Issue link: https://www.epageflip.net/i/470875
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 It's always good to return home, even a er a pleasant trip. Wereturnedhometwoweek- ends ago after three weeks in Panama and Columbia, and I have to confess to Bill Borror and the Tehama An- gus Ranch that we had two meals of fish most days, and only ate beef twice. We did have Certified An- gus beef steaks in Cartagena, Columbia one night, and they were great; we toasted Bill as we began our meal. Our first night home we barbecued a steak and had a baked potato. We left Red Bluff before the almonds were in bloom, and we returned to what may be a false spring, with blossoms and flow- ers in great display everywhere. It was good to see that some things had remained the same while we were gone. For example the Red Bluff Daily News still re- ports the air quality in Napa but not in Red Bluff. There were things that should have changed but haven't. The Red Bluff City Council still has problems finding council mem- bers, and the Council was left in the dark again by city manage- ment when they were asked to approve a variance by the plan- ning department. They discussed the issue, which involved allow- ing a less than standard space for parking, on the north end of Main Street. After a while a per- son in the audience asked the City Manager to tell the Coun- cil what the new business would be if the variance were granted. The answer was a Liquor Barn. It would have helpful if the Council had known that to start with. Navigating the rough road from I-5 into town is still a chal- lenge, but the Red Bluff roads seemed a little tame compared to some of the back country roads we experienced in Pan- ama and Columbia. There was some progress at the Wal-Mart Super Center site, fees from which allegedly will "fix" the road into town. We began our trip in a dry re- gion of Panama; it had "only" 44 inches of rain per year on aver- age. We experienced the only day time rain on our three week trip. Traveling always allows you to see the world in different ways. It often gives you a great appre- ciation for things you take for granted at home, as well. We knew we were going to summer like weather, for example, but we did not really anticipate the im- pact of extremely high humid- ity. We have come to appreciate a steady supply of hot water, ample interior lighting, paper products in lavatories, and prompt service. Passing through our airports and onto or off of planes may seem cumbersome, but the pro- cedures in Panama and Colum- bia were redundant, slow, and employed lots of people who didn't really seem to care about what they were doing. In the countryside we saw lots of barefoot people; and although there was poverty by our stan- dards we saw a lot of smiles. In contrast to that poverty we saw spectacular high rise buildings, particularly in Panama City. We were told that money launder- ing from Columbia is a major ac- tivity in Panama, and that cor- ruption is a major component of government in Columbia. Many of the spectacular high rises were essentially empty. We met an 82 year old man who made candy; he harvested the sugar cane, pressed the cane, used the pressing to mix with various other products, placed his mixture in a wood fired stove, and absent a ther- mometer, a timer, or any other technology, produced excellent chocolate. We also visited an el- derly woman who used similar "technology" to produce sweet rolls. There was a work ethic, and a spirit of joy on the face of each of these individuals. These home industries are a dying breed. While we were visiting a lo- cal landmark near Panama City I noticed a vendor selling some- thing that looked like a golf club; it had a narrow shaft and a mysterious object on the end. I walked over to see what it was and learned it was a camera at- tachment device designed to take "selfies". It wasn't too long ago that "selfy" was the word of the year, and during the three weeks we were away we saw in- dividuals and small groups tak- ing "selfies" just about every- where. I am not sure if "selfies" are a sign of our times or not. We took over 1500 pictures be- tween the two us and will cull them down to about 100 or less, so we won't bore people when we do a slide show of our trip. We may be in some of our pictures, but mostly we took shots of the scenery, the people, and interest- ing venues. There are no "selfies." The Panama Canal had been on my bucket list for some time, and it was rewarding to sail through the canal, anchor on the lake, and go through the locks at both ends. The canal took over 30 years to complete, caused several scandals in France, and was an engineering challenge. Build- ing the canal took over 22,000 lives, mostly Africans from the Caribbean islands. While those folks toiled under harsh condi- tions, the Americans working on the project had all the luxuries of home and then some. (The Americans undertook the proj- ect after the French failed.) While we waited in line to go through the locks, it seemed surreal to see two ships, side by side, with one over 20 feet above the other. We held our breath while we watched how closely the wide ships navigated the rel- atively narrow canal with the help of "mules", that is heavy electric rail engines which kept the ships from wiggling from side to side with strong cables attached to the aft of the ships. The canal is undergoing a sig- nificant expansion. There is talk of a Chinese canal through Ni- caragua that could accommo- date the larger ships now sailing the seas. The Panama expansion may counter that potential com- petition. It is also designed to recycle about two-thirds of the water used to operate the locks, something that will reduce con- cern about the seasonal avail- ability of water. The canal is a cash cow for Panama, and the Panamanians seem to have used some of that cash both to reinvest in the ca- nal and the country's own infra- structure. While visiting elsewhere is al- ways interesting, it is always good to come home. JoeHarropisaretirededucator with more than 30 years of ser- vice to the North State. He can be reached at DrJoeHarrop@sb- cglobal.net. Joe Harrop Back home again a er three weeks Cartoonist's take Restoftheveterans services story Editor: Your article of Feb. 14 con- cerning AB-171 falls short of being completely informa- tive and