Issue link: https://www.epageflip.net/i/442859
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 Pope Francis recently praised the benefits of big families — that a big family teaches chil- dren selflessness and sharing, which ben- efits the whole of society — and I couldn't agree more. Iwasraisedasan only boy with five sis- ters, which was at once a blessing and a curse. When I was 12, the neighborhood bully was constantly pick- ing on me, but I had no brothers to teach me to fight. My sisters taught me. I looked the bully dead in the eye and said, "You are soooooooo immature!" Despite me having no broth- ers, my father made me wear hand-me-downs. It wasn't too bad most of the year, but Eas- ter Sunday was unpleasant. Do you know how hard it is to outrun the neighborhood bully with your pantyhose bunch- ing up on you and your bonnet flopping in the wind? Though my sisters loved and doted on me at times, at other times they complained to my parents that my be- havior grossed them out. So I liked to pick my nose. Big whoop. I longed to have a brother — longed to have someone of like mind and griminess — and al- most was blessed with one in 1970 with my mother's sixth preg- nancy. I had four sisters by then and my mother had suffered one miscarriage years before. All of us were rooting for a boy. And if the baby was a boy we would name him Edward, after my mother's father. I had big plans for little Ed- die. I'd teach him to play ball. We'd ride bikes together. We'd go down to the creek by the water company and build a dam and catch crayfish. We'd build a shack in the woods. Early one morning, my mother began having contrac- tions. Our neighborhood went into Red Cross mode. Mrs. Krieger tended to my mother, as my father rushed home from work to drive my mother to the hospital. Other neigh- bors were assigned to watch over my sisters and me. And then Mrs. Clearly showed up with a meatloaf, as she did every time any family in our church had an emergency. I was placed with Mrs. Gillen, since I was bud- dies with her son, also named Tommy. Tommy and I played all afternoon. But after dinner, Mrs. Gillen pulled me aside. "Tommy," she said, in a som- ber tone, "may I talk with you?" "Yes," I said, feeling sud- denly awkward. She put her hand on my shoulder. "Tommy, it is about your mother. It is about her baby. Tommy, your mother had a miscarriage." The doctor told my father the baby was a boy. We were all saddened by our loss, and my parents would eventually heal. They'd have one more child, my sister Jennifer, al- most a year later, and our fam- ily would roll along. According to Breitbart, Pope Francis said that "the fact of having brothers and sisters is good for you: the sons and daughters of a large family are more capable of fraternal com- munion from early childhood." He said that "each family is the cell of society, but the large family is a richer, more vibrant cell ... ." I found this to be true. My parents' house is still a raucous place where peo- ple come and go at all hours. The laughter and drama com- mon to big extended families has filled me with an incred- ible sense of joy and camara- derie. It has been great to be the only boy with five sisters and, when we get together, we laugh as hard as we ever did. Still, I wonder how differ- ent my life would have been if I had a little brother. We could have teamed up to really gross out our sisters. And we'd surely be best buddies today. That's why I still get sad, now and then, at the loss of lit- tle Eddie. TomPurcell,authorof"Misad- ventures of a 1970s Childhood" and "Comical Sense: A Lone Humorist Takes on a World Gone Nutty!" is a Pittsburgh Tribune-Review humor colum- nist. Send comments to Tom at Purcell@caglecartoons.com. Tom Purcell In praise of big families Still, I wonder how different my life would have been if I had a little brother. We could have teamed up to really gross out our sisters. And we'd surely be best buddies today. Cartoonist's take Since New Year's is tradition- ally a time for resolutions, and since the new Congress con- venes this week, I thought I would suggest some New Year's resolutions for Congress: 1) Bring the troops home — Congress should take the first, and most important, step to- ward ending our hyper-interven- tionist foreign policy by bring- ing our troops home and closing all overseas military facilities. The American people can no longer afford to bear the cost of empire. 2) Pass the Audit the Fed bill — The American people deserve to know the entire truth about how the Federal Reserve's mone- tary policy benefits big-spending politicians and financial elites while harming average Ameri- cans. 3) Repeal the PATRIOT Act and rein in the National Secu- rity Agency — It is approach- ing two years since Edward Snowden revealed the extent of the NSA's unconstitutional spy- ing. Yet Congress still refuses to put a leash on the surveil- lance state. Congress should take the first step toward re- storing respect for the Fourth Amendment by allowing Sec- tion 215 of the PATRIOT Act to expire. 4) Shut down the Transporta- tion Security Administration — Treating all American air trav- elers as criminal suspects and subjecting them to intrusive and humiliating searches does noth- ing to enhance our security. Congress should shut down TSA and return responsibility for air- line security to the airlines. Pri- vate businesses can effectively protect their customers and em- ployees if the government gets out of the way. 5) End all corporate welfare — Federal programs that pro- vide subsidies or other spe- cial benefits to politically-con- nected businesses cause eco- nomic inequality, distort the market, and waste taxpayer money. It also makes politi- cal and moral sense to cut wel- fare for the rich before cut- ting welfare for the poor. Con- gress should start dismantling the corporate welfare state by killing the Export-Import Bank and the Overseas Private In- vestment Corporation. Con- gress should also reject legis- lation proposed to benefit one industry or individual, such as Sheldon Adelson's Internet gambling ban. 6) Repeal and Replace Obam- acare — Many Americans are losing their insurance while oth- ers are facing increasing health care costs because of Obam- acare. Repealing Obamacare is only a first step. Congress should both repeal all federal policies that distort the health care market and restore a true free market in health care. 7) End police militarization — The killing of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri in August brought the issue of police mil- itarization to the center of na- tional debate. Congress must end all federal programs that provide military equipment to local police forces. 