Issue link: https://www.epageflip.net/i/700563
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, 728Main St., Red Bluff, CA 96080 Facebook: Leave comments at FACEBOOK.COM/ RBDAILYNEWS Twitter: Follow and send tweets to @REDBLUFFNEWS TheWilcoxOaksGolfClubgotitsstart nearly 100 years ago when a man by the name of Grant Wilcox created a nine hole sticker-infested golf course north of Red Bluff. For approximately 30 years the course was without an irrigation system, and fea- tured only sand greens. In1957Mr.Wilcoxpassed away, but before doing so he gifted the 120-acre property to the community under the pro- vision that the land continue to be developed and utilized as a golf course. It was at that time that the Wilcox Oaks Golf Club was in- corporated and was provided with its first irrigation system. My first contact with Wil- cox Oaks occurred in 1958 when my eighth grade class had our graduation party at the golf course clubhouse. It certainly never occurred to me at that time that Wil- cox would one day be an im- portant part of my life in this community. As a child, I had assumed that membership in a golf club would likely be be- yond my means. Fortunately, I was wrong. I found that even on my meager Deputy Proba- tion Officer salary I was able to afford a family membership, so in 1972 I joined Wilcox Oaks and began my 40-year love/ hate relationship with golf. In 1977 the membership, with major assistance from farmer (sweetest corn in the world) George Stutz, completed the extremely challenging back nine, making Wilcox Oaks just about the prettiest and tough- est golf course in the north state. Despite my hollow boast- ing of my athletic prowess, the sad truth is that I am just about the lousiest golfer in the entire 240-member club. While I did in fact make a hole in one on the tough par 3, hole #4, I un- derstand fully that even a blind squirrel finds an acorn once in awhile. Talent aside, let me tell you why I like being a member of Wilcox Oaks. I enjoy Wilcox because of its amenities. In addition to the 18- hole course, putting greens and driving range, members have access to a well-maintained ten- nis court as well as an Olympic size swimming pool that comes with its very own lifeguard. Did I tell you that I am great at ten- nis and have never been beaten in the 50-yard "fly?" I enjoy Wilcox because for 40 years I have been able to play golf a couple of times a week with old friends and new friends. Friends who, like me, will never be as skilled as they think they are; but that's OK because for those four hours my golfing buddies and I are able to escape the real world in fa- vor of expletive-filled, largely ir- reverent and totally irrelevant boastful banter that has abso- lutely no basis in reality — and that's a good thing, I think. I enjoy Wilcox because of its friendly little bar where golf sto- ries grow even bigger and bet- ter; and because of its excellent restaurant where Friday night dinners are the highlight of my week, and Sunday breakfasts are special indeed. I like Wilcox because it ca- ters to the entire family. Along with the best junior golf pro- gram in the North State, Wil- cox promotes couples play where husbands and wives, boyfriends and girlfriends, and good friends and no friends play in social events on a regular basis throughout the entire year. I like Wilcox because of its comprehensive tournament schedule. Whether it is the Pro- Am or the Club Championship for the serious golfer or the Tues- day Night Scramble for us fun- loving hackers, the tournament schedule is always a fun-filled experience. I like Wilcox because of the reciprocal agreements the club has that allow the wife and me to play for free or at a greatly reduced green fee as we visit a dozen quality golf courses throughout Northern California and Southern Oregon. Most of all, I enjoy Wilcox Oaks because rather than be- ing some highfalutin' country club where self-acclaimed status and money are the driving force, Wilcox is comprised of down-to- earth friends, neighbors, fam- ilies and a hard working and dedicated staff who make ev- eryone feel welcome the minute they drive on to the property. Staff like head professional Jeff Phelps, who grew up in this community; and every- one's good friend, pro shop man- ager Roman Gonczeruk; of- fice staff Jill Delfs and Juanita Smith; restaurant and bar staff Tina Bonham, Jennifer