Issue link: https://www.epageflip.net/i/329934
GregStevens,Publisher Chip Thompson, Editor EDITORIALBOARD 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 Iawoketheothermorningat2:06and found myself in the middle of calculating the election results for Proposition A, the advi- sory proposition about whether or not we should take seriously the possibilities of a new State of Jefferson. MarkTwainoncesaidabout politicians, "There are certain sweet-smelling, sugarcoated lies in the world which all pol- itic men have apparently tac- itly conspired together to sup- port and perpetuate…We are discreet sheep; we wait to see how the drove is going and then go with the drove. We have two opinions: one pri- vate, which we are afraid to express, and another one — the one we use — which we force ourselves to wear to please Mrs. Gundy." We know the politicians Twain was talking about; they look serious, contemplative and self important. They pon- tificate when they know what the Mrs. Gundy's in their dis- trict think. It will be interesting to see just what our County Board of Supervisors will do now that the election is complete. Will they succumb to the tyranny of the minority, pandering to the loud portion of the elector- ate that supported Proposition A, or will they look at the data and move on with the true is- sues facing our county? That data is very clear; a small minority of registered voters affirmed Proposition A. Less than 24 percent of reg- istered voters voted "yes" on Prop. A. Almost 400 voters de- cided not to even be bothered to vote one way or the other on the proposition. Although Prop. A received more votes than any other items on the local ballot, 12,726, that amounted to only 23.76 percent of registered vot- ers. Prop. A was a hot button item, but almost 60 percent of registered voters stayed home, not excited by the possibility of a 51st state. Those voting for Prop. A were only 7,242, out of the 30,492 registered voters. Maybe the Mrs. Gundy's of Tehama County really don't care about the mythical state of Jefferson; at least 681 of them did care about poor Leland Yee, probably feeling sorry for him because he had been indicted for gun running among other things and that he was only ex- ercising his Second Amend- ment rights….sort of. Those Mrs. Gundy's have that right, that is, to essentially vote for a write in candidate….as most of us know Yee had withdrawn from the race for State Secre- tary of State in disgrace. Maybe they considered their vote a protest, or most likely, maybe they just didn't know about Yee. On a statewide ba- sis Yee came in third, with over 360,000 votes, or 9.5 percent of the total who voted for Secre- tary of State. I guess Tehama County voters were actually more informed than statewide voters….which leads me back to the plain fact that less than one quarter of registered vot- ers approved Proposition A. The statewide voter turn- out was only 23.8 percent, while the Tehama County was 42.7 percent. Clearly Tehama County voters care, but they don't care all that much for the State of Jefferson. I hope the Board of Super- visors is done polling the Mrs. Gundy's of Tehama County and feel safe and secure as they proceed with the impor- tant issues facing our county, issues that can make it an even better place to live within the existing, if imperfect, state of California. JoeHarropisaneducator with more than 30 years of service to the North State. He can be reached at DrJoeHar- rop@sbcglobal.net. Joe Harrop Mrs.Gundy, Mark Twain and Prop. A Supervisorsshouldhold off on state of Jefferson Editor: Ms. Cooper's letter of thanks to Tehama County voters June 7 doesn't mention that of 30,489 registered voters, only 13,016 bothered to vote in this mid-term election, and of those, 5,484 voted no on Mea- sure A — approximately 19 percent. The yes votes totaled 7,242 — approximately 24 percent. No overwhelming mandate here. My humble advice to the Board of Supervisors is to re- consider any declaration to se- cede. — Dan Gallagher, Los Molinos Lessons from history and the State of Jefferson Editor: In memory of my beloved and dear father, I retain the historical legacy of knowing emotions ran rampant prior to WWII. Dad, Robert Evan Mon- roe, an army soldier was de- ployed to the front lines in Ger- many's Battle of the Bulge 1941- 1945. Regarding the proposed Jef- ferson State, history tell us the same strategy and polit- ical atmosphere was used by Hitler when he broke from the then current form of gov- ernment in Germany. Rallies were set up all over the coun- try with a concentration on guns, patriotism, God, and job creation, all during the de- pression. Does this sound familiar? It should, the above tactics are used by the proponents of Jef- ferson State. Hitler believed he was a re- ligious man even though all that stood in his way were mur- dered. He and his followers of the new Reich committed sui- cide. As my father's daughter, therefore, the passion is known for all of the above. The moral here is let us not be confused by the energy of the Jefferson state advocates. More simply put, it is not ec- onomically sound to form an- other state. In reality, Tehama County has a good deal from Califor- nia. We receive more support than our contributions to the state and would have difficulty making up the difference. When asked the question, how will the new Jefferson State wanabees be able to re- place the current California state funds the answer was, "We will figure it out after we are in control." — Kathy Bonner, Red Bluff Voter responsibility Editor: We as voters have the right to support, in any shape form or fashion as allowed by law, any candidate we choose. Now if and when that candidate gets elected is where our responsi- bility begins. For you see when we have done all of the above we have hired that person and she or he is now our employee, and is paid out of taxpayer funds, you know our money. So as much as some may ad- mire any office holder you are derelict in your responsibility as a citizen of America if you do not hold your representa- tive accountable. If you do not you have wasted your time