Issue link: https://www.epageflip.net/i/601575
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 WearrivedhomeonMon- day night after ten days away chasing two of our grandsons in Wisconsin; we were tired, but it was a happy tired. Grand- sons can do that to you. We were greeted by a more closely completed en- trance to South Main, with fewer bumps than when we left. We immediately noticed the leaves on the trees, some- thing we did not see much of in Wisconsin. While most of the trees were bare in Wisconsin, the lawns were green, evidencing more water than we have here in California; cars were dirt- ier than here, and most mo- torcyclists do not wear hel- mets. We saw lots of drivers on cell phones, and lots of nice, clean parks and playgrounds without graffiti in the town of Waukesha where we stayed. We learned the property tax rate in Wisconsin is astronom- ical compared to that in Cali- fornia. Traveling is always an ad- venture these days; airplanes have morphed into cattle trail- ers, and the airlines try to nickel and dime you every which way they can. A new gotcha for us was the option of paying extra for leg room. When we checked into Sac- ramento we had to have one of our online pre-printed board- ing passes changed; when I hit the auto fill button, the "auto fill" had only filled in the first initial of my last name. We were sure that TSA would not approve, and the person at the airline counter agreed, but it took her about forty min- utes to get a correctly printed boarding pass. At that point we had to dash to the gate, and were told we were the last passengers and they were waiting for us. They took our bags and said they would check them through to Phoe- nix and then on to Milwaukee. We were happy not to have to lug them around, but won- dered if the bags would show up (they did). When we landed in Phoe- nix we were offered a courtesy ride, possibly because we had begun to look haggard, to the next terminal where our con- necting flight would depart. This time we had enough time to collect our breath and relax before the flight. While we were in Wiscon- sin we found out that presi- dential hopeful Ben Carson learned the same lesson for- mer NBC news anchor Brian Williams did: sometimes it not good to reminisce out loud, particularly if the facts are a bit murky. Another hopeful, Marco Rubio, learned he had more in common with Hillary Clinton than he realized; both needed to pay more attention to the accounts they were us- ing. On the way home we were at the airport fairly early and things went more than smoothly; we noticed there was a long standby list, and we were not sure what might happen. About thirty minutes before boarding time, the gen- tleman behind the gate came up to us and asked us if we would mind being moved up to first class. We did not hes- itate. Of course when we got home we immediately had to go about setting our clocks because we had missed the change to Standard Time and there had been a power out- age. On Tuesday we went about changing batteries in various devices and found our- selves only one nine volt bat- tery short. The radios, the cars, the stove, microwave, the coffee maker, sprinkler timer, toaster oven, and thermostat all display the same time now. In the meantime, we are still recovering from time zone fa- tigue, operating on Central Standard Time. It was somewhat interest- ing to read the papers we had missed while gone. There was less adamancy and name call- ing in the letters to the edi- tor, and one columnist was less disrespectful than usual when referring to our Presi- dent. Maybe we are leaving an "us versus them" arena in pub- lic discourse, and entering an arena with more reasoned dis- cussions. The concern about traffic on Walnut Street has not been addressed by those in govern- ment, and continues to be an issue that will receive more press in the near future. Wal- nut has become a narrow ar- tery that may soon suffer from arteriosclerosis if not treated. While we were gone we missed one of our favorite events, The Art Walk. I was glad to see the featured quote from the Daily News by Bill Belcher: "We're also looking to show Red Bluff is not just a stop on the freeway. We are a lot more than that." We have traveled extensively since retirement seeing many of the places on our bucket list as well as grandchildren, but we always look forward to re- turning to Red Bluff; we are proud to live here in this com- munity. Efforts like that of the Arts Council help us all to be proud to live here. Even the pull of grandchildren has not made us consider moving. JoeHarropisaretired educator with more than 30 years of service to the North State. He can be reached at DrJoeHarrop@sbcglobal.net. Joe Harrop Backhomeagain