Issue link: https://www.epageflip.net/i/416679
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 Weparkedatthe northwest corner of Oak and Washing- ton on Friday night to begin the Art Walk. That is actually a corner of the Court- house property and just across the street from the Red Bluff Police De- partment. We were greeted by the clear aroma of marijuana from a joint being shared by a threesome of mature — that is well over 40 years old — adults who seemed unconcerned about their public location. Saturday morning we read about another in a long line of misestimations about the state of the city's finances. This time the new guess is that the city's ending balance will be more than 20 percent lower than the last estimate in August. I really began to wonder if our fair city is going to pot. The city has an adopted policy that requires a reserve of 15 per- cent. Based on estimated, I mean budgeted, expenditures that amount would be approximately $1,173,952. Nevertheless, the Bud- get Committee of the Council rec- ommended a budget for 2014-15 with an estimated fund balance of only $516,801, less than half the policy requirement. Watching the estimates of the ending balance is like watching a yo-yo go up and down. The final audited Gen- eral Fund balance for June 30, 2013 was $739,159. In May the estimated ending balance for last fiscal year was $648,062, but it was revised upward to $979,918 in August, and last week the City Council was told it had to be revised downward to $893,000 because of a util- ity bill the accounting depart- ment must not have consid- ered a payable. Stay tuned. In August the estimated ending balance for this fis- cal year was increased from $516,801 to $1,016,657. That last revision was almost a 100 percent increase. Now of course, it is anybody's guess. It's always entertaining to review the City Council min- utes and agenda materi- als; sometimes you come up with a few gems. For exam- ple, according to Rick Crab- tree, as reported in the min- utes of the City Council from August, "There were no ballet arguments against the sales tax measure." I am not sure if waltz or fox trot comments were made, but perhaps Crab- tree was dancing around this measure much as he and the City Council did water issues earlier this summer. Honoringourveterans? As I was putting our flag out for display this Wednes- day, I got to thinking — some- thing I do now and then. We live in a community that prominently displays the Stars and Stripes, supports special patriotic events and speaks loudly about our freedom. We talked about honoring our vet- erans this week, but words and action are not always the same. In Red Bluff our estimated population was 14,104 last year according to the Bu- reau of the Census; of that number about 72 percent are of voting age; that amounts to more than 10,000 people. Of that amount only 6,010 have registered to vote. In the Nov. 4 election, less than 1,600 voted on the city sales tax in- crease, according to Monday's Elections Department posting. In other words, slightly more than 900 of us decided for the rest of us. Only about one quar- ter of our registered voters even put forth the effort to vote. Sunday morning we took time during worship to re- member our veterans. We re- membered the sacrifices they made so that we could be free to choose our own future. It was troublesome to think that we could give lip service to our veterans when so few of us even bother to vote. Have we become complacent? Are we just lazy? Don't we understand the value of the vote we have? Getting things done On a far more positive note, Friday night's Art Walk was an upbeat experience, full of music, energy and camarade- rie at the various venues dis- playing both merchandise and local art. I found myself shak- ing hands with old friends and acquaintances and even people unfamiliar to me. The event gave me hope for our city. There were people from Chico and Redding enjoying the evening and energy, and even a few who just happened to stop along I-5 for a break. While our city government may be dull and unimagina- tive, seemingly stumbling along, there are some people in the Red Bluff and the Downtown Busi- ness Association and the Te- hama County Arts Council who know how to do things well, and they have the energy and imag- ination to make things happen. I believe they are part of a core of folks who are willing to get things done, to work hard and to promote our community. We will have a sort of new City Council shortly; we need to channel some of our creativ- ity and energy to help them gain control of the city govern- ment, set it on a more reliable course and do what we elected them to do. At the very least the council can appoint a more realistic bud- get committee; tell the City Man- ager to exude more enthusiasm for his work, relieve him of his dual role as City Manager and