Issue link: https://www.epageflip.net/i/517770
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 LastSaturdayeveningthe wife and I were sitting on the back porch enjoying a box of wine and a jumbo bag of Chee- tos, as we are wont to do every Saturday evening. I was enjoying the nice weather we have been having, at least until the wife brought up a recent R. Minch "I say" column. R. M. was apparently asking his half dozen or so loyal readers to take pity on me, as it appeared to him that I was "struggling to fill my one thousand word column allot- ment by documenting my life through various age brackets." R. M., being the kind and be- nevolent person he is, went on to say that he had no personal objection if I chose to employ in my column the highly-re- spected three-dot mode, the rights to which he apparently inherited from legendary col- umnist Herb Caen. The wife, being a margin- ally huge R. M. fan, seemed — surprisingly — to believe ev- ery word he had written. She suggested that as imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, I would do well by not only em- ploying the Herb Caen three- dot mode, but by stealing the best from each of several Daily News columnists. She went on to suggest that, like R.M., I could even talk to our dogs and maybe get their opinions on important stuff happening in the community. ••• Because I have been mar- ried for almost 50 years, I do what I am told. So here goes: first, R. M. needs to get his facts straight. I am not strug- gling to fill my thousand-word allotment. I am struggling be- cause I have been given only a 650-word allotment. That pal- try word count does not allow me to sufficiently share with my readers all the wonder- ful things that I have accom- plished for myself, my fam- ily, my community and for that matter, all mankind, in 70 short years. ••• As for me talking with the dogs, that isn't happening for a couple different reasons. First, we ain't got no dogs. Second, if we did and they ac- tually talked to me, there ain't no way I would be wast- ing their and my talents writ- ing a 650-word column in this small town daily rag that only publishes three or four days a week. The dogs and I would be on Stupid Pet Tricks in a heartbeat. ••• I hear Daily News Colum- nist Faydra Rector is taking her talents southward. As a life coach, counselor and col- umnist, Faydra has impacted this community in a very pos- itive manner. Good luck, Fay- dra. You Matter. ••• I have been closely observ- ing the City Council, the Board of Supervisors, all local school boards, the Supreme Court, the cemetery commission, the Little League board of direc- tors and the mosquito abate- ment truck crew. As far as I am concerned, the only gov- erning body in the entire world doing really good work is the board of directors for the State Theatre for the Arts. ••• Time for my weekly movie review. Because I am old and do not sleep well, I woke up at 3 a.m. a couple of nights ago and watched a movie titled "The Ballad of Cable Hogue" on television. I and the then- pregnant wife first viewed this action-packed roman- tic western starring Jason Ro- bards when it debuted in 1970. In fact, we named our son af- ter the title character, Cable Hogue. Movie rating: three stars. Naming your son Cable: stupid. ••• Speaking of family, the wife and I are blessed with four wonderful grandchildren ages 10 and younger, so the past couple of weeks have been filled with open house visits to their respective schools. Be- cause they are related to me, they are all doing extraordi- narily well in school, as are their parents when it comes to building Spanish missions and paper mache volcanoes. ••• Congratulations to the Red Bluff High varsity baseball team for capturing its first Northern Section champion- ship since 1999. This year's team, with a record of 27-8, in- cludes several sophomores and juniors who were part of a lit- tle league team that in 2012 was one out away from a trip to Williamsport. Seems like next year could be a banner year as well. ••• This weeks quiz: What S.F. Giant first baseman hit a home run in his very first at bat in the big leagues. What pitcher did he hit it off and how many career no-hitters did that pitcher have in his career? N. Rick not eligible to play. ••• State Theatre coming at- tractions: May 28 Mercy High School graduation; May 29 eL- earning Academy graduation; May 30 Nitty Gritty Dirt Band. BillCorneliusisalifelong resident of Red Bluff, a retired Chief Probation Officer, a champion of the State Theatre and an exceptional athlete. He can be reached at bill. cornelius@sbcglobal.net. William tells Thesincerest form of flattery Cartoonist's take I grew up in a big family. We weren't the Osmonds or the Wal- tons and definitely not the Dug- gars, but five kids, two dogs and one of each flavor of parent con- stituted a respectable tribe back in the day. That's probably why I always looked forward to holidays as a youngster. As someone who ab- solutely hates the meteorologi- cal reality of summer, it's kind of ironic that most of my hap- piest memories derive from the days in July and August when my family would go to the sea- shore or the mountains and re- connect after a year of fraught cohabitation. My brothers always seemed less annoying when paddling in a rowboat on the lake, and my baby sister was more huggable with a ring of blue juice from the blueberries she'd picked and eaten staining her mouth. My mother, always lovely, became heartbreakingly beautiful when the sun would cause her olive skin to darken to caramel, con- trasting with the white glow of her smile. My dad became a giant freckle, interrupted by a man, and the wrinkles and worry lines that etched his face during the year disappeared in the salted air. And me, well, I had room to dream. You see, during the rest of the year, I was a type A personality, always obsess- ing about getting good grades and refusing to accept the fact that no matter how hard I stud- ied, Donna DiGiacomo would always beat me by at least five percentage points. The fact that I'm Facebook friends with her today and harbor very af- fectionate feelings is attribut- able to those summers at the shore or the mountains where I learned how, taking Olivia Newton John as my model, "to be mellow." Being part of a tribe marks you. I have friends who are only children, and they made it through to adulthood quite ad- mirably and often with a lot more dignity than we multiple products of the rhythm