Issue link: https://www.epageflip.net/i/597246
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 As a fortunate six-time California gubernato- rial debate moderator myself, I am basically riveted to all the Democrat and Republican debates taking place now to help prepare us voters for the 2016 election. Thedebatesarealways helpful in deciding the next best President of our great country. The most exciting ex- perience as a moderator was when I was priv- ileged to act as the moderator and referee in California's 2003 recall debate. Californians were in the process of properly removing Gray Davis from the Governor- ship. Five of the candidates got to join me on stage at Sacra- mento State University. They qualified to participate since they were well ahead in four difference polls that were be- ing monitored by the Califor- nia Broadcasters Association while I was president of that organization. Moderating that debate may have been the fastest and most enjoyable 90 minutes of my life. Almost immediately as the debate began Huffington Post founder, Arianna Huffing- ton, attempted to disembowel Arnold Schwarzenegger with many direct verbal attacks. It turned out to be what I call in- fotainment. Just before the debate be- gan, the Control Room Direc- tor Joe Berry, who is now my replacement as the President/ CEO of the CBA, guided me to greet each of the candidates in their holding areas so I might answer any questions they may have prior to starting the debate. I got to do that with four of the five finalists, but Arnold was not available be- cause he was still "in makeup." I kid you not. Political commentator and Washington Post columnist E. J. Dionne called it "California's Great Debate!" E. J. wrote soon after that "it was wonderful, an honest political moment." I have come to the conclu- sion that the October 28th CNBC Republican Debate was the opposite of that to say the least. That was because the 3 to 5 "changing moderators" were trying to upstage the ac- tual candidates themselves by asking many "gotcha" ques- tions. I think many of the ques- tions were actually meant to start a fight between the can- didates on stage, especially the ones ahead in the polls. I was very pleased when a small handful of the candi- dates suddenly turned their guns against those CNBC moderators. Several articu- lated real anger. The very first question set the gotcha tone; "In 30 sec- onds, what is your biggest weakness and what are you do- ing to address it?" I was hop- ing one of the candidates would answer something like; "My weakness is not walk- ing out of this debate. I can- not resist asking you right now if your mother and father are embarrassed because you ask such stupid questions on net- work television? I hope CNBC doesn't give you a raise any- time soon." The very articulate U. S. Sen- ator Marco Rubio of Florida di- rectly accused them of what he called a double standard. And, I thought U. S. Senator Ted Cruz of Texas was a close second winner. They both at- tacked CNBC because it was attacking the candidates themselves, rather than just managing the debate. I think the moderators were doing more than just asking ques- tions, especially when they be- gan debating individual candi- dates, which should never be their purview. Oh well, standby for the next one. Mytakeonthemovies Anyway, on to a more pleas- ant topic, my weekly movie re- view: I have mixed emotions after seeing "Steve Jobs," star- ring Michael Fassbender. Jobs' personality, including many of his dysfunction re- lationships and career chal- lenges, was superbly detailed by "West Wing" writer Aaron Sorkin. The movie had a little too much angst for me, but please help yourself. StanStathamserved1976-1994 in the California Assembly and was a television news anchor at KHSL-TV in Chico 1965-1975. He is past president of the California Broadcasters Association and can be reached at StanStatham@ gmail.com. My take Taking on the debate moderators I was very pleased when a small handful of the candidates suddenly turned their guns against those CNBC moderators. Several articulated real anger. When is a jail not a jail? Editor: When the State Assem- bly passes a bill (AB 109) that pushes tens of thousands of prison inmates downstream to City and County jails…a jail is no longer a jail, it's a prison. Prisons and jails are very dif- ferent; this difference is not one of size or location. The dif- ference has to do with the na- ture of the prisoners and the facilities needed for particu- lar types of prisoners. Webster says a jail is "a place under the jurisdiction of a local govern- ment (as a county) for the con- finement of persons await- ing trial or those convicted of minor crimes." On the other hand, a prison, according to Webster, is "an institution (as one under state jurisdiction) for confinement of persons convicted of serious crimes." "So what?" you may say. Here's the problem: jails are not set up with the facilities, programs, or personnel re- quired for the safe confine- ment and rehabilitation of se- rious offenders; prisons are. By placing serious felons in fa- cilities not set up to properly handle them, i.e. the Tehama County Jail, we place the jail staff and prisoners in jeopardy. We cannot expect to house large numbers of serious of- fenders in our jail for extended periods up to, and perhaps be- yond 10 years, without serious consequences. Beyond that problem, our jail is now completely full. It has a capacity to hold 191 male/female inmates. We cur- rently have 212 prisoners at last count. The jail can no lon- ger receive a serious offender without releasing a "less seri- ous" offender. Those released under these circumstances are criminals we would not ordi- narily see on our streets; now we will see them, and in in- creasing numbers until we do something about it. It is certain that what is done now, if anything IS done, will be a short-term solution. But to do nothing now because it isn't a perfect, long-term so- lution is to hide our heads in the sand. What to do? There is no permanent, perfect solution. We don't have the money to build a local prison, which is what we need for the problem we face. What we DO have is the