Issue link: https://www.epageflip.net/i/415476
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 With the election behind us let's assess whether those in power have learned a posi- tive lesson because of the Republican sweep across our nation. However, Jerry Brown did win his unprec- edented fourth term. Brown won his first term as Gover- nor way back in 1974. It is very obvious that he learned never to give up. As a result, he will always be prominent in our golden state's history. Former As- sembly Speaker Willie Brown also learned the same les- son decades ago. It took him three attempts to reach that powerful position. When I was first elected to the Assembly in 1976 I quickly learned that politics is way too political — left wing vs. right wing. It's almost a contact sport. It even feels worse to me now. What I learned over a few years was that "friend- ship" can be more powerful than "public policy." My friend and deceased political legend Democrat Jesse Unruh would regularly ask people; "What is more powerful? Is it friend- ship or a Smith and Wesson?" That is a good lesson, but I don't think gun owners would agree. I thought you might find it interesting that I lost a chance to become the leader of all Republicans in the As- sembly in the mid-90s be- cause I would not change my position on an issue that I believe will never be set- tled. I was a "pro-choice" leg- islator. After an immense amount of consideration over many years I came to the conclusion that both sides of the abortion issue are right. I believe that no woman has ever had an abortion she en- joyed, however I also think she should have the right to make that immensely diffi- cult and moral decision by herself. A former member of the As- sembly David Knowles (mid 1990s), would have given me his vote to make me leader of the Republicans in the house at that time if I had been will- ing to change my mind on that issue. David was the last deciding vote on my run for that post. I did not change. For that reason, I was once dubbed the Maverick from Modoc, since that was one of the nine counties I repre- sented. There are 80 Assembly members. On a just a few oc- casions over eighteen years, the vote was 79 to 1, as I was the single vote to cast an "aye" or "nay." Even though I have never thought of myself as a radical, I must say I am still proud of standing alone. Here we are now, 38 years after my first election victory, and I think that politics has become more polarized and partisan than ever. That is not good. And, I also fear money has become too powerful an influence. Will this recent election be enough to convince Republi- cans and Democrats that it is OK to befriend each other? I hope so. I love politics, but I have always felt more comfortable being registered "Decline to State," more than any of the other categories. My friend Secretary of State Debra Bowen recently announced that 23% of California vot- ers decline to state their po- litical affiliation or are inde- pendent. That's almost one in five. I believe issues are far more important than polit- ical parties. That should be our number one lesson from the primary election. Let us befriend one another — as opposed to Facebook's "Un- friend." StanStathamserved1976- 1994 in the California As- sembly and was a television news anchor at KHSL-TV in Chico 1965-1975. He is presi- dent of the California Broad- casters Association and can be reached at StanStatham@ gmail.com. Stan Staham Mytake on political lessons I believe that no woman has ever had an abortion she enjoyed, however I also think she should have the right to make that immensely difficult and moral decision by herself. Thankstothecommunity for support Editor: As the volunteer executive di- rector of the Sacramento River Discovery Center I want to ex- tend a sincere thank you to the community members that supported the center's recent events. Nov. 1 was a busy day with the Fall Fest Plant Sale followed by the first Wild & Scenic Film Festival at the State Theatre. Thanks to the efforts of the Resource Conservation District of Tehama County, area resi- dents had an opportunity to view eight very different and diverse films about the people and places around the globe. Thank you to all who attended and especially our local spon- sors. There were 11 volunteer Key Club students that acted as ticket takers, ushers and prize runners. I hope they enjoyed the films, as these are the prob- lems with which their genera- tion will be dealing. A special thank you to Abigail Dan of the RCDTC who found the grant to start the ball rolling and both organizations hope that we can bring the event back next year. For those that missed the Plant Sale, there are still plants available in the Discovery Cen- ter Garden. I want to encourage you to come to the Red Bluff Recre- ation Area and walk the trails, visit the 2 acre garden that is being brought back to life by a wonderful series of volun- teers — Bruce Gray, Rene Hen- thorn, Larry Ridgel, and Ma- lia Hard and students from the Red Bluff High Workability program. This is propagation time and additional volunteers are encouraged to come help create more plants for the May Plant Sale. The center received a dona- tion of 10 cubic feet of potting soil to help get some new plants started. We hope that will be able to provide us with addi- tional soil if we decide to grow seedlings for community gar- dens. We are happy to have vol- unteers any time the center is open. This is a community dem- onstration garden where we provide ideas on how to use less water in gardening with plants that attract good bugs — polli- nators — but are not good deer food. We are also demonstrat- ing ways to reduce your water consumption, even when plant- ing fruits and vegetables. Does anyone have a use for some beautiful Foothill or Coulter pine cones? The gar- den pine trees have been pro- ducing an abundance of cones and we hope someone has some creative ideas for their use. A membership or donation is all it will take for you to get a supply. Once again I want to thank the community for your support of the center and look forward to having you visit the RBRA in the near future. — Bobie Hughes, Red Bluff Ide Adobe repairs Editor: I went out to the Ide adobe today. Just to see what needed to be done to fix it back up. There were about six or eight state park pickups there and they were just hammering away on the repairs. Old Ide must be