Issue link: https://www.epageflip.net/i/58190
4A Daily News – Tuesday, March 13, 2012 Opinion The Los Molinos FFA is A-OK D NEWSAILY RED BLUFF TEHAMACOUNTY 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 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. Mission Statement We believe that a strong com- munity newspaper is essential to a strong community, creating citizens who are better informed and more involved. The Daily News will be the indispensible guide to life and living in Tehama County. We will be the premier provider of local news, information and advertising through our daily newspaper, online edition and other print and Internet vehi- cles. The Daily News will reflect and support the unique identities of Tehama County and its cities; record the history of its com- munities and their people and make a positive difference in the quality of life for the resi- dents and businesses of Tehama County. 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 To start off I'd like to clarify something from last week – the use of Mill Creek water rights to serve a downstream Napa devel- opment may ensure continuous flows to the Sacramento but might not serve the Chinook salmon or north state agricultural and munic- ipal water needs. The summer water is too warm and the Chinook only run during spring and fall, so there is no benefit to them by the release of water that could other- wise be used for north state agri- culture or water storage. I believe that water for development should not come at the expense of existing users and water right transfers should stay within counties of ori- gin. Now on to today's topic I'd like to recognize the Future Farmers of America (FFA) organization and activities at Los Molinos High School. FFA was founded by a group of young farmers back in 1928 to prepare future generations for the challenges of feeding a growing population. They taught us that agriculture is more than planting and harvesting-- it's a sci- ence, it's a business and it's an art. Today FFA continues to help the next generation rise up to meet those challenges by helping its members to develop their own unique talents and explore their interests in a broad range of career pathways including biologists, chemists, veterinarians, engineers and entrepreneurs. Los Molinos FFA was the 74th chapter to be charted in California. Today FFA is one of the largest youth organizations in the U.S. with over 520,000 members, and 7439 chapters. FFA is the largest of the career and technical student organizations in U.S. schools. It is dedicated to making a positive dif- ference in the lives of students by developing their potential for pre- mier leadership, personal growth and career success through agri- cultural education. With a student body numbering 173, Los Molinos High has 12 teachers, two of which comprise the agricultural department teach- ing courses in woodshop, metal fabrication, mechanics, animal sci- ence, plant science, floral design, agricultural biology and leader- ship. They do a great job consid- ering that the student API scores of 843 in Ag biology and 782 in Life Science are far greater than the state science average of 726. The FFA program at LM High has grown from 115 students in 2009 to 153 today, making an 88% FFA enrollment rate. The number of State FFA degrees achieved at LM high is the highest in the region despite the rela- tively small student body size. Los Molinos had eight this year, compared to 6 in Orland, 5 in Red Bluff, and 3 or less at West Valley, Trinity, Palo Cedro, Corning, and Chico. The students excel in a variety of spe- cialties including, swine, goats and sheep, poultry, landscape, agricultural mechanics, orchard pro- duction, dairy and beef cattle, equine, work experience, and mock problems. The statewide FFA is trying to raise program funds in association with the California Department of Motor Vehicles by sponsoring spe- cial California agriculture license plates. Launched in April of 2010 they need 7500 paid pledges by April 6, 2012 to secure $500,000 for agricultural education every year! Plates can be secured for any currently registered vehicle in Cal- ifornia including automobiles, trucks, trailers, motorcycles, and commercial vehicles. They can also be personalized if desired and qualify as a tax deductible charita- ble contribution. The Richard Mazzucchi Positive Point cost is only $50 for a numerical plate or $98 for a new or existing personalized one. If every FFA chapter in California sold 10% of their membership they will meet this goal, and with 27 pledges the Los Molinos chapter is leading the pack. But they still have a way to go, so please ask for your own FFA agricul- tural plates and support this effort to ensure the future of farmers in Los Molinos, Tehama County, California and America. For more information and to join in this effort you can go to www. /secure.cdfa.ca.gov/egov/calag- plate/. For more information on these distinguished young men and women and their advisors and activities please visit www. lmusd.net/ffa/FFA Web Page.htm. We can all be proud that the Los Molinos FFA is A-OK. Richard Mazzucchi can be reached at living-green@att.net. Your officials STATE ASSEMBLYMAN — Jim Nielsen (R) State Capitol Bldg., Room 6031 Sacramento, CA 95814 (916) 319-2002; Fax (916) 319-2102 STATE SENATOR — Doug LaMalfa (R) State Capitol Bldg., Room 3070 Sacramento, CA 95814 (916) 651-4004; Fax (916) 445-7750 GOVERNOR — Jerry Brown, 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), 2595 Cean- othus Ave., Ste. 182, Chico, CA 95973; 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; (510) 286-8537. Fax (202) 224- 