Issue link: https://www.epageflip.net/i/65436
4A Daily News – Saturday, May 12, 2012 Opinion DAILYNEWS 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 Maurice Sendak stared down kids' fears ever wrote or illustrated his first book, the British wit G.K. Chesterton explained why Sendak's approach to creating stories for children was so right, and why the parents who feared and fought Sendak's work were so wrong. "Fairy tales do not tell chil- dren that dragons exist," Chesterton wrote. "They already know that. Fairy tales tell children that dragons can be killed." Years before Maurice Sendak Fear is integral to our child- hoods. Everyone else is bigger, and much of each day is new. We fall, and bleed. There are ferocious dogs, and strange noises in the dark, and night- mares, and the contempt of other kids, and the screaming of angry adults. television and around the kitchen table, that a whole bunch of people in office build- ings in New York City died, that a family was shot by its daddy, that there's a war on. Children know they aren't entirely safe. That's why it's better to give a child a book full of fears to be faced than one that pretends there's nothing to be afraid of. And there is the news, on Sendak, who died Tuesday at 83, came along at a time when he was much needed. Childrens' tales, in books and on televi- sion, were becoming bland, silly things, about radiant boys and girls with jovial parents and trivial lives. From the Bobbsey Twins and Nancy Drew to Opie Taylor and Beaver Cleaver, cul- tural characters had no signifi- cant obstacles or fears, and lived no tales worth telling. In 1963, Sendak published "Where the Wild Things Are." It wasn't his first book, but it was the one that brought him prominence — and even that took some time. "Wild Things," is the translation of vilde chaya, the Yiddish expression Jewish kids would've had hurled at them when they weren't behav- ing, in the 1930s Brooklyn of Sendak's youth. boy. Max's rambunctious behavior gets him sent to his room without dinner by his mother, and his private lair then turns into a jungle full of horned and bearded creatures, with terrible teeth and terrible roars, far wilder than the ill- behaved Max. Or are they? Max conquers them by "star- The book is about just such a ing into all their yellow eyes without blinking once." He is named their king, and the Wild Rumpus begins. But soon enough, the boy is tired and lonely. He returns home to find his moth- er has lovingly placed his dinner in his room, still hot when he arrives. In the end, Max is a good kid, and in the end, Mom is a good mom, but neither is perfect. Max's need to escape, and then embrace her, and her need to punish, and then succor him, is a pattern any parent gets. Lane Filler reviews at first, low sales and a number of bans due to its unusually dark images and tone. But by 1965, school librarians saw it would not stay on the shelves. Children would check it out again and again, tit- illated and scared by the draw- ings and story, reassured by the ending. Now those kids are parents and grandparents themselves, and the book has sold 18 mil- The book garnered poor lion copies, spawned a movie and achieved the status of "accepted classic." But the feel- ings that made some adults revolt against "Wild Things" remain. Traditional chil- dren's stories, from the Brothers Grimm to Hans Christian Andersen to "Trea- sure Island," are terri- fying. They supply childish readers with real tales, where the stakes are high and because of that, the morals matter. Sendak was a bridge between those traditional, scary tales and the dystopian fic- tion kids love today. From the "Hunger Games" to the Uglies to Harry Potter, children read books soaked in death and vio- lence, and some parents quake. That's the lesson Sendak leaves us: Parents are easily ter- rified and must be treated quite gently, lest they scar. ___ Lane Filler is a member of the Newsday editorial board. His email address is lane.filler@newsday.com 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. Want to succeed in business? Call mom Commentary In the not-so-distant past, children looked mainly to their fathers for lessons on life out- side the home, on how to suc- ceed in business, politics and social organizations. Mom occu- pied the center of family life and guided us in personal relation- ships; the values she stressed _ empathy, kindness, fairness, col- laboration _ didn't seem to guide a dog-eat-dog world. But times change. Today, success in business often depends more on what our mothers traditionally taught us. In other words, male or female, many of the smartest, most cre- ative and innovative among us are becoming more feminine. The shift can be seen, in part, in the success of large compa- nies that devote a lot of effort to understanding their customers. Target and Ford are big exam- ples, but it can perhaps best be seen in the success of much- smaller concerns built from the ground up on shared values with their customers. In the last year we have trav- eled the world to study compa- nies that are profiting from what we call the feminine way of doing business. In London, we met the (male) founders of Whipcar, who connect private automobile owners with people who will pay to use a vehicle for a few hours or days. Whipcar screens and insures renters, but it's a business founded largely on trust. And it's growing like gangbusters. In Lima, Peru, we met chef Gaston Acurio, who built a restaurant empire in 12 coun- tries by adapting his mother's recipes and training workers in his own culinary school. Acu- rio's fame has stimulated an Andean food fad, aiding Peru- vian farmers and wholesalers. In Tokyo we found Mother- house, maker and retailer of high-end jute and leather hand- bags and perhaps the ultimate example of the feminine busi- ness model. Yamaguchi, wanted to find a way to permanently improve workers' lives in one of the world's poorest nations, Bangladesh. She discovered the country's jute industry and found a factory willing to work with her to combine her designs with its workforce, retrained to produce accessories that would be at home on the Ginza in Tokyo. With six shops in Japan and plans to expand, Mother- house provides good wages and a safe factory for the workers Yamaguchi calls her firm's "cre- ators." And her customers pay not just to help the poor but to get a bag they really want. Such cases of "doing well by doing good" would be merely inspiring one-off examples if the world's consumers weren't mov- ing in the same direction. The fact is, they are. As part of our research, we conducted a survey Motherhouse's founder, Eriko of 40,000 people selected to rep- resent mainstream consumers in 13 countries that repre- sent 75 percent of global gross domestic product. We found that people are weary of us- versus-them leadership and hungry for a kinder, gentler market- place. Guest View John When we asked people to list the quali- ties they most want in their leaders, men and women both favored traits they termed "feminine" over those they con- sidered "masculine," by better than 2 to 1. Among the highest- ranked were "communicative, reasonable, flexible and patient," which were all strongly associated with the feminine side of human nature. Several trends in trade and technology support the rising importance of such traits in the marketplace. Social media, for example, make it harder for companies to get away with bad behavior. We're not saying man- ufacturers don't make shoddy products and service providers don't abuse customers. However, consumers have a much easier time sorting those they want to do business with from those they don't. And businesses that have found a better way have a much easier time telling their stories to the world. And it may not be surprising that traditionally feminine val- Gerzema Michael D'Antonio ues have gained appreciation as men, those mostly in power, have been blamed for massive, global eco- nomic catastrophes. Seventy percent of those we surveyed said the world would be a better place if "men thought more like women." male traits in business. Assertiveness, competitiveness and even aggression not only still exist but still have value; in one way or another, these traits also mark the entrepreneurs we met. But where innovation, problem-solving and creativity are the marks of a growing busi- ness, we found men and women emphasizing the kinds of rela- tionship lessons our mothers taught us. None of this spells the end of what people consider classically If on this Mother's Day you count yourself a success, you might want to call home and thank your mother for teaching you empathy. If you are strug- gling to find your way in the new economic landscape, you might want to ask her for a little advice. John Gerzema and Michael D'Antonio, authors of "Spend Shift," are working on a book about feminine business models. They wrote this for the Los Angeles Times.