O'Dell and Melissa Jennings; cart shed staff Butch Cassidy and Ben Monda; and greens superinten- dent Josh Westmoreland and staff. These hard working folks are the greatest, and on behalf of all 240 members of Wilcox, I say thank you, thank you, thank you. My primary reason for shar- ing the positive benefits of be- longing to Wilcox Oaks is that the current Wilcox Board of Di- rectors, under the leadership of President Kim Hake, has rolled back membership costs to a level where, for about the cost of a daily cup of Starbucks coffee, an entire family can enjoy the fun and frolic attached to a Wil- cox membership. The question is not whether you can afford to be a Wilcox member, but rather, how can you afford not to? Call 527-6680 for additional membership in- formation, and I'll see you at the 19th hole. ••• Today is my sister's birthday. I know of no better person than Judy Benner, and I am proud to be her little brother. Happy birthday, Judy. I love you very much. ••• Coming to the State The- atre: July 15 at 7:30 p.m., politi- cal humorist Will Durst presents "Elect to Laugh," $20; July 22, 7:30-9:30 p.m., country music star Craig Morgan, $45-$55. Call 529-2787 for ticket information. BillCorneliusisalifelong resident of Red Bluff, a retired Chief Probation Officer, a champion of the State Theatre and an exceptional athlete. He can be reached at bill. cornelius@sbcglobal.net. William Tells Feelingsome love for Wilcox Oaks Golf Club Cartoonist's take As you hit the roadways this summer, here's a safety tip to keep in mind: Beware of dis- tracted drivers. According to Distraction.gov, the official U.S. government web- site for distracted driving, this in- volves "any activ- ity that could di- vert a person's at- tention away from the primary task of driving." Distractions include every- thing from eating and drinking to using a navigation system to adjusting a stereo — or worse. When I lived in Washing- ton, D.C., I saw people do some nutty things on the Belt- way most mornings: applying makeup, working on computers, participating in video-phone conferences in which, I imag- ine, political types were con- cocting new strategies to fleece the American taxpayer. The most dangerous distrac- tion, however, continues to be texting because it "requires vi- sual, manual and cognitive at- tention from the driver." And, boy, is texting a prob- lem. According to the CTIA Wire- less Association, Americans had sent nearly 170 billion text mes- sages as of 2014 — and many did so while behind the wheel. The National Highway Traf- fic Safety Administration found that the percentage of drivers text messaging or visibly ma- nipulating handheld devices in- creased from 1.7 percent in 2013 to 2.2 percent in 2014. NHTSA also reported that since 2007, young drivers, ages 16 to 24, have been observed manipulating electronic devices at much higher rates than older drivers — in part because older divers don't know how to work their newfangled gadgets. In any event, National Oc- cupant Protection Use Surveys found out that at any given mo- ment during the day, approxi- mately 660,000 American driv- ers are using cellphones to talk, text or use apps while they are driving — a number that has held steady since 2010. And cellphone use is causing 1.6 million crashes each year, ac- cording to the National Safety Council. The council also re- ported nearly 330,000 injuries occur each year from accidents caused by texting while driving and that 1 out of every 4 car ac- cidents in the United States is caused by texting and driving. Which means we drivers need to knock of it off. Look, how many studies do we have to do to finally realize how dangerous cellphone use is in our cars? Carnegie Mellon University found that talking on a cell- phone reduces activity in the brain's parietal lobe by 37 per- cent — and probably reduces the parietal lobe in men by 74 percent, since we men generally use only half a brain anyway. Here's another troubling finding: According to the Vir- ginia Tech Transportation In- stitute, texting while driving di- verts your eyes from the road for an average of five seconds. At 55 mph, that's enough time to cover the length of a football field blindfolded. The fact is people are not good at multitasking while driving — certainly not good at using their cellphones while driving. You'd think it would be sim- ple common sense — that peo- ple