Issue link: https://www.epageflip.net/i/526023
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 First,IwantyoutoknowthatIthink smoking is stupid. Second, I want you to know that I smoked for about 30 years. Icanactuallyremember why I started. I was sent by the U. S. Army to Fort Mon- mouth, New Jersey at the age of 17. I wanted to be more of an adult then, and maybe even have some sex appeal. As I reviewed all the sexy advertisements in the Life and Saturday Evening Post magazines, I even memorized L.S.M.F.T. I still remember that its advertising slogan stood for "Lucky Strike mean fine tobacco." What they forgot to tell you is that those and all other cigarettes are designed to put you six feet under. Unfortunately, of the things smoking did for me was my six-way open heart bypass surgery that was per- formed in 2010. At the time, I was doing more forest work at my home outside of Redding stacking brush. I felt a rather constant chest pain. I thought it was probably an acid reflux of some kind, so I simply laid on the ground, took some deep breaths and waited for the discomfort to go away. However, at my wife's urg- ing I visited our doctor who told me my heart rate was quite different than it had been a year or so before. To shorten this story, 3 days later I was being wheeled to surgery at Mercy General Hospital in Sacra- mento. My surgeon had al- ready told me that my years of smoking had given me my heart disease. I knew it gave me some bad breath, but I had finally learned that smoking really was stupid. It should have made me wonder how I ever got the company of a woman. When I started to date my wife al- most 15 years ago, she told me she would not have a re- lationship with a smoker. I have not smoked since. Were I still a member of the California legislature I would easily vote for a pro- posal to move the legal age from 18 to 21 before any- one would be allowed to buy some of those cancer sticks, as I now call them. Beautiful Hawaii has already passed similar legislation. Eighteen-year-olds are still able to vote, join the military, buy a gun, get a tattoo and get married, but why not stop them from killing themselves with tobacco too. If we were really bold, it would be an even better idea to stop our government from subsidizing the tobacco in- dustry. This is a difficult issue, dual ages for adulthood. Let us make 21 the age for the stuff that can hurt our health. Your thoughts on this matter will be greatly appre- ciated. The adulthood line is a very difficult one to draw. Think of the smoking ad- diction this way: Find some vegetation, kill it, let it dry into a dirty, decaying brown, then wrap it in a small piece of paper — once wood — light it and finally, drawn as much of that particle filled smoke into your very own lungs. Those are the organs de- signed to allow you to inject healthy and clear oxygen, you know. Is that stupid, or what? If you are smoking now, stop and be more appealing immediately. Mytakeonthemovies Time for this week's movie review. I don't recommend "Entourage," which is based on that recent hit HBO series. Viewer discretion is ad- vised. If you are in the mood for seeing many of Holly- wood's "beautiful bodies," they are there, along with lots of crude sex jokes. Forget this film of crap. StanStathamserved1976- 1994 in the California Assembly and was a television news anchor at KHSL-TV in Chico 1965- 1975. He is president of the California Broadcasters Association and can be reached at StanStatham@ gmail.com. My take Smoking is stupid, says ex-smoker I can actually remember why I started. I was sent by the U. S. Army to Fort Monmouth, New Jersey at the age of 17. I wanted to be more of an adult then, and maybe even have some sex appeal. Veterans are here to serve Editor: This is in response to Robert Minch's May 29 remarks on the Marine Corps League, Detach- ment 1140, Tehama/Red Bluff. We read his remarks con- cerning what it is we actually do and "(d)oes this suggest that we could get the league to do their drill in front of our real estate office to promote a new subdivision?" The short answer is yes. We also feel the questions are worthy of a brief but de- tailed and heart-felt response. These were good questions and we need to explain our actions to this community. We thank him for this opportunity. When an organization re- quests us to fire volleys and play taps, as the organizers of the Chico Gun Show did, it was to remember our American military personnel, who have, are currently and will sacrifice everything for all Americans, both conservative and liberal. We would more than likely be available to fire volleys and play taps in front of his real es- tate office to promote a new subdivision if that subdivi- sion would be remembered for and dedicated to the lives of our fallen comrades. Our com- rades gave their all in every clime and place throughout our United States History. Would Robert be willing to donate a subdivision towards veterans, including homeless veterans and veterans in need of services so that they might heal from the physical and psy- chological wounds and trauma they volunteered for us all in war that many Americans only hear about in some news sound bite? Even if he couldn't donate such a piece of property he could consider joining or sup- porting one of our local ser- vice organizations to see if he and any real estate associates of his would volunteer by ask- ing those war veterans, and their families, how they might get them back involved in this community? They need and want to be involved. That's part of the healing process of all veterans and their fami- lies. Twenty-two a day are still leaving us because of trauma. Their war never ends. And Robert and his associates can help. As far as having too many guns in America, is it guns that kill or people? If one stud- ies world history or our coun- try's history guns is what freed us from being ruled by an em- pire. For many of us, we believe that guns actually save lives in the long run. We truly hope that before Robert responds, he contacts one of the service organiza- tions in Tehama County, in- cluding the American