funding, plans, and loca- tion to expand our current jail and provide about 75-80 more beds, improved kitchen, laun- dry, and medical facilities and more space for rehabilitative programs. What we DON'T seem to have is the collec- tive will between our City and County governments to act on this serious, present, danger- ous problem. Please call, visit, or write your Councilperson or Super- visor and tell them it's time to get on the same page and fig- ure out a way to work together. — Scott Camp, Red Bluff Thank you to Red Bluff PD Editor: I got a call from my 84-year- old mother on Saturday from an "unlisted number." She was calling from a neigh- bor's house because she had locked herself out of her home when she walked up to check the mail. She was very embar- rassed and a little bit scared since she was locked out and her barking best friend was locked in. While I had a key years ago, I knew that I currently did not, and could not get into her house. After I went and picked her up, I called a local locksmith to discover our lit- tle community does not have a lock smith available on Satur- days. Of course this just made mom more anxious. I called the non-emergency number for the police depart- ment and talked to a nice dis- patcher who told me she would talk to the sergeant and get back to me. Within 10 min- utes Officer Devers showed up at my house and followed us to mom's house. Within an- other 10 minutes and the use of a bolt cutter for the lock on the gate, the young officer had mom back safely in her home. She was not only thrilled to be back in, her buddy Slingshot was thrilled to be let out. Of course she thanked Of- ficer Devers and told him she felt stupid for having to call for help because she knew from reading the paper that the police were very busy and sometimes didn't even have enough time to answer all their calls. Officer Devers as- sured mom that there would always be enough time to help nice ladies like herself. She then asked if it was okay if she hugged him thank you, and of course Officer Devers assured her that was okay too. With a slightly red face, he accepted a quick hug from a very thank- ful lady. While I chose to shake his hand, I also offered my sincere thanks. I also want to thank the wonderful dispatcher and that unnamed sergeant for the way they handled my mom's embarrassing moment. I thank God that we live in a commu- nity and a country where kind acts such as this are the norm. While Officer Devers is an exceptionally nice young man, I choose to believe that there are many more like him work- ing our streets. — Randall Rupe, Red Bluff Your opinions Cartoonist's take Make no mistake about it: ev- ery civilian who does his job conscientiously and delivers an honest day's work for an honest day's pay deserves a pat on the back. But as Veterans Day ap- proaches, I would like to pause and elaborate on why our active and honorably discharged mil- itary personnel are so special. Grumbling and griping is only human, but very few civilian jobs offer anything like the kind of stress weighing on those who defend our country. Perhaps you are overwhelmed by workplace politics and won- der "Who can I trust?" Our ser- vice people know it's a life-or- death situation if their buddy is off his game a little when com- bat time arrives. And that for- eign fighter who is being trained — will he be an appreciative ally, or will he shoot the American in the back? Do you feel pressure to mea- sure up those who went before you — whether it is your grand- father (in a family-owned busi- ness) or "the award-winning guy who had this territory before you"? Our service people labor in the shadow of those who ex- hibited brilliant strategy and ex- treme courage, including those of whom it can be said "some gave all." Is your job boring? Do you get tired of the same stretches of road, the same assembly line, the same cubicle? Think of endur- ing ocean wave after ocean wave or sand dune after sand dune — with the break in the monot- ony coming, not from a favor- ite customer or a "casual Friday," but from a sudden burst of en- emy fire. Do you stress over "the one who got away" — the college bas- ketball prospect or the wealthy investor whom you just couldn't impress enough to get them to sign on the dotted line? Sure enough, those folks can go on to sign with your competitor. On the other hand, when someone in the Armed Forces lets an enemy get away, that combatant may go on to blow up a water purification plant or an orphanage. Do you chafe under your im- mediate supervisor's arbitrary meddling, or the nonsensical rules and regulations passed down through the corporate hi- erarchy? Our service people have to deal with the sometimes in- comprehensible decisions of the military chain of command — but they are also at the mercy of the purely political maneuver- ing of the commander-in-chief and Congress. Such maneuver- ing may incite either timidity or reckless invasions, just for the sake of votes. Do your sometimes feel that the public doesn't properly ap- preciate the product or service you offer? Our service people are generally "out of sight, out of mind" and are ripe targets for budget cutting. If you're a stay-at-home mom or dad, does it drive you crazy when your housekeeping efforts are instantly undone by spouse, kids or pets? Think about hav- ing your hard work destroyed by enemy bombs. Are you tired of being on the road for a week at a time or working a shift that has your children already asleep when you get home? Let's talk a little about the hardships of military families... By all means, take pride in your job and try to improve your working conditions. But let's keep it in perspective and never pass up an opportunity to say "Thank you" to a veteran, send cards and letters to active mili- tary personnel and maintain the sort of nation that our defenders can truly feel is worth defending. Danny Tyree welcomes email responses at tyreetyrades@aol. com and visits to his Facebook fan page Tyree's Tyrades. Danny Tyree Why our nation's veterans are special Stan Statham OPINION » redbluffdailynews.com Thursday, November 5, 2015 » MORE AT FACEBOOK.COM/RBDAILYNEWS AND TWITTER.COM/REDBLUFFNEWS A6