop the presi- ic politics. Liberalism's disarray during dential rankings -- reflects regrets about might-have-beens. the late 1960s, combined with To reread Robert Frost's banal Americans' recoil from liberal poem written for Kennedy's hectoring, catalyzed the revival inauguration ("A golden age of of conservatism in the 1970s. poetry and power of which this As Piereson writes, the retreat noonday's the beginning hour") of liberalism from a doctrine of is to wince at its clunky attempt American affirmation left a void to conjure an Augustan age that would be filled by Ronald from the melding of politics and Reagan 17 years after the assascelebrity that the Kennedys sination. The moral of liberalism's used to pioneer the presidencyexplanation of Kennedy's muras-entertainment. Under Kennedy, liberalism der is that there is a human began to become more stylistic instinct to reject the fact that than programmatic. After him - large events can have small, - especially after his successor, squalid causes; there is an intelLyndon Johnson, a child of the lectual itch to discern large hidNew Deal, drove to enactment den meanings in events. And the Civil Rights Acts, Medicare political opportunism is perenand Medicaid -- liberalism nial. became less concerned with George Will's email address material well-being than with lifestyle, and cultural issues is georgewill@washpost.com. Will 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 convictions and associations. A Soviet spokesman, too, assigned "moral responsibility" for Kennedy's death to "Barry Goldwater and other extremists on the right." Three days after the assassination, a Times editorial, "Spiral of Hate," identified Kennedy's killer as a "spirit": The Times deplored "the shame all America must bear for the spirit of madness and hate that struck down" Kennedy. The editorialists were, presumably, immune to this spirit. The new liberalism-as-paternalism would be about correcting other people's defects. Hitherto a doctrine of American celebration and optimism, liberalism would now become a scowling indictment: Kennedy was killed by America's social climate whose sickness required "punitive liberalism." That phrase is from James Piereson of the Manhattan Institute, whose 2007 book "Camelot and the Cultural Revolution: How the Assassination of John F. Kennedy Shattered American Liberalism" is a profound meditation on the reverberations of the rifle shots in Dealey Plaza. The bullets of Nov. 22, 1963, altered the nation's trajectory less by killing a president than by giving birth to a destructive narrative about America. Fittingly, the narrative was most injurious to the narrators. Their recasting of the tragedy in order to validate their curdled conception of the nation marked a ruinous turn for liberalism, beginning its decline from polit- Commentary Times have changed in passing the time My grandmother kept a small handsize calculator in her purse. When I was with her as she was out doing chores she would often pull out the calculator and hand it to me in situations where a young child just needed to sit quietly. It worked. I would often pass the time typing 1+1 and then the equals sign over and over again and see how high I could get the number. It was something to do to keep my mind occupied and I never complained. Technology was so cool. A few days ago those memories came back to my head, but they didn't come back as fond recollections, instead I was thinking "man, life sucked in the '80s." I mean look at all the ways we have to pass time now with our cell phones, tablets and other gadgets. If I'm forced to wait even for a 30-second period, I'm pulling my phone out of my pocket and either reading something, sending a text or playing a game. I even have games downloaded while I wait for lives to come back or things to grow in other games. That's right I have games to pass the time between games. And I tell you what I'm not doing, it's opening up the calculator app and typing 1+1 over and over again. Yeah, if young little Richie knew what was in store for him in the future, he'd probably toss that calculator back at his ol' granny. Of course what would really push little Richie over the edge is if someone went back in time and told him of all the great ways humans pass time in the future and then whispered, "even cats have cell phone applications." Oh it's true, my wife recently downloaded one for our cat. The other day the cat was lying in the bed next to my wife's phone so I decided to see if actually worked. I opened the application and sat the phone next to the cat. Little mice ran across the screen as my black critter faked aspects of our day. Example. The other day I mild interest. My wife saw what I was had to do one of the worst things humans are doing and chimed in, sometimes forced to "Oh, no, she doesn't do — wait in the Wallike that level. She mart customer service likes the one with the line. ravens." I actually planned I changed the level my trip around when and the cat's interest my lives would fully piqued as if a real bird replenish on Candy had been set loose in Crush. the house. Her head As I expected, that tilted and her paw line was a dozen peocame out and started ple deep when I got striking the phone. there, but I whipped "Yes little Richie, in Rich out my phone and the future not only do started matching cats have their own candy pieces and wasgames — they have n't bothered one bit. favorite levels." Technology is so cool. There is no reason someone I did notice there was a child should ever be bored in these in front of me crying and anothtimes. As one-hit wonder Harvey er behind me wailing. Seems Danger once sang, "If you're their mothers didn't have a tablet or cell phone with them bored than you're boring." We have made such — not even a calculator. advances in our ability to pass Rich Greene can be reached at time that we consider how we're going to pass time when 527-2151, Ext. 109 or by email at we're planning out other rgreene@redbluffdailynews.com. Greene