transparent. It seems to be an important issue for this county and I would like to support it. I live in Tehama County, and I am a disabled veteran myself. I have been advocat- ing for veteran causes for over 20 years. I had a chance last year to meet with Bill Good- win to discuss the Veterans Service Officer position, which was vacant. It was discussed that the job would be 20 hours per week with steep health in- surance premiums, due to the part-time structure. At the end of the discussion, I offered my services for free, or in essence voluntary. He said there would most likely be a conflict with the unions representing the county work- ers. Coming to Tehama County on 1-5, both north and south, people read the signs posted that read "Tehama County, where we honor veterans." The county honors veterans with a part-time service officer? I would like to know, as other veterans of this com- munity might, what is the ac- tual funding received by the county from the state and other sources annually? I think it is a fair question to have answered, and have that figure disclosed to the commu- nity before analyzing the need to promote AB-171. Moreover, why was the Te- hama County Veterans Ser- vices budget reduced from $44,174 in fiscal year 2012- 2013 to $25,359 in 2013- 2014? Why such a drastic cut in services to the men and women who have served our country? It disheartens this veteran, as the cuts always seem to fall on the military veteran at the federal, state and county lev- els. — Stephen DeBoever, Corning American Sniper misses the target Guess all the hype, along with some well deserved re- spect for Clint Eastwood's past movie-making efforts, finally enticed me to go see the movie "American Sniper." Boy, what a disappointment. Should have stayed home and watched reruns of old Combat episodes. If not for all the shooting and explosions, which kept waking me up, this movie would have qualified as a real snoozer. Sure, you'd be crazy to go to a movie with a title like Amer- ican Sniper and not expect lots of combat noise and con- fusion. But, for heaven's sake, there are other important key elements that make a movie both enjoyable and memora- ble. Things like plot, character development and conflict, spe- cial effects, scenery and act- ing all contribute to a movie's ability to connect with its au- dience. All of which, person- ally speaking, I found lacking in American Sniper. While seldom in agreement with Hollywood these days, they actually got it right with their so-called snub of Amer- ican Sniper at this year's Os- cars. All in all, it's this movie-go- er's opinion American Sniper is seriously lacking in cine- matic quality and is barely an average movie at best. Sorry Clint, this movie earns an un- usually paltry 4 stars out of 10. Dare I say, American Sniper misses the target. — Pete Stiglich, Cottonwood Salmon problem was dam operation Editor: On Saturday, Feb. 21, in letters to the editor, Mr. Boest stated: "Take that screwball that shut down the diversion dam in Red Bluff because Sacramento River salmon are too stupid to climb a fish ladder." The person that shut down the Red Bluff Diversion Dam may have been a screwball but the salmon were not too stu- pid to climb the fish ladder, at least not all of them. The main problem with the diversion dam was not with the adult salmon go- ing upstream to spawn how- ever, there was somewhat of a problem with the up- stream migration getting past the dam that most likely could have been alleviated. The main problem was the downstream migration of the young salmon and steelhead surviving after being thrust under the dam gates, being disoriented and becoming the blue plate special to thou- sands of squaw fish and hun- dreds of seagulls. The water below the dam would boil as squaw fish at- tacked them below the surface while seagulls dive bombed them from the air. The few that survived the dam had to run the gauntlet of other ob- stacles on their journey to the ocean. Had the U.S. Bureau Recla- mation operated the dam the way it was designed by rais- ing the gates during the non- irrigation season from the get-go, instead of waiting un- til the last minute and go into the survival mode, maybe the gates on dam would still be in place The salmon and steelhead in the Sacramento River at one time hosted more than a hundred river guides and a fleet of commercial fishing vessels as well as party boats for sport fishing off the coast. There is no doubt there is a bunch of screwballs running things and no doubt those salmon that couldn't find the fish ladder are not the only ones that are stupid. — Les Wolfe, Red Bluff Thumbs down on asking Congress for funding Editor: Most taxpayers are opposed to asking Congress for fund- ing for public schools or other welfare programs. Our na- tion has a huge debt from too many asking for special inter- est funds. Rural counties should re- ceive the same public school funding as urban schools. Un- fortunately taxpayers do not have the funds to travel to Washington or to Sacramento to oppose public employees from seeking deficit spend- ing funding. The half of cit- izens who pay more in taxes than received in services want our federal and state repre- sentatives to cut spending and taxes. — Joseph Neff, Corning Your letters Navigating the rough road from I-5 into town is still a challenge, but the Red Bluff roads seemed a little tame compared to some of the back country roads we experienced in Panama and Columbia. Joe Harrop Assemblyman James Gallagher 150Amber Grove Drive, Ste. 154 Chico, CA 95973 Phone: (530) 895-4217 Online: http://ad03.asmrc.org/ Senator Jim Nielsen 2634Forest Ave., Ste. 110 Chico, CA 95928 Phone: (530) 879-7424 Online: senator.nielsen@senate.ca.gov Governor Jerry Brown State Capital Building Sacramento, CA 95814 Phone: (916) 445-2841, fax: (916) 558-3160 Online: governor@governor.ca.gov U.S. Representative Doug LaMalfa 507Cannon House Office Building Washington D.C. 20515 Phone: (202) 225-3076 U.S. Senator Dianne Feinstein One Post St., Ste. 2450 San Francisco, CA 94104, Phone: (415) 393-0707, fax: (415) 393-0710 U.S. Senator Barbara Boxer 1700Montgomery St., San Francisco, CA 94111 Phone: (510) 286-8537, fax: (202) 224-0454 Your officials OPINION » redbluffdailynews.com Saturday, February 28, 2015 » MORE AT FACEBOOK.COM/RBDAILYNEWS AND TWITTER.COM/REDBLUFFNEWS A6