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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 This isMother'sDayweek- end, and we pay tribute to the love, hard work, dedica- tion and lasting influences of the mothers in our lives. My mother grew up in a home with two immigrant Swedish parents who chose not to speak English at home so my mother could learn proper English in school. Her mother worked as a domestic servant and her father as rough finish carpen- ter; she lost a sister to early childhood diphtheria. It was an austere life, but my mother learned to work hard, to avoid waste, and treat everyone with respect. My mother in law grew up in a very rural setting of Idaho; she was the only girl in a family of six children, and she learned to do chores just like her five brothers, learning a work ethic and some self reliance on along the way. One of my favor- ite pictures of her is riding a horse, looking as confident as any of her brothers. Both mothers passed on lessons learned to their own children; many of those same lessons were passed down to grandchildren as well. However, it takes even more than a mother to raise children and set them off into the world. Some have even said it takes a village to raise a child. We were lucky that our children grew up in Red Bluff where there were lots of people who had positive influences on their lives. There were many who helped us mold our chil- dren. Carolyn Burkhart told our older son it was okay if he could read and he did not have to keep it a secret. Richard Bourne mod- eled the teacher behaviors of high standards, respect for individuals, and enthusiasm that my son uses in his own classroom 35 years later. Joe Pelanconi challenged him to do his best with no excuses. Ernie Sanford helped our younger son appreciate math, a subject he uses every day at work. His love of science was kindled by Bonnie Hassey and Bruce Ruffner. Cleo Gambetta made him work very hard to put pen to paper, a task particularly difficult for him at that time Cliff Penner instilled an in- terest in Economics, which became my son's major in college. John Wyness and Paul Trujillo made a life time swimmer out of him with encouragement and con- crete goals void of excessive praise. Our daughter had much encouragement from Cleo Gambetta who supported her efforts in the perform- ing arts; Helen Reinhardt gave her piano and voice les- sons that helped her get into a major university voice per- formance program; Penny Shultz and Phyllis Williams taught her the discipline of dance, also with encour- agement void of excessive praise. Each of the people I men- tioned made our children work for what they achieved; they did not sugar coat them with praise, tell them they were very special, that they could do anything they wanted, or that the world would revolve around them. They set concrete goals for each to achieve, rewarded progress, and encouraged growth. There have been many others in our community who helped with our chil- dren's character develop- ment as well, and I apologize for keeping the list so short. My point is that these people advocated hard work, dedi- cation to the tasks at hand, and progress. They did not condition their dedication to their stu- dents on those students' suc- cess, they pushed, pulled, and challenged all. There were no favorites in their classrooms. At least a dozen people in Red Bluff have been reading The Road to Character by David Brooks; I would highly recommend it. Brooks has a lot to say about changing parent- ing styles and how those changes may have impacted a shift in personal charac- ter traits which he says has created a new focus on self rather than participating in the improvement of the com- munity and the world. David Brooks states that many children today suf- fer from the consequences of what he calls "conditional love" which turns children into performers seeking ap- plause. This approach prolongs children's belief that the world revolves around them and makes it more difficult for them to internalize their own ability to assess their strengths and weaknesses. It makes children, who are al- ready fairly "me centered" even more so; some of us from the "older generation" might say it spoils them. Brooks points out such things as the prevalence of the "selfie" are a symptom of that change. He cites the constant use of smart phones, and social media rather than face to face contact, as examples of what he considers a decline in character, and causes a withdrawal from participa- tion in the community and the world. He also refers to studies that claim children are not required to behave as well as they may have been in the past. Whether or not Brooks' observations are right may be subject to more research and the passage of time, but there is no question in my mind that raising our chil- dren in Red Bluff was one of the best things we could have done for them. For us, we believe, it did take a village, and that vil- lage was Red Bluff. We are thankful for that. Happy Mother's Day. JoeHarropisaretired educator with more than 30 years of service to the North State. He can be reached at DrJoeHarrop@sbcglobal.net. Joe Harrop It took the village of Red Bluff Cartoonist's take TherealLincoln Editor: To be charitable to Don Pol- son, let's say at least he tries. But to be accurate, we must say Mr. Polson does a very poor job with facts. Consider his latest effort in his May 5 column. He said, "Lincoln created the Republi- can Party." Sorry Don, Honest Abe did not create the Republi- can Party and he'd be the first to tell you he didn't. The party was created by the actions of a large and var- ied group of people. The first group of would-be Republi- cans met in Ripon, WI in early 1854. Later that same year, other meetings were held in various parts of