Issue link: https://www.epageflip.net/i/44320
6A Daily News – Monday, October 10, 2011 Opinion Intolerance alone deserves intolerance 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 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. Letters are published at the discretion of the editor. Mission Statement We believe that a strong com- munity newspaper is essential to a strong community, creating citizens who are better informed and more involved. The Daily News will be the indispensible guide to life and living in Tehama County. We will be the premier provider of local news, information and advertising through our daily newspaper, online edition and other print and Internet vehi- cles. The Daily News will reflect and support the unique identities of Tehama County and its cities; record the history of its com- munities and their people and make a positive difference in the quality of life for the resi- dents and businesses of Tehama County. 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 Senate Bill 48, The Fair, Accu- rate, Inclusive and Respectful (FAIR) Education Act, ensures that lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) people are included in instructional materials by requiring that LGBT Ameri- cans be recognized for their important historical contributions to the economic, political, and social development of California. By prohibiting discriminatory instructional materials and text- books this measure helps students get an accurate perspective of the people and events that have shaped our society and brings classroom instruction into alignment with laws passed a decade ago by the California Legislature and adopted by the State Board of Education. Local letters and a column by James Wilson appearing in this paper recently have supported a referendum to block implementa- tion of SB48 claiming that it is an expensive and inappropriate dic- tate that promotes LGBT lifestyles and, by inference, the moral decay of America. While I can appreci- ate concerns regarding the poten- tial cost of implementing this leg- islation, I would suggest that monies spent fighting it will likely be greater. Nonetheless, I am compelled to challenge other objections to this legislation that helps to stymie prejudice against LGBT Americans. I think it is important to clarify that SB48 does not promote alter- native lifestyles but only requires public school instruction include coverage of LGBT issues and con- tributions to American culture. Concern that such information might indoctrinate or pressure stu- dents to adopt alternative lifestyles is symptomatic of homophobia, intolerance, or at best overactive imagination in the absence of any evidence to the contrary. It seems apparent that the principle objec- tion to SB48 is personal moral bias induced by interpretation of scant Old Testament biblical passages. Sharing accurate and inclusive information of our social diversity is a vital step to setting a climate of respect and keeping our schools safe. Schools that remain silent about LGBT people perpetuate harmful stereotypes and are breed- ing grounds for the fear and igno- rance that fuels bullying during the early grades and hate violence and in some cases suicide by the time students reach high school. By middle school, studies show that students who are bullied based on actual or perceived sexual orienta- tion feel so unsafe that they skip school and their grades suffer. Fair, inclusive, and age-appropri- ate lessons make LGBT students feel less isolated and improve their ability to stay in school and gradu- ate. In schools where LGBT people are included in classroom discus- sions, results have been positive. The 2003 Preventing School Harassment Survey in California found that in schools where the majority of youth report having learned about LGBT people in their curriculum, only 11% of students report being bullied, but that number more than dou- bled to 24% where the majority of students in a school say they haven't learned about LGBT people. The survey also found that students who have learned about LGBT people at school were more likely to feel they have a voice at school and make positive contributions at school. As a consequence, more than 83% of school dis- tricts now include LGBT issues in their anti-bias lessons for some or all of their high school stu- dents; 64% do so for middle school; and 54% do so for elemen- tary school students. SB 48 simply ensures that all public schools include such beneficial lessons. Current law prohibits instruc- tion or school-sponsored activities that reflect adversely upon persons because of their race, sex, color, creed, ability, national origin, or ancestry and also prohibits the adoption of instructional materials that reflect negatively on any such persons. Schools and governing boards are required to include only instructional materials that, in their determination, accurately portray the cultural and racial diversity of Richard Mazzucchi Positive Point our society. SB48 only adds sexu- al orientation to this list of person- al characteristics that cannot be reflected upon adversely. I believe it is essen- tial that children in our public schools are pro- vided with objective and factual information that permits them to understand their rights and responsibilities as American citizens. This includes the free- dom to express oneself and be free of derision or disrespect based upon one's own sexual preference or that of others one may come into contact with. The alternative is for our schools to be silent and implicitly concede to discrimina- tion and damage to the psyche of approximately 10% of our popula- tion that is by nature lesbian, gay, bisexual, or transgender. While I can appreciate the fact that some might prefer this alternative based on pejorative moral grounds, pub- lic policy in an evolved society can no longer tolerate such behavior. Simply put, when it comes to legal lifestyle choices, intolerance alone deserves intolerance. Richard Mazzucchi is a retired research engineer who makes his home in Los Molinos. He can be reached at living-green@att.