spinning in his grave. They have the top off. All the old roof tiles and tim- bers are gone and they're put- ting up mill sawn two-bys using steel clips. I was curious about just when the cabin was built so I looked it up on the State Park website. What they haven't re- placed on the cabin with mill sawn and steel they have bur- ied in verbiage. There's a lot of words about how they going to use the park for its educational value. Also, who the people in- volved with the project are, and they have completely missed the opportunity for a real his- torical lesson. The cabin must have been built somewhere around 1840 to 1850 and it stood up well for some 160 years until the oak tree fell on it. The adobes were undoubtedly manufactured on the site from the red bluff clay and the timbers were probably hand sawn from local oak trees. It wouldn't have taken much research to get the mixture needed for the adobe and the remains of the tree could have been taken down and hand hew into beams to replace the few broken timbers. The local school children could have done all of this work and the adobe could have been put back like it was. Now? We've got a prefab shack with no historical value and I can hear the tourists now. "Did they have steel clips back in those days? Those studs look like they've been planed in a mill. Heck, I bought hinges just like those on the door last week at The Home Depot." What a waste of history, money and educational oppor- tunity. To say I'm disgusted with what has happened to the adobe is an understatement. You want to know what's re- ally sad? The people involved in this fiasco undoubtedly think they've done a good thing. — Fred Boest, Red Bluff Fining employers is solution to undocumented immigration Editor: I do not know what the au- thor of the letter on Nov. 6 was smoking, but neither Doug La- Malfa nor Jerry Brown can stop anyone from crossing our bor- ders. What she should do is push for a law to very heavily fine those that hire them. — Robert Hogan, Red Bluff Your opinions Cartoonist's take Every once in a while some- thing good happens, something that restores one's faith in hu- manity. So put your hands to- gether for the voters of Wash- ington state. In the midst of the Republi- can midterm tsunami, 59 per- cent of them made history. They said "yes" to a state ballot mea- sure that requires background checks for virtually all gun buy- ers. In other words, a lopsided majority of voters thumbed their noses at the gun-fetish lobby that equates freedom with un- fettered bang bang. This ballot win for gun safety reform — the first statewide ref- erendum on guns since the 2012 Sandy Hook slaughter — is polit- ically significant. It proves that voters are willing to do what their spineless lawmakers have so shamelessly failed to do: Defy the NRA. Even while Washington's vot- ers were busy re-electing a Re- publican state senate, they de- fied the NRA by a margin of 18 percentage points. They sum- marily ignored the NRA's pro- paganda that the ballot measure was actually "a universal hand- gun registration scheme" pro- moted by "elitists." Propaganda like the seven-minute NRA ad which lied that the ballot mea- sure was really about "collecting a database of gun owners" for the purpose of "confiscation." The measure — officially known as Initiative 594 — didn't have a single syllable about gun registration. The measure sim- ply says that if you want to wea- ponize yourself at a gun show, or on the Internet, or via other non-licensed sellers, you first need to be checked out, to en- sure that you're not nuts or fe- lonious. And by the way, this common-sense notion is not the province of "elitists." It's draw- ing support from 92 percent of Americans — including 92 per- cent of gun owners. Most importantly, Washing- ton state's balloting has opened the door for ballot bids else- where — perhaps starting with Nevada, Maine, and Oregon. As UCLA law professor Adam Win- kler says, referring to last week's outcome, "I think it does repre- sent a subtle shift. What we're seeing is a renewed effort by gun control advocates to take this issue to the voters directly." Six states (including Dela- ware) have gone the legislative route to expand background checks for virtually all buyers, but 21 states allow voters to OK laws via the ballot route. That's an expensive and labor-inten- sive proposition (TV ads for the couch potatoes, signature peti- tions to get on the ballot), but the gun safety reform movement finally has sufficient financing and grassroots heft — courtesy of Michael Bloomberg and his 2.5-million member group — to match the NRA dollar for dollar in a ballot campaign. Bloomberg spent $4 million in Washington state; the NRA, sensing defeat, spent barely half a million. It didn't even bother to boost the ballot counter-mea- sure crafted by the gun fetishists — Initiative 590, which would've barred expanded background checks. The voters trounced it by a 10-point margin. Let's hear it for "state's rights." What a stark contrast to our nation's capital. Nineteen months ago, in the aftermath of Sandy Hook, the cowering U. S. Senate refused to expand back- ground checks via federal law — despite the polls which, at the time, showed 90 percent support for that policy. The chamber's refusal brought to mind (my mind, anyway) this old Mark Twain quip: "Suppose you were an idiot, and suppose you were a member of Congress — but I re- peat myself." But if voters are willing on a state-by-state basis to defy the gun-fetish lobby, to end-run their quivering elected represen- tatives, then hey, that's what I meant at the top about renewed faith in humanity. And here's what an NRA spokesman said, prior to the vote tally in Washington state: "If (gun safety reform) is successful in this ballot initiative in Wash- ington, we are very concerned that (it) will be replicated across the country and we will have bal- lot initiatives like this one....That is why we are so concerned." The NRA is concerned... How often do we see that sentence? Dick Polman is the national political columnist at News- Works/WHYY in Philadel- phia (newsworks.org/polman) and a "Writer in Residence" at the University of Philadelphia. Email him at dickpolman7@ gmail.com. Dick Polman Guns on the ballot a er Sandy Hook: Voters 1, NRA 0 Stan Statham OPINION » redbluffdailynews.com Thursday, November 13, 2014 » MORE AT FACEBOOK.COM/RBDAILYNEWS AND TWITTER.COM/REDBLUFFNEWS A6