Attorney, reduce his compensa- tion and contract out for legal services; tell the Police Chief to stop talking about "his" depart- ment and begging for money at every turn; stick to the budget they adopt; hold staff account- able for the estimates the council uses to make its decisions…and the list goes on. JoeHarropisaretirededuca- tor with more than 30 years of service to the North State. He can be reached at DrJoeHar- rop@sbcglobal.net. Joe Harrop Is Red Bluff going to pot? Cafeteria plan government Editor: The problem with voting is it's done by people lacking motiva- tion and time to develop a good understanding of candidates and issues. Accordingly, pub- lic officials should be chosen by randomly-selected citizens certi- fied to have this knowledge. For some issues, instead of relying on elected officials to faithfully represent our inter- ests, we should have a cafeteria plan option. That is, where we only pay taxes for the benefits we receive. If I only drive 5,000 miles per year, I shouldn't pay the same tax as those driving 20,000. If I don't have kids, I shouldn't be required to pay for schools. If I don't smoke, use alcohol or drugs or overeat, I shouldn't have to subsidize the damage resulting from such behaviors. For a significant tax break, I'd sure be willing to have my odometer, hair, DNA and weight checked to prove the miles I've driven, that I don't smoke or use alcohol or drugs, that I have no children and that I maintain a healthy weight. With such a system in place, people would have more control of their lives, increased motivation to better themselves, and feel less oppressed by government. — Nathan Esplanade, Corning Writer calls Jews terrorists and barbarians Editor: It is my opinion that Or- val Strong's argument over the ownership of the Promised Land is moot. The Bible is the only written history of the time of God's promise and it dis- putes anything Orval can come up with. Orval seems to bounce back and forth from the Bible to sci- ence. He is more impressed with anthropology and archaeology which he says deal with "con- crete facts." While it is obvious that anthropologists and archae- ologists deal with a lot of facts, there is also a whole lot of the- ory and guess work as well. Isn't it a fact that they often use the Bible as reference and as a result prove the validity of the Bible? The last paragraph of Or- val's letter is the most defining part of all, it exposes his true character. Much like Obama he wants to hog-tie the Jews then turn the radical Islamists loose on them. Orval states: "What- ever their contribution (mean- ing the Jews) has been to the enrichment of the modern world it no way excuses them for the many decades of bar- baric treatment of their neigh- bors, nor amends for even one state sanctioned murder." Also, in Orval's preceding paragraph he accused the Jews of relying on terrorist tactics. So, the Jews are terrorists and barbarians for the way they treat their good neighbors Hamas — a Palestinian Islamic terrorist group — when Hamas has launched tens of thousands of missiles intentionally target- ing civilians or defend them- selves against terrorists that tunnel into their side of the bor- der to kidnap or kill civilians. Israel is the only democracy in the Middle East where peo- ple have individual freedom to worship, to move around, where women are treated with respect and are treated equal to men, yet Orval accuses them of bar- barianism. If Israelis are barbarians, what is Hamas, Al-Qaida, the Tali- ban, the Muslim Brotherhood and ISIS? They are all radical Is- lamists. They all believe in Sharia Law. They all want to kill Jews and destroy Israel. They all be- lieve in honor killing, mutilating their women and treating them like chattel. Oh yes, they behead people that don't believe in Allah, as they do, and make a video of it to show the world. Maybe Orval hasn't heard the news about all the gory be- heading going on there with a new video premiering about ev- ery week. How about Malala Yousafzal — recent co-recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize — the 16-year-old girl shot and nearly killed by Taliban for promoting girls' education in her native Pakistan. Orval calls the Israelis bar- barians, I would call them a civilized democracy. I would call the radical Islamists bar- barians. What does Orval call them? Friend? — Les Wolfe, Red Bluff High speed rail a boondoggle for California Editor: The bullet train or high speed rail as it is presently called is an unnecessary cost to heap on the backs of the tax- payers, our children, grandchil- dren and great-grandchildren. Our governor is very intent on having it built as soon as feasible while he is governor. However, Stan Statham, who wrote a column on the topic in your paper, is seriously mis- taken if he thinks a high speed rail from northern to southern California