Issue link: https://www.epageflip.net/i/430460
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 Dear boys, Dad here. I want to tell you about some- thing that happened to me yesterday. A friend of mine at the office, a black woman, asked me to join her at a protest about that unarmed 18-year-old who was shot by that police officer in Mis- souri. I felt a little funny about going, as if a white, 40-something dad had no place at a civil rights rally, but my friend asked, so I agreed to go, as did a bunch of us. On the way over I ended up talking with a cou- ple black men I work with. They're in their twenties, which might seem old to you, but to me they seem close to your age, just kids really. And because we were al- ready thinking about what happened to that boy in Missouri, they started talk- ing about the times that police officers had pulled guns on them. Times. Plural. Like the time one of them was playing basketball with his white friend in a pub- lic park. No sooner did his friend go home to get them some Gatorade than a patrol car pulls up. A cop shouted questions about what he was doing in a park in a neighborhood where white people lived, then more cars showed up, and a gun was pointed at him. Then his friend returned, and eventually the cops left them alone. Later he was arrested when he was 14 because he fit the description of a sus- pected thief: black, between 5'2", or as tall as you are now, and 6'4", or as tall as an NFL quarterback. The thief could almost literally have been any black man in America, which is kind of the point. There were other ar- rests, other times they were thrown in jail with violent criminals for bureaucratic mistakes and supposed of- fenses. And not that it matters, because this kind of dis- crimination and harass- ment should happen to no one in America, but these were good boys. One of them has a gentle, sweet disposition and attended a fancy private school. The other was a valedictorian. But they looked like crimi- nals to the cops. The worst thing I heard at the rally was something called a "jump out." That's when police jump out of an unmarked van with their guns drawn, shouting at black teenagers passing by to get down on the side- walk. It makes no sense to me, but it happens enough to black people that it no longer seems strange. If it happened to me or to you, I'd burn down a police sta- tion. But they just comply, hoping that the police don't hate them enough to pull a trigger. This isn't something that starts suddenly when black boys become teenagers and wear man-sized clothes. Black students are much more likely to get disci- plined than white students in public schools across the country. The black boys you go to school with are three and a half times more likely to be expelled than you are. In Texas, almost every sin- gle black male student—83 percent—will be suspended at least once, and those kids who get suspended are three times more likely to get in trouble with the law later. The guys I was talking to knew they had a target on their backs even as kids. Their parents told them to always be extra polite to the parents of their white friends and to never be in a room in their house alone in case something went missing. They never were allowed to play with squirt guns lest they got shot by a real one. And when they got pulled over for driving through the wrong neighborhood— something that happens to them frequently even to- day—they rest their hands out the door so the officer doesn't suspect danger, and they record it all with their phones, so the officer can't later claim otherwise. None of this, they said, made them unusual. Every- one they knew—their black friends, that is—had simi- lar stories about being ha- rassed by the police. But be- ing commonplace doesn't make something right, and I'm sad to say that it's up to you to be more aware of this so you can help change it. Love, Dad. Jason Stanford is a regular contributor to the Austin American-Statesman, a Democratic consultant and a Truman National Security Project partner. You can email him at stanford@oppresearch.com and follow him on Twitter @JasStanford. Jason Stanford A letter to the next generation Cartoonist's take MATSON The Tea Party Patriots may have newly-elected Supervi- sor Candy Carlson present to- night; the oper- ating phrase in the announce- ment was "if available." There will be an up- date on the ef- forts to promote the State of Jef- ferson in Lake County. Also on the agenda is a DVD made by the Tea Party about the IRS. All are encour- aged to come tonight as well as for next Tuesday's dessert potluck—always well worth the indulgence. Included with the meeting agenda announcement was a sample letter that was meant to be signed and sent to Con- gressman Doug LaMalfa, urg- ing him to defund President Obama's executive amnesty of illegal immigrants. It is a nec- essary and commendable sen- timent considering the outra- geous manner of high-handed implementation by our now-ad- mitted "Emperor" Obama, as I pointed out last week. Prac- tically speaking, it will take a Senate under Republican con- trol to bring full legislative weight to bear on such tac- tics. The letter rightly points out that it is only through our elected representatives that such a process has legitimacy. Two landslide congressional mid-term elections punish- ing Obama's Democrat party should be emphatic in denounc- ing Obama's course of action. There are major aspects of the issue that have seen little examination by our suppos- edly unbiased news media— which collectively function as little more than cheerleaders for and defenders of the Dem- ocrat/Obama agenda. Here's an example of the right kind of examination: In a World Net Daily article titled "Am- nesty Shocker! The