Issue link: https://www.epageflip.net/i/5739
6A – Daily News – Tuesday, January 5, 2010 A MediaNews Group newspaper Greg Stevens, Publisher gstevens@redbluffdailynews.com Chip Thompson, Editor editor@redbluffdailynews.com Editorial policy The Daily News opinion is expressed in the editorial. The opinions expressed in columns, letters and cartoons are those of the authors and artists. Letter policy The Daily News welcomes let- ters from its readers on timely topics of public interest. All let- ters must be signed and pro- vide the writer's home street address and home phone num- ber. Anonymous letters, open letters to others, pen names and petition-style letters will not be allowed. Letters should be typed and cannot exceed two double-spaced pages or 500 words. When several letters address the same issue, a cross section of those submit- ted will be considered for publi- cation. Letters will be edited. Letters are published at the discretion of the editor. 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How to reach us Main office: 527-2151 Classified: 527-2151 Circulation: 527-2151 News tips: 527-2153 Sports: 527-2153 Obituaries: 527-2151 Photo: 527-2153 On the Web www.redbluffdailynews.com Fax Newsroom: 527-9251 Classified: 527-5774 Retail Adv.: 527-5774 Legal Adv.: 527-5774 Business Office: 527-3719 Address 545 Diamond Ave. Red Bluff, CA 96080, or P.O. Box 220 Red Bluff, CA 96080 Opinion Back in 1987, when my son, Louie was brand new to this world I felt so unsure of myself as a mother that I would repeat over and over again, "He'll grow up in spite of me." Now, he is 22 years old and there has been a lot of living between then and now. Along the way there were particularly large events that created a mark so indelible that anything that happened around them were seen as before or after. In 1990, there was the divorce and moving out of the only house I've ever owned. I can easily place smaller events right around that and see how well I accepted change and how much I flailed against it. In those days I was much more likely to move very reluc- tantly through any kind of change, which stopped me from evaluating all of my options. I really didn't want to be doing anything and out of a fear that things couldn't work out I refused to actively make deci- sions. It was as if I was trying to avoid blame for the disasters I was sure were just ahead of me. But, in 2006 I was finally worn out enough and sought to figure out why I never felt peaceful. Anxiety in those days was a constant state of being for me and I was pretty bad about celebrating anything that hap- pened in my life. None of it less- ened my fear of just living so none of it was enough. Books were published and there were articles in major newspapers, new boyfriends, running in 5k races and plenty more. There was a lot of living that slipped through my fingers. I still felt empty and alone and I looked at others who appeared to be more peaceful and felt they had some secret that created a gulf between us. The event in 2006 that finally pushed me into seeking help was the discovery that Louie was an alcoholic and that all of my efforts that in those days I called 'help' weren't going to be enough. I had failed at the one thing in my life that I had thought I was really good at doing, or so I thought. I am telling this part of our history with Louie's permission and only as a measure of my own growth because as it turns out that day in August, 2006 was the worst and the best day of my life. I finally asked for help and stayed around long enough to figure out how to use what was offered. Back then, I never understood how much I kept to myself until I started reaching out toward others who were going through a similar life story. Even now, I can suddenly become aware of an old anxiety that I'm still wrestling with all by myself even though there are places that I have found that I can share and find comfort. Part of my growth has also been learning how to pray without begging and then actu- ally accepting the help that was provided. I was equally as bad about acceptance as I was at asking in the first place. I learned that talking about what works isn't the same as actually taking the steps. One is a life in theory and the other is actually living. This past holiday season I had the opportunity to hang out with Louie, who is now sober, and his girlfriend, Kathy and see that we have developed a new kind of normal. There are boundaries now that make it easier to share each other's lives and there is a new respect as well as a lot more humor in our lives. Best of all, I mostly live in a peaceful state of being these days and have tools and people I can turn to when I slip out of that state. I can recognize that having lower moments is a normal part of living as well. It's a quiet kind of indelible mark that I can place the events of life around and appre- ciate what has always been available to me. More adventure to follow. Ask Martha how to get to your dream and receive a free gift of Martha's new Big Adventure book, The 3 x 5 Game - www.marthasbigadventure.com /book. Email Martha at: Martha@marthasbigadventure. com. Mothers can change, too Commentary N EWS D AILY RED BLUFF TEHAMA COUNTY T H E V O I C E O F T E H A M A C O U N T Y S I N C E 1 8 8 5 Martha Randolph Carr STATE ASSEMBLYMAN — Jim Nielsen (R), State Capitol Bldg., Room 4164 P.O. Box 942849, Sacramento 94249; (916) 319-2002; Fax (916) 319- 2102 STATE SENATOR — Sam Aanestad (R), State Capitol Bldg., Room 2054, Sacramen- to, CA 95814. (916) 651-4004; Fax (916) 445-7750 GOVERNOR — Arnold Schwarzenegger (R), State Capitol Bldg., Sacramento, CA 95814; (916) 445-2841; Fax (916) 558-3160; E-mail: gover- nor@governor.ca.gov. U.S. REPRESENTATIVE — Wally Herger (R), 2635 Forest Ave. Ste. 100, Chico, CA 95928; 893-8363. U.S. SENATORS — Dianne Feinstein (D), One Post Street, Suite 2450, San Francisco, CA 94104; (415) 393-0707. Fax (415) 393-0710. Barbara Boxer (D), 1700 Montgomery St., Suite 240, San Francisco, CA 94111; (415) 403-0100. Fax (202) 224- 0454. Your officials Facts on Palin Editor: Responding to Ken Say's letter to the editor, Dec. 15. Mr. Say wrote: "Mr. Larry Gray's letter of Dec. 9, 'Opin- ion not fact', was itself loaded with more partisan opinion about Sarah Palin than fact." First off, Mr. Say, I never pre- tended not to be a partisan and every statement I made con- cerning Sarah Palin was accu- rate. She did support the TARP bailouts. You replied, "Consid- ering the widely held belief across the political spectrum that the financial system was teetering on the brink of col- lapse, it is understandable that Palin would support TARP bailouts while on the ticket." In your following paragraph you state, "The eventual misuse of the bailout money to prop up failing car companies was not what she supported." That's a little slick, don't you think? As to Sarah Palin's "pro- found and unusually devoted respect for the taxpayer's money." Just a short list gar- nered from various issues of the Washington Post: 1. The state jet. "I put it on eBay and sold it for a profit." It was put on eBay but failed to meet the minimum bid and was sold to a broker for $500,000 less than it cost. 2. Charged the state nearly $20,000 for per diem expenses for 312 days of staying in her own house in Wasilla. 3. "I took a voluntary pay cut and that didn't make my husband happy." Her salary went from $68,000 to $64,000. She then hired the first-ever City Administrator to do her job for $60,000 a year. Loss to city, $56,000. 4. "I cut earmarks." Wasilla, which had not previously received significant federal funds, hauled in $27,000,000 in earmarks while she was mayor. She requested federal funds as governor, $160,500,000 in earmarks for 2008 and $198,000,000 for 2009. 5. "Thanks but no thanks" for the taxpayer money for the bridge to nowhere. But she kept the $220,000,000 taxpayer dol- lars for her own state uses. Her reasons for quitting as governor? Her main reason was mounting expenses and hours of taxpayer time wasted on numerous ethics complaints pursuant to the ethics law that she championed as governor. In regard to this support, Mr. Say writes, "The ethics law she signed before becoming a candidate allowed anyone to file any charge, to which the state had an unlimited obliga- tion to consider, research and respond. I would suggest that ex-Gov. Palin used extremely poor judgement when she championed such a flawed law in the first place. "The ethics law I championed became their weapon of choice," she writes. It is ironic that it was this very law that she uses as one of her excuses for why she quit as governor. But the second excuse for abandoning her sworn oath? Palin said after deciding not to run for re-election as governor, she realized she did not want to finish out her term "merely for the sake of doing so. As I thought about this announce- ment that I would not seek re-election, I thought about how much fun other gov- ernors have as lame ducks. They maybe travel around their state, travel to other states, maybe take their overseas trade missions, I'm not going to put Alaskans through that. I promised effi- ciencies and effectiveness, that's not how I'm wired, I'm not wired to operate under the same old politics as usual." If Sarah Palin had to quit her job as Governor of Alaska because of the pressure put on her and her family, how on earth could she ever handle the pressures of the Presidency of the United States? A lot of peo- ple like her very much, espe- cially conservative areas such as Tehama County. Being liked and being elected as president are two very different things. Those are also the facts, sir. Larry Gray, Red Bluff Truth coming out on warming Editor: Finally, the truth is emerg- ing about the bogus claims of global warming. Politics has taken prece- dence over scientific studies that show there has in fact been no global ocean and land warming this past decade and no net heating this past centu- ry. As an engineer and scien- tist, I have been taught to include data that contradicts my expectations. Now we find that the world cannot trust climate scientists because they prevented peer review by scientists with evi- dence that contradicts the pol- itics of global warming. Without the myth and lib- eral press hype of global warming, there can be no car- bon tax increases. There can be no doubling of energy costs by using solar and wind power instead of plentiful US coal and natural gas. Five years ago, I was one of the 30,000 engineers and scientists who petitioned our legislators to review the sci- entific evidence that global warming is not a crisis but a political action. Liberal politicians have created a scandal of global reach. Since the EPA used this false data to mandate carbon dioxide controls, they should now go back and stop costly programs to curtail harmless carbon dioxide emissions. Joseph Neff, Corning Your Turn