Issue link: https://www.epageflip.net/i/362684
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 Noonegetsthroughlifeunscarred.This we know. But those who suffer from one of the many forms of depression and bipolar disorder — some 10 million Americans — deal with a devastating disease that too few around them understand. RobinWilliamswasoneof America's most beloved come- dians and actors. His love for all things San Francisco made him a Bay Area icon. Exam- ples of his giving nature and his willingness to reach out and support charitable causes abound. If Williams — with all of his wealth, resources and personal support — couldn't find a way to live with his de- mons, think how hard it is for those who struggle to hold a job and support a family or, even worse, live on the streets. It's impossible to know what was going through Williams' mind as he dealt with his drug addictions, depression and bi- polar tendencies. We can only hope that his death will shock us all into a better under- standing of mental illness. We suspect if he knew that would happen, it would give him as much pleasure as any of his performances. Our understanding of men- tal disorders has grown enor- mously in recent decades, but researchers and practitioners know we are nowhere near fully understanding how the brain operates and how it can go wrong. The hardest thing to get across, especially to people who have never experienced anything like depression, is that mental health disorders are physical diseases little dif- ferent from heart or bone dis- ease except in our lack of un- derstanding of the mind — and except for the stigma that once was broadly attached to them and even today is com- mon. Even when we know intel- lectually that mental illness is a disease, too often we look away. This is especially true when confronted by victims wandering the streets, their odd or incoherent behavior representing a cry for help. But it can also be true of friends and loved ones. Depression and biopolar disorders are treatable, if not curable, in the vast majority of cases. Medication allows many people to lead normal lives. Unfortunately, too little money is going into research to better understand the mind and its disorders. The World Health Organization reports that ma- jor depression, bipolar disor- der, schizophrenia and obses- sive-compulsive disorder ac- count for an estimated 20 percent of total disability from all diseases and injuries. But nationally, spending on men- tal health research is a tenth of what's spent on cancer and half the amount on heart dis- ease. People who suffer from de- pression often feel the world would be better a better place without them. How wrong they are. How very wrong Robin Williams was. In his memory, let's strive for greater understanding — and greater compassion for those fighting the demons that claimed him. Editorial Mentalillness is too o en misunderstood People who suffer from depression often feel the world would be better a better place without them. How wrong they are. CriticsoftheStateof Jefferson movement Editor: In the July 11 opinion page there was a letter from Bernice Cressy that refers to the crack- pots criticizing the State of Jef- ferson. In this letter she states that one woman and others that oppose the State of Jefferson stated that every teacher job would be lost, there won't be any taxes, no fire fee, every- thing will be free and without regulation. Politicians will work for free and this will be paid for by selling off public land, fracking and logging that will pollute our water. Cressy refers to this as scare tactics. However, she is too kind and gentle referring to these people. Actually they are so afraid that the people in the State of Jefferson area would not be paying for the crackpot schemes that the rest of Cali- fornia so loves and wastes our money on. For one, the high speed rail that will get people to South- ern California in a very fast way, forgetting that anyone in such a hurry could fly by air- plane. The millions wasted on the high speed train would not be on the backs of the taxpayers for years to come. Also giant tunnels large enough to drive a truck through them would not be carrying our water to the rest of the state of California leav- ing us with none for our area. The stupid eminent domain laws taking away private prop- erty either by forced theft or low payment to give the gov- ernment the land where homes and businesses are in the way. This is the most outrageous pack of lies since Obamacare. A new state would have fair taxation decided by its resi- dents. It would have a state gov- ernment like any other state, without the crazy mismanage- ment of the California Legis- lature. Our local law enforce- ment would be as efficient as any state of California has to offer. The poor state of Califor- nia workers who are so afraid of losing their unionized jobs could always move to their state of California jurisdic- tion. If they don't like the State of Jefferson, there are planes, trains and ships leaving every day. No one is keeping them here. Our schools would be as the residents and parents wish to have their children educated. No teaching kindergart- ner and little tots about homo- sexuality or taking our Amer- ican history books and de- stroying them to praise in the new books those who would destroy our constitution, our freedom of speech and our freedom of religion. We the people of the North State who would be living in the State of Jefferson could use our money here and not have it scattered all over where politicians and govern- ment schemes could waste it. We could live as honest, pa- triotic Americans and not like the One Worlders want us to live. We are part of a sover- eign nation and that is what we should be. Not a puppet of the United Nations paying taxes to them as well as the taxes we pay here, so that they can squan- der it around the world to a country the left wingers in the United Nations choose. —JeanClayton,RedBluff CUHSD solar is not a saving on energy bills Editor: The $2.8 bond issue for the Corning Union High School solar array is only the tip of the iceberg in costs. Solar panels must be regu- larly cleaned to maintain ef- ficiency, and replaced when damaged by hail and wind- storms. Although