Issue link: https://www.epageflip.net/i/361019
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 Lookslikethecitycomes up short again Editor: Friday was the close of reg- istration for filing for a seat on the Red Bluff City Council. Two of the tree current mem- bers have filed and one seat re- mains likely to be open, which will postpone the filing dead- line until Wednesday the 13th. If there are no candidates for all three seats then there will be a free ride for those who are there and an appointment op- portunity for the next council to pick who they want instead of who the people of Red Bluff want. Granted, it is a thankless job. A lot of work if you take your position seriously and not even enough money to cover your gas. People gripe about how things are, complain, complain and then sit back and wait for the other guy to get his or her hands dirty and do the job. There must be three or four people out there, out of the many thousands who live here, who care enough about our children, grandchildren and all the others here who need qual- ity services, good decisions and proper support for the cham- ber, local business and things that draw visitors and jobs to this city. Surely somebody cares enough to make this a race, a debate of the issues or at very least, a choice? —LarryStevens,RedBluff Confrontation over water in Rancho Tehama Editor: July 30 was one of those frightening moments in my life that I will never forget or re- gret. First, I want to thank Deputy Ferguson of the Tehama County Sheriff's Department. We all make choices to act, participate, ignore or whatever you want to name it. In the end the only one that can make the difference is ourselves, either collectively or individually, or not. Our government, state, col- lective bargaining unit cannot make these changes for us. I relocated here, in Rancho Tehama Reserve. Yes I set's ev- eryone's hair on fire when I mention the name, though it is really beautiful here with its old oak trees and backward de- meanor. Some people, not including the HOA manager, are really quite friendly like the rest of my neighbors. Sorry I digress, this is not a rant. We are in a drought here in California and four weeks ago, a truck started showing up to a vacant lot with a large white, cage containing a water vessel. Since there is not a residence on this property, I thought that to be strange. After looking into water restrictions, I found that it is illegal to remove water from any property. Okay then I contacted my HOA, Tehama Sheriff and the Tehama County Environmental agency from which I received no response. So, what should you do. I am an older, single, white female with two small dogs. All my life I have been adverse to people taking advantage of any system, and there are many. Taking pictures of any- thing is not a crime and if peo- ple react in a negative way then they have something to hide. Wherein lays my story. When the water thieves and generator noise began, I started taking pictures so that I could send them to the appropriate authorities. After one and a half weeks of no response from the authorities, the, let's call them consumers, were coming back more frequently and waving at me like we were now pals. The frequency increased ev- ery day and the manner of the consumers became more in- tensified. I tried to tell myself, "this is not my problem" until yesterday, when they allowed a geyser of water spraying in the open ground, while they were digging ditches for no appar- ent reason. The water container had been filled and already left the site. I took more pictures, which somehow provoked the con- sumers, two young angry men, to come storming from two lots away screaming obsceni- ties, between Spanish and Eng- lish, in case I could not under- stand. As I was luckily working in my back yard I happen to no- tice them walking aggressively along the road toward my res- idence and could see that they meant business. Since I am a single female, I do pack a gun, which I re- trieved just shortly after dial- ing 911. By this time the con- sumers have approached my gate and my two small dogs are barking up a storm. The 911 dis- patcher is telling me to get into my place and lock all my doors and at this point I tell the con- sumers to get the hell off my property and try to reel in my over protective dogs. The men retreated without incident, un- til later. Now here is something I have learned, all of this 911 conversa- tion is on a police scanner and most of these consumers seem to have access to this scanner. Not more than five minutes later, the truck with the water tank returns, consults with the consumers and drives off — as I have given a description to the 911 dispatcher. In that short five minutes the neighbor across from me, who has witnessed all of this, drives over to console the consumers. She may have sold them the property, though should she support this kind of behavior? So the end and the good news is that Deputy Ferguson, told me that the sheriff's of- fice could help in this matter and she just happen to be in the area. Within 30 minutes Deputy Ferguson showed up and mon- itored the situation, for which the consumers waited and waited and waited for her to leave, as it is not a crime un- til they leave the property with the water. I forgot to mention that the consumers came back with two young angry men in their white flatbed truck to my driveway racing the engine, calling out obscenities, etc. and then again later in the evening. This is not over and it is just the beginning for my stance against whatever this is. This morning, though I have peace and no sign of the con- sumers. Thanks again to Deputy Fer- guson. — Mary Rieger, Rancho Tehama Disarm government bureaucrats Editor: I have a friend who was raided and whose life was de- stroyed by federal officers in- vading her farm. She was not guilty and released of all charges. Her life is still ruined. Please support the demilitar- ization of inspection agencies on our farms. Farmland is not the place to be fighting Ameri- can citizens. The country is in a vulner- able position agriculturally, fi- nancially and socially. We need to be able to farm without fear of being invaded by our govern- ment organizations. — Matt Vader, Corning Thanks for Engle story Editor: Thanks to you and Robert Minch for reminding us of the life and legacy of Clair Engle. It's amazing to note how much he accomplished in his all-too- short 52 years. His adult life was as not just a Democratic politician, but as a true public servant—the state legislature, the House of Representatives and the US Senate. He respected the earth, and many of his efforts in Congress showed it—water resources, conservation, flood control, rec- lamation, electric power, rivers and harbors. He sponsored leg- islation authorizing every ma- jor expansion of the California Valley Project. We have him to thank for much of North State development. Recognizing the ever-increasing need for water, he even sponsored desaliniza- tion research. Although his congressional district stretched from the Or- egon border to the Mojave des- ert, one fifth of the state's area, he never whimpered about be- ing outnumbered by those in urban areas. Instead he con- verted