Issue link: https://www.epageflip.net/i/530430
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 There was an interesting article in the pa- per the other day about a group of veterans who refused to celebrate Memorial Day on the currently appointed day, that is the last Monday in May; rather, they had their cele- bration on May 30, which they felt was more meaningful and faithful to the intent of the holiday. MemorialDaystemsfrom a holiday declared after the Civil War. It was called Dec- oration Day, to honor those who fell during the Civil War, on both sides. The date of May 30 was picked be- cause it was not the anniversary of any battle. It was an arbitrary date that would have a neutral mean- ing to either side in the war. On May 30, 1868 it was cele- brated for the first time when General James Garfield made a speech at Arlington National Cemetery, and 5,000 partic- ipants decorated the graves of the 20,000 Union and Con- federate soldiers buried at Ar- lington National Cemetery. Eventually each state adopted a Decoration Day, and the day morphed into Memorial Day after World War I. In 1971 Me- morial Day began being cele- brated on the last Monday of May. The date for Memorial Day has always been relatively ar- bitrary, and celebrating on the on the 30th May rather than the last Monday may not make much sense. If we truly are thankful for those who gave their lives for our safety we should be thankful every day. This is Father's Day week- end, and while I will take some time to consider father- hood in general, reminisce about my father, and think of my children and grandchil- dren, I have to admit that I find myself thinking of my own father most days of the year. My father has grown nearer to me than ever before, and as I have reached a point in life where I can look back on many things, I have come to appreciate him even more. I particularly focus on him while I am shaving, re- membering the care he took in teaching me what to do, in which order, and why. In those days, when I was ea- ger to begin the masculine rit- ual of daily shaving, I used a Shick injection blade, Gillette Foamy cream, and Old Spice aftershave...and a styptic pen- cil now and then. He wisely told me not to get too excited about the daily ritual of shav- ing...and he was right. My dad was raised in pov- erty on a "scratch out a liv- ing" farm in rural Kansas. He was the third of five sons and had three sisters. His fa- ther not only farmed, but also worked for the railroad part time to help make ends meet. My aunt told me that my fa- ther got into several fights at school because he wore hand- me-down clothes to school. None of his older broth- ers and sisters went to high school, and he had to work for two years before his father would let him start. He did well in high school, and his younger siblings were allowed to go from eighth grade right into high school. My dad was apparently a very good baseball player. I have a picture of him and his Shawnee County champion- ship team; the picture is un- dated, and his pre-high school players; all had bib overalls on; none looked well mani- cured and clean. He always said that if he could run he could have played professional base- ball. His position was catcher, which did not require much running. He told the story of an all star game he played in which featured an award for the most outstanding catcher in that game; he won it. The other catcher went on to play and coach for the New York Yankees. He was over 20 when he graduated from high school, and jobs were hard to find in 1931, but in 1933 he took ad- vantage of the Civilian Con- servation Corps and came to California to work on their projects. During that time in the CCC's he saw a lot of what he would call "low life" folks, folks who would shop lift, drink excessively, and steal from each other; he vowed never to sink to their level. He eventually lived with a sister and her family in San Francisco after the CCC's. He found a job in a Haight-Ash- bury creamery. After a short time he applied for a job with Golden State Ice Cream where he worked loading items in the large freezer and refriger- ated storage areas. Over time he advanced him- self at Golden State and later at Foremost Dairies which suc- ceeded it; he became plant foreman, and decided to wear a tie to work to mark the new separation between himself and his long time coworkers. He retired as production man- ager for Northern California, Nevada, and Southern Oregon. I remember one incident at Golden State that a fellow worker relayed to me. There was an elevator in the factory which had a rope pull to start and stop; it required a cer- tain amount of skill to make it stop at exactly floor level; one day a man pushing a hand- cart full of ice cream ingredi- ents misjudged the stop, and promptly dumped himself and the entire cart onto the fac- tory floor. According to the fellow worker, the first thing my father asked was whether or not the employee who fell was okay. (It seems the prior foreman would have yelled about the lost ingredients and cussed out the man who fell.) There is much more I can say about my father, and I will think of him each day, Fa- ther's Day or not, and hope I can follow his example for me. JoeHarropisaretired educator with more than 30 years of service to the North State. He can be reached at DrJoeHarrop@sbcglobal.net. Joe Harrop Memorial Day and Father's Day Cartoonist's take Regardingthe opinion on smoking Editor: About 70+ years ago I came into this world with asthma and chronic bronchi tis. This was the gift given to me by the woman that carried me in her womb for 9 months, but then gave me away, so I grew-up as an orphan. I started smoking when I was about 10 years old. I don't know why, it just seemed like a good idea at the time. But smoking has been beneficial to me. For instance, because of the asthma I was "4-Fed" by the U.S. Army, which was what kept me out of Vietnam and I have been forever grateful. I've had a few problems possi- bly related to smoking — i.e., on June 15, 2010 I had an ab- dominal aortic aneurysm and I died, literally. But three doc- tors brought me back to life and upon waking called me a miracle baby. I have smoked non-filter cig- arettes for 62+ years to date. While I do not believe smok- ing has caused me any great harm, in