Issue link: https://www.epageflip.net/i/419661
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 Whenever I think of death these days, I reflect on the best friend I ever had. He died almost two years ago. His name was Ken Green. He lived in Cotton- wood. I am thinking of him now because of a "death with dignity" law is in the news. My wife Roleeda often says "life is what it is." I am not sure I totally agree with that. Would our deaths go bet- ter if we had more control over how and when we did cross over. You probably heard about the 29 year old Californian who recently decided the date and method of her death. It was only legal because she moved to Oregon where they have a "Death with Dignity" law. I never knew her, but I admire her for making that decision. She was diagnosed with terminal brain cancer on January first of this year. Oregon passed their death with dignity law in 1994 fol- lowed by the state of Wash- ington doing the same thing in 2008. Do you think Brittany made the right decision or do you think what she did was wrong? Under Oregon's law she was able to ingest a prescribed lethal medica- tion. I am pretty sure that most of us want as much control over our lives as possible, but should this trend of having more control over our deaths be legal in California also? I think it should. Five years ago, I came very close to having a heart attack. I was saved by a heart bypass operation. That was followed four years later by a little skin cancer. My memory brought my health back to me when I heard of Brittany's situation. Would I have taken advan- tage of such a law for myself if it ever became legal in Cali- fornia? Were I still a legislator I would like to tell you I would vote for such a law. I believe government should do all it can to give citizens maximum control over their lives and deaths. I do know how controver- sial this subject is, however I see it much like the abortion issue where both sides are right and wrong. By that I mean if a stranger approached and without any background information asked you if you were "Pro-Choice" or "Pro-Life," what would you say? It would not be stupid to say; "Well, I want everyone to have the right to make their own choice and yet I also sup- port life. You can count on my support for both of those po- sitions! When we lost Ken Green he was 79 years old and had led an outstanding life. He was given a terminal diagno- sis of COPD. His widow Sonnie asked if I would officiate at his funeral. It was actually an honor, but of course I did not want him to die. My wife helped with a prayer at the end of the funeral. I have wondered since then if Ken would have used such a law as he de- parted. Bear in mind that grav- ity is coming after all of us right now. It is just a mat- ter of time. It is not a ques- tion of whether or not you will die, it's just where, when and how. If you agree with me, wouldn't it be a good idea to contact your Assemblyman or state Senator now to ask them to author a death with dignity bill to give all Califor- nians the choice to take more control over their eventual de- parture. What do you think? This is a very tough issue. Please let me know your opinion. I promise to respond to you. 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. My take The Death with Dignity law in the news Were I still a legislator I would like to tell you I would vote for such a law. I believe government should do all it can to give citizens maximum control over their lives and deaths. Shoplocallythisholiday season Editor: It will soon be time for hol- iday and Christmas shopping season. I am writing to encour- age all of us to shop locally. We love our town and en- joy the lights in the trees at this time of year. If we want it to stay vibrant all year long, we have to support our local busi- nesses. Just imagine if every person, or at least every fam- ily, in this county shopped lo- cally, how that would boost our local economy and encourage local stores to stay in business. We don't want any more empty stores and desolate streets. And now for the shop and business owners: Please train your employees to practice good customer service. When some- one comes into the store, please don't yell at them from the back of the store; come forward and greet them with a smile and an enthusiastic attitude. No mat- ter how busy the employee is, ev- ery customer should be greeted within a few seconds of walking in the door, or at least acknowl- edged with a "I'll be right with you." And when a customer says "thank you," the response should be "you're welcome, please come back" or "you're welcome, it was a pleasure serving you today," not "no problem." Regarding your merchandise, if you don't have it in stock, please try to order it for the cus- tomer — on line if necessary — or find out if it is offered in an- other local business. This way you help each other. Please call the customer when it comes in. Please, business owners and employees, park your cars a couple of blocks away from downtown — the walk will do you good — even if it is raining, and leave the parking spaces for your customers. Let's make this not only Black Friday, but an "in the black" holiday and Christmas season here in Tehama County. —Sharon Russell, Red Bluff Fair board is setting things right Editor: In my opinion, fair board Pres- ident Linda Durrer's recent state- ments regarding bringing the fair back to where it was prior to the last fair board's command de- cision of moving it from July, was right on the money. Many people looked for- ward to coming back to Red Bluff during the summer va- cation months to a fair with many events that had become to many representative of Red Bluff. The boat drags, Fourth of July river float and fireworks display at the city park are gone now due to nearsightedness by local politicians, but why ruin the fair also? That's what was done by moving it to the fall. Red Bluff once had a history and heritage. Like the clock tower we lost. Dave Kinner and others brought it back. Why not litigate against the Bay Area bureaucrats and bring back things that spell Red Bluff to many? —Terry