Issue link: https://www.epageflip.net/i/311961
What do you mean Americans have gotten ruder?" "Poll a er poll has been showing it in recent years. More than 70 percent of the respon- dents questioned in an Associated Press poll believe people are ruder than they were 20 or 30 years ago." "Whywouldthat be?" "Life is moving faster these days. Companies are em- ploying technology that has dramatically increased the speed of change. This technol- ogy has enabled competition on a global scale and employees, fearing for their jobs, are work- ing long and hard to keep up." "Yeah, yeah." "The pace at home is much faster, too. Many couples, hav- ing fallen into the big-mort- gage trap, are both working. To afford large houses, they've moved further out into the sub- urbs. They're perpetually sit- ting in traffic jams, rushing to pick the kids up from day care, and racing to get home to make dinner." "It's a free country." "Computers, video games and other gadgets are isolat- ing people from each other. And many people are living far away from their extended families — living among people they are not deeply connected to." "Sounds good to me. My fam- ily drives me nuts." "Even modern architecture is promoting isolation. Look at the older homes built in the 1920s. Big glorious porches were on the front and the ga- rages were in the back. Homes were designed to invite friends and family to stop in for a visit and some cold lemonade. Now the porch is hidden in the back and the garage is on the front — even our homes are rude to people." "If you say so, pal." "As a result of this desensi- tization and the stress of mod- ern times, we're seeing more in- cidents of road rage, more peo- ple cutting in lines at the super market, fewer people holding the door open for strangers. I know I've been short with ser- vice people at times." "Being rude with service people is the reason I get out of bed in the morning." "What's most interesting is that folks are quick to see rude- ness in others, but not in them- selves. Only 13 percent said they'd used an obscene gesture while driving. And only 8 percent said they'd used a cell phone in a loud or annoying manner." "I do both every day on my lunch break." "It's certainly true that life is moving faster and keeping up is more stressful, but that's no excuse. We all need to get back to the basics. Par- ents need to do a better job teaching their kids to have respect for others. Adults need to slow down and be more considerate of others." "Why should we care?" "Because a civil and man- nerly existence is not just a more delightful way to live, but one that is essential to a well- functioning society. Don't ask me, ask Judith Martin." "Judith Martin?" "You know her better as Miss Manners. She says that good manners are the philosophi- cal basis of civilization, that it's essential folks have a common language of civil behavior that restrains their impulses." "But impulsiveness is my fa- vorite hobby." "Martin says our legal system was originally intended to pun- ish serious conflict involving the loss of life, limb or property, but the legal system is now forced to handle disputes that the proper use of etiquette used to prevent." "I ain't following." "She says that what used to be an insult is now called slan- der. What used to be meanness is now called hate speech. What used to be boorishness is now called sexual harassment. If the rules of civility and etiquette were stronger, fewer people would engage in actions that are now considered crimes." "Slander, meanness and boorishness are against the law? There goes the weekend." TomPurcell,authorof"Misad- ventures of a 1970s Childhood" and "Comical Sense: A Lone Hu- morist Takes on a World Gone Nutty!" is a Pittsburgh Tribune- Review humor columnist. Send comments to Tom at Purcell@ caglecartoons.com. TomPurcell On Rudeness and Incivility Only 13 percent said they'd used an obscene gesture while driving. And only 8 percent said they'd used a cell phone in a loud or annoying manner. Quitlivinginthepast Editor: Diana Thompson needs to quit living in the past. Robotics and computers were not the cause for increased unemployment. The workforce became complacent and didn't pay attention to the fact that manual labor type jobs were going to decrease substan- tially and that they needed to get retrained or educated for the workforce of the future. A generation of young peo- ple became lazy and dependent on government for their lives. It's called welfare. I personally observed a family member that should have graduated from high school in 1970, but instead had a baby, then got married and lived on welfare from California to this day. The problem doesn't stop there. Her baby girl grew up in the same environment and today is in the same welfare program. Shortly after graduating from high school she became preg- nant. She is now also on welfare. Do you see a pattern here? That is your California State wel- fare at work. All three of these people are able to work, but have no skills, nor are they being trained or educated with skills to allow them to join the workforce. You referred to the Repub- licans having a problem with a black president. Really? This country has never been in a more accepting time. Don't you think that it might have something to do with his running of the country? He has lied to us, he has caused peo- ple to either lose their current health plan or had it cost consid- erably more, our foreign policies are a shambles and our national debt has sky rocketed to unprec- edented highs in 5 years. The president's color has nothing to do with it. How dare you refer to your fel- low Americans who are simply exercising their right to disagree with their government as Nazis. The Jefferson State movement is nothing more than a choice for people that want less govern- ment involvement in their lives. Have you forgotten why this country got started? Have you forgotten history? Passage of Measure A does not turn us into the state of Jef- ferson. It merely provides the county supervisors with a more accurate level of sentiment by the voters of Tehama County to support the possible split from the state of California. The split from California is much more in- volved than a vote by Tehama County. — Gary Niskala, Red Bluff Chain reaction Editor: Remember Lassen Lumber, Ace Hardware, Diamond Retail and Moss Lumber? Now we have The Home Depot. Remember, Creme King, Hal's , Arctic Circle and Foster's Freeze? Now Jolly Cone is the only independent left. Large corporations are able to buy foreign goods cheaper due to the volume of product of which they move. In many cases, these