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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 Inadditiontoservingasthepreferredper- forming arts center in Tehama County, the State Theatre has become the venue of choice for high school reunion committees. Thisparticularlyrelates to the Friday night wine and cheese receptions that come with every re- union worth its salt. When you stop and think about it, meet- ing at the State makes perfect sense. The State Theatre for the most part served as the so- cial anchor for this commu- nity for several decades, but decidedly so from around 1950 through the '70s. Like myself, a good portion of this commu- nity remembers double fea- tures at the theater; first, sec- ond and last dates at the the- ater; Jujubes and Big Hunks; the iconic old phone booth; the drinking fountain; and—per- haps most of all—those beau- tiful murals with naked ladies riding those magnificent white horses. Folks like myself, who spent so many Saturday af- ternoons and Friday eve- nings at the State Theatre, are now ages 60 through 80. It is these folks who are cel- ebrating their 40th, 50th and 60th high school re- unions. It is these folks who joyfully gather in the lobby of the grand old State The- atre to catch up on old times, new times, good times and even bad times, with so many friends they have grown up and grown old with. A couple of weeks ago I played bartender to the class of 1965 as they gathered at the theater for their 50-year reunion. Even though these folks were a couple of grades behind me in school, it was nice to visit with old friends like Norm Hughart, Richard Rist and Joe Brown. Better yet, I got the distinct feeling that some of the ladies in that class, like Lynn Morrell, Linda Beem and Patty Williams, se- cretly still had a crush on me— like I imagine they did way back in 1963. Our next reunion mixer occurs this Friday evening, when the class of 1960 cele- brates its 55-year reunion at the historic State Theatre. My much older sister Judy is a member of this class. Because uncommonly good looks run in my family, she will un- doubtedly be the most attrac- tive lady in the theater on Fri- day night. The class of 1960 also in- cludes members of the unde- feated football team who thor- oughly enjoyed stuffing this 87-pound emaciated fresh- man into the nearest locker or trash can on an almost daily basis way back in 1959. While I am not vindictive and refuse to carry a grudge, I am a firm believer in karma and the ax- iom "what goes around comes around." It is only for these reasons that on Friday evening I will delight in breaking their canes, hiding their walkers and unplugging their breath- ing apparatuses at every op- portunity. •••• Because we enjoy receiv- ing complimentary food and drink, Billie and I, along with a good portion of this com- munity, attended the recent champagne and appetizer re- ception at the beautiful new Prescott Event Center at 905 Rio St. on the banks of the Sacramento River. Wow, what a magnificent venue it is. If the wife and I decide to have an- other child or two, we're going to hold their wedding recep- tion at the Prescott Ballroom for sure. •••• If you are a fan of the late, great Johnny Cash, you won't want to miss a special concert at the State Theatre at 7:30 p.m. Saturday. A classy and au- thentic production, James Gar- ner's Tribute to Johnny Cash celebrates the life and music of the legendary man in black. With strong conviction and stunning accuracy, Garner and his band perform Cash's music, and also incorporate historical accounts and per- sonal anecdotes about Ameri- ca's most beloved singing sto- ryteller. The show is a fun, toe-tapping trip down memory lane honoring Cash's life and the boom-chick-a-boom sound of his longtime band, the Ten- nessee Three. Tickets are available at the Tehama Country Visitor Cen- ter by calling 529-2787 or at the State Theatre box office on Saturday evening. Hope to see you at the State Theatre this Saturday night. BillCorneliusisalifelong resident of Red Bluff, a retired Chief Probation Officer, a champion of the State Theatre and an exceptional athlete. He can be reached at bill. cornelius@sbcglobal.net. William Tells Theateris preferred venue for reunions Cartoonist's take It's been awfully fun to watch the different branches of gov- ernment quiver like Aspen trees in a force 5 tor- nado arguing the pros and cons of the Trans Pa- cific Partnership (TPP) trade pact. The TPP is either an environmental travesty designed to set the union movement back 100 years, or the spine of the Pacific Rim's eco- nomic pushback against China. Depends on who you talk to. One or the other: nothing in be- tween. It's two cliffs and a gorge. Problem is, despite all the blatant blaring blather, no one knows exactly what's in the 30-chapter, 12-nation agree- ment, which has spent 10 years in gestation. The public being allowed to see the contents... no times. Zero. Zip. Nada. We're talking Ultra-Hyper-Super Se- cret. More classified than Tay- lor Swift's cell phone number. As transparent as diving for oil. In Arctic winter. At night. You know the drill. "Compre- hensive market access will elim- inate tariffs and promote global job creation." Blah. Blah. Blah. "Workers will experience in- creased affluence while consum- ers bask in the riches of less ex- pensive imports." The usual pie- in-the-sky promises from people whose connection to the real world mirrors that of a sultan's sequestered eunuch's knowledge of fantasy football. Though 500 corporate law- yers have worked on the nego- tiations, not even members of Congress have gotten a copy. No sense riling up the kiddies pre- maturely. But, in the spirit of the deal itself, utilizing a series of clandestine bribes and extor- tion, not excluding threats, we here at Durstco are able to ex- clusively reveal some of the cove- nant clauses a full month before they are released to the public. In an effort to decrease child labor abuses, Malaysia pledges to no longer treat anyone able to smoke cigarettes as an adult. From now on, they have to light them as well. Brunei promises to quit pre- tending to be a real country un- til their population exceeds that of Milwaukee. Canada doesn't have to do anything