method. But I can tell you that having your DNA multiplied by five also multiplies the variation and intensity of shared memo- ries. For example, if I'd been an only child, I never would have learned that being thrown up on during a very bumpy roller coaster ride is actually fun, be- cause then you are treated to unlimited ice cream to make up for what Michael did to you. Memorial Day weekend is a time when we think back on all of the rich things that glitter through the mist of time, and give us glimpses of the people we used to be (and still are, in- side.) At a national level we use the time to honor, as we must in order to remain truly hum- ble and cognizant of this great gift of a country, those men and women who gave their lives to protect and preserve Amer- ica. But even there, the personal comes into play. I remember so many Memo- rial Day weekends lying across a bed in a rented Victorian with the heavy salt air coming through the window and mak- ing the lace curtains billow, barely, and watching an old war classic on the Million Dol- lar Movie, something like "The Sands of Iwo Jima," or "The Fighting Sullivans" or my very favorite because Cagney was in it, "The Fighting 69th." I'd be alone, because the other Flow- ers were fast asleep, having crashed after the sugar highs of custard and salt water taffy and fudge. Now, one of those sleeping Flowers sleeps with the an- gels, and he's with my caramel- colored mother and my freck- led pop. Another brother is far away, and the remaining sib- lings are older now than my parents were when we took those trips to the sea and the mountains. But we have a wide-eyed lit- tle boy who likes custard and salt water taffy and fudge who is just starting to make his own memories, one who picks his own berries, one who would gleefully paddle a boat if we let him near one, one who believes in Big Foot and who knows how to execute a perfect salute to a perfect, star-spangled flag. Sometimes, memories are liv- ing things. I hope yours continue to col- lect, and pulse with life as we open the door to summer. Christine Flowers is an attorney and a columnist for the Philadelphia Daily News, and can be reached at cflowers1961@ gmail.com. Christine Flowers Opening the door to summer and childhood memories Another view I don't know why every- one is so up in arms that al- leged newsman George Steph- anopoulos do- nated $75,000 to a private foun- dation co-owned and operated by a woman who hopes to be pres- ident. Georgie has been a partisan pit-chihuahua his entire career. The little guy cut his teeth managing "bimbo eruptions" when Bill Clinton was running for president. His job was to de- stroy and discredit anyone who could make his boss look bad. (Good thing for Monica Lewin- sky's sake that her scandal broke after Georgie left.) "The War Room," a documen- tary that included his behind- the-scenes spin-doctor work, helped bring him fame. He used that fame to do good things for the world, right? No, he used it to write a 1999 tell-all book that exposed em- barrassing insider details about the Clintons — in return for a $3 million advance. In 1996, the little guy was hired by ABC News as a polit- ical analyst and pundit. Fair enough. Political experience is helpful when explaining poli- tics to the public. But within three years, he be- came an "objective" reporter for the network. Now he is chief anchor and "leads the net- work's coverage on all major live events and breaking news around the world." He abandoned his hyper- partisan ways to become a thoughtful, objective newsman? Well, he gave it a shot. But while moderating a pres- idential debate with Mitt Rom- ney in 2012, he asked this ques- tion: "Gov. Romney, do you be- lieve that states have the right to ban contraception? Or is that trumped by a constitutional right to privacy?" It was a ridiculous question but Georgie pressed Romney for an answer. The exchange helped Democrats frame a false narrative — that Republicans want to ban contraception — that helped gin up lots of ag- grieved voters and get them to the polls. Some political analysts won- der if that's why Georgie asked it. Certainly, an objective news- man could never do such a thing, right? In 2009, Politico reported that Georgie participated in daily Democrat conference calls with Democrat political advis- ers Rahm Emanuel, Paul Begala and James Carville. Imagine if it was discovered that a Fox News anchor did likewise with Republican po- litical advisers. Our objective big-network journalists would surely report on that one. In any event, I don't know why there is such a hue and cry about a big-network news- man giving money to a founda- tion co-owned and operated by a lady vying to be president. My only complaint is that the little fellow didn't disclose the infor- mation on his own. We all know what team he and other "objective" big-net- work journalists are rooting for. According to an Indiana Uni- versity survey, "The American Journalist in the Digital Age," 80 percent of journalists who align with a party are Demo- crats. So one-sided have some of our journalists become, they don't have any idea that they are favoring one political side over the other. They go out of their way to dig up dirt on Republican pres- idential candidates — they had to dig long and hard to re- port that Romney allegedly hazed a fellow student in high school and once put his dog in a crate on the roof of his station wagon. They reported the "scan- dalous" Romney stories with straight faces, never realizing how silly they looked. The real tragedy is that there are many hardworking jour- nalists who report with integ- rity and honesty, and their rep- utations are hurt by people like Georgie. The days when news organi- zations went out of their way to separate hard reporting from the taint of politics is long over. That is why political hit men can transform themselves into "objective" news anchors in only a couple of years and be rewarded with multimillion- dollar contracts. That says more about the sorry state of American jour- nalism than it does about Geor- gie. Tom Purcell, author of "Misadventures of a 1970s Childhood" and "Comical Sense: A Lone Humorist Takes on a World Gone Nutty!" is a Pittsburgh Tribune-Review humor columnist. Send comments to Tom at Purcell@ caglecartoons.com. Journalism's sorry state Tom Purcell OPINION » redbluffdailynews.com Wednesday, May 27, 2015 » MORE AT FACEBOOK.COM/RBDAILYNEWS AND TWITTER.COM/REDBLUFFNEWS A6