in Red Bluff Bigrigsoutof residentialareas Editor: For the last 6 months or so my neighborhood has turned into a highway, literally. The view out my front window is a big rig truck, not exactly the ideal view we had in mind when we bought our house. In my neighborhood there are 3 big rig trucks that park on my street regularly. It is hard to see when you pull out from the street or your personal driveway be- cause the 18-wheeler blocks all visibility. I have seen many driv- ers almost get into a traffic col- lision because they have to pull their vehicle out so far to see around the big rig. I have been asked to move my vehicles and for my guests to move their vehicles so the truck driver can park their big rig there. Not to mention, they go house to house to figure out whose vehicle belongs to whom and tell them to park somewhere else, again, so they can park their big rig in that spot. We consider this behavior to be very rude and disrespectful. There is only so much parking available in a residential area and where there is empty parking ar- eas there are basketball hoops and children at play. For about 6 months, I have en- dured the first class seat to the noise of the air breaks and en- gine multiple times a day. Be- ing so close to my house I have to shut my front door to hear my television. Eighteen-wheelers don't smell very good either, the flashing lights late at night are disturbing and it's just a matter of time be- fore the street gets torn up. In my opinion, we need to change the big rig parking in res- idential areas. I have seen many truck drivers park outside of a residential area and I have found that very respectful to the entire neighborhood. — Starlene Baker, Red Bluff Simplequestion deservessimpleanswer Editor: Ever since Tea Party folks be- gan to aggressively challenge elected representatives at pub- lic Town Hall forums on the mer- its of Obamacare, there's been an obvious decline in the number of such publicly held events. Apparently, a lot of Washing- ton politicians discovered it's a whole lot easier doing telephone town halls that can be controlled and speaking before hand-picked friendly audiences than it is deal- ing face-to-face with a room full of disgruntled voters. This got me to wondering how many town hall forums Rep. LaMalfa has held in Shasta County since taking office? Since I couldn't recall ever hearing of any such scheduled events, it was decided to go directly to the con- gressman for the official answer. The question was posed in the following query recently sent to his office. "Please advise the dates and locations of all public town hall meetings you have conducted here in Shasta County since as- suming office. These events are ones that were arranged for and conducted solely by your office. I am not interested in your tele- phone conference calls or speak- ing engagements where arrange- ments are handled by others. Thank you." Here's a copy of Congress- man LaMalfa's reply. It meanders through a variety of matters, but fails to address the specific ques- tion posed. Read it and come to your own conclusion. "Thank you for contacting my office. I have received your e- mail requests regarding previous town halls and community meet- ings in Shasta County." "As you may know, I hosted over 20 community meetings, open houses and town halls this summer all throughout the dis- trict, as I do every year. I attend several hundred events annu- ally and hold public appearances throughout the district every month." "My office does not keep an ongoing record of every pub- lic meeting held in the district. It is office policy, and a request of Capitol Police, for Members of Congress to keep scheduling con- fidential for security reasons. If you would like to be notified of future public meeting in Shasta County, please send an e-mail re- quest through my website and we will be sure to add you to the list." Dare I say, a simple question deserves a simple answer. — Pete Stiglich, Cottonwood Trumpismaking Americawhat? Editor: It seems whenever presidential wannabe Donald Trump holds a microphone beneath his fluffy hairdo the ultra-boastful candi- date comes up with ambiguous solutions for complex problems that society struggles to deal with on a continual basis. The egotistical entrepre- neur's vague perspective is typi- cally blended with a mixed bag of cheesy insults directed towards his campaign adversaries, along with other men and women, re- gardless of their birthplace, sta- tion in life or political party pref- erence. The Donald's unbridled diatribe might be a bit more tol- erable if he would expel some of his hot air just before just be- fore he's scheduled to start spew- ing his tiresome braggadocio and sexist