fact, I have no com- plaints on the subject. I don't believe smoking is any more or less stupid than drinking or the use of illegal drugs and I've never used ei- ther of those. But like so many other,truly stupid things we humans do to ourselves and our bodies, right or wrong, these are each individual's choice. I don't text and drive sim- ply because I do not use those devices ever, because I don't know how to. I could learn but I have, I hope, better things to do. I don't have or use the In- ternet, that device has caused as much harm as it has caused good. People are going to do what- ever turns them on, regard- less whether I or others agree or disagree with their choices. That's life. There are many disagree- able things done by all soci- ety, right or wrong, agree or not, accept people for the good they do and let all of us live our lives in whatever way we choose too and sometimes we should just keep those opin- ions to ourselves. — Eddie Smith, Red Bluff Masochist or sadist Editor: I am not a religious zealot, but I do recognize the Judeo- Christian Religion is responsi- ble for civilization (or what is left of it) as we know it today. I believe most, if not all, con- servatives would agree I'm not sure how many liberals would agree. Liberals really confuse me. I don't know if they are masoch- ist that get pleasure from hav- ing pain inflicted on them or if they are sadist that get plea- sure from inflicting pain on others. I say this because of what I see on national TV and read in our local Red Bluff Daily News,. The RBDN Opinion Page, letters to the editor, is where we individuals can vent our concerns, praise those we agree with and express our opinion. When I express my opin- ion on this page I quite often hit a nerve of some of our lo- cal liberals, with credentials from one of the liberal institu- tions of higher learning, that lambaste me with a lot of high velocity words that I have to look up in the dictionary. It is my opinion that Obama is either a colossal idiot and a failed president or he is a phe- nomenal genius and one of the most successful presidents ever. My questions are, did he re- ally try to make America bet- ter? We were the most re- spected country in the world not only by our allies but also by our adversaries as well, not so much anymore. Or, did he set out to finish the job of collapsing a capi- talist government by increas- ing the size of government, ex- panding welfare entitlements (that used to be charity) to in- clude illegal aliens? Didn't il- legal aliens used to be crimi- nals? Homosexual is now gay, transvestite is now trans- gender and are now consid- ered normal. Obama congrat- ulates Michael Sam for com- ing out as a gay NFL player, yet he gave Tim Tebow the si- lent treatment for being a Christian. Tim Tebow, in so many words, was told to keep his faith to himself but Cait- lyn Jenner is praised and cel- ebrated and appeared on the cover of Vanity Fair with a 22 page cover-story. Is it just me or is everything upside down? Thanks to Obama the na- tional debt will most likely be $20 trillion by the end of his second term. He has success- fully increased it more than all the other presidents com- bined. Economic growth is at a stand-still. Income for the private sec- tor middle class has declined, the only growth in the middle class is in the public sector, government jobs. Thanks to Obama and Hill- ary the Middle East is in tur- moil, Iran is closing in on the bomb, ISIS is growing stron- ger with our weapons and Pu- tin is expanding borders. It is my opinion that the Clintons and Obama are not stopping Iran from getting the bomb for one reason and one reason only, money. After millions of dollars went into the Clinton Foun- dation the sale of a uranium mine to the Russians was ap- proved, the Russians furnish uranium to Iran. Under Hillary Clinton, the State Department approved $165 billion worth of commer- cial arms sales to 20 nations whose governments had given millions to the Clinton Foun- dation. If Iran gets the bomb, there will be an unprecedented arms race in the Middle East and the Clintons, Obama and the established politicians in both parties in Washington D.C, that are letting it hap- pen will be raking in the cash. Who in hell is representing us? Yet the liberals still praise Obama and Hillary, are they masochists or sadists? — Les Wolfe, Red Bluff Sudden loss Editor: A neighbor of mine passed away (Thursday) morning. I am saddened by this beautiful family's sudden, unexpected loss. I ask, what is God's plan? — Vickie Linnet, Corning Many complete college without debt Editor: The average US college graduation debt is $26,000, or about one fourth of the four year cost of a public col- lege degree, including tuition, room and board, fees, books, and transportation. A former Corning family of 8 children, that we know, has had four of their eight chil- dren complete four year de- grees, without debt by being frugal, maximizing scholar- ships through earning good grades, and working multiple part time jobs. The dad died at age 45 but he and his surviving spouse taught their children the value of working, earning, and sav- ing. My wife and I hired the three boys, over time, for odd jobs and were always im- pressed with their work ethic. The fifth child starts college this fall and the remaining three will certainly follow. The four that have grad- uated to date, were home schooled and then transferred to a private Christian high school. One of the three boys, at age 19 graduated college in 3 years late May, as an ac- countant. After graduating high school at age 16. He will soon start his first post college full time job with an account- ing firm, after graduating late May. Summer jobs as farm la- borers paid for the boy's col- lege, a job seldom accepted by anglos. Six of my 11 siblings com- pleted college and two chose vocational programs, through self funding since age 13, dur- ing the 1950s and 1960s. It is good to see that it can still be done. — Joseph Neff, Corning Letters My father has grown nearer to me than ever before, and as I have reached a point in life where I can look back on many things, I have come to appreciate him even more. Joe Harrop OPINION » redbluffdailynews.com Saturday, June 20, 2015 » MORE AT FACEBOOK.COM/RBDAILYNEWS AND TWITTER.COM/REDBLUFFNEWS A6