Issue link: https://www.epageflip.net/i/37621
6A Daily News – Thursday, July 28, 2011 Opinion Pursuits Editor: D NEWSAILY RED BLUFF TEHAMACOUNTY T H E V O I C E O F T E H A M A C O U N T Y S I N C E 1 8 8 5 I just had to comment on the article by Andrea Wagner wherein I quote: "At speeds of more than 100 mph, a Corning man fleeing law enforcement in an (sic) report- edly stolen vehicle drove from Red Bluff to Los Molinos before being arrested." Greg Stevens, Publisher gstevens@redbluffdailynews.com Chip Thompson, Editor editor@redbluffdailynews.com Editorial policy The Daily News opinion is expressed in the editorial. The opinions expressed in columns, letters and cartoons are those of the authors and artists. Letter policy The Daily News welcomes let- ters from its readers on timely topics of public interest. All let- ters must be signed and pro- vide the writer’s home street address and home phone num- ber. Anonymous letters, open letters to others, pen names and petition-style letters will not be allowed. Letters should be typed and cannot exceed two double-spaced pages or 500 words. When several letters address the same issue, a cross section of those submit- ted will be considered for publi- cation. Letters will be edited. Letters are published at the discretion of the editor. Mission Statement We believe that a strong com- munity newspaper is essential to a strong community, creating citizens who are better informed and more involved. The Daily News will be the indispensible guide to life and living in Tehama County. We will be the premier provider of local news, information and advertising through our daily newspaper, online edition and other print and Internet vehi- cles. The Daily News will reflect and support the unique identities of Tehama County and its cities; record the history of its com- munities and their people and make a positive difference in the quality of life for the resi- dents and businesses of Tehama County. How to reach us Main office: 527-2151 Classified: 527-2151 Circulation: 527-2151 News tips: 527-2153 Sports: 527-2153 Obituaries: 527-2151 Photo: 527-2153 On the Web www.redbluffdailynews.com Fax Newsroom: 527-9251 Classified: 527-5774 Retail Adv.: 527-5774 Legal Adv.: 527-5774 Business Office: 527-3719 Address 545 Diamond Ave. Red Bluff, CA 96080, or P.O. Box 220 Red Bluff, CA 96080 Has our local law enforcement lost their concern for the law abid- ing citizens who travel on Ante- lope Boulevard and Highway 99E — the most dangerous highway in all of Tehama County? I know that law enforcement is important; however, I think that common sense should have prevailed in this case. Remember the tragic situation in Chico, where the young woman was killed by the driver fleeing the police? Do we have to have the same thing happen in Tehama County before we act? I would like to see the Highway Patrol, the Tehama County Sher- iff's Office and the City Police rethink their chase policy. I'm glad no members of my family were between Red Bluff and Los Molinos that night. Let us have that rare and endangered common sense prevail. Linda Walker, Proberta Kelly Griggs Editor: Thanks to the Young Marines for all they do for our community. They are great Americans. Having said that, what are the museum directors thinking, sched- uling the Ice Cream Social between 2-6 p.m., during the hottest time of the day, in one of the hottest months of the year? The traditional Kelly Griggs Ice Cream Social started at 8 p.m. until 10 p.m., the coolest part of the day. The late Bob Grootvelt put up the lights for the evening activities (a big job). The Tehama County Band performed. Politi- cians, both local and state, always made it a point to mingle and glad- hand the crowd. The high school kids scooped up all you could eat ice cream and the tables were filled to overflow with homemade cookies baked by the board mem- bers and the Kelly Guides. This was the big, annual money maker for the museum as well as a chance for the community to gath- er socially and renew old friend- ships. The late, beloved Director Bob Grootvelt did so much for the museum it would be impossible to list, but he did not build the fence. Gerry Wolfe, Red Bluff City Council Editor: Unfortunately, Tuesday night we witnessed the darker side of Red Bluff in action. The majority of the council, seemingly swayed by the misapprehensions of a very few and the vested concerns of moneyed interests, decided that the Breckenridge eyesore was not an appropriate place for a home- less shelter. Though an overwhelming number of pre-meeting communi- cations favored the zoning change and confronted with an over- whelming majority of the citizens present at the meeting supporting the zoning change — including some residents of the immediately surrounding area — the council voted 3-2 to reject the ordinance implementing the re-zoning of the area in question. This action will probably make it unlikely that Red Bluff will have a permanent shelter for the home- less any time soon. The grant will expire in March and the possibility of obtaining an extension or anoth- er grant is virtually nill. And so, we will continue keep- ing these folks primarily on the streets or in the outer edges of the com- munity. Despite the tes- timony of former and current users of facilities about the significant changes attributable to those expe- riences, many opponents present- ed a highly distorted view of those who comprise the homeless popu- lation of Red Bluff. There is no way of knowing how many of their reported instances actually involved someone who was home- less or someone who was just up to no good. The allegations from some in the Victorian section were so vitri- olic one could get the idea that they might initiate action to pre- vent the Christian, Episcopal and Presbyterian churches from con- tinued participation in housing the PATH program. Some “research” reported by opposition speakers were based solely on anecdotal information instead of structured and objective sources. There was talk of drug and alcohol abusers, dangerous mentally ill individuals, sex offenders and prostitution. But these constitute a very small pro- portion of Red Bluff’s homeless population and are mostly filtered out of PATH’s services early on. The much more common PATH client is a mother with a child or children, folks of limited skills who can’t find employment, those who are victims of a vastly under-supported mental health system — particularly war veter- ans with severe PTSD — and the elderly and disabled. To paint a group with