Issue link: https://www.epageflip.net/i/506082
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@ redbluffdailynews.com Fax: 530-527-9251 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 Manyofusremembersittingwithour children watching Mr. Rogers, who started his show with the song, "It's a Beautiful Day in the Neighbor....Won't you be my neigh- bor?" Or we hum the slogan, "Like a good neighbor, State Farm is there." Thiscolumnisaboutneigh- bors and neighborliness. We spent our Easter in Waukesha, Wis- consin, and at- tended a Meth- odist church for Easter ser- vices. The min- ister preached about how the disciples must have reacted to the angel who told them the Risen Lord was going on be- fore them to Galilee. The min- ister indicated he thought they might have reacted like this, shrugging their shoulders and mumbling: "not Galilee again." It seems that in those days Galilee was a frontier area subject to political unrest and discontent and quite impov- erished. It was also a frontier area where neighbors relied on neighbors to accomplish a lot of the work that small fam- ilies could not accomplish alone, and to shelter them- selves from the unrest. I im- mediately thought of commu- nity barn raisings so familiar in our own past. On the frontier with scarce resources neighbors had to rely on neighbors to survive. The three Synoptic Gospels, Mark, Matthew, and Luke, in- dicate the majority of Jesus' ministry took place in that same Galilee, a place of great need, a place where neighbor- liness was understood, and a place many people would pre- fer not to go. So the Methodist minis- ter exuded the reluctance the disciples may have felt, even though they had been told Je- sus had risen from the dead. Why should they return to the hardscrabble environment of Galilee? What's the point? Hadn't they worked hard enough already? Couldn't they just bask in the radiance of the moment? When asked just who our neighbor was, Jesus had given the example of the Good Sa- maritan who stopped beside the road to aid a fallen person he did not know. The story has two key ingredients: the use of a Samaritan, a person not con- sidered clean, as an exemplar; and meeting the needs of the stranger. By Jesus' logic every- one is our potential neighbor and worthy of our love. Today, living in a global village, we are almost literally everyone's neighbor. Thinking about Galilee re- minded me of the story of Jo- nah. As you may recall, Jo- nah was reluctant to go the Nineveh, where the Lord had asked him to go. Nineveh was a place of "unbelievers" and full of "wickedness." Jo- nah just didn't want to get in- volved, and he wondered, what he would have to do next if those unbelievers believed what he told them. Just what was he getting himself into? He decided on task avoidance, ended up in the belly of a large fish, and landed in Nineveh anyway. He could not escape his calling. As citizens of a democracy we have a calling, as well. We do not necessarily need to "preach" to the wicked as Jonah was called to do and some local columnists at- tempt. We are asked to partic- ipate in our own government, to exchange ideas, garner con- sensus, and move on with do- ing the tasks assigned to us. We preach equality under the law, meaning everyone is our neighbor. As I have written in recent columns, we are not doing a very good job of meeting our responsibilities as democratic neighbors; voter registration is relatively low, and turnout as a percentage of those who could vote if they wanted to is abysmally low. In Califor- nia the rate of voter registra- tion is 74 percent; that would be a strong "C" if it were graded, not something to brag about, and far from making the Honor Roll. The percent- age of those who could vote but either don't bother or don't register is in the very low "F" range. Some contend we are more concerned about what is going on in that little device we hold in our hands than in the real world around us. Some point out we no longer have a sense of community, that things have changed, and we are more selfish than the previ- ous generation. In a real sense, nevertheless, we are called upon to be neighborly, to think beyond ourselves, and to par- ticipate in the common good. Our political climate some- times makes me think of the rough and tumble place Gali- lee must have been 2000 years ago. I just got an email from