Issue link: https://www.epageflip.net/i/374755
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 They'regoingtohavetogetusedtoit. I speak of the school students who are com- plaining about the taste of their government- funded school grub. Aspartofthe2010National School Lunch Program, you see, school districts that want fed- eral funding to feed their kids must follow stringent nutri- tional guidelines designed to curb childhood obesity. Schools must provide fruits and vegetables daily, reduce so- dium, trans fats and saturated fats, offer more whole grains and switch to fat-free or low- fat milk. They must also abide by strict calorie minimums ac- cording to the age groups and grades of school diners. The nutrition requirements extend well beyond school-meal programs. The U.S. Department of Agriculture's Smart Snacks in School program requires that school vending machines, and any other school-run food ser- vices, ditch soda pop, candy bars, doughnuts and potato chips in favor of healthier fare, such as granola bars. While some school districts are finding ways to make half- decent food within the strict limitations they face, many oth- ers are falling short. Schoolkids across the country are taking to YouTube and social media to complain about the taste and how the small portions cause their stomachs to growl all day. But they're just going to have to get used to it. Look, kids, government bu- reaucrats in faraway Washing- ton, D.C., have your best inter- ests at heart. They think your school districts, you and your parents are too dumb to figure out how to eat right. Regrettably, they have a point. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Preven- tion, obesity has doubled in chil- dren and quadrupled in teens over the past 30 years. And, as our government continues its massive expan- sion into every area of our per- sonal lives — telling us what in- surance coverage we must and must not buy, for instance — school meals are expanding, too. This year, the feds will fund 5.6 billion lunches and snacks for more than 32 million chil- dren at a cost of some $12 bil- lion — twice what the govern- ment spent a little more than a decade ago. That gives the well-inten- tioned bureaucrats at the USDA power. And they are using their power to determine what schoolkids must and must not eat. I admit that my school lunches were not very good when I was a kid in the 1970s. That is because my parents, not the government, were responsi- ble for packing my lunch. I don't know how they did it, but every single day I got a bo- logna sandwich glued together with warm mayonnaise and two end pieces of bread. As unappetizing as my lunches often were, I know now that this was the price my gen- eration paid for freedom. See, since most kids relied on parents, rather than the govern- ment, for food and pretty much everything else, the govern- ment lacked the means to boss us around. Sometimes, my mother came through with peanut butter and jelly on fresh bread, with butter- scotch pudding and giant oat- meal raisin cookies for dessert — items that schools are forbid- den from selling now. In any event, to paraphrase an old saying, a government big enough to feed millions of its nation's schoolkids is big enough to determine what the ingredients, fat content and portion sizes must be. So, kids, if your school is ac- cepting federal funds to feed you, you're going to have to get used to the taste. Besides, if you think the gov- ernment grub tastes bad, wait until you get a taste of the high taxes your generation will pay to cover the trillions in debt your country racked up be- fore you graduated from high school. Bon appetit. 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. Tom Purcell The taste of government control See, since most kids relied on parents, rather than the government, for food and pretty much everything else, the government lacked the means to boss us around. Salmoninjeopardy Editor: On Thursday the Golden Gate Salmon Association (GGSA) put out a warning to State and Fed- eral "Fish Resource Managers" that the current temperatures in the Sacramento River are now above 56 degrees at every station south of Keswick Dam. According the GGSA salmon eggs require 56 degrees or colder to survive and it is anticipated that the River will continue to warm, due to the low water levels at Lake Shasta. The GGSA states that this "…is a seri- ous threat to the survival of the fall-run Chinook". The GGSA has proposed a bril- liant (although not new) solu- tion to saving this year's run of Chinook Salmon that spawns in the River, especially the ear- lier spawners. They have pro- posed that Coleman National Fish Hatchery increase the normal fall- run egg take and "incubate the surplus eggs to eyed stage then hydraulically inject the eggs back into the Sacramento River af- ter water temperatures have nat- urally cooled to tolerable levels." This injection process was in- vented at least 35 years ago and it involves pumping water into River gravel to clean it and sub- sequently planting the partially reared eggs into the cleaned gravel, mimicking a wild salmon red (nest). In my view, this is a fantas- tic idea. Coleman almost always has the ability to harvest surplus eggs and incubate them — their limiting factor is rearing hatched fry in the raceways. The GGSA has also suggested that Coleman "incubate surplus eggs ….and release those fish back into the Sacramento River to compensate for the lost pro- duction due to the warm Sacra- mento River water". They have additionally suggested that Cole- man "incubate surplus eggs above the usual annual produc- tion for rearing at the hatchery to smolt stage in the event that egg viability is low this year be- cause of adult fish previously be- ing exposed to warm Sacrament River water. A couple of questions come to my mind having read the release from the GGSA. Firstly, isn't it the job of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife to put out this type of warning and communicate with all stake hold- ers that a salmon-disaster is im- minent? Does the Fish and Wild- life Service have the ability to think creatively for solutions like these? And, can the various gov- ernment agencies, especially the U. S. Fish and Wildlife Service get their act together enough to implement some of these solu- tions? Again, the GGSA states that time is of the essence. The water is already warm. Forecasts are for warm weather. Lake Shasta is very low. The flows in the Sacra- mento will become very low. I would also call on the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the California