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6A Daily News – Saturday, December 17, 2011 Opinion 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 Good riddance Editor: Good news. Barney Frank 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 won't seek a new term. He'll take his fourtune and hopefully go away. I'm sure he'll find something to do, maybe work out of his home. And to my sur- prise, Rod Blagojevich was convicted and sentenced to 14 years in prison. This really sur- prised me. A slippery character from Chicago to boot, I was sure he'd get a slap on the hand. Made my day. Then last Sunday on 60 Min- utes, more about CountryWide and two other big entities, fraudulent to the core and nobody has been prosocuted as yet. I'm so sick of it all, I didn't even watch it, I just saw some of it in passing the TV. Now Presi- dent Obama, again, blaming Wall Street for this mess we're in, never mentioning the Dodd/Frank fiasco, etc., they continue to get a free pass. I personally know a person that got a modification loan, their neighbor, who has a 15- year-old daughter dying from cancer can't get one. They could make it if they got a modifica- tion, but they don't qualify. They're trying to stay in their home until the daughter dies. Then another person I talked to personally about her modifica- tion loan, they submitted paper- work three times over three years and finally gave up. The day they signed a lease on another place, the loan agency called to tell them they had a new program they could try for. She told them where to go. My point is again, why is every- thing so sporadic and difficult? Wasn't the bail-out money suppose to be used to help peo- ple? My neighbor lost his home, a middle-class citizen, lost his job first, then his home. No help. Another example of bun- gled bureaucracy. This country has gotten so large, programs so difficult, nothing works. The government is micro-managing everything to the point of extinction. This president these days touts helping the middle-class, bull as usual. He's trying to get re-elected, we all know that. The middle-class won't recover for 20 years now with all the damage that has been done, older ones dying after los- ing so much, not hav- ing the years to recov- er. Then yesterday on a popular talk-show a woman working in the home mortgage field called in telling how the loan brokers, etc., raised people's credit scores to get their loans, gave anyone a loan, because it meant money in their personal pock- ets, whether the loan was good or not. It was like a circus, wheeling and dealing. Where is our president and congress on this? Out to lunch. I'm so sick of these crooks in our country. If you can't buy your way into whatever, you're out of luck. Not suppose to be like that in this so-called wonderful coun- try. So many good hard-work- ing, honest people here and these nitwits are running amok with no consequences. That's Your Turn the problem. Now Newt Gingrich running ahead in the GOP race, and Nancy Pelosi sounding like she has dirt on him. I hope she tries it. I think she will have met her match, not that I love him either, but I'd love to see her get her comeuppance. I hope I live long enough when the exposes come out about these years in this country with all the fraud, kick-backs and what this presi- dent has done with his crooked socialistic ideas. Will make for good reading especially when you've lived through it and suf- fered so many consequences with their stupidity. I love this country, but I have to separate the country from some our so-called leaders who have stolen as much as they can as long as they can. They can retire, live the good life on other people's losses, with a good conscience apparently. Shame on them. Bernice Cressy, Cottonwood 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), 2595 Cean- othus Ave., Ste. 182, Chico, CA 95973; 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. Waiting for Zach Commentary I took time while I was in Pennsylvania to read my last column on line. I thought I came across a little on the curmud- geon side; I seemed to be com- plaining about everything. Maybe I was, but there are lots of things I don't complain about; this column is the story of our recent trip, not a complaint. We just finished a three stop journey from Red Bluff, to Mil- waukee, then Minneapolis, and on to Philadelphia and back. Along the way we celebrated one grandson's third birthday, Thanksgiving, my birthday, our 46th anniversary, the birth of our fourth grandson, Zach, what would have been my mother-in- laws 100th birthday, and our younger son's 40th birthday. We also experienced near zero tem- peratures, rain, snow, winds, and balmy 60 degree days. Quite a whirlwind for three weeks on the road, and, of course, a chal- lenge for knowing what to pack. Fortunately