Legion, Veterans of Foreign Wars, Am Vets, Disabled American Vet- erans or the Marine Corps League, Detachment 1140. If it can be arranged to fire volleys, or fix bayonets and sa- lute with rifles so the pigeons won't fly away, and play taps in front of his real estate office, we would be happy just to hear him say, "Thank you for your service. Welcome home. How can we help you now that you are back home with us?" But alas, if volleys are fired, those pigeons will return. We are here in Tehama County and all over these United States to stay. We veterans will serve in the face of scrutiny and blasphemy but especially for God and family. — Buddy Male, Red Bluff Proposed jail expansion vs. street repair Editor: Why is it that all sorts of grants, bills, monies, etc. are being looked after for a jail ex- pansion? Why is it that our city has a huge pension and salary bill and we the people are left with nothing? Why is it that no one is looking after grants, bills, monies for road repair? Every day I drive down Wal- nut, and every day I curse at the amount of potholes, divots, cracks and loose asphalt that is a hazard to drivers. Every street in this town hasn't seen the good end of a paver since the invention of the wheel. When were the streets last paved? I mean seriously paved, without a city truck slowing down to 10 miles an hour and throwing it from a moving ve- hicle? How sad is it that everything else takes priority over im- proving our roads, streets and bridges. It's all well and good for a new jail, but if you can't even drive to it, how is that a good thing? I was just reading, and please bear with me because I think law enforcement should be paid well, but I am bringing this up because it was in to- day's paper and therefore rel- evant; the new police chief's salary is $115,000 a year. Ex- cellent, I think that is a great thing, however you times that by all the other the city em- ployees' salaries and you see where I'm going with this. Where is there any room left in the budget to improve our town? Nowhere. The people who pay the hike in sales tax, the people who pay the hike in taxes in general for Tehama County should be livid at the fact that it has gone nowhere but into the pockets of the pensioners, the salaries of the government employees and earmarked for crap that isn't an emergent necessity. I would pay twice the taxes if I knew for sure, without a doubt, that it would go towards road improvement. Why aren't the people who drive these roads more up in arms about this? Stop jerk- ing around and get some much needed road relief in this town. — Erin Glebe, Red Bluff Your opinions Cartoonist's take The nation's 70 million fa- thers vary widely in age, eth- nicity, income, talents and par- enting style; but they all have one thing in common: they're not prepared for the random Father's Day thoughts I'm about to unleash: 1. A recent Reuters news item about parthenogenesis has me worried about the future of fatherhood. Scientists in Flor- ida reported a "virgin birth" in which critically endangered smalltooth sawfish females re- produced without mating. So, not only does nature abhor a vacuum, but apparently it isn't too wild about dirty socks and ESPN, either. 2. I guess the fact that my late father was a bookworm lulled me into a false sense of security. When he would growl the stereotypical "Stop that crying or I'll give you some- thing to cry about," I was thinking, "Oh, boy — maybe a hardcover of Steinbeck's 'Of Mice And Men'"; but it always wound up being just another butt whuppin'. 3. Remember the simpler, low-tech times when dad could grudgingly drop a quarter into the family "swear jar"? Now it's a vicious cycle of "What do you mean this %$#@ thing won't accept PayPal? & %$ D'oh! Here I go again!" 4. Nowadays it's not surpris- ing for a father to confess to his child, "Suzy honey, I hope you're old enough to process all this, but I've never really felt like a father. I feel more like a brother-in-law trapped in a father's body. So I'll need to crash on your beanbag chair and borrow all the money in your piggy bank until I get my next big gig." 5. Dads, be authority fig- ures and not your child's best friend. Because being the one friend who always needs arch supports, Ben-Gay, cholesterol pills and a large-print fake i.d. is even more troublesome than being Eddie Haskell. 6. I know the slang has been around for decades, but I hate hate hate uses of "daddy" for relationships other than the sweet bond between a father and children. When you get into "sugar daddy" territory, all I can imagine is some rov- ing Romeo telling a woman, "Let's go paint the town red and maybe produce some in- bred offspring." 7. You know the routine: dad avoids the kitchen all winter and suddenly a grill makes him a culinary wizard. ("Hey,a bag of charcoal! I think I'll try neu- rosurgery next!") 8. Did you ever think part of the trouble between Cain and Abel was squabbling over the severely limited supply of "World's Greatest Dad" mugs? 9. A father wears many hats — but sometimes the one that dispenses beer is the only one that gets noticed. 10. Necessity is definitely the mother of invention, but the fa- ther is still disputing the DNA tests. 11. How times have changed! Youngsters used to pretend to shave. Now fathers pretend to grow a beard! 12. Wasn't it Robert Frost who said, "Home is where, when you have to go there, they have to let you fix dad's pass- word — again"? 13. Dads who like "Star Trek" are really cool, whether their philosophy is more Klingon ("Indeed, it is a good day to nap") or Vulcan ("Live long and fight the inheritance tax when I croak.") 14. Finally, and most impor- tantly, don't wait 20 or 30 years to take to heart the things "My daddy always said." ("My daddy always said, 'Don't...stand...on... my...oxygen...tube.' Wish I knew then what I know now.") Danny Tyree welcomes email responses at tyreetyrades@aol. com and visits to his Facebook fan page Tyree's Tyrades. Danny Tyree Father's Day — a list of 14 random thoughts OPINION » redbluffdailynews.com Thursday, June 11, 2015 » MORE AT FACEBOOK.COM/RBDAILYNEWS AND TWITTER.COM/REDBLUFFNEWS A6