Secret Be- hind Obama's 'Order'; Pres- ident accused of 'sleight of hand' to protect self from im- peachment," Jerome R. Corsi outlined how Obama used a "Machiavellian" method to ef- fectuate his amnesty policy. Both WND and Mr. Corsi can err on the side of con- spiratorial but this informa- tion is from an interview with Tom Fitton of Judicial Watch, a highly reliable source. More- over, anyone doubting the in- formation can access links to government sources; I posted the article on Sunday at Don- Polson.blogspot.com. "The in- quiry begins with the ques- tion: Where are the execu- tive orders Obama supposedly signed to permit up to 5 mil- lion parents of young illegal aliens to remain in the United States for three years?" Remember that the original order establishing "deferred action for childhood arrivals," or DACA, was itself an execu- tive creation by Obama when Congress (after Republicans were elected to a House ma- jority) refused to pass the so- called "DREAM" act with- out significant enforcement provisions. Obamacrats have never wanted increased en- forcement either at the bor- der or by aggressive depor- tation from the interior. Nei- ther through elections, polling nor common sense can Obama point to how America's work- ers and citizens are to bene- fit from amnesty without iron- clad enforcement to assure us that future waves of border- hoppers will be stopped and/ or deported. Fitton: "The entire imple- menting authority involves a memorandum published by DHS Secretary Jeh Johnson that changes the immigration law, directing federal money to be spent that has not been appropriated by Congress… (which) neither authorized nor appropriated funds to ac- complish." The White House website says that on Nov. 21 Obama signed a presidential proclamation titled "Creat- ing Welcoming Communities Fully Integrating Immigrants and Refugees" and a presi- dential memorandum titled "Modernizing and Stream- lining the U.S. Immigration Visa System for the 21st Cen- tury." So, a "proclamation" and "memo," not "executive orders"; both were filed Nov. 26 in the Federal Registry un- der "Presidential Documents" (links in article). If you are thinking they sound "Or- wellian," you're right. The first ("Creating…) es- tablished a White House Task Force on New Americans to "engage with community, business, and faith leaders, as well as State and local elected officials" to ensure that "pro- grams and policies are serv- ing diverse communities that include new Americans." Wow! Obama is declaring them "new Americans," not just no-longer-illegal-and-de- portable. Maybe with a wink and nod they'll be registered as new Democrat voters. The second ("Moderniz- ing…the Visa System") "em- powered the secretaries of State and Homeland Security, in consultation with" a whole list of federal agencies, direc- tors and secretaries "to re- duce government costs, im- prove services for applicants, reduce burdens on employ- ers and combat waste, fraud, and abuse in the system" of issuing immigrant and non- immigrant visas. Remember that, unlike Presidents Rea- gan and Bush, who had ac- tual 1986 legislation to inform their actions relative to cer- tain groups of immigrants, Obama has no supporting leg- islation. The only Obama administra- tion document that accommo- dates the "legislative" changes pronounced on Nov. 21 in Las Vegas is "a DHS memorandum signed by DHS Secretary John- son titled 'Exercising Prosecu- torial Discretion…'" So, John- son, without any legal author- ity, is tasked with doing things that, according to the "Guide to the Federal Rulemaking Process" Obama himself has no authority to delegate. It's Machiavellian, indeed, for Obama to put Johnson in that position and insulate himself from actual political prosecu- tion, i.e. impeachment. It is ut- terly cynical for Obama, know- ing that the Democrat/me- dia complex will make sure Americans hold Republicans to blame for any disruption of government, pushes the au- thoritarian limits. Don Polson has called Red Bluff home since 1988. He can be reached by e-mail at don- plsn@yahoo.com. The way I see it Twisted web of Obama's orders, memos, proclamations A cop shouted questions about what he was doing in a park in a neighborhood where white people lived, then more cars showed up, and a gun was pointed at him. Then his friend returned, and eventually the cops left them alone. Assemblyman Dan Logue 150 Amber Grove Drive, Ste. 154, Chico 95928, 530 895- 4217 Senator Jim Nielsen 2634 Forest Ave., Ste. 110, Chico 95928, 530 879-7424, senator.nielsen@senate. ca.gov Governor Jerry Brown State Capital Building, Sacra- mento 95814, 916 445-2841, fax 916 558-3160, governor@ governor.ca.gov U.S. Representative Doug LaMalfa 507 Cannon House Office Building, Washington D.C. 20515, 202 225-3076 U.S. Senator Dianne Fein- stein One Post St., Ste. 2450, San Francisco 94104, 415 393- 0707, fax 415 393-0710 U.S. Senator Barbara Boxer 1700 Montgomery St., San Francisco 94111, 510 286- 8537, fax 202 224-0454 Contact your officials Don Polson Practically speaking, it will take a Senate under Republican control to bring full legislative weight to bear on such tactics. The letter rightly points out that it is only through our elected representatives that such a process has legitimacy. Two landslide congressional mid-term elections punishing Obama's Democrat party should be emphatic in denouncing Obama's course of action. There are major aspects of the issue that have seen little examination by our supposedly unbiased news media— which collectively function as little more than cheerleaders for and defenders of the Democrat/Obama agenda. OPINION » redbluffdailynews.com Tuesday, December 9, 2014 » MORE AT FACEBOOK.COM/RBDAILYNEWS AND TWITTER.COM/REDBLUFFNEWS A6