Issue link: https://www.epageflip.net/i/408361
Itishardtofindasituation where you can use both the term "postal," which means ex- tremely angry or deranged, and the term paranoia which means the un- founded and ex- aggerated mis- trust of others. So I thought I would take this rare op- portunity to do just that. I reviewed several paranoia quotes before I wrote this com- mentary; my favorite was "I was walking home one night and a guy hammering on a roof called me a paranoid little weirdo...In Morse code." Sometimes I don't know what I should worry about. Look at what the news media proclaim as things we should be con- cerned about: Ebola, ISIS, ris- ing interest rates, why medical providers are spending $60 mil- lion to defeat Proposition 46, un- employment, climate change, flu, psoriasis, drought, growing crime rates, shootings at high schools, drug problems, dry eye, low T. The list goes on. I do try to be selective in what I worry about, usually focusing on prac- tical matters, like the price of gasoline, remembering when to put the garbage out for collec- tion, or how to control my com- puter — a losing battle; never- theless every so often a new con- cern pops out of nowhere. I was surprised when an al- legedly well informed citizen took the time to let me know something my worrying has overlooked. She detailed her concern in a letter to the edi- tor of the Daily News. She was concerned about the moving of "our mail processing opera- tion from Redding to West Sac- ramento." According to this person, who must have researched her con- cern, this move is "another dirty trick from our government con- trolled by agencies." Although the letter writer does not men- tion which agencies control our government she does inform us that "government snooping…will now be expanded to those who write [letters] …to who [sic] they write and how often." I guess they may be better equipped to do that kind of thing in Sacra- mento than in Redding. I attempted to do a Google search of governmental agen- cies to see if I could develop a list of suspects, but I just did not have the time to vet all of them. My guess it must be a co- vert agency that heads up this conspiracy. I may have to in- terrupt Dough LaMalfa from his valuable efforts on the part of all of us to ask him to check into this matter, but I will wait until after the election so he won't feel compelled to say, "of course I will look into it," hop- ing to get my vote. I am actually not sure how much I should worry. I haven't written and mailed an actual letter in a long time. Maybe I had a vague suspicion that postal workers were putting on rubber gloves before opening my saliva sealed envelopes and then carefully resealing those same envelopes so they can go on their merry way. I suppose they would reseal those enve- lopes without adding a trace of their own DNA by using their own tongues to lick the enve- lope. None of my family has complained about previously opened birthday or anniversary cards or missing checks, and no vendor has complained about delayed or missing payments or poorly sealed envelopes. One reason I don't write real letters any more is that my handwriting is less decipher- able than it was in high school; other reasons include emails, phones, Skype, Face Time and social media. Apparently the Daily News letter writer be- lieves these things are already snooped upon by the "agen- cies;" as far as I can tell their snooping has not impacted me. Of course ignorance is bliss. Most of the bills we receive we pay online, but I don't imag- ine that anything of value can be learned by those "agencies" if they open up my payments to the few vendors who don't take on line payments. My only concern about the move is any delay in getting my payments to the ven- dor on time. I know private busi- nesses work for reduced staffing and increased efficiency on a reg- ular basis; I assume the USPS is trying to follow that strategy. Most of the mail I receive would not be a problem if it ar- rived later than it does. In fact, the majority of our mail goes di- rectly into the recycle bin. I sup- pose someone might be inter- ested in all of the solicitations we receive from a wide spec- trum of beggars; generally we ignore those mails, but I guess you could build a case of guilt by association if you based your in- vestigation on unsolicited mail. The Daily News letter writer seems to know that all the in- formation uncovered by the snooping USPS staff will be stored somewhere, and she is worried there will not be enough space to hold it all. If she is right, then the Chamber of Commerce should get started working on promoting Red Bluff as the storage area. Edward Snowden may know something about all of this, but he has not divulged that infor- mation at this time, and the last I heard he is not accessible to the general public. I hesitate to write him. In the meantime, let's all keep looking over our shoul- ders. JoeHarropisaretirededuca- tor with more than 30 years of service to the North State. He can be reached at DrJoeHar- rop@sbcglobal.net. JoeHarrop Goingpostal with paranoia Bestreasonforsalestax increase Editor: Just do the math to see why Red Bluff voters should vote for Measures D and E. With the present sales tax rate of 7.5%, a taxable purchase of $1 generates a 7.5 cent sales tax owed. Because our mone- tary system does not include a half cent coin, 8 cents must be collected from the purchaser of a $1 item. Therefore, in reality, an 8% sales tax is already be- ing paid. But, where does that addi- tional half cent go? It does not stay in the city or county where it is collected and where it is needed to do the most good for the person paying. Since the entire sales tax col- lected is sent to the State Board of Equalization, which admin- isters the tax ordinances on be- half of each territory that or- dains sales taxes, only the amount charged by the city is returned to the city. So in this case, the additional half cent collected is kept at the state level to be added to California's general fund and spent however the Governor and Legislature deem necessary for the bene- fit of the rest of the state, rather than our local community. This scenario plays out for every odd dollar amount that is taxed, thus the extra half cent goes to the state on $3, $5, $101, $2,011, etc. taxable purchases. Measure D proposes an in- crease of the city's portion of the local sales tax to increase by a quarter percent to a total sales tax of 7.75%. Thus, half of the additional tax collected will be returned to the city and the remaining half still goes to the state. Measure E is an advisory vote to instruct the City Council and city manager to use this addi- tional quarter percent sales tax to cover expenses for the city's Police, Fire and Parks and Rec- reation departments only. These measures were selected by the City Council as the means to re- turn some of the additional sales tax to the city for these purpose because passage only requires a simple majority of 50% plus one voting "yes," rather than the two- thirds vote required to pass the measure to be designated only for the specified areas. It is true that the proposed increase in Red Bluff's sales tax will increase the actual amount collected for every even dollar amount taxed, so that on a $2 purchase where presently no extra amount is charged, un- der the 7.75% rate, the extra half cent would be collected. But, again half of the extra half cent would be returned to the city, with the other half remaining with the state. However, the additional $600,000 annual increase of revenue to the city would be paid by everyone making pur- chases in the city, including vis- itors, special event vendors and county residents who all benefit from these services provided by the city, while our crime rates, fire insurance policy premiums, and park safety and utility will improve. It is only good common sense to vote yes on Measures D and E for Red Bluff to continue its recovery from the sacrifices re- quired when the economy was less favorable. — DJ Gordy, Red Bluff No on Measures D and E Editor: As voters I ask you to please consider a no vote on Measures D and E. The City Council, in April, wrote up measure D stating the revenue collected from this lo- cal tax would go to the Police, Fire and Parks and Recreation department. Then months later they said 85% would go to these departments. That's when I asked the council to set up a trust fund so the monies collected could only be given to the police, fire, parks and recreation depart- ments leaving 15% for the gen- eral fund. It's obvious they were just using these departments as a means to get voters to approve their measures. In your sample ballot it states, "These revenues will be deposited in the city's general fund and available for any law- ful municipal purpose." I hope I've made my point. — Kathy Nelson, Red Bluff Don't shoot the messenger Editor: I urge you to vote for mea- sure D, don't shoot. I realize that any raise in taxes makes people mad, I agree, so please hear me out. This is a quarter cent raise on the current sales tax rate in the city of Red Bluff only. Keep in mind also; it is set in stone, this tax drops off in six years, and that gives the economy time to recover and the need for this additional tax is not needed. The city of Anderson already voted in a half cent and Paradise is voting in a few days on a half cent also. I have been in busi- ness in the city of Red Bluff for 23 years and enjoy the high level of police and fire services. Why, I have something to compare it to, I was in business in Chico, Para- dise and Oroville in the past. Approximately 85% of the revenue coming into the city is used for police and fire, a small portion of the balance goes to parks and recreation. With the increase of gang activity and the AB 109 people put back out on the streets, we need a strong presence with our police and fire services, you must agree. And for the kids, a few bucks put out there to keep the parks in good shape is not a bad idea. Here are the numbers. It is $100 on a $40,000 GMC pickup — that's $1.67 per month over a five year loan. I have enjoyed my life in this great city, vote yes on D. — Bob Martin, Red Bluff Your opinions Cartoonist's take Back before there were poll- sters to tell people how they felt about everything and everyone, the mood of the electorate could be judged by a loaf of bread. When the price was low, things were okay. I thought about that as I filled my gas tank on the north side of Phoenix and paid $2.79 per gal- lon. Gas prices are probably the number one indicator of how people feel about the economy — at least at the most basic, close- to-home level. In fact, when gas prices soared as Barack Obama was running for a second term some believed it would swing things in Mitt Romney's favor. Many folks are clueless about the ways of Wall Street, and most of us can't begin to com- prehend the national debt. Yet nowadays we follow gas prices penny by penny, and right now they're remarkably low. So, it could be said that things are okay in America, in fact pretty good. You wouldn't know it from the headlines. For instance, there have been a rash of stories about the Ebola virus, frightening many Americans while affecting very few. For a time it seemed White House policy about Ebola had in- fected the president's popularity. Yet, according to an ABC News poll, Americans now sup- port Obama's handling of the Ebola situation, 49 percent to 41. There are stories and photos from half-way around the world showing the brutality of the ISIS and, again, conservatives have been quick to condemn the White House policies. Yet the same ABC News poll shows a majority of Americans now back the president's handling of the latest terrorist threat. Here in Arizona, GOP ads continue to slam the president's centerpiece achievement, Obam- acare. History might someday view the health program as on par with Social Security: a ba- sic ingredient of social service we'd never dream of giving up. But for now, even as it helps mil- lions, it continues to confuse many Americans. However, an examination by The New York Times concludes that the Affordable Care Act has largely succeeded. The number of Americans without health in- surance has already dropped by about 25 percent. And, contrary to Republican rhetoric, Obam- acare has created a financial boon across the healthcare in- dustry. Consumer confidence, as tracked by The Conference Board, is now at a seven-year high. The price of gas is a con- tributing factor as is job growth, now averaging more than 200,000 new jobs per month. New data show the U.S. econ- omy grew at 3.5 percent in the third quarter. So why is the president taking it on the chin? Why are Demo- crats in danger of losing their majority in the senate? Why are local politicians who support the Obama administration running scared? Some of it relates to the nat- ural swing away from the party that occupies the White House during a mid-term election. Re- publicans have mounted a coor- dinated effort to sharpen local campaigns by running nation- ally-produced TV ads that take on the president directly. Although the economy is stronger, wages for many in the lower middle class have stag- nated for too long. Meanwhile, Obama's core team has lost key players and policy pronounce- ments from the White House have at times been muddy. Still, at the bottom line is the fundamental campaign ques- tion: Are you better off today than you were six years ago? The honest answer is yes. Gas is dipping below three dollars, and the president's crit- ics are running on empty. Peter Funt is a writer and speaker. His book, "Cautiously Optimistic," is available at Amazon.com and CandidCamera.com. Peter Funt It's okay, in fact, things are pretty good GregStevens,Publisher Chip Thompson, Editor EDITORIAL BOARD 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 Joe Harrop Peter Funt OPINION » redbluffdailynews.com Saturday, November 1, 2014 » MORE AT FACEBOOK.COM/RBDAILYNEWS AND TWITTER.COM/REDBLUFFNEWS A4