the district only pays 1.5 percent interest rate for the bond, as a taxpayer the government must pay 2.5 percent in borrowing costs to provide the $2.8 million loaned to CUHSD. That inter- est difference must be paid by taxpayers. The solar array is a poor in- vestment for taxpayers. The federal government, us- ing your taxes, pays 30 per- cent of the solar farm con- struction costs. As a state tax- payer, you must also pay for the 10 percent of the project cost as a subsidy to CUESD. Too many city and county boards ignore the taxpayer cost of all state or federal sub- sidies for any project. PG&E customers must sub- sidize the costs to ensure that the solar power is delivered to the network at the required 60 cycles per second frequency. Electricity from solar pan- els continues to cost about 22 cents a kilowatt hour, in- cluding the costs of taxpayer funded subsidies, versus 14 cents for electricity delivered to your home by PG&E. We would all benefit if federal and state subsidies ended for so- lar and wind power, and elec- tric cars. — Joseph Neff, Corning Regarding purchase of former dealership Editor: What's the difference be- tween a truck rental business and a car dealership? And they don't plan to change oil there? Why not? The facilities are already in place. Instead of debating what type of business is appropriate for the location why doesn't the city issue a business li- cense to a viable corporation so they can add some money to the community, hire some people and pay local taxes. Why not make it easy for U-Haul to put in a full ser- vice maintenance operation? Maybe they could hire a cou- ple dozen people. You people taking lessons from the Stillwater project up in Redding? A really bad ex- ample to follow. — Fred Boest, Red Bluff Your opinions Cartoonist's take Get this: Low expectations are the key to happiness. That was one of the findings of a happiness study recently conducted by researchers at University College London. Researchers used a magnetic resonance imaging machine to mon- itor brain activity as they guided subjects through a series of activities, such as gam- bling, and asked them how happy they were as their fortunes rose and fell. The researchers then used the data to establish a formula that can gauge how moods fluctuate with short-term events. The for- mula is able to predict what will or will not create happiness. "The researchers were not sur- prised by how much rewards in- fluenced happiness, but they were surprised by how much expecta- tions could," reports Time. As it goes, positive expecta- tions, such as going to your favor- ite restaurant with a friend, will positively affect one's happiness. But researchers also concluded that if one has low expectations in life, one can never be disap- pointed. In other words, when your ex- pectations are low, you are much more likely to exceed them, which will make you happy. Likewise, when your expectations are too high, they are less likely to be met, which will make you un- happy. Which is probably why so many people are dissatisfied with our political leaders right now. Like or dislike President Obama, he created expectations so high — hope and change and reaching across the political aisle — that there was no way he or any hu- man could meet them. There have been other stud- ies that have discovered fasci- nating tidbits about what makes us happy. One, conducted by a University of Southern Califor- nia researcher, found that money doesn't make us happy. Though it's true that a lack of money will cause stress and un- happiness, it is also true that once people reach an income where they are able to meet their basic needs, with a little left over to go on a vacation and do a few other nice things, their happiness level does not increase as their income soars. More stuff does not equal more happiness. The USC researcher con- cluded that the more we have, the more we want, and so we end up working harder to get more — and have less time to pursue the things that truly do make us happy: spending quality time with loved ones and enjoying good health. Where happiness is concerned, I defer to the great singer-philos- opher Kenny Rogers. In an A&E "Biography" piece, he said three things are all that anyone needs to be happy: someone to love, something to do and something to look forward to. But don't we all know this — and keep forgetting it? We know that the happiest mo- ments in our own lives involve friends and family. These are the people who affect the deeper part of our nature, our spirits and souls, where true happiness re- sides. These are the people who can make us laugh so hard our guts hurt or help us when we're down or engage us in deeply satis- fying conversations. The good news is that we can choose happiness, says the Mayo Clinic. "People who are happy seem to intuitively know that their hap- piness is the sum of their life choices," the clinic reports. It says happy people choose to build their lives on five pillars: Devoting time to family and friends, appre- ciating what they have, maintain- ing an optimistic outlook, feeling a sense of purpose and living in the moment. And, of course, let's remem- ber to set lower, more realistic goals and expectations in our per- sonal and public lives. Expecting less and receiving more makes us happy, whereas expecting more and receiving less makes us dis- appointed and cranky. But don't ask me, ask Obama. Tom Purcell Expecting less, not more, can be the key to happiness Assemblyman Dan Logue, 150 Amber Grove Drive, Ste. 154, Chico 95928, 530 895- 4217 Senator Jim Nielsen, 2634 Forest Ave., Ste. 110, Chico 95928, 530 879-7424, sena- tor.nielsen@senate.ca.gov Governor Jerry Brown, State Capital Building, Sac- ramento 95814, 916 445- 2841, fax 916 558-3160, gov- ernor@governor.ca.gov U.S. Representative Doug LaMalfa, 507 Cannon House Office Building, Washington D.C. 20515, 202 225-3076 U.S. Senator Dianne Fein- stein, One Post St., Ste. 2450, San Francisco 94104, 415 393-0707, fax 415 393- 0710 U.S. Senator Barbara Boxer, 1700 Montgomery St., San Francisco 94111, 510 286-8537, fax 202 224-0454 YOUR OFFICIALS Tom Purcell OPINION » redbluffdailynews.com Wednesday, August 13, 2014 » MORE AT FACEBOOK.COM/RBDAILYNEWS AND TWITTER.COM/REDBLUFFNEWS A6