Issue link: https://www.epageflip.net/i/43359
6A Daily News – Thursday, September 29, 2011 Opinion Referendum on SB 48 D NEWSAILY RED BLUFF TEHAMACOUNTY T H E V O I C E O F T E H A M A C O U N T Y S I N C E 1 8 8 5 The state Legislature passed, Greg Stevens, Publisher gstevens@redbluffdailynews.com Chip Thompson, Editor editor@redbluffdailynews.com Editorial policy The Daily News opinion is expressed in the editorial. The opinions expressed in columns, letters and cartoons are those of the authors and artists. Letter policy The Daily News welcomes let- ters from its readers on timely topics of public interest. All let- ters must be signed and pro- vide the writer's home street address and home phone num- ber. Anonymous letters, open letters to others, pen names and petition-style letters will not be allowed. Letters should be typed and cannot exceed two double-spaced pages or 500 words. When several letters address the same issue, a cross section of those submit- ted will be considered for publi- cation. Letters will be edited. 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How to reach us Main office: 527-2151 Classified: 527-2151 Circulation: 527-2151 News tips: 527-2153 Sports: 527-2153 Obituaries: 527-2151 Photo: 527-2153 On the Web www.redbluffdailynews.com Fax Newsroom: 527-9251 Classified: 527-5774 Retail Adv.: 527-5774 Legal Adv.: 527-5774 Business Office: 527-3719 Address 545 Diamond Ave. Red Bluff, CA 96080, or P.O. Box 220 Red Bluff, CA 96080 and Governor Brown signed into law, a bill known as SB 48 in the waning days of Spring. The law requires the state to fund the re-writing of every social science textbook it uses – in all grades K-12 – to reflect a positive spin on any and all his- torical figures who were or might have been homosexual. In other words, public school text books will be required to become propaganda vehicles for a political agenda. And the impact will not be limited to California. Inasmuch as our state is the largest purchaser of textbooks in the country, pub- lishers – they do not publish state specific materials – will be selling the same vehicles in every state in the union. Now a family values lobby- ing group based in Sacramento has filed papers to mount a ref- erendum effort against SB 48. That puts the implementation of the new law on hold until authorities know if enough voter signatures can be gathered by the end of September to place the measure on the ballot – and until after the 2012 prima- ry election if that effort is suc- cessful. For those who want to know, petitions to put the mea- sure on the ballot can be down- loaded from the web sites of the Pacific Justice Institute, the Capitol Resource Institute, and from stopsb48.com. But why is it important to put an effort to repeal SB 48 on the ballot? The first rationale is the fis- cal one. California is so cash strapped that most workers are compelled to take unpaid time off and some are laid off – including police and firefight- ers. State parks are being closed and counties are forced to accept state held inmates or release them into the streets. In a state that just balanced its bud- get for the first time in many years – and that through some creative financing that still kicks the can down the road – there is no telling where or how monies can be found to do this, although the Legislature is grimly committed to a scorched earth policy in implementing it. No one seems to know how many multiples of millions of dollars it will take, but anyone can see we don't have the money. This is reason enough to put it on the ballot. The next issue is the consti- tutional one. Teachers are for- bidden by multiple statutes from indoctrinating their stu- dents – because it violates the constitutional rights of students and their parents to hold such values as seem good to them without being pressured by educational authorities. That does not give a pass to bigotry or abuse, but in a nation where more than 60 percent of the public opposes gay marriage, for example, opposition to mainstreaming a gay political agenda is cer- tainly a defensible position. At the same time, teachers them- selves are protected against being forced to promote alleged facts or values with which they dis- agree. This law makes no provi- sion for a teacher's conscience and is itself indefensible for that reason. This is reason enough to support it on the bal- lot. Guest View James Wilson rect propaganda – there, I used the word a third time. Combating the bullying of anyone – gay or straight – is a legiti- mate and necessary function of schools and, indeed, of knowledge and the exercise of authority. That is why Pacific The most compelling factor may well be the truth factor. Homosexual people, like other people, have positive and nega- tive traits – whatever may be desirable or undesirable about their political agenda. If we can only discuss the positive traits – like the brilliance of Michelan- gelo's statuary and not the agony of his life – then truth is the first casualty. If Black Bart turned out to be gay would we have to stop calling him a high- way robber and refer to him as California's Robin Hood? The law is written to indicate that we would. We cannot claim to educate our young, teaching them how to discover and implement truth, when we are legally compelled to indoctri- nate them with politically cor- Justice Institute took San Mateo High School to court when administrators manhandled a student and suspended him for asking a politically incorrect question of a gay speaker at a school assembly. But when activities move from holding bullies accountable to com- pelling thought everyone loses. Schools should be places of open inquiry, safe-for-all debate, and