Issue link: https://www.epageflip.net/i/702126
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 Wehadaweekwithourtwograndsons from Arizona; they came with their mom to cool off, believe it or not. The boys just finished kindergarten and first grade, and they enjoyed reading the road signs as we approached town. They both read in unison, in a happy voice, "Red Bluff, A Great Place to Live" as we le the off ramp and entered town. We tried to show them the sign was telling the truth while they were here. Morningswerethefirst "sign" of being a great place since they were ten to fifteen degrees cooler than in Phoe- nix. We were able to relax over a morning meal outside each day before we started our adventures. One of the goals for this visit was to introduce the grandsons to our new dog, Bogie. Neither had been around dogs before and one was particularly ner- vous about all dogs. Bogie is just 18 pounds and full of energy; he took to the boys right away, and before breakfast each day one boy got to hold the leash on the morning walk, while the other picked up the dog product with a Daily News plastic bag. The roles were reversed for the eve- ning walk. Both boys decided Bogie loved them. On Saturday we went to the Shasta Lake Caverns, along with a great many tour- ists from out of the area. The kids wondered at the caverns, the large lake, the blue skies, the snow on Mt. Shasta, and the many trees we saw along the way to and from the lake. On Sunday they enjoyed patriotic cake and cookies af- ter our church service and then a visit to the Pettey's sheep operation west of town. Bonnie and Lee not only gave them lemonade, but a tour of the sheep area, the chicken coop, and the bass pond. Each boy caught and released a large mouth bass; all these activities were a first for these city slickers. On the Fourth of July we put out the flag, hung around the pool, had a picnic dinner with friends, and enjoyed a typical Fourth meal of ham- burgers, hotdogs, potato salad, fresh fruit, lemonade, Sangria, and punch. The boys enjoyed stories about our founding fathers and a cool dip in the pool from time to time. On the fifth we went to Gaumer's, one of the true gems in Red Bluff. The boys enjoyed taking their time to examine the various rocks, fossils, arrowheads, and dis- plays. The staff was very ac- commodating and patient. There were several families from out of the area who re- ported they had heard that Gaumer's was one of the top 10 places to go in Red Bluff; they were not disappointed. Our grandsons went home with a bag full of treasures each; each one selected a ge- ode which was cut and pol- ished while they watched. While there I met a fel- low alumni of Lincoln High School in San Francisco. At some point one of the boys asked, "why do you al- ways see someone you know wherever we go?" We had a nice conversation about living in a small community rather than an area of urban sprawl. That brought up the question about why so many houses were made out of wood, an exterior feature not common in Phoenix. We discussed the history of Red Bluff, the Vic- torians, and the Gold Rush. Thursday was a long and pleasant day in Lassen Volca- nic Park. (Our younger grand- son had left for Phoenix with his mother, but our older one remained.) We left home early in the morning, had an early lunch near the South West entrance, walked down to Mill Creek, saw squirrels, var- ious interesting rocks, and trees. Our grandson picked up sticks and broke them over rocks and inquired about the lichen on the trees. From there we drove into the park, seeing Helen Lake still covered with ice ex- cept at the very fringes, we stopped in front of an ice cave, and our grandson ate clean snow between toss- ing snowballs at various tar- gets, including us. I was able to demonstrate how snow- fall influences the shape of trees, and the stages of growth from seeming buds to new needles, something my grandson had no idea about. Even though we were at high attitude our grandson ran with abandon from one fas- cinating item to the next. He seemed like he was in heaven. On our way home we stopped to visit friends a Mill Creek, saw deer, and had ice cream. I was able to explain the difference between ce- dar trees and pine trees, de- scribe the distance the creek came from the Park Entrance to Mill Creek, and then