will help in reducing gridlock in our cities like San Francisco and Los Angeles. It will be traveling the length of the state, not in the cities where gridlock occurs. Having a state of the art rail system is not going to help the state in any way. It will cause us to have higher taxes for the cost of building it and secur- ing the train's high speed en- gines and cars that will, in Sta- tham's words, be purchased at very high cost from some for- eign country like China, that he mentions as any of the dozens of firms from around the world that are only too anxious to sell them to the USA. Any person in northern or southern California wanting to go north and south in such a hurry can take a plane. Ordinary people who work will have to pay a fare to use this expensive train that they could not begin to afford. There could not be a reason- able or moderate cost after such an outlay of money it will cost. Statham mentions getting the costs under control. You know that any government proj- ect will not ever get the costs under control. The politicians will make sure of that. — Jean Clayton, Red Bluff Your opinions Cartoonist's take Usually when a burning is- sue arises, I feel compelled to squeeze every last drop of my own phrasing, logic and wit into this limited space. One would think that would be the case with President Obama's recent campaign to treat broadband companies as common carriers and protect the consumer from "slow lanes," power-mad monopolies and a trampling of the traditions that have made the internet such a success. Instead, I've graciously cho- sen to dip into my mailbag at random and share with you a letter from one of my anony- mous readers. Here goes: What's all this stuff in the news lately about pet neutrality? Have we lost the hard-won right to recognize that there are differences between species and between individual four-legged (or however many-legged) com- panions? Do we have to treat the pets that just eat and sleep and throw up exactly like the ones that make use of their time to frolic for our amusement, fetch simple objects or herd sheep? In the name of so-called "fairness," are we on the verge of having sock monkeys draw a disability check because they can't, well, do anything? Other presidents recognized the differences between pets. Then-vice presidential candi- date Richard Nixon singled out Checkers for a 1952 speech, in- stead of giving a "shout out" to all the other mutts in town. LBJ knew beagles were the best for holding up by their ears for pho- tographers. Surely Ronald Rea- gan had favorites among his horses. ("Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall — so I can build a bigger stall for Old Paint. And keep Nancy's astrologer out of the sugar cubes.") Bill Clinton let Socks the White House Cat get all the attention, dooming his littermates (Support Hose, Odor Eater, Shoe Horn, etc.) to obscurity. The president's actions pose alarming threats to our free speech. Don't you want to be able to discriminate and ask your pet, "Who's a good boy?" instead of pussyfooting around and blandly inquir- ing "Who's an indistinguish- able, cog-in-the-machine boy?" I know I do. Why is the Federal Commu- nications Commission involved in this, anyway? Are silent dog whistles and bird calls and whirring can openers really part of their bailiwick? Taxpayers de- mand to know. Why do Comcast and Netf- lix keep getting mentioned in this discussion? Don't tell me they're planning a lot of touchy- feely propaganda programs like "House of Vaccination Cards" or "Orange Is The New Color That, Like Black, Doesn't Make One Cat Any More Special Than An- other"? Why is the president so wor- ried about "common carriers"? If he can carry pets on Air Force One, why should he begrudge anyone the choice to transport a pampered pooch in an uncom- mon carrier? Just wait for the Politically Correct crowd to intrude fur- ther upon our language. Instead of "dog years" we'll be forced to talk about "camel years". In- stead of "as the crow flies," it'll be "as the tarantula crawls." What's all this technical talk about "ISPs"? My favorite fer- ret Omar is currently sleep- ing on my dictionary, so I'll have to use my own wits to fig- ure out the acronym. Hmm. So, why is the president so con- cerned about Iguana Striping Perverts? Excuse me, my nosey neigh- bor looking over my shoulder is trying to tell me something. What? They're talking about net neutrality, not pet neutrality? Never mind. Note: This column is dedi- cated to the memory of the late, great Gilda Radner (1946-1989). Danny Tyree welcomes reader e-mail responses at tyreetyrades@aol.com and vis- its to his Facebook fan page "Tyree's Tyrades." Danny Tyree Net neutrality, pet neutrality, whatever Joe Harrop OPINION » redbluffdailynews.com Saturday, November 15, 2014 » MORE AT FACEBOOK.COM/RBDAILYNEWS AND TWITTER.COM/REDBLUFFNEWS A4