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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 MostofthetimewhenIsit down to write my column, I really have no idea where my fingers will take me. To- day is no excep- tion. All I know is that my mood this morning is darker than usual. I am con- cerned. In fact I am very con- cerned. I am not concerned for myself, nor am I con- cerned for you if you are of my generation. If you are like me, the world has treated you fairly. You were raised in a world where you got out of life ex- actly what you put into life. You were raised in a time when respect, discipline, eth- ics and opportunity were part of your daily life. For the most part, you were in con- trol of your own destiny. I am not so sure that is true any- more. I am concerned for my chil- dren, and especially for my children's children. Simply put, this world is a mess and appears to be getting messier every day. If you look back to one of my very first columns, you will see where I state that concerning most issues "I feel strongly both ways." If you look up the term "wishy- washy" in the dictionary, you may actually see a photo of me, and that I believe is not a good thing. With my up-front ad- mission that you are likely smarter than me, let me share just a few of the rea- sons that I am concerned for my children's children. I am not interested in debating the merits or accuracy of my ob- servations. They are mine alone and, like you, my per- ception is my reality. •••• We live in a shrinking world that in many ways is smaller than the Tehama County in which I grew up in 1955. When I was a child, my view of the outside world stretched perhaps to Red- ding to the north and Chico to the south. I am pretty sure that few of us in 1955 knew or cared about folks of Is- lamic faith. With the ad- vance of technology, and es- pecially social media, the entire world and all its prob- lems have become part of our daily lives. Good, bad or otherwise, a decade or two back, the pow- ers that be made a decision that it was necessary and ap- propriate that we try to save the entire world. They poked the Middle East beehive with a stick, and now there ap- pears to be no way to put that genie back in the bottle. I am not sure if they were right or wrong, but I do believe that waging a war with an enemy who sees death and dying as the quickest ticket to heaven, is a war that will be difficult to win; a war that will likely go on and on and on. I am concerned. •••• I am concerned when I read of the latest terror-re- lated attack, both home and abroad, where innocent folks are slaughtered in the name of some cause that few of us understand. •••• We live in the greatest country in the world. Our forefathers did in fact cre- ate a perfect union. Based on our constitution, its amend- ments and the checks and balances created within our executive, legislative and judi- cial systems, we have for the most part worked together to ensure that this country is the best it can possibly be. It seems to me that, perfect systems aside, we are no lon- ger interested in working to- gether. Open any paper and you will read nasty vile letters written by otherwise good people espousing their polit- ical positions as absolute re- ality, while condemning and damning otherwise good peo- ple who just happen to hold the opposite view. Tune in to the nightly news and you will find poli- tician after politician sling- ing crap at the other side while stretching the truth or outright lying to make their case. It really doesn't matter if you are a bleeding heart lib- eral or a conservative's con- servative. The current level of hate and discontent and how it is communicated within our political systems should be an embarrassment to us all. I am concerned. •••• I am concerned when I see the latest cell phone cap- tured video of some unfit panic-stricken cop who ap- pears to have needlessly and recklessly taken the life of an- other unarmed black citizen. •••• I am concerned when I re- alize that I now live in a country where our dedicated and courageous men and women in law enforcement are painted with a broad brush as corrupt, bigoted and racist, and have become tar- gets for assassination by pub- licity-seeking nut-jobs all around this country. •••• I am concerned when I drive by the Department of Social Services on South Main and I realize that wel- fare, disability and other enti- tlement programs likely com- prise the largest financial base within this community. •••• I am concerned, because while I grew up in a commu- nity where few of us locked our doors, I now feel com- pelled to install a security gate designed to protect my property and family. I am concerned because I suspect most folks would fa- vor spending their tax dollars locking up and warehousing all criminals rather than on programs designed to keep them from becoming crimi- nals in the first place. •••• I am concerned every time I see another homeless person dumpster-diving or begging for change with which to pur- chase alcohol and drugs; and I am concerned that most of us would chase them off to another out-of-sight, out-of- mind location rather than de- velop programs designed to assist them to become pro- ductive members of our com- munity. •••• I could go on and on with a list of things that concern me. Suffice it to say, I am con- cerned for my community. I am concerned for my coun- try. I am concerned for the future of my grandchildren most of all. 