on to the Sacramento River, and other things a city boy would not think of. These were amazing. On the way home we noted the elevation from Mill Creek to Red Bluff, the transition to California Gray Pines, and other vegetation. When we got home along Antelope our grandson asked why there was no "Red Bluff a Great Place to Live" sign as we entered town. I could not answer, but I was sure he knew the sign would be telling the truth. JoeHarropisaretired educator with more than 30 years of service to the North State. He can be reached at DrJoeHarrop@sbcglobal.net. Joe Harrop Red Bluff, a great place for the grandsons Cartoonist's take Democratsarethereal racists Editor: Regarding Joe Harrop's col- umn "A new understanding of the 'DTs,'" from July 2, I can understand why he is getting the DTs. Harrop degrades Trump's grandfather, father and his Ger- man heritage. He points out that his father was arrested at a KKK rally in 1927. His father was sued for "overt discrimination in rent- ing his properties." I'm sure he would get a lot of sympathy from landowners that have had to evict crummy peo- ple that quit paying rent and then have to pay for the clean- up and repairs after they finally get rid of them. Even Democrats belong to the KKK and most likely more so than Republicans. Perhaps, be- ing so liberally educated and sophisticated, he doesn't real- ize it was the Republicans that pushed equal rights and anti- discrimination. So, maybe Trump's dad was a democrat? Just like Mr. Harrop. Senator Robert C. Byrd was a recruiter for the Klan rising to the title of Kleagle and Ex- alted Cyclops of his local chap- ter. Byrd wrote a letter in 1946 to the group's Imperial Wizard stat- ing "The Klan is needed today as never before, and I am anxious to see its rebirth here in West Vir- ginia." Byrd defended the Klan in his 1958 U.S. Senate campaign when he was 41 years old. When liberals like Harrop ac- cuse Republicans of being racists they seem to overlook the real racists. Like liberals do, Mr. Harrop has painted Trump's heritage as bigots, racists, liars, trouble- makers and against immigra- tion. He also paints a flowery de- scription of his heritage and all the good things they have done and they are, the ones he listed. He gives a rather long list of friends, associates, employers and such that are all immigrants or are the descendants of immi- grants from everywhere you can imagine, except the Middle East, no Muslims. Does that make him a racist or bigot? To top it off, he compares Trump to the Muslim terrorist Omar Mateen "The Donald" implies the shooter in Orlando was a son of a legal immigrant born in Queens, just like "The Donald" was. Trump's anti-im- migration is to keep terror- ists from coming in illegally or otherwise. Am I the only one that sees something wrong with this picture? It is obvious Mr. Harrop is not voting for Trump. Is he voting Libertarian, Independent, Demo- crat? My bet, it's Hillary. I guess you have to be a highly educated liberal to ignore the ab- solute absence of any virtues or a moral compass and the das- tardly deeds and the corrup- tion the Clintons are involved in. Maybe I missed the column where he pointed out the corrup- tion and lies of Bill and Hillary. Or questioned Bill and Obama's mammas, both women of ques- tionable morals. Put Obama's picture between Obama senior and Frank Mar- shall Davis, the guy that took the nasty pictures of Obama's momma, and then ask yourself, who's his daddy? — Les Wolfe, Red Bluff Thoughts on events in the United Kingdom Editor: While the whole world is hold- ing its collective breath over the fallout and future results of Brexit, including the prospect of having other EU members even- tually follow suit, a curious side show is beginning to emerge, which seems to have eluded scrutiny by our hitherto atten- tive national media. Despite the turmoil in Eu- rope, the U.S. election process continues unencumbered and unabated, while the U.K. is in the preliminary stages of at- tempting to find a suitable re- placement for Prime Minister David Cameron, necessitated by his recent abrupt resignation. At this juncture, the situation is starting to become oddly in- teresting and actually provides further proof that despite all the turmoil in Europe, Jolly Old Eng- land and the U.S. have a lot more in common than