the coun- try, most notably on June 6 in Jackson, MI. These actions culminated in an organizing meeting of the party in Pittsburgh in 1856 and the first national conven- tion in Philadelphia in June of that year. John C. Fremont was the first Republican nominee for President. Lincoln, though a contender for the VP slot, lost to William Dayton of New Jer- sey. So, was Lincoln a leader in the party? Indeed. But any sug- gestion that he created the Re- publican Party is pure fiction. — David Janott, Red Bluff Tehama County officials Editor: My my, the paint is nice and white, too bad the county didn't use the money and time spent applying it to deliver- ing some much needed gravel on these road shoulders. That paint doesn't do squat for pro- tecting the little bit of blacktop left on these roads. Day by day traffic is erod- ing more and more surface be- cause the shoulders do not protect what is there. Offi- cials speak deficit but ignore one little item that might pos- sibly alleviate more of this de- pletion. That $75,000 taxpayer leach just hired would have made one tremendous difference in the road structure. I would gladly take my trac- tor and I'm certain others would gladly fix these shoul- ders if the county would just deliver the damn gravel to do it. I see that stock pile at the Corning base to do just that, all it requires is the hauling. The county seems averse, in my opinion, to doing some- thing constructive. Might use the jailbirds to load the trucks, if it costs too much to use that loader. Then the county could put the paint- ers delivering. Just a thought. — Thad Blanchard Sr., Gerber What becomes of river's water? Editor: Is all that water going down the Sacramento River being used? The river looks mighty full. Just wondering were all that water is going. The Trinity river has been running way above its usual banks. It's a churning muddy torrent heading for the ocean. What is the reason? — Linda Richards, Cottonwood Youth need mentors for vocational choices Editor: There are several Tehama County programs dedicated to showing middle and high school youth, some, but not most, of the various vocational and academic careers avail- able and the high school path to achieve career entrance. Since there are few manu- facturing or technology based industries in our county, I am concerned that students lack the mentors who have de- grees and careers in the STEM based fields of science, tech- nology, engineering or mathe- matics. This is typical of most small towns in the US. Small towns and cities have limited apprenticeship vocational pro- grams. Tehema County youth de- serve the opportunities to have local or computer-based men- tors in STEM fields. School boards, principals and school superintendents need to find a way to bring STEM career based knowledge to the K-12 students. Many of the STEM based technical societies, such as the Society of Automotive Engi- neers, and the American Soci- ety of Mechanical Engineers do have programs to help teach- ers bring science into the class- rooms. This letter is a plea for the local service clubs to bond with educators to bring STEM and vocational career knowl- edge into the classroom. Too many lack the skills de- manded by US industry. Our competition is global, not lo- cal. — Joseph Neff, Corning Death tax Editor: I never see any reference in your paper to the death tax. Its time the American peo- ple were made aware of the government's thievery of Americans' assets when they die. Only greedy, unprincipled, dishonest political thieves would think of stealing every- thing we Americans have at our death. The death tax law under our current President is 40 percent of everything we have at death. If there is not enough money to pay this tax, a farm, ranch, family business, home, sav- ings, family heirlooms, cars and anything you own will be seized and sold at auction to pay for illegal aliens' living costs, housing, food, medical expenses, education and trans- portation, as well as permits to work. Taking jobs away from our citizens. It will help the government to give more trillions of dollars to foreign countries that have been promised by our Presi- dent and his Secretary of State John Kerry. Then there is the sneaky law in Obamacare that makes it possible to take anything that is left to pay for any Medic- aid costs that the deceased re- ceived before death. In Karl Marx's Communist Manifesto, he wrote that there should be no inheritance. Apparently the United Na- tions, President Obama's spe- cial friends, are to get more trillions of taxpayers' dollars to give to any despot, tyran- nical leader, dictator or politi- cal criminal in other countries that they choose. The death tax should be im- mediately abolished perma- nently. Any politician appointed, elected or who has self-en- abled powers who does not act now to abolish this law is not a loyal American citizen living up to his or her oath of office. He or she should be removed from whatever position they now hold and not be allowed to hold any government posi- tion again. — Jean Clayton, Red Bluff Letters to the editor We were lucky that our children grew up in Red Bluff where there were lots of people who had positive influences on their lives. Sounding off A look at what readers are saying in comments on our website and on social media. Cannabis farming means rural jobs. We need sensible regulation, not counterproductive bans. Matthew Meyer: County approving payment plans for marijuana abatement God bless you. Thank you for your outstanding contributions to these beautiful babies. What a woman. Ali Jeanne More: On volunteer Dolly Morris, who makes blankets for newborn babies Joe Harrop OPINION » redbluffdailynews.com Saturday, May 9, 2015 » MORE AT FACEBOOK.COM/RBDAILYNEWS AND TWITTER.COM/REDBLUFFNEWS A6