our respected Congressman alleg- ing to seek my input; it was a pseudo survey, slanted in a way that pitted the Congress against the President; there was minimal explanation of the one issue he is "seeking" our input on to help him make decisions. I snickered when I saw it. But I did respond tell- ing him I needed more infor- mation if he wanted my ad- vice, and letting him know his "survey" was poorly con- structed to accomplish what he claimed he was trying to do. There will be consequences for our lack of civic par- ticipation, our withdrawal from neighborliness, and the growth of various influences in our society. We could use a lot more barn raising and a lot less blaming and finger point- ing. We have so much more in common than the differ- ences the fear mongers and self-righteous portray. We are Galilee, and we have work to do together right here and now. We do not have to go to Nineveh. JoeHarropisaretired educator with more than 30 years of service to the North State. He can be reached at DrJoeHarrop@sbcglobal.net. Joe Harrop On neighbors and neighborliness Cartoonist's take TrinityAvenuespeeders Editor: How many accidents and in- juries does it take to have law enforcement start giving out tickets or have them start pa- trolling the area? I have lived on Trinity Av- enue since 1985. There have been 21 major accidents on this avenue alone. The speed limit on Trin- ity is 45 and with a double yel- low line the entire route. That is from Highway 99 to Paynes Creek Road. Trinity Avenue is only one and a quarter miles long. It is nothing to see speeders doing 80 mph plus. Also these people get on their cell phones. In 1987 I myself was hit by one of these speeders from be- hind. The Highway Patrol stated that the person was traveling at 85 mph plus. This totaled both vehicles. One good thing to date is that no one has been killed, but there has been some major injuries. One thing to note is this is a residential area and should be posted like other residential areas at 25 mph. It would be nice if law en- forcement would start patrol- ling and handing out some tickets to some of these so called clowns. The Highway Patrol does patrol Highway 99 at the Antelope School. — Robert Harvey, Red Bluff Don't pay the fire tax Editor: In the April 18 Daily News Joseph Neff acknowledged that California's $152/year "fire" tax on rural property owners is unlawful. Nevertheless, he en- couraged readers to pay it, cit- ing it's our only option. I disagree. The option of not paying the tax remains via- ble and in my view is the most principled and patriotic course. Paying the fire tax rein- forces the state's fraudulent, il- legal and unnecessary embez- zlement of money from rural citizens. The State survived its first 161 years without a fire tax. It would survive without one now. Fire tax revenue is predomi- nantly being allocated to CDF inspectors to ensure citizens maintain "defensible space" around their homes. My experience has been that these inspectors consist of men in their early 20s that come to my house once a year to ha- rass and fine me for not hav- ing mowed my acre before the rainy season's even ended. This is despite that I'm a re- sponsible, 49-year-old man that's been keeping his home fire-safe longer than these in- spectors have even been alive. The state likely contrived the fire tax to extort money from North State residents by ex- ploiting our inability to defend ourselves against the rich and powerful state government. It seems to assume we won't rec- ognize the unlawfulness of the tax and the waste and embez- zlement it enables. The state also seems to as- sume North State residents lack the conviction and capac- ity to organize, fund and ef- fectively oppose the fire tax. If we do ultimately acquiesce to its threats and start paying or continue paying the tax, we'll prove the state right. Paying the fire tax also re- inforces the state's establish- ing similar tax schemes. Next thing you know, it'll impose a flood tax, an earthquake tax, a drought tax, a tsunami tax, and a volcanic eruption tax and a mosquito tax on North State residents. Wait, we al- ready have a mosquito tax — maybe that's where all this nonsense started. Acquiescing to the state's threats of late fees and just paying the fire tax — surely by design — seems to be the eas- iest and safest way to avoid these fees. Similarly, paying