Issue link: https://www.epageflip.net/i/541130
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 AmericanstypicallycelebratetheFourth of July with family, friends, fireworks, food, and flags. But alas, some people are inca- pable of swinging with the holiday spirit. I'm referring, of course, to the Obama hat- ers. They never take a day off, and they're constantly off their meds. Theirlatestfreakoutoc- curred Fourth of July week- end, when the president voiced cheery remarks about In- dependence Day. Granted, Obama did laud the military ("we are so grateful for their service and for their sacri- fice"), he plucked the chords of patriotism ("we honor ev- eryone who continually strives to make this country a bet- ter, stronger, more inclusive, and more hopeful place"), and he praised the Founding Fa- thers ("this is the day when, 239 years ago, our founding patriots declared our indepen- dence, proclaiming that all of us are created equal, endowed by our Creator with certain unalienable rights including the rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness"). But the haters' heads exploded anyway. Why? Because he didn't say the word "God." The right-wing Washington Examiner announced, "Obama omits 'God' from Fourth of July address." An Examiner reader duly tweeted, "Obama omits 'God' from Fourth of July address Obama is a sec- ular Muslim with communist leaning." Elsewhere, the right- wing Infowars website an- nounced, "Obama leaves out 'God' from 4th of July weekly address." An Infowars reader duly tweeted, "Closet Mus- lim leaves out 'God' from 4th of July weekly address." Oth- ers duly re-tweeted and con- tributed their own scholarship, such as, "The godless little man — Is anyone surprised?" and "This proves he is a mus- lim" and "Devil only mentions God when damning him." I could go on. The right-wing Gateway Pundit blog opined, "Who the man is, and what he truly stands for, is begin- ning to seep out" and a blog- ger at BizPac Review lamented, "He may as well have said, 'Tell all your friends you love Obamacare'....I'm beginning to think he does things like this just to tick people off." But that's enough troll bilge for one day. Perhaps a few hundred ses- sions of anger management would help school these peo- ple in the benefits of rational thought. The word "Creator," which Obama referenced in his holiday address, is listed in the dictionary as a syn- onym for "God." And last time I checked, Obama concludes virtually every formal address, including the State of the Union, with variations of "may God bless the United States of America." In fact, Obama recently de- livered a formal address in Charleston, eulogizing nine victims of racist domes- tic terrorism, and if my ears were functioning correctly, I could've sworn that I heard him say the G-word. Like, for instance: "Giving all praise and honor to God....Blinded by hatred, (the terrorist) failed to com- prehend what Reverend Pinck- ney so well understood — the power of God's grace....Accord- ing to the Christian tradition, grace is not earned. Grace is not merited. It's not something we deserve. Rather, grace is the free and benevolent favor of God....May God continue to shed His Grace on the United States of America." Any anger-management candidate with a keyboard can search the transcript and dis- cover that Obama mentioned "God" 17 times. By the way, if the haters have truly convinced them- selves that Obama is God- lite, they might want to ex- tend their ire to Thomas Jef- ferson — because our Fourth of July author was notori- ously indifferent about reli- gion in general. For instance, we have this passage he wrote in 1782: "It does me no injury for my neighbor to say there are twenty Gods or no God. It neither picks my pocket or breaks my leg." And this let- ter he wrote in 1813: "History, I believe, furnishes no exam- ple of a priest-ridden people maintaining a free civil gov- ernment. This marks the low- est grade of ignorance..." And this letter in 1820: "Priests... dread the advance of science as witches do the approach of daylight." Heck, when he ran for president in 1800, his op- ponents warned that if he won, he would shutter all the churches. The Fourth of July is a sec- ular holiday and Jefferson's Declaration of Independence is a secular document. But if the haters prefer to stay fix- ated on Obama's G-word omis- sion, perhaps they should play his remarks backward and lis- ten carefully for coded praise of Allah. The task could take a while, but these people seem to have the time. DickPolmanisthenational political columnist at NewsWorks/WHYY in Philadelphia (newsworks. org/polman) and a "Writer in Residence" at the University of Philadelphia. Email him at dickpolman7@gmail.com. Dick Polman Another right-wing Obama freakout Cartoonist's take The gates to get into Amer- ica have always been wide but not wide open. The word "gate" implies, by defi- nition, that there is a fence or wall that separates our space, land or territory from that of another nation, whose in- habitants may approach and seek entrance. The words on the bronze plaque mounted in- side the lower level of the ped- estal of the Statue of Liberty, from "The New Colossus" by Emma Lazarus, encompass the dual themes of 1) welcoming immigrants and 2) enshrining freedom and liberty as the bea- cons of hope to those immi- grants. "Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, the wretched refuse of your teem- ing shore. Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me, I lift my lamp beside the golden door!" It is, after all, the Statue of Liberty, not the Statue of Immigration; the gift from France was not endowed with a connection to immigrants until Ms. Lazarus was con- vinced to write her sonnet to convey the sentiments of lib- erty to those approaching New York's harbor. Only a fool would not ac- knowledge that liberty can be corrupted into licentious- ness; and freedom, as I pointed out last week, can be misused to cause harm to others. Fools abound however and, through either subtlety or brashness, they implement and support immigration policies that en- courage the very things that any sober, thoughtful American would reject vociferously. Foolishness, even vicious- ness, rears up to castigate any- one having the courage to point out how an open gate to Amer- ica has become an open border over which masses of lawless, often malignant, people flood our land. America has been and remains welcoming to those aspiring to better their lives through industrious labor or in- genious invention, while adher- ing to the laws and principles enshrined from our Founding. With a world of nationalities and cultures to pick from, with a multitude of talents and capa- bilities to gather from, and with our inherent preference for those sharing our exceptional American values and ethos— why has our immigration sys- tem become diverted and per- verted from such goals? Just consider the hysteri- cal reactions, for instance, that emanated from the usual left- ist/progressive political and media sources over Ann Coult- er's book, "Adios, America: The Left's Plan to Turn Our Coun- try into a Third World Hell- hole." There followed shortly the grand parade of condem- nation over Donald Trump's honest, though brash and in- temperate, observations on the state of illegal immigration in America. The senseless and abomi- nable murder of Kate Steinle (whose name should be bet- ter known than Trayvon Mar- tin, Michael Brown or any other phony example of racist police/ white violence), is only the lat- est and most visible example of inexcusable violent crime in- flicted on our fellow Ameri- cans by illegal aliens. While the trend goes back at least as long as there have been liberal-led enclaves known as "sanctuary cities" (Center for Immigration Studies: over 200 cities, coun- ties and states), the epidemic of illegal predation upon other im- migrants and citizens has ex- ploded under Emperor Obama's unconstitutional immigra- tion lawlessness. Bill O'Reilly summed it thusly: "Kate Steinle is collateral damage of insane far-left politics." In "None dare say it—except Ann Coulter" (posted at donpol- son.blogspot.com, June 9), Phyl- lis Schlafly writes: "It's aptly ti- tled ('Adios, America!'); she makes the case that it is good- bye to the America we know and love if we don't stop dilut- ing our population with people who don't love America, don't respect our Constitution and laws, don't even speak our lan- guage and commit all sorts of unspeakable crimes…Ann Coul- ter gives hundreds of specific examples of major crimes com- mitted by illegal immigrants and, in particular, crimes against very young women and girls. "She shows the devious ways the media conceal the fact that these horrendous crimes are committed by illegals whom our government shouldn't have let into our country." Not only are nationalities covered up but also the depravity of these horrific crimes. I know from news stories covered on Cal Hunter's Morning Show, it is a thinly veiled theme that crimes involving Hispanic perpetra- tors often involve "Mexican na- tionals" and, almost as often, avoid being reported as such. From Redding to Red Bluff to Willows, Tehama County and far beyond, what's happening in American cities and across our land is, sadly, occurring in plain sight. I could provide gruesome crime details as illustration, but I refer you to "Mexican Elites Secretly Agree With Don- ald Trump," at TheDailyBeast. com, 6/29/15. "They're hat- ing on him now, but the fact is, when they're just among them- selves, Mexico's elites roundly agree with The Donald on Mex- ican immigrants." To summa- rize: Mexico's political, eco- nomic and cultural elites will, among themselves and in hushed tones, openly admit their condescension and disre- gard for those that "can't make it" in the rigged, unequal and anti-egalitarian economic mess of Mexico. They acknowledge that, with- out the $20+ billions of dollars annually sent from Mexicans in America, their economy would be as bad as Greece's. It is not unlike the flood of Cubans in 1980, known as the Mariel boat- lift, wherein Fidel Castro un- loaded 125,000 of what he con- sidered to be the losers of Cuba, including many thousands of criminals emptied from pris- ons. Many certainly made well of themselves as good Amer- icans; however, our nation should not have a de facto pol- icy of refusing to consider which people and nationalities are the best fit for a free, lawful and abundant United States of America. To be continued next week. 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 Dumping ground or shining hill By the way, if the haters have truly convinced themselves that Obama is God-lite, they might want to extend their ire to Thomas Jefferson — because our Fourth of July author was notoriously indifferent about religion in general. Don Polson STATE AND NATIONAL Assemblyman James Gallagher 2060Talbert Drive, Ste. 110 Chico 95928 530895-4217 http://ad03.asmrc.org/ Senator Jim Nielsen 2634Forest Ave., Ste. 110 Chico 95928 530879-7424 senator.nielsen@senate.ca.gov Governor Jerry Brown State Capital Building Sacramento 95814 916445-2841 fax 916558-3160 governor@governor.ca.gov U.S. Representative Doug LaMalfa 507Cannon House Office Bldg Washington D.C. 20515 202225-3076 U.S. Senator Dianne Feinstein One Post St., Ste. 2450 San Francisco 94104 415393-0707 fax 415393-0710 U.S. Senator Barbara Boxer 1700Montgomery St. San Francisco 94111 510286-8537 fax 202224-0454 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 Richard Crabtree 527-2605, Ext. 3061 Corning City Manager John Brewer 824-7033 Your officials OPINION » redbluffdailynews.com Tuesday, July 14, 2015 » MORE AT FACEBOOK.COM/RBDAILYNEWS AND TWITTER.COM/REDBLUFFNEWS A6