would know better than to try to text and drive or take cellphone calls while they're roaring down a highway at a high rate of speed — but that isn't the case. You'd think there would be no need for new laws and pen- alties to punish and prevent distracted driving, but, unfor- tunately, there is. Every day, newspaper head- lines feature tragedies that in- volve texting drivers — and the subsequent manslaughter law- suits that many of these texting drivers are facing. And that is why many peo- ple — people like me who are otherwise wary of our govern- ment — agree that state and lo- cal governments need to crack down hard on this matter un- til a thick-headed public finally grasps the seriousness of cell- phone use while driving. So be careful when you hit the roadways this summer — careful to avoid a still growing number of distracted American drivers. Tom Purcell, author of "Misadventures of a 1970s Childhood" and "Wicked Is the Whiskey," a Sean McClanahan mystery novel, both available at Amazon.com, is a Pittsburgh Tribune-Review humor columnist. Send comments to Tom@TomPurcell.com. Tom Purcell Beware of distracted drivers this summer Despite my hollow boasting of my athletic prowess, the sad truth is that I am just about the lousiest golfer in the entire 240-member club. Tom Purcell Neither Hillary Clinton nor Donald Trump will get my vote come November. While each espouses certain posi- tions I share, both score epic fails on my personal litmus tests. Instead of penalizing or de- porting 10 or 20 million illegal aliens (or more) who scoffed at U.S. sovereignty, Hillary in- tends to reward them with an- other "shamnesty." And Hill- ary doesn't just want to open the gates wider, she wants to delete the border altogether and allow tens of millions more undocumented Demo- crats to stampede across. Corrupt Clinton — like vir- tually every other demagogic Democrat — is deaf, dumb and blind to the very real, long-term civilizational threat posed by jihadist terrorism, and more generally, the in- filtration of intolerant, anti- Western, homophobic, misog- ynistic, anti-science sharia law into well-meaning, but guilt- ridden, gullible and clueless Western societies. Like Bush and Obama be- fore her, Hillary continues bleating the vacuous slogan that Islam means peace, when, in reality, it means submis- sion to the will of Allah. "Mus- lims are peaceful and toler- ant people and have nothing whatsoever to do with terror- ism," Hillary told the Coun- cil on Foreign Relations. Like Obama, she blamed the recent Orlando massacre on guns more than rampant homopho- bia among many Muslims. Meanwhile, on the other side of the lunatic asylum, megalomaniac Donald Trump says he wants to criminal- ize certain women's rights and waffles in his support for Planned Parenthood. He also stated, "I'm not a big be- liever in man-made climate change," calling climate sci- ence a "hoax." Trump seems absolutely dismissive of the en- vironmental concerns that are so dear to me. Among other outrages, he has called for dis- mantling the Environmental Protection Agency, created by none other than Republican President Richard M. Nixon. How I long for the days when at least some conspicuous con- servatives supported action to combat anthropogenic cli- mate change, protect the en- vironment generally and de- fend a woman's right to make her healthcare choices. It was President Nixon who in the late 1960s actually gave a speech to Congress on the need to con- front overpopulation and estab- lished the landmark, but now nearly forgotten Commission on Population Growth and the American Future (the Rocke- feller Commission), and directed the National Security Council to study rapid population growth as a national security issue. Similarly, I pine for those times when at least some lead- ing liberals supported re- ducing excessive legal immi- gration, enforcing our laws against illegal immigration and could utter the words "Is- lamic terrorist" or "jihadi" in- stead of the mealy mouthed, politically correct "violent ex- tremist." Alas, those days are gone. Their last gasp was in the 1990s. American politics have succumbed to polarizing pa- ralysis in this new century. Leon Kolankiewicz Neither Hillary nor Trump deserves my vote Bill Cornelius OPINION » redbluffdailynews.com Wednesday, July 6, 2016 » MORE AT FACEBOOK.COM/RBDAILYNEWS AND TWITTER.COM/REDBLUFFNEWS A4