Issue link: https://www.epageflip.net/i/506985
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 Ihadticketstothe"ghost game," the baseball game played last Wednesday be- tween the Baltimore Orioles and the Chicago White Sox. Instead I watched it on tele- vision—bore witness, really— and it was as surreal as you'd think. No one was there to chase home run balls. The only cheering came from the dug- outs. All that was left was a game played by a team that tried to remind us that what's required in Baltimore is em- pathy and not judgment. This column will not re- solve the conflicts in Balti- more. This column can't even adequately put police killing unarmed black men into per- spective. A column can recite statistics about mass incar- ceration, quote the angry, or moralize about burning down pharmacies in neighborhoods where residents have lower life expectancies than in North Korea, but that means nothing, really. You already know what you think. I have been going to Ori- oles games since my dad took me to see them play the Yan- kees in 1979. Reggie Jackson struck out, Eddie Murray hit a home run, and Earl Weaver got ejected. I was hooked. Through the good and very long bad times, I've been loyal to my Orioles in ways that make my wife worry about my mental well being. In the 1980s, we'd walk to Memorial Stadium from my dad's rowhouse. Later, when my dad moved west, my un- cle and I would drive into Bal- timore from D.C. and park for free in the surrounding neigh- borhoods. We'd stow our valu- ables in the trunk and worry out loud about whether our car would be there after the game, but in all my trips to Oriole Park at Camden Yards the only crime I ever wit- nessed was committed by an umpire. And why would it be any different? The bad neighbor- hoods were clustered miles away in West Baltimore, far from the touristy Inner Har- bor where the Orioles play. We sat in seats surrounded by mostly white fans enjoying a game while a mostly black city experienced a very differ- ent life a few miles from us. How different? When I started taking my sons to Ori- oles games, I worried that we would get separated in the crowds. "If anything happens, just run towards a police of- ficer," I'd tell them. I have a black friend, the son of an FBI special agent, who was told growing up to appear docile and unthreatening in front of cops. We grew up in two very different Americas. That's why Orioles man- ager Buck Showalter refused to condemn the rioters when asked if he had advice for Bal- timore's youth. "You hear people try to weigh in on things that they really don't know anything about," he said. "I've never been black, OK? So I don't know, I can't put myself there. I've never faced the chal- lenges that they face, so I un- derstand the emotion, but I can't." In our rush to condemn the looting and to celebrate the mom who whupped her delin- quent son, we—and I'm talk- ing about all us Buck Showal- ters who haven't walked a day in a black man's shoes—skip right over listening. Listen to Adam Jones, the Orioles centerfielder who has built a few community cen- ters in Baltimore and is a fre- quent volunteer at charity events. In a few short words, he built a bridge from his ex- perience to those who watch him play from the stands. "I feel the pain of these kids. Let's not forget: I grew up on similar tracks as them. I understand 'em," he said be- fore the ghost game. He con- demned the rioting, he said, "but it's understandable, be- cause these kids are hurt. These kids have seen the pain in their parents' eyes, the pain in their grandparents' eyes over decades." This might be a good op- portunity to love our neigh- bors as we love ourselves. Someone smart said that once. It might have been Buck Showalter. When the Orioles return from curfew- imposed exile, I'll be there. But this time I'll be root- ing for Baltimore and not just the Orioles. We're all in this together, and it's time to start acting like it. JasonStanfordisaregular contributor to the Austin American-Statesman, a Democratic consultant and a Truman National Security Project partner. You can email him at stanford@ oppresearch.com and follow him on Twitter @ JasStanford. Jason Stanford We are all Baltimore Cartoonist's take There are several items and issues today: I must acknowl- edge the helpful analysis of a PG&E technician sent to try to resolve what I thought was, per- haps, a metering trick to charge me up to 15 kilo- watt hours (kwh) of electricity I was not, in fact, using daily. When I am out of town in the winter, noth- ing uses power but 2 refrigera- tors—water heater is off at the breaker box; central heater is off; none of the watering is on, etc. Yet, my meter readings showed that I had "used" over 30 kwh per day—for 2 fridges that together couldn't account for more than 8 kwh. While they have earned the moniker "Plunder, Gouge and Extort" for rates that go up far faster than inflation by my calculations, PG&E's friendly expert "Pat" tested my meter (accurate to within 0.4 per- cent) while turning breakers off and on. He saw that the circuit for my well was spinning while my tank was topped out at 70 psi (normal is 40 to 60 psi). So, my well pump was on nearly constantly, using about 1,000 watts an hour. Our pump guy from Alsco came out post haste, found parts that had corroded and malfunctioned producing