them to his point of view. Never thinking that his life would be so short, he com- pressed a lifetime of accom- plishment into those years. They called him "The Little Gi- ant in Politics," "The Pride of Red Bluff," "Congressional Fire- ball," and "The Only Active Vol- cano in the House." Maybe he took his cue from Lassen Peak, which was actively erupting during his early years. His final profile in courage came near the end of his life. A brain tumor and two surgeries had robbed him of the ability to speak. But ending the filibus- ter that was holding up the civil rights bill was so important to him, he was taken to the Senate floor to vote. Unable to answer the roll call, he lifted his hand to his eye to vote "aye" and the filibuster was broken. Despite his many accom- plishments, he has little recog- nition. There is a Clair Engle park in the city of Shasta Lake. Trinity Lake was named for him, but somehow it reverted to just Trinity Lake. The law fra- ternity at McGeorge School of Law is the Clair Engle chap- ter. But if he is the pride of Red Bluff, why aren't we honoring him? — June Qunicy, Red Bluff Your opinions Cartoonist's take "Singlepayersystem"hasbecomeaneu- phemism for what used to be derided as "so- cialized medicine," a danger we have been warned against at least since Harry Truman sought a national health insurance system a er World War II about 65 years ago. Much energy and verbiage has been invested on our Daily News opinion page to debate just what kind of health care system would be best for our country and each of us. One thing is very clear throughout these debates: A great many people have come to believe that adequate healthcare is almost a right, like the freedom to assemble and the freedom to worship. This is probably a natural evo- lution that has paralleled the development of medicine into a true science over the last two centuries. Now that it is feasi- ble to provide, at a cost, good healthcare for all, it has be- come something many peo- ple want. If I understand the argu- ments for and against, they go like this. One side says health care is a right and should be affordable to everyone; the government can do that. The other side says whenever the government steps in and the profit motive is absent, there will be inefficiencies and poor service and no real cost sav- ings. Each side prods the other with examples from other countries. Most of the exam- ples are anecdotal rather than from a well constructed study. Unbeknownst to most of us, there has been a low pro- file group arguing behind the scenes for many years against socialization of another es- sential service; the group is called PASAF, pronounce "passive," an acronym for Peo- ple Against Socialized Armed Forces. According to PASAF, our current defense policy by- passes the market mechanism, denies the profit motive ex- cept to vendors, and is enor- mously expensive. Excessive government interference has driven up the risks to Amer- ica. PASAF claims that the military has become a cradle to grave self-perpetuating bu- reaucracy, replete with a re- tirement system and cemeter- ies. The various services have a very rigid chain of command and divide servicemen into the elite and the grunts. PASAF claims the system is out dated and does not appreciate cap- italism or the market mecha- nism. According to their spokes- person, Andy Said, our social- ized armed forces were cre- ated without competitive bid- ding, they bypassed the local militia, and there are no con- tracts with performance stan- dards. Military privatization would solve a lot of our prob- lems, restore stability to the economy, and assure fewer wars. Said says having a social- ized military all these years has been a drag on our coun- try; the military is constantly out of money; it relies on pan- dering to Congress for fund- ing; it lacks sufficient num- bers to accomplish its tasks; it sends personnel into danger without sufficient weapons or defensive equipment. It relies on volunteers and requires lots of advertizing, a waste of pub- lic funds. When times are good it has troubles competing with in- dustry, when times are bad, it has too many unqualified ap- plicants, and when there is combat it has retention prob- lems. Not only that, but the government refuses to provide the resources necessary to care for veterans. According to PASAF with the bottom line as an incen- tive we most likely would have fewer wars, we would not have to worry about veterans bene- fits, and we could go out to bid to find the best armed forces available at the lowest price. All contracts could be on a simple cost plus basis, with agreed upon profit margins and minimal legislative inter- ference. Contract winners would have an incentive to do the best job possible so their con- tracts could be renewed. They would treat their employees well so there would be no re- tention problem; to main- tain cash flow we could estab- lish a public defense commis- sion which could set income rates to keep them solvent; and a guaranteed profit would provide a disincentive to en- gage in unnecessary combat. Federal law would guarantee a system similar to Workers' Compensation to care for the wounded. PASAF claims that another country might even be willing to supply our defense needs, relieving us of the burdens of overpriced toilet seats, vet- erans' cemeteries, and such. Many countries do not now have armed forces, only bor- der guards; we could become one of them. When we need defense, Said says, the Pres- ident could just issue a con- tract to have the job done by the private sector. We would not have to suffer under so- cialized armed forces, and the market mechanism would be preserved. Those worried about a sin- gle payer system of health care should consider the positions PASAF touts; those very argu- ments may be applicable to na- tional health insurance pro- grams. After all a single payer system would not include profit motives, excessive over- head, bureaucracy, excessive advertizing to recruit custom- ers, and muddled coordination of benefits. PASAF has been relatively unknown to most of us; it has not sought publicity, and it has a small budget, relying mostly on free market economists and current vendors to the social- ized system who do not like big government. There may have been some progress in their cause re- cently, however, since our cur- rent conflict in the middle east has witnessed the increased role of contractors to provide a large variety of services and supplies to our military and the State Department. The bottom line is that even PASAF has not been very suc- cessful in privatizing our armed forces. Nevertheless, PASAF has been persistently fighting against a socialized military, and maybe we can learn some lessons from their struggle. Their persistence may never pay off. It may be that PASAF will never succeed because of that other acronym: WHAD- ITW: We Have Always Done It That Way. Joe Harrop is a retired educa- tor with more than 30 years of service to the North State. He can be reached at DrJoeHar- rop@sbcglobal.net. Joe Harrop Avoiddanger of social programs OPINION » redbluffdailynews.com Saturday, August 9, 2014 » MORE AT FACEBOOK.COM/RBDAILYNEWS AND TWITTER.COM/REDBLUFFNEWS A4