Issue link: https://www.epageflip.net/i/66064
6A Daily News – Thursday, May 17, 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. 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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 Hey listen up Editor: Varsity. We the parents, grandparents, sisters and brothers, aunts, uncles, cousins and friends and anybody else that was interested enough to go and support them at their games. We are so proud of each and Undefeated Spartans Junior in 2008, and our economy and national debt were in its current state, would Mr. Hogan have thought that McCain had "done the job." Larry Feser, Red Bluff Branding every one of you. You showed excellent talent and sports- manship throughout the sea- son. You have not been shown any recognition the whole season from our Daily News or any other media — and please don't get me started. You have given all in the cold, wind, rain and blazing heat and yet you never let your diligence to win down. Aubrie, Karen, you have done an awesome job of coaching these young ladies. A great big thank you from all of us. In closing, just a thought. In life a little positive recognition for something well done can do awesome things. Thank you. Betty Unger, Red Bluff Hogan's letter Editor: Regarding Bob Hogan's let- ter of May 5, I, for one, care very much if President Obama is a communist, socialist or rad- ical Muslim. Regarding Bob I also can't help wondering, if John McCain had been elected Editor: We need stock before we need a brand. We need a rea- son for people to visit Red Bluff, before we invite them here. The community gave $100,000 to Roger Brooks of Destination Development to come up with ideas, we've already had and develop a brand that is already being used by Lassen National Park. Olive City is now the Capitol of Olives and Manton will be recognized for their wines. All of these expensive ideas are no brainers already tried and tossed, like Red Bluff 's Gateway to Lassen Park. That $100,000 would have gone a long way towards fixing our problems. Red Bluff's brand seems to be a good place to drive through and drop a couple of bucks on your way to Manton, Lassen or even the coast. Our country western events, lifestyle, awesome weather, Victorian downtown is what brings them in. Lake Red Bluff and our City Park used to be an attraction, but are now lost and neglected. What will get tourists to want to come here? Cleaning up our product. Red Bluff needs a lot of sprucing up. It's time to take off our rose-col- ored glasses for a minute and look at Red Bluff the way our potential clients look at it as they come off North main, a dry creek full of debris, a railroad track, weeds and two huge empty eyesores, Red Bluff Ford and Helser greet our visitors. They are big signs to I-5 travelers Red Bluff is having finan- cial problems. I-5. place to bring the kiddies for vacation. Antelope going to west, looks relatively successful, as long as you don't drop into county residential areas on either side, which is very low income and full of high crime. To the east, we have the largest and most visible homeless encampment right in our beloved slough, next to I-5's exit to our fairgrounds, only campground, Manton and Lassen. It's continued existence speaks volumes to Red Bluff's commitment to community. With the increase of crime and panhandling, what tourist would pull off and stay in a community that won't shelter their homeless and remove them out of what used to be a prize possession and tourist draw — our beau- tiful lake and slough, now barren, dusty, weed encrusted mess. college is full of weeds. To the west, one side looks like a landfill, on the other a skate park and a park surrounded by weeds, with no safe sidewalks for kids to get there, but enough trash and bad roads to let tourists know this is not a Diamond exit to our new Your Turn The City Council spent $27,000 to fix up City Hall, but refuses to spend the money needed to open our pool for our children and tourists. That nasty smell coming out of our unsafe, dirty city park, full of derelicts, perverts and speed freaks is not the least bit good for marketing our community. fairs no better, especially after Caltrans tore it up for three years to accomplish nothing, except to run off potential tourist and business from stopping. Where is our promised three lanes and new exit to the college? Isn't that what all the construction was for? South Main Street Red Bluff invented clever branding. If we clean up our act and really get our elected officials behind these pro- jects, we could get Red Bluff back on track — but the real answer to our financial woes is real jobs, and unfortunate- ly, the same local politicos, who supported the miracle fixes of Celebrity City and Del Webb, now think that simply branding our commu- nity will be the next quick fix — and how have these past endeavors brought real jobs and resources to our area? I do plan on getting more involved and have some great ideas to fix the problems. I will be sharing those in my next letter. Pat Johnston, Red Bluff Your officials STATE ASSEMBLYMAN — Jim Nielsen (R) State Capitol Bldg., Room 6031 Sacramen- to, CA 95814 (916) 319-2002; Fax (916) 319-2102 STATE SENATOR — Doug LaMalfa (R) State Capitol Bldg., Room 3070 Sacramen- to, 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: governor@gov- ernor.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. Time to declare a war on stupid Commentary issue fixer-upper in disrepair" Progressives make her out to be. Instead, America is the "world's last great hope," and will continue to be, just as soon as we are able to get our head above the water econom- ically. America is not the "social "wars" on race, women, class and now gay marriage, were devised to sink this magnifi- cent "city on a shining hill" into the depths of the sea and replace her with a European- style socialistic utopian theme park I affectionately call "Pro- gressive World." Progressives, there is a much simpler way to get to that happy place filled with e- ticket rides and no work: Hop on a plane to Greece and send us a postcard to let us know how it's working out for you. God bless them, it seems Progressives honestly thought the sun, moon, and planets had lined up just for them that magical Greek column-themed Inauguration night in 2009 The wave upon wave of when Democrats owned Wash- ington. President Obama and Democrats had two years to do something about gay mar- riage, if they wanted to. Instead, the president waited to make his "public service announcement" until now. Obama made no promises; he simply stated his opinion. The shrewd politician he is, Obama understood the power of words and threw out a few to rally his base and raise Hol- lywood big-dollar campaign donations -- which goes to show you intelligence is not a prerequisite for fame. Rally, he did; within days, Newsweek canonized Obama as America's "First Gay Presi- dent," and plastered his face on their front page, rainbow flag colored halo and all. I shall bite my tongue here for further comment, and leave the editorializing to readers. Especially during these days of pending economic ruin, the "war" on gay mar- riage is a waste of time. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to understand that as long as gays stay within the same legal bound- aries we are all bound to; they can do whatever they want behind closed doors. It's their busi- ness. I'm sure the GOP would be happy to accommodate them with reasonable things like hospital visitation rights. Sexual activity is between an individ- ual, God, and the fly on the wall and has nothing to do with civil rights. Conservatives must sit this one out and let nature take its course. If liberal men marry men and liberal women marry women and those who want to abort their babies do so, it won't be long before liberals will "social right" themselves out of existence. In this case, patience is a virtue conserva- tives should wholeheartedly embrace. Susan Brown Meanwhile, our ship is sinking, and Democrats are dressing themselves for dinner. Focusing on non- issues intended to pit Americans against each other rather than acknowledging the iceberg we're about to crash into was an exercise in futility. How far this one, who once promised to bind us together, has fall- en. one needs to declare a war on "stupid." It truly is "still about the economy, stupid." Maybe some- Susan Stamper Brown is an opinion page columnist, motivational speaker and military advocate who writes about politics, the military, the economy and culture. Email Susan at writestamper@gmail.com or her website at susanstamperbrown.com.