and vote. — Bob Hogan, Red Bluff Exposing columnist Editor: Richard Mazzucchi's grand- standing column dated May 20 may well expose the underbelly of this insulting person who brags about his service in the military. There is a code in the broth- erhood of the military that a fellow soldier is not left behind without exhausting every possi- ble rescue attempt. Hilary Clin- ton and the Obama Admin- istration not only left behind their Ambassador Stevens and Sean Smith but they also left Navy Seal Veterans Tyrone S. Woods and Glen Doherty who ran toward the attack knowing they would die if help wasn't sent. Needless to say help wasn't sent! The CIA released a timeline of the terrorist attack in Beng- hazi which led to the deaths of Chris Stevens, Sean Smith, Ty- rone Woods and Glen Doherty, and the timeline confirms that the White House was informed in an email from the State De- partment about the attack a full seven hours before Tyrone Woods and Glen Doherty were murdered. Mazzucchi in true character failed to mention that the 10 others that were injured and all the rest that escaped with their lives are alive today be- cause of Woods and Doherty. Seven hours was enough time for a fly over and for special forces to get there and what a difference a few more men like Woods and Doherty would have made. Realizing un- til they ran out of ammuni- tion and were murdered, they killed 60 terrorists. Yes, Osama Bin Laden is dead however so is Tyrone Woods and Glen Doherty. Also, there was no fog in this attack, Obama and Hilary knew from the beginning this was a ter- rorist attack and lied about it for weeks and Mazzucchi calls getting to the bottom of this scandal "Grandstanding." — Les Wolfe, Red Bluff Your opinions Cartoonist's take Editor's note: This column is an excerpt from Tom Purcell's new book, "Comi- cal Sense: A Lone Humor- ist Takes on a World Gone Nutty!" available at ama- zon.com. Get this: Dads are es- sential to kids. According to the Na- tional Fatherhood Initiative, kids who grow up without dads are more likely to grow up poor, drop out of school, end up in jail and encounter numerous other struggles in life than kids who grow up with dads do. This information comes as no shock to most men. We know that boys are prone to stupidity and that the creature best suited to taming them is the like- minded fellow called dad. When I was five, my father told me to stop jumping around the tub, but I did so anyway. I slipped and hit my head on a ce- ramic soap dish. It busted into a dozen pieces. My father re- sponded to my stupidity the way he often did. "Son of a !!!" I pretended to be hurt, but he knew I was fine. He knew a noggin as hard as mine could have busted a dozen soap dishes without so much as a bruise. Breaking things was one of my talents. Over the years, I clogged a toilet with an apple core, shattered a picture window with a baseball and hit a golf ball through a neighbor's window — I fled, was later ap- prehended, and had to mow a lot of lawns to pay my father back for the cost of a new window. I made it hard for my father to fix the things I broke though. This is because I lost many of his tools over the years. I was permitted to use them to build shacks and go-carts, so long as I put them back where they be- longed. But I didn't always put them back. He'd usually find them ly- ing in the yard — after hitting them with the lawnmower blade — which prompted a familiar re- action. "Son of a !!!" When I was a teen, I de- stroyed more expensive items, such as automobiles. My father made the mistake of purchasing a 1979 Ford Pinto with a power- ful six-cylinder motor — it could burn rubber at will. When he discovered that a right-rear tire only six weeks old was worn to the threads, he had but one response. "Son of a !!!" In addition to costing him money, I saw it as my duty to butt heads with him — or, to be more precise, it was his duty to butt heads with me. He grew up without a father and he remem- bered the dumb things he did in his youth. He knew that most any boy is only one or two knuckle-headed decisions away from heading off in a dangerous direction. His job was to keep me in line, a task that was often unpleasant for him. In high school, I began mak- ing a lot of money running a stone-masonry business, and I announced I was going to buy my own car. But the un- enlightened old man made me do something stupid with the money: save it for college. I was furious and fought him hard, but he wouldn't relent. The friction my father caused me, I now know, was also the basis for my respect for him. A father gives a boy someone to look up to and model himself af- ter. And all that friction over the years polishes an average lump of coal into a diamond. I'm glad people are doing studies that confirm what a lot of folks have always known about fathers. When boys don't have committed fathers to agi- tate — and when caring fathers aren't around to inflict unpleas- antness on their sons — the re- sult is too often tragic. When dads are around, things usually work out in the end. My dad had the satisfaction of seeing me turn out all right. A few years after I graduated from college and bought my first nice car, I let him take a drive. He revved the motor, dropped the transmission into gear, then burned rubber all the way up the road. I had but one thing to say to that. "Son of a !!!" Tom Purcell, author of "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 and is nationally syndicated exclu- sively by Cagle Cartoons Inc. Send comments to Tom at Pur- cell@caglecartoons.com. Tom Purcell Why dads are essential to kids He knew that most any boy is only one or two knuckle-headed decisions away from heading off in a dangerous direction. His job was to keep me in line, a task that was often unpleasant for him. Tom Purcell Mark Twain once said about politicians, "There are certain sweet-smelling, sugarcoated lies in the world which all politic men have apparently tacitly conspired together to support and perpetuate. OPINION » redbluffdailynews.com Saturday, June 14, 2014 » MORE AT FACEBOOK.COM/RBDAILYNEWS AND TWITTER.COM/REDBLUFFNEWS A4