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 Myconcernsfor my community Cartoonist's take It was the championship game and, after a long tournament series, both the fans and play- ers were showing signs of strain. A batter was at the plate with a runner at third. When the bat- ter hit the ball, the runner — un- aware that the ball had been caught — darted for home. A female fan jumped out of the stands and be- gan pushing the runner back to third base. The runner got back just before the center fielder's throw arrived. "Safe," shouted the umpire. "Fans are not allowed on the field," shouted the opposing team's manager, running onto the field. "The runner is out." "The runner is safe," shouted the female fan. A heated discussion ensued. The manager berated the umpire for not knowing the rules. The female fan shouted at the man- ager and the umpire. The umpire was humiliated in front of sev- eral fans. If you are a die-hard Major League Baseball observer, you'd probably get a laugh out of this. You'd think it was funny that an overzealous fan lost control and jumped onto the field. But this didn't happen in the Major League. It happened at a softball tournament for 8-year- old girls. "It was the most ridiculous thing I ever saw," said one play- er's father. "They're just little kids for goodness sakes." But this fact was overlooked by some parents, who must be- lieve that winning should come at all costs. Later in the same game, the male coach got into another shout-out with the umpire. Here's what happened: One girl, who couldn't hit the side of a barn with a telephone pole, fi- nally got a hit. The ball may have contacted the bat at the edge of her pinky finger. Under Major League rules, if the ball touched her finger, the hit would be a foul. But if you're like most de- cent people, you wouldn't care whether the ball hit the girl's pinky or not. You'd be glad that she was able to finally get a hit. But not in this game. "Foul," shouted the male man- ager, running onto the field again. "The ball is foul." When I played Little League many years ago, there were occa- sional idiot parents and coaches who did such things. One coach kicked a fence in because the umpire made a bad call. And one kid's grandparents constantly tormented the um- pire from the stands. But, for the most part, most parents were like my own. My father believed that the purpose of sports — especially sports for children — was for kids to have fun and to learn ba- sic lessons about life. Winning in life is important, he believed. But there are more important things, such as fair- ness, honesty and integrity. My father taught me to always try my best, regardless of the outcome. He taught me to have fun, and I had a lot of fun play- ing baseball. But, alas, that was more than 30 years ago, when more folks still believed in the virtues — and believed their kid wasn't a gift to the world from the heav- ens. Today, stop by any Little League competition and you'll see kid-worshipping parents in the stands, griping about teen umpires who don't know the rules. You'll see parents com- plaining to coaches that their kid should be batting fourth, not eighth. And you'll fear that the next bad call will cause a brawl to break out. Because, I suppose, the philos- ophy has changed since my fa- ther coached my Little League team, and it goes something like this: Fairness, honesty and in- tegrity are nice but — especially where 8-year-old girls are con- cerned —winning isn't every- thing. It's the only thing. 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 When parents go rogue at sporting events for kids I am concerned because I suspect most folks would favor spending their tax dollars locking up and warehousing all criminals rather than on programs designed to keep them from becoming criminals in the first place. Bill Cornelius Tom Purcell It is a sad commentary on the state of political life in the United States that our political conventions have become more like rock music festivals than competitions of ideas. There has been a great deal of bombast, of insults, of name- calling, and of chest-beating at both party conventions, but what is disturbingly absent is any mention of how we got to this crisis and how we can get out. From the current foreign policy mess to the looming economic collapse, all we hear is both party candidates saying they will fix it, no problem. In her convention speech, Hillary Clinton promised that she would "fight terrorism" and defeat ISIS by doing more of what we have been doing all along: bombing. In fact we have dropped more than 50,000 bombs on ISIS in Iraq and Syria over the past two years and all she can say is that she will drop more. How many more bombs will defeat ISIS? How many more years will she keep us in our longest war, Afghanistan? She doesn't say. In fact, the New York Times — certainly not hostile to the Clin- tons — wrote that it was almost impossible to fact-check Hillary's speech because, "she delivered a speech that was remarkably without hard facts." Clinton's top foreign policy advisor said just a day after her convention speech that her big plan for Syria was to go back to square one and concentrate on overthrowing its secular pres- ident. How many more thou- sands more will die if she gets her way? And won't she eventu- ally be forced to launch a mas- sive US ground invasion that will also kill more Americans? Clinton does not understand that a policy of endless interven- tionism has brought us to our knees and made us far weaker. Does she really expect us to be the policemen of the world with $20 trillion in debt? Likewise, Republican candi- date Donald Trump misses the point. He promises to bring back jobs to America without any un- derstanding of the policies that led to their departure in the first place. Yes, he is correct that the mid- dle class is in worse shape than when Obama took office, but not once did he mention how it hap- pened: the destructive policies of the Federal Reserve. The fi- nancing of our warfare and wel- fare state through the printing of phony money. Distorted interest rates that encourage consump- tion and discourage saving and investment. Trump tweeted this week that home ownership is at its low- est rate in 51 years. He promised that if elected he will bring back "the American dream." He seems to have no idea that home own- ership is so low because the Fed- created housing bubble exploded in 2007-2008, forcing millions of Americans who did not have the means to actually purchase a home to lose their homes. Not a word about the Fed from Trump. How are these candidates go- ing to fix the problems we face in America if they have abso- lutely no idea what caused the problems? No matter who is elected, Americans are going to be very disappointed in the out- come. The warfare/welfare state is going to proceed until we are bankrupt. There is hope, however. It is up to us to focus on the issues, to focus on educating ourselves and others, and to demand that poli- ticians listen. Ron Paul is a former Congressman and Presidential candidate. He can be reached at the RonPaulInstitute.org. RON PAUL Americans will be disappointed in election outcome OPINION » redbluffdailynews.com Wednesday, August 3, 2016 » MORE AT FACEBOOK.COM/RBDAILYNEWS AND TWITTER.COM/REDBLUFFNEWS A4