van Dyke, Red Bluff Basketball program in jeopardy Editor: I saw this on Facebook the other day and wanted to share the information with our com- munity. "Cornerstone Families, we need your help! We are danger- ously close to not having our basketball program this season. We have had such a low num- ber of people turn in registra- tion forms that, as of now, we don't even have half the money to cover our expenses that the program needs to run. Please tell everyone you know with kids from 1st-6th grade that the deadline to sign up is Dec. 1st. I would hate for our kids to lose out on this opportunity." I agree. My son played last year and had a great experi- ence. As a father and concerned community member, I would like to make sure he and other kids from our city get the chance to play again. So, please, spread the word, and get down to Cornerstone Bank and sign up. Let's play. Pat Gleason, Red Bluff Support Postal Service consolidation Editor: Shuttering 82 USPS process- ing centers makes sense. The Postal Service purpose is to process and deliver mail, and not to maximize union employ- ment, pay or benefits. First class mail use has de- clined more than 50 percent this past decade as most now use email, cell phones and elec- tronic books, magazines and newspapers. So called junk mail is the primary use of USPS mailings. USPS union employees have been long overpaid and over benefited compared to non union private sector peers. This includes early retirement huge defined pensions and life- long health care insurance ver- sus their absence in most pri- vate sector jobs. There are only two options, cut pay and pen- sions or cut unneeded employ- ees. Unions seldom allow pay or benefit cuts, hence the need to cut employees. Yes, Postal Service has de- clined these past decades and that will continue. Yes, consolidate USPS pro- cessing centers. A one day de- livery delay, to achieve needed USPS deficit cuts through em- ployee reductions is urgently needed. Most civilian work- ers have had to move and find jobs due to union strikes, plant closures, global competi- tion and the many recessions during the 45-year work ca- reer. Government employees should not be protected from the reality of life. —Joseph Neff, Corning Your opinions Cartoonist's take There is no shortage of pun- dits who could do a wor- thy job of waxing philosophi- cal about the things we should or shouldn't be thankful for at Thanksgiving 2014. Rather than get lost in the shuffle of those traditional anal- yses, I'm going to take a differ- ent approach. Employing the lat- est computer models, I shall ex- trapolate from current trends and predict the way things will be 20 years in the future, at Thanksgiving 2034: - Many people are thankful that all 49 states now have legal- ized marijuana. ("Dude! I told you that was a real thermonu- clear device you were messing around with in North Dakota! They're still talking about that explosion way over in Dorito-fla- vored Connecticut.") - Technology makes sim- ple dinner table questions quite complex. ("Do I want the pump- kin pie or the cranberry sauce, Aunt Jane? Um, er...I know I've got that information out on the cloud somewhere...") - The time-honored tradi- tion of presidential pardoning of a turkey? The National Guard has to be called out first, just in case of trouble. (And in case the pardon doesn't come through, there's some chick who wants to marry the turkey.) - Dissidents and People In The Wrong Place At The Wrong Time are thankful that the de- cades have not been kind to middle-aged North Korean des- pot Kim Jong-un. ("Now whom did I walk into the room to exe- cute? Oh, well — I'll just have a sandwich instead.") - Those who struggle to main- tain the religious significance of the holiday by humbling them- selves and offering heartfelt thanks to a Higher Power must worry not only about repri- sals from the secular world but also about an eerily casual voice from above dismissing them with "Not a problem." - Retail employees need no longer worry about preparation for their noon Thanksgiving Day meals being thwarted by the need to get an early start on Black Friday sales. No, they have to be worried about their hiding of Easter eggs being thwarted by the need to get an early start on Black Friday sales. - The Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade is rerouted to the Hima- layas to appease those who keep predicting calamitously rising sea levels. ("Squint real hard and you can see it! Take off those ear muffs and listen to me, people!") - Savvy investors are thankful that they can choose among fat- free bitcoin, antimicrobial bit- coin, hypoallergenic bitcoin... - Landing probes on comets 317 million miles away, travel- ing 80,000 miles per hour be- comes commonplace. As do probe greetings of "We hear those mean old Tea Party peo- ple have been trying to keep you from registering to vote." - Nation rejoices as cloning breakthroughs mean fewer ce- lebrity "baby bump" photos for paparazzi to snap. - The floundering cable TV business is saved by a spate of popular new channels contain- ing nothing but government con- sultants stupid enough to give speeches crowing about how stu- pid the American public is. - The move toward genetically modified foods continues un- abated. When shoppers seek a Tyson turkey, they must specify a "Tyson Foods" turkey or a tur- key built like Mike Tyson. - Kim Kardashian is thank- ful that she can still balance a champagne glass of Metamu- cil on her buttocks. Assum- ing there's a small stool to prop them up. But the most likely develop- ment at this season in 2034? "Grateful nation rejoices that Danny Tyree is too preoccupied with ear hair trimming to re- gale us with predictions about Thanksgiving 2054." Harumph! Danny Tyree welcomes reader e-mail responses at tyreetyrades@aol.com. Danny Tyree Thanksgiving 2034: Your sneak peek Stan Statham Rather than get lost in the shuffle of those traditional analyses, I'm going to take a different approach. OPINION » redbluffdailynews.com Thursday, November 20, 2014 » MORE AT FACEBOOK.COM/RBDAILYNEWS AND TWITTER.COM/REDBLUFFNEWS A6