all three of our chil- dren have washing machines. Our trip included a variety travel modes. We utilized Ride On to go to the Sacramento Air- port; flew through Denver to Milwaukee; took a local bus ser- vice from the Milwaukee airport to a car pool lot on the outskirts of Waukesha where our daugh- ter in law picked us up. We were not sure when baby Zach would arrive, so we had no firm plans for navigating the next leg of the trip to Minneapolis. Zach decided to out wait us, so we tried to get reservations on the Greyhound on the Internet; that didn't work, so we drove 20 miles to the bus station in down- town Milwaukee. Internet bus tickets were supposed to be $33, but purchasing them at the bus station cost twice as much; there was no explanation. We were afraid that by the time we drove back and tried to use the Inter- net, we would find the bus we wanted was booked solid. Of course our daughter in law began what seemed to be labor about the time we got back to Waukesha; so we quit packing; but then the doctor said Zach wasn't ready yet; and we had two unused bus tickets. On the day we decided to leave we were told we could use those same tickets on another bus for a "small" $15 transaction fee, cash of course. The bus trip did not start out well. We had gone about two blocks when the driver pulled over with mechanical problems. The local police saw the stopped bus, and soon had two patrol cars and a few foot patrol offi- cers surrounding the bus because they were concerned there was a passenger issue. After the police were reassured it was a mechanical problem and no terrorists were on board, we limped back to the bus terminal and transferred to a bus that had been parked outside over the frigid night. We immediately put our heavy coats and scarves back one, and got out our gloves. The problem with our original bus was that it had over- heated, according to the Grey- hound spokesperson who sort of apologized for the cold bus. About a half hour later the bus started to heat up, as did a cou- ple of passengers. Maybe those Milwaukee police knew something we did- n't. Two large women got into a physical fight; one sat immedi- ately in front of us, the other advanced down the aisle toward her from a front seat. After a couple of slaps and some rude comments, a large elderly woman told the combatants in very clear Anglo Saxon to stop. That elderly lady must have com- manded some respect because the fighting stopped. The driver, of course, kept his face forward and proceeded. The bus trip was quite an adventure; it remind- ed me of some third world trips we had taken. Hygiene did not seem a concern of many passengers, and many had quite a few posses- sions with them. While we were in Minneapolis, my daughter and son in law went to New York City for an opera event. We took care of our two grandsons, three years old and 16 months old. They were well behaved, but the weather wasn't. It snowed, and that meant dressing each of them in warm clothing, preheat- ing the car, and carefully dri- ving in the snow. We did okay, but had difficulty getting up the sloping driveway into the garage. I learned about the use of salt and sand. The night before we left it dropped to five degrees; we left Minneapolis in the mid teens and arrived to a balmy 61 degrees in Philadelphia. Upon landing we turned on our cell phones and retrieved the mes- sage that Zach had arrived while we were in the air, precisely on the due date his doctor had pre- dicted. We always learn something new when we travel. In Penn- sylvania we learned it took 200 Joe Harrop thrusts to pump up a flat tire. We left Pa. the afternoon after our son's surprise 40th birthday party. Ever the efficient traveler, we had printed out our boarding passes the night before our departure. There was a paper jam and one of the boarding pass- es contained only the lower half of my name on it. The young TSA agent looked at it and would not let me through security on it because it did not contain the airport name on it and she could not read what showed of my name. Of course she was glad to let my wife through even though she had mistakenly showed the boarding pass for the Denver leg of the trip. At least we had enough time to make the gate without running, thanks to the cursory pat down by the other inatten- tive TSA staff. This is the season when fam- ily is an even greater focus in our lives than normally; we were able to get a jump on the season with this trip to see all of our children and their fami- lies and celebrate significant family events. The house seemed quiet and empty when we got home; even though it was 2 a.m., or 5 a.m. Philadel- phia time, and we were tired, but we had a smile. Joe Harrop is a retired educator with more than 30 years of service to the North State. He can be reached at DrJoeHarrop@sbcglobal.net.