brickbats. More important is the scary possibility of an impulsive prima donna such as Trump having ac- cess to a push button that's de- signed to activate a nuclear weapon. — Rodina Turner, Los Molinos PoorHillary Editor: My heart bleeds for her being subjected to those nasty ques- tions by those terrible people. Setting in an air conditioned room, in a padded chair must have been absolutely horrible. For eleven hours. My my. I am glad she didn't have to wade through 2-3 feet of snow to attend, nor did she sit in an ice covered foxhole with bul- lets, rockets and shells bursting all around. How unbearable a thought. Whatever will these nasty peo- ple think of next? Perhaps her stance on planned parenthood. — Thad Blanchard, Sr., Gerber Your opinions Cartoonist's take Recently, I addressed the Red Bluff Elementary School Board on the issue of what I see as in- adequate and un- equal facilities at Vista School. What is present here is the majority of that speech with a few added comments. Last spring, my wife and I tried to determine which middle school our son would at- tend. We looked at Lassen View and Barrendos, both beautiful campuses with above average fa- cilities. As my son loves basket- ball, we were attracted to Bar- rendos and their new gym. In the end, the argument that won out was that Ethan wanted to go to Vista to be with his friends. We granted that request. Ethan has an amazing teacher who is highly supportive and a principal who cares about his well-being. My issue is not with the teaching staff or on site ad- ministration; it is with the over- all lack of adequate facilities. My other concern, after speaking, is the extent to which the superin- tendent and school board is actu- ally interested in fixing them. When I visited the campus a number of times this fall, I was confounded by what I saw: a field of dead grass turned to dirt on the south side of campus with students actually playing on it; cramped and overcrowded class- rooms; desks so small students hardly have enough space to work; a regularly used gym with no locker rooms; a somewhat us- able track with no available water source for students. What blew me away on another visit was that the locker rooms are now used as Special Educa- tion resource classrooms. One of the teachers told me that the nor- mal noise level of conversation was often intolerable because of the acoustics of the locker rooms. In addition, I noticed that ath- letes must change for games in small bathrooms adjacent to the gym, many times with water on the floor from the toilets, with no fault to the maintenance staff, ac- cording to the coach. A parent told me recently the story of a visiting soccer team from Corning whose coach re- fused to play on the soccer field this season because it was in such bad shape and he feared for his players' safety. I wonder what kind of message this sends our kids? I wonder what kind of pride they feel being handed conditions like this in a public school in Red Bluff. It's frustrating, to say the least. Inadequate curriculum resources are a major issue, as well. Ethan's teacher doesn't even have a math workbook for each student to use for homework; he has to photo copy everything in a small area disguised as a teacher work room. Speaking of copies, when I visited last spring, I recall noticing book- shelves and table tops lined with stacks of photocopies. Don't these teachers have books to teach with? I wondered. And wouldn't their time be better spent think- ing and planning what to teach instead of wasting time making copies? A few weeks ago, I pulled a large, unbound photocopied ver- sion of a story for language arts from Ethan's backpack; he had to number the pages on his own. Can the district not afford to pro- vide new, bound books that might actually excite students to read? Can the district expand the num- ber of reading choices students have access to in the library? In my opinion, this is all about lead- ership actually listening, setting priorities in the right place, and doing what's best for kids. I was once taught in credential school that perception is reality. In the case of Vista School, this is most definitely not the case — it looks nothing like a preparatory academy. All one has to do is pay a visit and form his own opinion, which I urge invested parents and community members to do. If you happen to agree, join me in this fight and speak to the board. This is only the beginning. Pat Gleason teaches at Red Bluff Union High School and can be reached at phgleaso@rbhsd.org. Pat Gleason Make your voices heard for Vista students Pat Gleason Joe Harrop OPINION » redbluffdailynews.com Saturday, November 14, 2015 » MORE AT FACEBOOK.COM/RBDAILYNEWS AND TWITTER.COM/REDBLUFFNEWS A4