learning laborato- ries for the skillful examination of facts and concepts so that truth may be found and fol- lowed. SB 48 throws out the baby with the bath water – if its true purpose is to combat bully- ing – and that is reason enough to work for its repeal on the bal- lot. James A.Wilson is the author of Living As Ambassadors of Relationships and The Holy Spirit and the End Times – available at local bookstores or by e-mailing him at praynorthstate@charter.net. Your officials STATE ASSEMBLYMAN — Jim Nielsen (R) State Capitol Bldg., Room 6031 Sacramento, CA 95814 (916) 319-2002; Fax (916) 319-2102 STATE SENATOR — Doug LaMalfa (R) State Capitol Bldg., Room 3070 Sacramento, CA 95814 (916) 651-4004; Fax (916) 445-7750 GOVERNOR — Jerry Brown, State Capitol Bldg., Sacramento, CA 95814; (916) 445-2841; Fax (916) 558-3160; E-mail: gover- nor@governor.ca.gov. U.S. REPRESENTATIVE — Wally Herger (R), 2635 Forest Ave. Ste. 100, Chico, CA 95928; 893-8363. U.S.SENATORS — Dianne Feinstein (D), One Post Street, Suite 2450, San Francisco, CA 94104; (415) 393-0707. Fax (415) 393-0710. Barbara Boxer (D), 1700 Montgomery St., Suite 240, San Francisco, CA 94111; (510) 286-8537. Fax (202) 224- 0454. Why middle class fears tax increases on the rich Commentary Yesterday, I was idling behind a seven-year-old Saturn sedan with an anti-Obama bumper sticker reading: "Because every- one deserves some of what you've worked hard for." There's a knee-jerk response to dismiss the driver as being some dupe naively parroting slo- gans not meaningful in his tax bracket. (You'd never see that sticker on a Rolls-Royce.) It's not just the success of Republican "messaging" – there's more to it than that. According to the CafePress page selling these bumper stick- ers, the $5 decal was created on Dec. 4, 2008. For all you history geeks, that was before the Obama presidency. This sentiment even existed before the bank bailout. It was also weeks before reputed capitalist, George W. Bush, approved the $17.4 billion Amer- ican auto industry bailout. Specifically, for GM, the parent company of Saturn. "If we were to allow the free market to take its course now, it would almost certainly lead to disorderly bankruptcy and liqui- dation for the automakers," said Bush in the Roosevelt Room on Dec. 19, 2008. After GM took government money – taxpayer money – as an emergency loan to save their company suffering from a dis- turbing combo of willful blind- ness and ignorance of the market – the first thing the automaker had to do was downsize. They shut down factories and dealer- ships, shedding jobs. They even eradicated some brands. One of those was Saturn. Now this driver can look for- ward to higher prices for parts and repairs for a vehicle that's essentially worthless since it was discontinued. The Bush bailout of GM was paid for by this driver at least twice. So the trade-in value losses for putting a sticker on that car? No longer an issue. Why does this anti-wealth dis- tribution sentiment resonate with him? Why doesn't he want banksters and CEOs to pay up? "Because everyone deserves some of what you've worked hard for." This message was written and uploaded before the tea party, when the economy was still in free fall. And even though "thinkers" like Samuel R. Staley, a fellow at the Reason Institute, wrote the unintentionally hilari- ous talking point now being repeated by GOP lawmakers: "It appears we are two years into a 'lost decade,'" the fact of the mat- ter is the middle-class has already had a lost decade – the '00s. In the middle-class wages are flat. The three million jobs Bush created in his eight years in office were moot since the population grew by 22 million. Prices have gone up, salaries have not. Home values have fallen, retirement plans are gone, savings are drained. Not since the 1930s has a genera- tion been less prosper- ous than the one before. In 2008, the economy for the middle-class went from long-term stagnation to suddenly much worse. And this reasonably caused a fear reaction in this Saturn driver. What is he concerned about? Wealth distribu- tion. Why? It's usually assumed money to the person above them: rewarding the 'rich' but ensuring that someone remained poorer than themselves." So taxing the rich Tina Dupuy that the reason Americans specif- ically don't want to see taxes raised on the rich is because, in spite of driving a defunct GM brand four-door, they think of themselves as the "soon-to-be rich." But a paper published in the National Journal of Econom- ic Research in July suggests oth- erwise. They offer that it's not hoping to be on top that makes us not want the wealthier to be taxed more – it's the fear of being at the bottom. It's referred to as "last- place aversion." The Economist wrote, "In keeping with the notion of 'last- place aversion,' the people who were a spot away from the bottom were the most likely to give the isn't about the fantasy that we're going to someday be rich – it's about the very real vis- ceral fear of being, well, the poorest. If the government helps those below you, then they'll be at your level – that's the unfairness they're afraid of. Named one of the worst CEOs of 2008, GM head Rick Wag- oner received a $20 million retirement package, yet an owner of one of his beaters has a bumper sticker decrying higher taxes for him. The driver isn't fantasizing about being Wagoner – he's terri- fied of being driven even lower in the middle-class. And the GOP has successfully exploited that fear. Because when people are afraid, they do all kinds of irra- tional things…like vote Republi- can. Tina Dupuy is an award- winning writer and fill-in host at The Young Turks. Tina can be reached at tinadupuy@yahoo.com.