what's called a "water logged" tank. That means there's insuffi- cient air to allow for proper cycling on and off. All is now in order—daily usage declined by about 15 kwh, for a likely reduction of $60-100 on my monthly bill. Thanks, PG&E and Alsco. I owe some recognition to our greatest President, Abra- ham Lincoln, assassinated 150 years ago. Republican Sen. Marco Rubio took to some opinion pages to prolifically praise Lincoln for his devotion to America's founding princi- ples. He created the Republican Party, whose current candi- dates and spokesmen would be well advised to expound and promote those principles. Republicans, Rubio says, should use "Lincoln's many statements that clearly run against the redistributionist ethic at the heart of modern liberalism…Lincoln wrote that 'Property is the fruit of la- bor—property is desirable—it is a positive good in the world. That some should be rich, shows that others may become rich, and hence is just encour- agement to industry and en- terprise. Let not him who is house- less pull down the house of another; but let him labor dil- igently and build one for him- self, thus by example assur- ing that his own shall be safe from violence when built.' "By demanding America live up to its calling as a nation where our rights come from God, and where government exists to protect those rights without prejudice, Lincoln took it upon his generation to test, as he put it, 'whether that nation, or any nation so con- ceived or so dedicated, can long endure.' Today in many respects, public opinion about the prin- ciples of free government is in a worse state than it was be- fore the Civil War. "The mainstream of politi- cal science today teaches that the idea of natural rights is nonsensical. Today's heresy about equality is that rights belong to groups, not to indi- viduals. Reforming our gov- ernment along the lines de- signed by the Founders may require a division of the house no less severe than that caused by Lincoln's 'house di- vided' speech…The American Revolution and the Civil War are never over. Every time the people forget what they mean, they have to be fought again." Regarding California's wa- ter woes, consider that, while our state's population has dou- bled, well-planned and nec- essary water storage infra- structure—commonly called dams—were derailed by envi- ronmental extremists who be- gan prevailing in Sacramento back during Jerry Brown's first terms as Governor. The $60-70 billion price for the foolish "high speed rail" would construct 30 to 40 dams like what is being prom- ised for the Sites and Tem- perance Flat reservoir. Those 2 alone could store over 2 million acre-feet of water— enough for 2 million house- holds. Temperance Flat, for example, is just an additional dam above an existing reser- voir, Millerton, in the San Joa- quin drainage. With space running out, I must make this factual cor- rection to a repeated mis- statement: Farmers don't use 80 percent of the water; they use 40 percent compared to 10 percent for residential use. Fully 50 percent—one half of all water stored and con- veyed—is dedicated to "envi- ronmental" purposes. Think of the flushing of streams for dubious purposes, releasing water to try to fine-tune the Delta for the benefit of bait fish known as smelt, and at- tempts to restore salmon to San Joaquin river habitats. That's all well and good when we have the water to spare—however, until these feel-good, unnecessary uses of water are curtailed, Brown et al shouldn't lecture and punish us for us over wa- ter restrictions. It is a further phony argument that agricul- ture only accounts for 2 per- cent of the state's gross do- mestic product. That figure ig- nores the economic impact of payrolls, consumer purchases, supplies, equipment spending and repair, etc. You can look up "No, Farm- ers Don't Use 80 Percent of California's Water; The sta- tistic is manufactured by en- vironmentalists to distract from the incredible damage their policies have caused," by Devin Nunes. Also, "Why Cal- ifornia's Drought Was Com- pletely Preventable," by Vic- tor Davis Hansen. Both are posted at my blog: donpolson. blogspot.com under the "Cali- fornia" label. Don Polson has called Red Bluff home since 1988. He can be reached by e-mail at donplsn@yahoo.com. The way I see it Meter reader, Lincoln, Republicans, water woes In our rush to condemn the looting and to celebrate the mom who whupped her delinquent son, we—and I'm talking about all us Buck Showalters who haven't walked a day in a black man's shoes—skip right over listening. StateandNational Assemblyman James Galla- gher, 150 Amber Grove Drive, Ste. 154, Chico 95973, 530 895- 4217, http://ad03.asmrc.org/ Senator Jim Nielsen, 2634 Forest 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 Of- fice Building, Washington D.C. 20515, 202 225-3076 U.S. Senator Dianne Fein- stein, One Post St., Ste. 2450, San Francisco 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 The $60-70 billion price for the foolish "high speed rail" would construct 30 to 40 dams like what is being promised for the Sites and Temperance Flat reservoir. Those 2 alone could store over 2 million acre-feet of water—enough for 2 million households. Don Polson OPINION » redbluffdailynews.com Tuesday, May 5, 2015 » MORE AT FACEBOOK.COM/RBDAILYNEWS AND TWITTER.COM/REDBLUFFNEWS A6