Department of Fish and Wildlife to ensure that last year's disaster of "faking out" the salmon and reducing the River flows after the fish have spawned not take place again this year. Last year the U.S. Fish and Wild- life Service killed millions of salmon by keeping water flow in the River higher and longer than they should have. Now is the time for all agencies to be proactive. — Ken Robison, Red Bluff Lackofresponseto immigrationcrisis Editor: I see that every day you include a section in the opinion page to "Contact your officials." I've contacted Doug LaMalfa twice. Once by phone, and an- other time by email. I let him know that I am very concerned about Congress doing nothing about our wide open borders, let- ting anyone and everyone that wants to enter in. I've also emailed Jerry Brown about him welcoming all of the il- legal aliens pouring in. There aren't enough jobs for true Americans, let alone all of the people moving in from Central America and Mexico. The Amer- ican border is not being moni- tored. No border, no America. Neither official has responded. It's obvious that they are encour- aging a wide open border. I told LaMalfa if he doesn't do something about the borders, that he is aiding and abetting this be- havior. It is treasonous. It makes you wonder why they are in politics. Money? — Lisa Miller, Red Bluff Rezoneissueatthelandfill Editor: Once again, much ado about nothing. I refer to the rezone at the land- fill. For God's sake give them an approval to build their offices. I drove out there the other day to try and see what the problem was, and I just don't see a prob- lem. I do have one question. Why do they need a rezone on 36 acres to build a 2,400 square foot office building? Maybe that's why the neighbors are upset. Oh well. The gummint moves on. — Fred Boest, Red Bluff U.S.abdicationfromIraq Editor: To achieve reelection, President Obama abandoned Iraq in 2011 knowing that terrorists would again overtake the country. Pres- ident Bush was correct in stating in 2007 that it could take 80 years of occupation to provide safety for Iraq citizens. The US abdication of Iraq achieved Obama's goal of election at great harm to the citizens of Iraq. Now that the ISIS terrorist coalition has captured the aban- doned armament of 3 Iraq divi- sions, U.S. airpower alone will do little to prevent dividing Iraq into three countries, the State of Islam, Iraq and Kurdistan. Thanks for nothing, irresponsi- ble President Obama. — Joseph Neff, Corning Your opinions Cartoonist's take Labor Day marks the tradi- tional start of the autumn cam- paign season, and the biggest question is whether President Obama will sink his party. Since the fight for the Senate is being waged largely in the red states — where Obama has always been deemed toxic — it's no wonder that Democratic candidates are behaving as if he has a communi- cable disease. Obama is in a very tricky po- sition. He can't campaign side by side with red-state Senate candi- dates — they don't want him; they fear he'll turn off swing voters — but he can't totally sit out the races, either. Even in red states, Democrats can't win without de- cent turnout from the liberal base, and Obama is still popular with the liberal base. He's in great demand to raise money from the liberal base. And particularly in southern states, that base is heav- ily African-American. It's a given that Obama will work that base under the radar, via targeted ro- bocalls and black radio call-ins and appeals on social media. But being AWOL on the stump, being treated as a pariah...these woes often afflict presidents in their sixth year. Still, as veteran Washington chronicler Elizabeth Drew rightly noted, the disre- spect is endemic this time around. When Obama flew to North Car- olina last week to address the American Legion, Senate incum- bent Kay Hagan duly surfaced on the tarmac to kiss his cheek. After that, she publicly avoided him. And shortly after he left the American Legion confab, she de- livered a speech assailing his ad- ministration's treatment of war veterans. It's virtually the same story ev- erywhere. In the key red-state Senate races, Obama might as well be sporting a "Kick Me" sign. In Louisiana, incumbent Mary Landrieu is attacking the presi- dent for refusing to OK the Key- stone pipeline. In Alaska, incum- bent Mark Begich has bluntly said, "I don't need him campaign- ing for me." In Kentucky, chal- lenger Alison Lundergan Grimes is lauding the wonders of coal and attacking Obama's EPA for "pie in the sky regulations." Democrats in Arkansas (in- cumbent Mark Pryor), West Vir- ginia (open-seat candidate Natalie Tennant), and Georgia (open-seat candidate Michelle Nunn) have similarly distanced themselves. This is understandable, given the fact that Obama lost all those aforementioned states in 2008 and 2012 — but quarantining Obama is also the strategy in Col- orado, which Obama won in 2008 and 2012. When the president flew to Colorado this summer to helm a fundraiser for incumbent Mark Udall, Udall chose to stay behind in Washington, to conduct purportedly urgent business. Let's not pretend that this al- batross theme is new; presidents are often a drag on their parties in year six. In Franklin D. Roo- sevelt's year six (the 1938 mid- terms), his Democrats lost six Senate seats and a whopping 81 House seats — signaling the vir- tual end of his domestic New Deal. In the 1958 midterms, Dwight D. Eisenhower's GOP lost 48 House seats. In the 1986 mid- terms, Ronald Reagan's GOP lost the Senate. In the 2006 midterms, George W. Bush's GOP lost the House and the Senate. And yet, despite all of Obama's political woes and the pitfalls of being tied to his tenure, virtu- ally all the red-state Senate Dem- ocratic candidates are in decent shape or striking distance. A Re- publican net gain of six Senate seats — sufficient to hand the ma- jority leader job to uber-obstruc- tionist Mitch McConnell — is by no means a certainty. Obama may be a drag on the Democrats, but the Republican brand is not ex- actly stellar. Midterm elections are typically low-turnout affairs; the bottom line for Democrats is that these races are winnable if the base shows up in sufficient numbers to trump right-wing enthusiasm. Dick Polman is the national po- litical columnist at NewsWorks/ WHYY in Philadelphia and a "Writer in Residence" at the Uni- versity of Philadelphia. Email him at dickpolman7@gmail.com. Dick Polman Will Obama cost Democrats the Senate this election? OPINION » redbluffdailynews.com Wednesday, September 3, 2014 » MORE AT FACEBOOK.COM/RBDAILYNEWS AND TWITTER.COM/REDBLUFFNEWS A6