whatever seems to divide them. To wit: Two of the aspirants for the highest of- fice in either country, Donald Trump and Boris Johnson, a for- mer member of Parliament and mayor of London, have so many personal things in common that despite their age difference they could be viewed as brothers, or at least close relatives. Both were born in New York, conservative, controversial, out- spoken and flamboyant, but most of all what unites them be- yond all other factors is their combined effort at trying to overcome serious sartorial chal- lenges, the pursuit of which has resulted in an identical modus operandi. Brothers in arms? In this case the term depicts a va- riety of scissors, combs, blow driers, blonde hair color, per- sonal barbers on retainer, comb overs, sideways and forward, plus a considerable dose of van- ity, imagination and denial — a scenario of fighting a losing bat- tle based on the Old Testament Sampson hair syndrome. There is but one plausible remedy of note, which is a U.S. Marine Sergeant with a pair of electric clippers, a can of shav- ing cream and straight razor to take these gentlemen out of their tonsorial misery, and bring them back to reality, while in the pro- cess opening the door for them to actually focus on a plethora of long neglected ever growing global challenges and issues that are in dire need of appropriate remedial solutions. May this political vignette serve as a small measure of comic and serious relief be- fore the proverbial excrement from the future EU fallout hits the global fan with potential far reaching devastating results that are not likely to abate upon ar- rival at our shores either. — Joe Bahlke, Red Bluff Private citizens do not need automatic weapons Editor: It is naive to believe that an automatic weapon in the hands of a private citizen will have future value should we have a maverick government that chooses by executive decision to take away more rights of cit- izens to bear arms, freedom of speech or border protection. Our government has huge superiority of arms such as battle tanks, armored vehi- cles, fighter aircraft, armed drones and combat ships to protect our nation from attack by other nations. An automatic weapon is useless against the possibility of executive man- dates removing more rights of citizens. End the right for any US gun buyer, thief or terrorist to own or have in their possession an automatic weapon. Mandate background checks for any transference of a weapon. Give up these rights as a reward for stringent border protection. Protect our citizens with stringent border protection from drug dealers and illegal border crossers. End the 14th Amendment right of citizen- ship for those born in the US to illegal border crossers. That Amendment was created solely to protect slaves and the chil- dren of slaves, and not to cre- ate citizenship for families of those illegally here. — Joseph Neff, Corning Letters to the editor On the Fourth of July we put out the flag, hung around the pool, had a picnic dinner with friends, and enjoyed a typical Fourth meal of hamburgers, hotdogs, potato salad, fresh fruit, lemonade, Sangria, and punch. State and National • Assemblyman James Gal- lagher, 2060 Talbert Drive, Ste. 110, Chico 95928, 530 895-4217, http://ad03.asmrc.org/ • Senator Jim Nielsen, 2634 Forest Ave., Ste. 110, Chico 95928, 530 879-7424, senator. nielsen@senate.ca.gov • Governor Jerry Brown, State Capital Building, Sacra- mento 95814, 916 445-2841, fax 916 558-3160, governor@gover- nor.ca.gov • U.S. Representative Doug LaMalfa, 507 Cannon House Of- fice Building, Washington D.C. 20515, 202 225-3076 • U.S. Senator Dianne Fein- stein, One Post St., Ste. 2450, San Francisco 94104, 415 393- 0707, fax 415 393-0710 • U.S. Senator Barbara Boxer, 1700 Montgomery St., San Fran- cisco 94111, 510 286-8537, fax 202 224-0454 Local • Tehama County Supervi- sors, 527-4655 • District 1, Steve Chamblin, Ext. 3015 • District 2, Candy Carlson, Ext. 3014 • District 3, Dennis Garton, Ext. 3017 • District 4, Bob Williams, Ext. 3018 • District 5, Burt Bundy, Ext. 3016 • Red Bluff City Manager, Richard Crabtree, 527-2605, Ext. 3061 • Corning City Manager, Kris- tina Miller, 824-7033 Your officials Joe Harrop OPINION » redbluffdailynews.com Saturday, July 9, 2016 » MORE AT FACEBOOK.COM/RBDAILYNEWS AND TWITTER.COM/REDBLUFFNEWS A4