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I am did my best to be extra careful while writing today's opinion column. However, here's the rub. I think women have the right to do everything men have the right to do. Unbelievably, some people still don't. Itmightbetimeformales to evolve again. As we all know, women have traveled a remarkably long distance as they continue to approach be- ing equal to, and even bet- ter than, us men. At least, that is true here in America. As you must be aware, one of the female persuasion — Hill- ary — is in the running now and even has a decent chance to become the next President of the United States. What a country America is. In 1976, when I first ran to represent Tehama and seven other counties between Chico and the Oregon border, I first learned about "gender bias." I can still remember a male voter telling me that I already had his vote because he would never personally vote for a woman for such a demanding and complicated job as being a member of California's leg- islature. I was looking for votes at the time, so I did not do what I should have done then. I should have told him to get a better opinion from his wife. I have always been ashamed I did not, since women have pretty much been discrimi- nated against and put in sec- ond place forever. My take is that we are al- ready in overtime to correct that unfairness. August 26, 1920 was when Congress adopted our con- stitution's 19th amendment, which gave women the right to vote. Predictably, it took Con- gress even more time than they thought to gather the votes that would allow women to have that equal say at our ballot box. America's Secretary of Defense Ashton Carter de- clared recently that all com- bat positions in our military services will now be open to women. Women can now be placed in as much danger as men. Please give me your thoughts on this controversial policy. Women have been voting for almost a century. As a result of the Obama administration women can now even become part of "Special Operations" in our Navy as a Navy Seal or even join Special Ops in our U. S. Army as a Ranger. The head of the Marines, Commandant Robert Neller, does not agree with me on this new policy. In his defense, Neller said it was "personally embarrass- ing to even talk about women in combat, since they have al- ready died in a few of Ameri- ca's war zones." I e-mailed my daughter-in- law Alexis Taber to get her take on this and here is but a small portion of what she e- mailed back to me: "As for me personally, I say 'it is a deci- sion long bloody overdue.' If chicks want to put boots on the ground in this role I say 'go on.' We don't need a high profile operation blown by any set of chromosomes." Take that opposition. My son, Col. Devin Sta- tham, obviously loves a strong and intelligent woman. I think my son Devin made an excel- lent decision when decided to marry Alexis. Mytakeonthemovies On to this week's movie re- view: I would not recommend that you see "London Has Fallen," unless you could toler- ate watching most of London's landmarks destroyed. Thank goodness actor Morgan Freeman was play- ing America's Vice President. I properly concluded when I saw him in that role, that this movie would probably end on a positive note. Please make your own movie decision on this one. 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. StanStatham My take on women in combat I can still remember a male voter telling me that I already had his vote because he would never personally vote for a woman... Trump is evidence of devolution Editor: I've had my doubts about the theory of evolution in the past. But after watching some of the Donald's antics at his ral- lies and his performances at debates; I am thoroughly con- vinced that we not only evolved but we are now rapidly devolv- ing. The appeal of this self-cen- tered blowhard just blows my mind. Trump is rich there is no de- nying that. But how did he get this vast fortune? He inherited it. Do you think your circum- stances would be a bit rosier to- day if someone had given you 40,000,000 bucks back in the '60s? He could have invested a chunk of it in just about any- thing and wound up a trillion- aire today. Trump is no Ross Perot who made his fortune himself with- out any help from daddy. Pe- rot also did it without going through even one bankruptcy. Of course Trump escaped any personal hardships from his bankruptcies, however it was a very different story with his in- vestors. By whatever means any- one got his or her wealth, to as- sume you would somehow bene- fit from another's fortune, espe- cially if he had never heard or laid eyes on you, is ludicrous. What are Mr. Trump's main goals for America? A wall that we can't afford and don't need, deporting multiple millions of refugees, which would drain our finances even farther, and make it harder if not down right impossible to immigrate to this country. In other words he wants this country to be more like the So- viet Union was under Stalin. Now, will the real purpose of the wall be to keep them out or us in? The only candidate with a real doable plan to improve the lives of the majority in this country is Bernie Sanders. His proposals worked well for Eu- rope and some have worked very well for us in the past. An education based on IQ and will- ingness to study hard instead of your parent's income level would make our highly edu- cated workers much more com- petitive. Do you really want the hand of an ignorant blowhard who can't even spell liar anywhere near the button that launches a nuclear war? I know most peo- ple find it difficult to spell cer- tain words from time to time. But I have never seen anyone look so proud after misspelling a simple four letter word so hor- ribly in public. — Orval Strong, Gerber FDR's policies are a good example Editor: I have been trying to put this into words for quite some time now. It's important in this cur- rent election year because I feel we are at a political crossroad and we absolutely must get this one right. In order to pull us out of the great depression FDR got many, what would be considered so- cialist, bills passed through congress. The one being at- tacked today is the Social Secu- rity Act of 1933. The United States of America came out of the second World War the most