large corporations duck paying benefits such as health care by employing most of their work- ers on a less than full-time ba- sis. The result being that the tax- payer ends up paying for the ben- efits on these workers that once were part of a competitive wage package that employers paid to their workers. So instead of less trained, higher paid work- ers with benefits, they can have many part time entry level work- ers who they can bully around and pay less. They also take advantage of an area desperate for work by paying as little as they can get away with. Corporations like these laugh all the way to the bank ,and at the workers' and taxpayers' expense. And now, the Walmart Super- center. I strongly suggest the populace of our fair city watch the documentary "Walmart -The high cost of low prices." Many towns have refused to allow Walmarts to be built for several reasons. One being the elimination of local long term high quality grocery stores that pay a decent wage to their peo- ple. I personally have bought food at a Supercenter once. The quality level being about on the level of Dollar General in my opinion and the fresh meat hav- ing been shipped in from back east. Another reason being the un- employed workers of the stores that get taken out by the Super- center and the expense that gen- erates to the community. Walmart has been sued nu- merous times for numerous reasons by managers, work- ers, communities and custom- ers. And lost. We've already lost Holiday markets, the hardware stores and those jobs. Super- center jobs in Red Bluff? Yes jobs with pay scales that would ri- val Burger King at the expense of losing decent paying jobs that offer a quality product. I personally don't want to have to drive to Safeway in Corning or Anderson to get food at the qual- ity level that we still have left in Red Bluff. Walmart Supercenter will do to the grocery indus- try what The Home Depot did to the hardware market. Chicken franks ,anyone? — Terry van Dyke, Red Bluff Creeping senility? Editor: The Monday polemicist must be slipping. He wrote a whole column and forgot to mention Benghazi. — Dan Gallagher, Los Molinos Your opinions Cartoonist's take In several eastern Ukrainian towns over the past week, the military opened fire on its own citizens. Dozens may have been killed in the violence. Although the U.S. government generally condemns a country's use of mil- itary force against its own popu- lation, especially if they are un- armed protesters, this time the U.S. administration blamed the victims. After as many as 20 un- armed protesters were killed on the May 9th holiday in Ukraine, the State Department spokesman said "we condemn the outbreak of violence caused by pro-Russia separatists." Why are people protesting in eastern Ukraine? Because they do not believe the govern- ment that came to power after the US-backed uprising in Feb- ruary is legitimate. They do not recognize the authority of an un- elected president and prime min- ister. The U.S. sees this as a Rus- sian-sponsored destabilization effort, but is it so hard to under- stand that the people in Ukraine may be annoyed with the U.S. and EU for their involvement in regime change in their country? Would we be so willing to ac- cept an unelected government in Washington put in place with the backing of the Chinese and Ira- nians? The U.S. State Department provided much assistance ear- lier this year to those involved in the effort to overthrow the Ukrainian government. The U.S. warned the Ukrainian gov- ernment at the time not to take any action against those in the streets, even as they engaged in violence and occupied govern- ment buildings. But now that those former protesters have come to power, the U.S. takes a different view of protest. Now they give full support to the bloody crackdown against pro- testers in the east. The State De- partment spokesperson said last week: "We continue to call for groups who have jeopardized public order by taking up arms and seizing public buildings in violation of Ukrainian law to dis- arm and leave the buildings they have seized." This is the opposite of what they said in February. Do they think the rest of the world does not see this hypocrisy? The residents of eastern Ukraine have long been closer to Russia than to the U.S. and EU. In fact, that part of Ukraine had been a part of Russia. After February's regime change, offi- cials in the east announced that they would hold referenda to see whether the population wanted autonomy from the U.S.-backed government in Kiev. The U.S. demanded that Russian Presi- dent Putin stop eastern Ukraine from voting on autonomy, and last week the Russian president did just that: he said that the vote should not be held as scheduled. The eastern Ukrainians ignored him and said they would hold the vote anyway. So much for the U.S. claims that Russia controls the opposition in Ukraine. Even though the Russian pres- ident followed U.S. demands and urged the eastern Ukrainians to hold off on the vote, the U.S. State Department announced that the U.S. would apply addi- tional sanctions on Russia if the vote is held! Does this make any sense? The real question is why the U.S. government is involved in Ukraine in the first place. We are broke. We cannot even afford to fix our own economy. Yet we want to run Ukraine? Does it really matter who Ukrainians elect to represent them? Is it really a na- tional security matter worth risk- ing a nuclear war with Russia whether Ukraine votes for more regional autonomy and a weaker central government? Isn't that how the United States was origi- nally conceived? Has the arrogance of the U.S. administration, thinking they should run the world, driven us to the brink of another major war in Europe? Let us hope they will stop this dangerous game and come to their senses. I say let's have no war for Ukraine. Ron Paul is a former Congressman and Presidential candidate. He can be reached at RonPaulChannel.com. Ron Paul What does the U.S. government want in Ukraine? GregStevens,Publisher Chip Thompson, Editor EDITORIAL BOARD How to have your say: 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 no more than two double-spaced pages or 500words. When several letters address the same issue, a cross section will be published. Email: editor@red bluffdailynews.com Phone: 530-527- 2151ext. 112 Mail to: P.O. Box 220, 545 Diamond Ave., Red Bluff, CA 96080 Facebook: Leave comments at FACEBOOK.COM/ RBDAILYNEWS Twitter: Follow and send tweets to @REDBLUFFNEWS Tom Purcell OPINION » redbluffdailynews.com Wednesday, May 14, 2014 » MORE AT FACEBOOK.COM/RBDAILYNEWS AND TWITTER.COM/REDBLUFFNEWS A6