0454. On 'Being Andrew Breitbart' and classlessness Commentary We (me, my column and I) take a short break from the "Big, green rat hole" series to pay tribute to the larger-than-life role that conserva- tive firebrand Andrew Breitbart played urging conservatives to join ideological and political battles – better late than never. His death from a heart attack at the all-too- early age of 43 was certainly a tragic loss to his wife and small children, whose ages put them at risk of not understanding why their daddy just went away. The recent untimely passing of one his age made an impression on us personally when we discovered that our 40 year old tax preparer had a very good (or bad) reason for failing to contact us for the new tax season: He took his usual vacation after last year's filing period in April to travel with his family to the Bahamas, where he sustained a fatal heart attack while snorkeling. No one among us can read the expiration date written in, as I've said many times, invisible ink on our birth certificate. Concepts of "civility" and "classlessness" are thrown around by liberals as thinly-veiled brick- bats at conservatives; it is telling that sympathies for the departed, even the simplest of traditional sen- timents contained in the letters RIP, should be beyond the grasp of Bre- itbart's partisan critics and foes. People who knew Andrew on a personal level, which privilege I cannot claim, universally remarked on his humanity, his warmth and embrace of life, and his fierce, even joyous, determination to throw himself into the face of the shibbo- leths of the left. You see, he emerged, not unlike myself, from the liberal milieu of Los Angeles, having internalized the accepted, conventional wisdom of the editorial pages of the LA Times as delivered truth. His close- ness to Hollywood and its extrem- ist denizens gave him an even greater urgency to push back against it all when he, again not unlike myself, saw the giant, ideo- logical fraud of leftist beliefs, and the revealing, intimidating tactics, subtle or not, used to keep doubters in line. He seized upon the urgency to abandon the defensive crouch, adopted by most conservatives who keep heads down to avoid conflict and unpleasant attention, and go right at liberals on their own turf, so to speak. On their shows, and using the same media they held quasi-ownership of, he forth- rightly challenged their assump- tions and religious-like beliefs. When like-minded souls joined his crusade, he developed the website Breitbart.com and its subsidiaries: Big Government, Big Journalism, Big Hollywood and Big Peace. They focused on challenging the leftist dominance of those institu- tions, in the sense that exposing the fallacious, deceptive and partisan nature of the major forces in our collective lives goes a long way to de-fang and de-power them. Regarding those knee-jerk (emphasis on jerk) reactions by the left to Breitbart's death, it can be stated that no passing of a promi- nent liberal has generated similar sentiments – Ted Kennedy's pass- ing didn't come close in terms of identifiable conservative figures heaping gleeful scorn. Just one example of many: Matt Yglesias' first response on Twitter was "Conventions around dead people are ridiculous. The world out- look is slightly improved with@AndrewBrietbart (sic) dead." National Review's Jim Geraghty said it perhaps best: "I had observed that there were not merely a handful of folks on the left sneering about how happy they were that Breitbart had suddenly died. There were gobs and gobs of them, all over Twitter and the web at large. If you need examples, Charlie Spiering collected plenty in 'Liberals celebrate death of Andrew Breitbart' on the morning of March 1 (Washing- tonExaminer.com)." They are remarkable in their vileness, their crass, mean-spirited, classlessness. For myself, I hold the name- calling, the vituperation and the derision directed at me over the years by numerous liberals on this page to be a source of pride – I have never once stooped to person- alizing my ideological barbs at local people but at their ideas. I've never advocated that opposing writers be censored or dropped; my critics have made countless such suggestions regarding my voice on the right. I also find it almost hilarious for a writer to bemoan the lack of class by conservatives, when that same writer happily participated in spreading falsehoods about Sarah Palin during the 2008 campaign. Never retracted; never regretted; no apology; no class. That's what being a liberal appar- ently means. Likewise the made-up racist Tea Party theme. Geraghty went on: Don Polson The way I see it "You can call it what- ever you like – the Daily-Kos-ification of the Left, perhaps – but a large chunk of the rank and file really don't believe that their opponents deserve anything resembling basic human dignity or respect. We're not real- ly people to them. A New York Times columnist referred to his critics on Twitter as 'right-wing lice' that couldn't be good, decent Americans who just have some different ideas about how to make the world a better place … It appears their (liberals') entire sense of self-worth is driven by demonizing those who disagree with them and celebrating their own political viewpoints as the car- dinal measurements of virtue and good character (while) lashing out at those of us who have the audac- ity to think differently than they. They really do project and accuse the opposition of all their worst traits: rage, closed-mindedness, cruelty, intolerance, bigotry, and an inability to empathize with others." Shoe … fits? Don Polson can be reached by e-mail at donplsn@yahoo.com.