8) Shut down the Depart- ment of Education — It is no coincidence that education in America has declined as fed- eral control over education has increased. Congress should de- fund all federal education pro- grams and return control over education to local communities and parents. 9) Allow individuals to opt out — A positive step toward restor- ing a free society would be al- lowing individuals to opt out of Obamacare and other federal mandates. Young people should also be granted the ability to opt out of paying Social Security and Medicare taxes in exchange for agreeing to never accept So- cial Security and Medicare ben- efits. 10) Allow state governments to opt out — If Congress lacks the votes to end the war on drugs, repeal Obamacare, or roll back other unconstitutional federal programs, it should at least respect the rights of states to set their own policies in these areas. Federal prohibition of state laws nullifying Obam- acare or legalizing marijuana turns the Tenth Amendment upside down. By adopting these resolutions, Congress can make 2015 the year America begins reversing the long, slow slide toward au- thoritarianism, empire, national bankruptcy, and economic de- cline. Ron Paul is a former Congress- manand Presidential can- didate. He can be reached at VoicesofLiberty.com. Ron Paul Ten New Year's resolutions for Congress Another view By Joe Gandelman Good-bye and good-riddance to 2014. As we move into 2015, what can we learn from how 2014 ended and how we're now "trending" in various areas? Here are a few items to watch: Look for signs of President Barack Obama's REAL inten- tions. Not only were the results of the 2014 Congressional elec- tions a "shellacking" for Dem- ocrats and Obama, a major paint job — with four coats of black and blue paint. Now the question is whether Obama in- tends to spend his remaining two years nurturing compro- mises where he can get them, or looking for ways to embar- rass, check-mate, thwart and weaken the Republicans who've spent his term stalemating his agenda, trying to destroy his legacy and demonizing him. By December 2015 who will have had the last laugh? Will the Tea Party tail con- tinue to wag the Republican dog — or is the Republican dog now the Tea Party's tail? There are already signs that House Speaker John Boehner and Re- publican Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell are headed into a political buzz saw in their dealings with Congress' most conservative members who favor confrontation, political brinks- manship and power politics over compromise, consensus and bi- partisanship. Will Boehner and McConnell prove to be leaders who direct party members on a political path, or fearful follow- ers and panderers obsessed with not losing support? Notoriety means big box of- fice. North Korea and its hack- ing buddies' attempt to keep Sony Pictures from releas- ing the comedy "The Inter- view" featuring a story involv- ing the assassination of North Korea's very much alive leader Kim Jong-un utterly backfired. By hacking Sony and allegedly being responsible for making terrorist threats against movie theaters which subsequently pulled the movie, North Korea helped the flick shatter online movie sales records. Add its al- most certain release on DVD, cable and overseas showings, and North Korea turned a re- portedly lame and inept com- edy into...big B.O. Get ready for some studio to announce a movie about a team of Navy Seals assigned force ISIS lead- ers to eat pork chops. Hollywood may get more dar- ing. Never underestimate Holly- wood's ability to grind out pre- dictable sequels, formula action pix and cookie-cutter kids' mov- ies. 2014 gave us the film "Bird- man," featuring a comeback- generating performance by Mi- chael Keaton, filmed to make it appear to have been shot in one or a few continuous takes, with an ending that left moviego- ers debating and guessing. It started off in limited release and immediately soared, with more theaters quickly added. Acceptance of the quirky film is a sign that Americans don't only yearn for (God save us) more Adam Sandler movies. Another sign came in early 2015 with the hit release of the film adaptation of Stephen Sond- heim's and James Lapine's "Into the Woods." While Sondheim's famous complex scores that of- ten seem to be fleeing tradi- tional melody may make theat- ergoer's swoon, they're more of an acquired taste to others. The pizza revolution will con- tinue. Pizza remains one of the biggest offenders when it comes to unhealthy fast food. But consumers are now demand- ing more than just sauce and cheese on crust, and they're of- ten getting it. Frank Peppe Pizzeria, the 90-year-old top ranked pizzeria from my home city of New Haven, has started to add restaurants in New York and Massachusetts. Pizza Hut revamped its menu with some unusual and often weird new flavors. When I went to Colgate University from 1968-1972, local pizza in the town of Hamilton, New York was terrible to toler- able. Today, Hamilton's pizza places offer r-e-a-l world class pizza flavor. Will those mistreating women find zero tolerance? 2014 was a bad year for politi- cian and celebrity sex harass- ers, offenders and exhibitionists in the U.S. and in Canada. Will 2015 end in the definitive im- plosion of comedian Bill Cosby, who is reportedly hiring private investigators? Can several big corporations stay afloat? Will 2015 end with a big "buh-bye" to the greatly-ailing JC Penny and to Radio Shack? Species going extinct: The Si- berian Tiger and 14 other spe- cies may be gone by the of the year, mostly due to human neg- ligence or aggression. The black rhino is almost extinct. The Re- publican RINO is extinct. Joe Gandelman is a veteran journalist who wrote for news- papers overseas and in the United States. He has appeared on cable news show political panels and is Editor-in-Chief of The Moderate Voice, an Inter- net hub for independents, cen- trists and moderates. He can be reached at jgandelman@the- moderatevoice.com. What to expect in 2015 Tom Purcell OPINION » redbluffdailynews.com Wednesday, January 7, 2015 » MORE AT FACEBOOK.COM/RBDAILYNEWS AND TWITTER.COM/REDBLUFFNEWS A6