one brush Your Turn is egregiously wrong. We can truthfully say that we would rather have many of the home- less we help through PATH as neighbors than some of the neighbors we have had in the past. Now, after a decade of effort, almost half of which included a grant to fund such a project, PATH is back where it started. The major differ- ence is it has far more visibility, greater community support and an ever increasing number of clients. Though some said it is just the will of God, we believe that God far too often gets blamed for the decisions and actions of humans. So, the question is when will the council stop being a part of the problem and start being a part of the solution. To avoid having to pay back the grant, the shelter would have to operate for at least 10 years. Had the council agreed to the Montgomery site, we would be approaching half of the required timeline. And yet the Vista Way overpass is nowhere in in sight in the near future. Given the likelihood that it is probably more than 10 years away, perhaps the council could reconsider that decision. It would be appropriate for Councilman Forrest Flynn to do a guest article explaining why he changed his mind about the Breck- enridge site. Patricia Kennedy, Red Bluff Your officials STATE ASSEMBLYMAN — Jim Nielsen (R) State Capitol Bldg., Room 6031 Sacramento, CA 95814 (916) 319-2002; Fax (916) 319-2102 STATE SENATOR — Doug LaMalfa (R) State Capitol Bldg., Room 3070 Sacramento, CA 95814 (916) 651-4004; Fax (916) 445-7750 GOVERNOR — Jerry Brown, State Capitol Bldg., Sacramento, CA 95814; (916) 445-2841; Fax (916) 558-3160; E-mail: gover- nor@governor.ca.gov. U.S. REPRESENTATIVE — Wally Herger (R), 2635 Forest Ave. Ste. 100, Chico, CA 95928; 893-8363. U.S. SENATORS — Dianne Feinstein (D), One Post Street, Suite 2450, San Francisco, CA 94104; (415) 393-0707. Fax (415) 393-0710. Barbara Boxer (D), 1700 Montgomery St., Suite 240, San Francisco, CA 94111;(415) 403-0100. Fax (202) 224-0454. Vaccinations and the ice cream scare Commentary There have been occasional cases of polio (poliomyelitis) throughout human history. The Roman Emperor Claudius suffered from a disease as a child thought to be polio: muscle weakness, severe pain and paralysis. But it wasn’t until the summer of 1910 that it became an epidemic in the modern industrialized world. In fact for the next 40 years the summer was called "Polio season." The num- bers polio victims were thought to go up during the hot months. A dis- ease that existed for thousands of years mostly dormant was now full-blown and terrorizing Ameri- cans come late spring. So because, as publisher of Skeptic magazine, Dr. Michael Shermer says, we are "pattern- seeking primates," it was soon deduced that polio was linked to (wait for it) ice cream. Yes, the rea- son why the disease was rampant in the summer months is because it was then that children ate more ice cream. It was the sugar. In 1940, Dr. Benjamin Sandler published a paper "The production of neuronal injury and necrosis with the virus of poliomyelitis in rabbits during insulin hypoglycemia" in The American Journal of Pathology. Disregarding all the winter holiday intake of sugary treats, from then on out the anti-polio diet was to cut out ice cream. We now know outbreaks of polio at the beginning of the last century in America and Europe were from the newly utilized flush toilet. According to Dr. John F. Modlin, current chair of the Department of Pediatrics, Dart- mouth-Hitchcock Medical Center, it was the lack of harmless immu- nizing infections during infancy due to better sanitation that attrib- uted to the epidemic. Get that? Not ice cream – flush toilets. May the two never be con- fused again. Polio vaccinations were widely introduced in the late 1950s early 1960s and now polio is nearly eradicated in industrialized nations and minimized dramatically in poorer countries. Now imagine if a celebrity in 1940 had a son with polio and she decided to start a campaign against ice cream because she trusted what Dr. Sandler said. Imagine she believed she was right, so any new evidence or studies refuting her belief were seen through a lens of conspiracy and victimhood. Cou- ple that with getting a national plat- form on talk shows and news pro- grams to spew her inaccurate garbage on an unsuspecting public – where would that have led us? It would have taken longer to eradicate polio (meaning more American children suffering) and we’d possibly still look at ice cream with suspicion. Cut to Marin County, California 2011: The richest county in Cali- fornia (ranking 20th in the entire nation) is ground zero for a whooping cough epi- demic. In the last 10 years California has allowed parents to "choose" whether or not to immunize their chil- dren. This is because in the wake of a 1998 "study" by "Dr." Andrew Wakefield falsely linking vaccinations to autism there has been wide- spread panic among well-meaning parents. So many children in privileged first-world homes are not getting immunized. This year six infants have died in California from whooping cough. Out of the 1,500 reported cases so far this year in California – the highest rate of infection is in Marin County. It’s the worst epi- demic, according to the CDC, the state has seen in 50 years. Doctors all across the state are telling their patients to get the whooping cough vaccination regardless of age. Now high school freshmen are being required to have the inoculation to enter school in the fall. Wakefield’s work has been debunked entirely, his work has been called, "intentionally mis- leading" by the British Medical Journal and his medical license has been revoked. And yet because of celebrities like Jenny McCarthy – the myth lives on, and even measles is making a comeback. Tina Dupuy Not getting immu- nizations is treated like a religious rite. We’re afraid to offend those who have faith in not inoculating their kids to allegedly save them from autism. Which means vintage viruses are in again. It means that the public is now at risk for diseases not seen in two generations. The important lesson here is being able to change your beliefs when faced with new information. That’s science. The first concept of the atom was the "plum pudding model" by J.J. Abrams. It turned out to be inaccurate. But the scientists didn’t stop there. Abrams didn’t stop there. Sometimes we have to be wrong in order to ever be accurate. We did it with ice cream. We can do it with immunizations. Tina Dupuy is an award-winning writer and can be reached at tinadupuy@yahoo.com.