the tax as a requirement for our appeals to be considered also seems reasonable. However, the state knows that once we've paid the money, our minds will adjust to it being gone. Then when it subsequently denies our ap- peals, we'll be less inclined to make a fuss. More importantly, the state then won't need to expend any further effort to collect — it'll already have our money. In the business world, this tactic is known as "bait and switch" — a form of fraud — and is against the law. A better strategy for protest- ing the fire tax is to not pay it in the first place. Better still would be to spend the money fighting the tax instead. Then let the state's ensuing threats, harassment and late fees gal- vanize our resolve to hold our ground and to continue not paying it. Not paying the fire tax would send an important, pow- erful and historic message to Sacramento. What's more, join- ing with others to repeal it would establish alliances that would enhance our influence on other issues as well. One such issue might be breaking the North State from California to become the State of Jefferson. Then, instead of enduring embezzlement and exploitation, we could enjoy balanced budgets, no debt, no state income tax and a reliable revenue stream from selling water to the south. For more on the fire tax, click http://firetaxprotest. org/?page_id=2. — Nathan Esplanade, Rancho Tehama On Ted Cruz Editor: I read Les Wolfe's letter (supporting Ted Cruz) with a combination of reactions. For one thing, Ted Cruz doesn't impress me so much as he scares me. His credentials as stated by Lester, or is it Leslie, are the things that scare me most about our judicial sys- tem. The lawyers and judges put forth all the right arguments and then persist in reaching the wrong conclusion. I did that "Leslie" thing just to point out that Les' continual reference to Mr. Robert Minch as "Bob" is really about fourth grade level. I don't know if Mr. Minch is called Bob by his friends or not, but as he writes under the name of Robert it would be my guess that is what he prefers to be called. Doing otherwise is simply juvenile. Mr. Wolfe purports to be just a "good ole boy" but he doesn't remind me much of the good ole boys I've known. It's obvi- ous he has no idea of the con- tributions the Minch fam- ily have made to this commu- nity. Lester should have done a tenth as much. One thing. He did cause me to read the poem. Gracefully or not we all, if we are lucky, get to that stage where the people we once knew are rap- idly disappearing; and it is a somewhat lonely and reflec- tive time. I might add that the only elitists I know are those people that feel it is their right to take all they can and to hell with the rest of us. You know, those people that think that corpora- tions have rights just like peo- ple do. Aha. I just thought of the word. And it isn't good ole boy; it's redneck. — Fred Boest, Red Bluff Letters to the editor I just got an email from our respected Congressman alleging to seek my input; it was a pseudo survey, slanted in a way that pitted the Congress against the President; there was minimal explanation of the one issue he is "seeking" our input on to help him make decisions. Joe Harrop State and National Assemblyman James Galla- gher, 150 Amber Grove Drive, Ste. 154, Chico 95973, 530 895-4217, http://ad03.asmrc.org/ Senator Jim Nielsen, 2634 For- est Ave., Ste. 110, Chico 95928, 530 879-7424, senator.nielsen@ senate.ca.gov Governor Jerry Brown, State Capital Building, Sacramento 95814, 916 445-2841, fax 916 558-3160, governor@governor. ca.gov U.S. Representative Doug La- Malfa, 507 Cannon House Office Building, Washington D.C. 20515, 202 225-3076 U.S. Senator Dianne Feinstein, One Post St., Ste. 2450, San Fran- cisco 94104, 415 393-0707, fax 415 393-0710 U.S. Senator Barbara Boxer, 1700 Montgomery St., San Fran- cisco 94111, 510 286-8537, fax 202 224-0454 Local Tehama County Supervisors, 527-4655 District 1, Steve Chamblin, Ext. 3015 District 2, Candy Carlson, Ext. 3014 District 3, Dennis Garton, Ext. 3017 District 4, Bob Williams, Ext. 3018 District 5, Burt Bundy, Ext. 3016 Red Bluff City Manager, Rich- ard Crabtree, 527-2605, Ext. 3061 Corning City Manager, John Brewer, 824-7033 Your officials OPINION » redbluffdailynews.com Saturday, May 2, 2015 » MORE AT FACEBOOK.COM/RBDAILYNEWS AND TWITTER.COM/REDBLUFFNEWS A4