at all, except be their cuddly selves, as long as they stay out of the way of the big boys. Peru pledges to conceive of a new word for "currency manip- ulation" that can be utilized by member nations to placate local troublemakers. New Zealand will give it a rest with that whole damn lamb thing. The latest version of the TTP requires Vietnam to pay work- ers the minimum equivalent of $0.20 per hour- without bene- fits. $0.10 with. The U.S. will compile a list of their most radical environmen- talists who will be restricted from annoying other member nations with boring chants and slogans and emotional appeals based on... "workers' rights." In an attempt to combat over- fishing, Japan agrees to elimi- nate all drift nets that exceed a mile in length. Singapore will be forced to le- galize chewing gum and all hell will break loose. Mexico will be in charge of the resolution tribunals that ad- judicate intellectual property disputes. Based on the theory that an absent witness is an in- effective witness. Chile will be encouraged to change its name to something that inspires fewer jokes. Australia shall henceforth be required to stop living in the 1970s and forever refrain from using the word barbie to de- scribe grills. And Sheila is a woman's name, not a pronoun. Will Durst is an award- winning, nationally acclaimed columnist and comedian. Go to willdurst.com for info about his new one-man show "BoomeRaging: From LSD to OMG," and the documentary "3 Still Standing" at a theater near you. Will Durst TP'ing the Trans Pacific Partnership Another view Too many college-age kids are unable to care for their most ba- sic needs, which doesn't bode well for my future. Peter Gray, Ph.D., a research professor at Bos- ton College, writes in Psychol- ogy Today that in- creasing lack of resilience among today's college kids is causing educators all kinds of problems. "Students are increasingly seeking help for, and apparently having emotional crises over, problems of everyday life," he writes. He cites some worrisome ex- amples. At one major university, emergency calls to the coun- selling department more than doubled over the past five years. In one case, a female stu- dent felt traumatized because her roommate had called her a "bitch." In another case, two students "sought counselling because they had seen a mouse in their off-campus apartment" — after they panicked and called the police, who set a mousetrap for the startled students. Such needy students are forc- ing faculty to do more hand- holding, and to lower academic standards, so as to not chal- lenge the fragile little nitwits too much. Why? Because if professors do chal- lenge them, the whiners will go to online professor-rating sites and give the professors lousy reviews. Where did this unresilient, needy generation come from? Gray says it is rooted in the way children are being parented over the past few dec- ades and the decline in "chil- dren's opportunities to play, ex- plore, and pursue their own in- terests away from adults." These kids were raised in an era when everyone gets a tro- phy and a star on their fore- head — regardless of effort or results. They are accustomed to their "helicopter parents" solv- ing all of their problems. "We have raised a genera- tion of young people who have not been given the opportunity to learn how to solve their own problems," writes Gray. "They have not been given the oppor- tunity to get into trouble and find their own way out, to expe- rience failure and realize they can survive it, to be called bad names by others and learn how to respond without adult inter- vention." The result? "Young people, 18 years and older, going to college still una- ble or unwilling to take responsi- bility for themselves, still feeling that if a problem arises they need an adult to solve it," writes Gray. It's bad enough that so many of today's unresilient, needy, gritless kids are woefully un- prepared to support their own future, but what's worse is that they're not going to be able to support mine. Consider: Our government has racked up $18.2 trillion in debt. The Congressional Budget Office says that in a few years, entitlement costs are going to soar. We either cut the bejeezus out of government spending or ratchet taxes way up. Regardless, a reckoning is coming and it is going to be ugly. Today's college kids are likely to experience runaway inflation, higher taxes and, as a result, an anaemic economy that will make it even harder for young people to get jobs and pay their considerable bills. But if today's pampered little wusses aren't able to deal with a mouse in their off-campus apartment, how on God's Earth are they going to be able to deal with the pain that awaits them? See, after years of being taken — busting my hump as a self-employed writer for the pleasure of cutting big, fat checks to the IRS — I have plans to become a taker. I hope to retire in 15 years, pay zero taxes and sit back fat and happy, collecting Social Secu- rity and Medicare benefits. Which worries me. How will I rely on today's pampered college nitwits who panic and call the cops when a lousy mouse is in their off-cam- pus apartment? Tom Purcell, author of "Misadventures of a 1970s Childhood" and "Comical Sense: A Lone Humorist Takes on a World Gone Nutty!" is a Pittsburgh Tribune-Review humor columnist. Send comments to Tom at Tom@ TomPurcell.com. Pampered college nitwits Tom Purcell Will Durst Bill Cornelius StateandNational Assemblyman James Gallagher, 2060 Talbert Drive, Ste. 110, Chico 95928, 530 895-4217, http:// ad03.asmrc.org/ Senator Jim Nielsen, 2634 Forest Ave., Ste. 110, Chico 95928, 530 879-7424, senator.nielsen@sen- ate.ca.gov Governor Jerry Brown, State Capital Building, Sacramento 95814, 916 445-2841, fax 916 558-3160, governor@governor.ca.gov U.S. Representative Doug LaMalfa, 507 Cannon House Office Building, Washington D.C. 20515, 202 225-3076 U.S. Senator Dianne Feinstein, One Post St., Ste. 2450, San Francisco 94104, 415 393-0707, fax 415 393-0710 U.S. Senator Barbara Boxer, 1700 Montgomery St., San Francisco 94111, 510 286-8537, fax 202 224- 0454 Your officials OPINION » redbluffdailynews.com Wednesday, October 14, 2015 » MORE AT FACEBOOK.COM/RBDAILYNEWS AND TWITTER.COM/REDBLUFFNEWS A6