powerful indus- trial nation the world has ever known. We had sent our men to fight around the world and our women went to work in the fac- tories to build the armament necessary to win that great con- flict. At that time our unemploy- ment number was essentially zero. If you wanted a job, you had a job. We had all these young men coming home from the war and they wanted one thing; to get married and have a home and a family. FDR rec- ognized that and he also real- ized that this would be a ma- jor problem economically be- cause there was this massive labor force with no jobs to go to work in. I think FDR took a lesson from Henry Ford. As much as Ford hated collective bargain- ing he recognized that he had pretty much filled the mar- ket for his automobiles and he needed to create a new mar- ket if he was going to grow his business. The story I heard was he relented to the UAW, not be- cause his business philoso- phy had changed, but because the men building his product couldn't afford to buy that prod- uct. So he signed the contract, raising his employees income and in a short time the trolley track to the River Rouge plant was pulled up because every- body was driving to work. So likewise FDR pushed through the GI Bill in 1944 so he could put the peacetime la- bor force to work. And work they did building the homes they would live in. They built thousands of homes; eventu- ally, millions of homes. And we needed furniture and appli- ances for these homes, and we built those too. The captains of industry like to claim the credit for the post- war economy, but they didn't build America; workers built America. And after they housed and furnished the populace they built the most extensive road system in the world. These "captains" decided to reward themselves by sending as many of the jobs as is possible over- seas where it would enhance their profits. They forgot what Ford had figured out. This isn't a crisis yet but it is rapidly be- coming one. The other thing FDR got started was the Social Security Act. Contrary to what the cap- tains of industry would have you believe this is a mandatory, self-funded pension plan. This is the one thing that came out of the depression that actually works. I rely on my self-funded retirement. When I was work- ing I participated in several corporate sponsored pension plans, all but one of them went defunct along with the corpora- tions. But SSI is always there. It is not an entitlement it is a pen- sion that has been paid for. It is a pre-paid insurance policy that has some minor faults that are easily fixable. — Fred Boest, Red Bluff Your opinions Cartoonist's take Palm Sunday will find me back in an adult Sunday school class, after having taught the class of my 12-year-old son Gideon for the past several months. I hope Gideon will remain re- spectful of those with differing views of Jesus Christ (whether they regard him as A prophet but not the Prophet, a nice Jew- ish boy with a Messiah complex, a wise non-divine teacher whose followers got carried away, a complete fabrication or what- ever), but without apologizing for his core beliefs. In other words, he shouldn't be "in your face" but should also avoid a wimpy proclamation of "He is risen, he is risen with an asterisk." An increasingly irreligious world that gets its view of the Son of God from sensationalized documentaries and TV musicals will stray further and further from the truth. Someday when he's teaching Sunday school for my hypothetical grandchildren, I hope Gideon will be able to overcome increasingly muddled legends, factoids and agendas about Jesus and Easter. For example, it's okay to point out that Jesus cast seven de- mons out of Mary Magdalene. It is historically inaccurate to say that he told her, "With the free version, the demons still tag along to the mall with you and your friends. Now, if you want to upgrade to the Premium ex- orcism..." The people of Flint, Michigan did not tell Jesus, "Forget wine! Turn the stuff coming out of our faucets into water!" Jesus's Triumphal Entry into Jerusalem did not involve look- ing at the throng of well-wishers and muttering, "Ooo, I'd like to smite that guy on both cheeks!" The apostles did not launch a media blitz specifically trum- peting the inclusion of the first plus-size models in the Book of Life. The words "Last Supper" and "all-day breakfast menu" appear together in absolutely no early church writings that survive. No matter what your friends tell you, there was no Jumbo- tron available when Judas be- trayed Jesus with a kiss. And there was no advertising slogan that began "Every kiss begins with 30 pieces of silver." Peter's triple denial of Christ had absolutely nothing to do with whether the crowing cock was raised in a cage. Likewise, it is not true that Jesus's prayer in the Garden of Gethsemane was that no one would find out that the garden was GMO. Contrary to popular belief, the crown of thorns Jesus was sub- jected to at the Crucifixion did not include a beer dispenser. Early Christians thought of Jesus as the Fountain of Life rather than the Streaming Me- dia of Life. The angel proclaiming the Good News at the Empty Tomb was distinguished by white gar- ments, not White Privilege. In the future, people will probably lose interest in car- bon dating the Shroud of Turin and will instead concentrate on whether it was moisture-wick- ing and whether any "wardrobe malfunctions" ever occurred with it. Jesus's Ascension into heaven should not be trivialized as his partaking in "cloud storage." Alas, even the secular aspects of Easter will be under fire 25 or so years from now. GPS will make a mockery of Easter egg hunts, candy will be made of solar photons in- stead of sugar and old-timers will talk about 2016 as the Bad Old Days. "Can you believe there used to be a time when rabbits didn't get to vote? Hey, let's swing by the rabbit cemetery and res- urrect Congressman Smith's chances of getting reelected..." Danny Tyree welcomes email responses at tyreetyrades@aol. com and visits to his Facebook fan page Tyree's Tyrades. Danny Tyree Easter: The next generation swayed by sensationalism GregStevens,Publisher Chip Thompson, Editor EDITORIAL BOARD 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. 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