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6A Daily News – Thursday, February 13, 2014 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. Letters are published at the discretion of the editor. Mission Statement We believe that a strong com- munity 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 vehi- cles. The Daily News will reflect and support the unique identities of Tehama County and its cities; record the history of its com- munities and their people and make a positive difference in the quality of life for the resi- dents 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 Opinion WASHINGTON -- Many "Downton Abbey" watchers are nostalgia gluttons who grieved when Lord Grantham lost his fortune in Canadian railroad shares. There are, however, a discerning few whose admirable American sensibilities caused them to rejoice about Grantham's loss: "Now perhaps this amiable but dilettantish toff will get off his duff and get a job." This drama's verisimilitude extends to emphasizing that his lordship had a fortune to squan- der only because he married an American heiress. By battening on what they disdained, this republic's commercial culture, many British aristocrats could live beyond their inherited means -- actual work being, of course, unthinkable. The deserved decline of Downton's finances demon- strates why estate taxes are unnecessary: Even when Balzac's axiom is accurate ("At the bottom of every great for- tune without apparent source, there's always some crime") and fortunes are ill-gotten, subse- quent generations often soon fritter them away. Call this Dar- winian redistribution. Americans have an unslak- able appetite for British artistic syrup. Charles Dickens, although a noble spirit and liter- ary genius, could be so insuffer- ably saccharine that his flinty Mr. Gradgrind in "Hard Times" ("The Good Samaritan was a Bad Economist") seemed like a breath of fresh air. In 1841, when Dickens was serializing "The Old Curiosity Shop," the ship arriving in America carry- ing the latest installment report- edly was greeted by dockwork- ers shouting, "Is Nell still alive?" But Oscar Wilde was right: "One must have a heart of stone to read the death of little Nell without laughing." And one must have a head of stone to enjoy the "Downton Abbey" scene when Matthew, a frag- ment of the upper crust whose war wound had left him in a wheel chair, sees that Lavinia, another chip off the old crust, is about to trip while carrying a heavy tray. Gallantry propels Matthew up from his chair and he is ambulatory once again and ever more. It is fitting that PBS offers "Downton Abbey" to its dispro- portionately progressive audi- ence. This series is a languid appreciation of a class structure supposedly tempered by the paternalism of the privileged. And if progressivism prevails, America will (BEG ITAL)be(END ITAL) Downton Abbey: Upstairs, the administra- tors of the regulatory state will, with a feudal sense of noblesse oblige, assume responsibility for the lower orders downstairs, gently protecting them from "substandard" health insurance policies, school choice, gun ownership, large sodas and other decisions that experts consider naughty or calamitous. Why, however, does a nor- mally wise and lucid conserva- tive such as Peter Augustine Lawler, professor of government at Berry College, celebrate the "astute nostalgia" of "Downton Abbey"? Writing in Intercolle- giate Review, he inter- prets the Abbey as a welfare state conserva- tives can revere: "Everyone -- aristo- crat or servant -- knows his place, his relational responsibilities. ... The characters aren't that burdened by the modern individualistic freedom of figuring out one's place in the world. ... Many of the customs that seem pointlessly expensive and time consuming, such as dressing for every dinner, are employment programs for wor- thy servants given secure, digni- fied places in a world where most ordinary people struggle. ... The nobility of living in ser- vice to a lord. ... What aristocra- cy offers us at its best is a proud but measured acceptance of the unchangeable relationship between privileges and responsi- bilities in the service of those whom we know and love." Good grief. Americans do not call the freedom to figure out one's place in the world a bur- den; they call it the pursuit of happiness. And to be "given" a "secure" place amid "unchange- able" relationships is not digni- fied, it is servitude. One reason Thomas Jeffer- son, a child of Virginia's gentry, preferred an agricultural society to one in which people are "piled upon one another in large cities" ("let our workshops remain in Europe") is that he valued social stasis, as the privi- leged are wont to do. One reason his rival Alexander Hamilton, an immigrant striver thriving in Manhat- tan, wanted a restless market society of ample and volatile capital was as a sol- vent of the entrenched hierar- chies that impede upward mobility. "Downton Abbey" viewers should remember the following rhapsodic hymn to capitalism's unceasing social churning: "Constant revolutionizing of production, uninterrupted dis- turbance of all social conditions. ... All fixed, fast-frozen rela- tions, with their train of ancient and venerable prejudices and opinions, are swept away, all new-formed ones become anti- quated before they can ossify. All that is solid melts into air." This (from "The Communist Manifesto") explains why capi- talism liberates. And why American conservatives should understand that some people smitten by "Downton Abbey" hope to live upstairs during a future reign of gentry progres- sivism. George Will's email address is georgewill@washpost.com. Lessons from the Abbey Commentary N EWS D AILY RED BLUFF TEHAMA COUNTY 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 George F. Will STATE ASSEMBLYMAN — Dan Logue, 150 Amber Grove Drive, Ste. 154, Chico, CA 95928, 530-895-4217 STATE SENATOR — Jim Nielsen, 2635 Forest Ave., Ste. 110, Chico, CA 95928, (530) 879-7424, senator.nielsen@sen- ate.ca.gov GOVERNOR — Jerry Brown, State Capitol Bldg., Sacramento, CA 95814; (916) 445-2841; Fax (916) 558- 3160; E-mail: governor@gov- ernor.ca.gov. U.S. REPRESENTATIVE — Doug LaMalfa 506 Cannon House Office Building, Wash- ington, DC 20515, 202-225- 3076. 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; (510) 286-8537. Fax (202) 224-0454. Your officials Welcome visitors to Red Bluff Editor: As part of our town's brand- ing efforts, there should be a nice "Welcome to Red Bluff" sign to greet those entering from the first northbound off-ramp. Properly placed, it would be seen by both I-5 and 99W trav- elers. Of course, in the interests of honesty and transparency, it should include "Rough road ahead!" John Elko, Red Bluff Been mistreated Editor: Regarding the Feb. 7 piece, Jogger shoots loose dogs, in the Daily News, Tehama County Sheriff's Deputies weren't near- ly so forgiving when neighbors accused me of shooting a vicious dog. Apparently they — wrongly — believe only law enforcement officers are enti- tled to defend themselves. For years I'd complained to Tehama County DA Gregg Cohen about my neighbors' loose, noisy and threatening animals. On Nov. 7, 30 minutes after their vicious dog drove me into my house, three sheriff's deputies rolled up and battered, cuffed and arrested me for allegedly shooting it — a law- ful act of self-defense (People v. Lee, 2005). After jailing me, the deputies suspended me upside down, stripped me naked and while handcuffed, dropped me two feet onto concrete. Unable to move with a possibly broken neck, I spent the night shivering while sewage erupted onto me from a floor drain. Refused use of a functioning phone, I remained incarcerated a full week until a visiting judge ordered my release. Three months later I'm still enduring swelling, pain and grinding in my neck. Now Cohen's attempting to incarcerate me seven more years for this incident. That is, despite his own neglect to abate these nuisances as I'd been beg- ging for years and mandated of him by CA Penal Code 373a. My neighbors' dogs still screech for hours daily and chase and harass pedestrians, dog walkers, bicyclists and equestrians. Cohen and sher- iff's deputies need to distin- guish crime perpetrators from victims. Nathan Esplanade, Rancho Tehama Jefferson State Editor: United States has a great fol- lowing we have shown the world after all of our differences and diversities we stand together with individ- ual freedoms inherent in a common cause when push comes to shove in world affairs when it counts we are united with great resolve we know deep down in our hearts America has many differences but we are the great United States fundamental in a com- mon cause our freedom. Promoters behind Jefferson State are special interest with their own agenda not common with America. The United States govern- ment is divided into three parts legislative, executive and judicial and between federal and state government power not reserved by the U.S. Constitution reside in the state however no state can give its people fewer rights than the U.S. Constitution. If California divided the Supreme Court would rule it unconstitutional ironically by a Supreme Court ruling a high- light during the 3rd President of United States Thomas Jeffer- son. Marbury V. Madison in 1803 established the princi- ple the court could declare unconstitu- tional a law passed by Congress and after many California's amenities were stopped because Jefferson State could not afford to offer basic rights like public defenders to people that cannot afford one and supply a speedy trial to an accused citizen or state build- ings without wheel chair access and obvious only special inter- ests gained in this pursuit the people would complain they lost freedoms. The Jefferson State will not be the future Louisiana Territory also a highlight under the Thomas Jefferson administration but another attempt to divide and conquer by special interests that risk and monopolize. If America wants to move for- ward stand behind our President Barack Obama that's for certain and sure. Dennis R.Crail, Manton Your Turn