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: gov- ernor@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. Again — to be or not to be…grass roots Commentary The first message I have is that, after reading all available reporting – including foreign press – looking at many photos, and video record- ings, of the various so-called "Occupy Wall Street (or any loca- tion)" protests, comparisons with the Tea Party movement are great- ly exaggerated, almost laughably so. An honest liberal, Richard Cohen of the Washington Post, admitted in early August "I suffer from Tea Party envy," and allowed that, while he condemns all it stands for, "I am jealous of its sense of purpose, its determination and its bracing conviction that it is absolutely right." Such sentiments helpfully explain the thinly veiled promotion of the Occupy Wall Street (OWS) movement by a news media eager to present as sanitized a picture of the protesters as possible. When covering the tea party protests, reporters' liberal leanings and sen- timents were fully on display as they sought out supposedly inflam- matory signs, even if the Obama- with-Hitler-mustache posters were printed by left wing Lyndon LaRouche Democrats. We were treated to reporters challenging tea party folks as to why they didn't welcome all of the federal stimulus money; we've seen no such taunting interviews of the OWS folks, who tend to shout down any inconvenient questions. The descriptors "conservative," "right," or "extremist" have appeared in the millions used by news reporters and columnists on the Tea Party; you'd be hard pressed to find the words "liberal," "left," or "extremist" in any such coverage of the OWS crowds – the preferred term is simply and deceptively "populist." Tea Party/OWS similarities include: a preponderance of hand- made signs (although printed signs are entirely from socialist or union groups), opposition to bank/finan- cial bailouts (the early iteration of the tea party movement opposed TARP bailouts under President Bush, even bringing about an ini- tial defeat of TARP in the House), and a racial makeup skewed over- whelmingly white. Amazingly, the same mainstream news media, MSM for short, that made insinua- tions of racism their theme for the tea party protests, make no such characterizations of mostly white OWS participants. Interestingly, similarities end there. Go to my blog, Polecat News and Views in the blog sec- tion of the online Daily News (available without a paid subscrip- tion), or enter "DonPolson.blogspot.com" in a search box. You can read reporting from the UK Daily Mail, under the title "Stinking up Wall Street: Pro- testers accused of living in filth as shocking pictures show one demonstrator defecating on a Police Car." See the photos, includ- ing flag desecration; there are numerous You Tube recordings of the bizarre practice at their meet- ings, of the group repeating every- thing anyone says en masse. Tea Party rallies and demonstra- tions have been noted for leaving not a speck of trash behind; union and liberal/left groups routinely leave all manner of refuse on the ground, including American flags if they had any. Tea Party folks don't get arrested, don't break things or push security people out of the way, and obey the rules. At OWS, just the opposite occurs: mass arrests, refusing to leave when parks close requiring law enforcement to acquiesce to law breaking to avoid confrontational arrests (Portland, Seattle). Then, forcing the Air and Space Museum in Washington, DC, to close when pro- testers barged past a guard telling them they couldn't bring signs in. Then, their little slo- added costs to almost everything anyone buys. Don gan, "We are the 99 per- cent," is disingenuous and misleading because it ignores the fact that lib- erals comprise at most 20 percent of voters or Americans, and these are a hyper- left subset of that group. The Tea Party resonates broadly because a solid 40+ percent of Americans identify themselves as conservative (Gallup and Rasmussen polling). The list of demands as posted online puts them way out in left field compared to most Americans, although in the ideological compa- ny of a columnist and writer or two on this page, and certainly among many left wing friends and rabble in Chico. For instance, they want a minimum, so called "living" wage of at least $20 an hour (20 has a nice round ring but why not 30 or 50?), as if nothing will cost more than it does now. They want to get rid of free trade and tariff the heck out of imported goods – more Polson The way I see it Then come the really crackpot ideas: Free college education for everyone, end the fossil fuel economy, spend a trillion dollars on "infrastructure," anoth- er trillion on the envi- ronment, decommis- sion all nuclear power plants, complete open borders with no immi- gration restrictions, and "outlaw all credit reporting agencies." Huh? Oh, that's because they demand "Immediate across the board debt forgiveness for all … sovereign debt, commercial loans, home mort- gages, home equity loans, credit card debt, student loans and personal loans now! All debt must be stricken from the books … all debt on the entire planet, period." Together with making unioniza- tion easy, "These demands will create so many jobs it will be com- pletely impossible to fill them without an open borders policy." Do you understand why MSM sugarcoats all of this, and ignores the Marxist elements like former Obama green jobs czar, Van Jones, and his socialist American Dream Movement? Obama's and Pelosi's base, anyone? Don Polson has called Red Bluff home since 1988. He can be reached by e-mail at donplsn@yahoo.com.