Issue link: https://www.epageflip.net/i/728364
Itwasasombertripdown Main Street on Sunday morn- ing as we were greeted with the sight of an enormous Amer- ican Flag silhou- etted against the smoky sky as it hung from a tall crane parked at Main near Oak, bring- ing back the ter- rible memories of September 11, 2001. I began to contrast my re- actions to that flag with my snickering reactions to the politics of the 2016 campaign and local events. I thought of my niece and her two small children trapped in the hallway of their New York City high rise apartment building for several hours be- cause they could not go into their apartment because of the threat of outside explosions, wondering what may have hap- pened to her husband who was working just blocks from the World Trade Center. I thought of the grim feelings we all shared that day, of the shock, the sorrow, and the surprise. Events like 9/11 remind us that life is serious, and that there are many things we need to be aware of, that events are not predictable, and it is far too easy to point fingers. In that context the squab- ble between the city and the county over the needed expan- sion of the jail seems childish in view of the extreme need to provide both a greater ca- pacity for the jail and proper treatment for those inmates, one of whom is currently a city councilman who cannot par- ticipate in that silly dispute, even though he may now have a more intimate understand- ing of the need to improve that jail. The City Council could re- ally use his acquired exper- tise now instead of the ranting of one of its members about a "prison town." Our beloved Congressman Doug (I really am one of you) LaMalfa has not missed an opportunity this election sea- son to contact us; on Sunday he sent us a sappy e-mail on his reflections on 9/11 and the reason he entered politics to make us all safe again. I am unclear if his alleged motiva- tions are real, but I am pretty sure he wanted to make rice farmers safe. Heretofore, I had thought the only reflections he had were those he saw in his mirror. He has been true to his word, however, his first step toward our general safety was making sure a section of the highway was labeled in memory of his father. In a country where we take democracy for granted, and in a state where we will soon re- ceive an enormous pamphlet outlining the various ballot propositions, and in a town that speaks up with its dis- content about government, we had less than 30 people, ex- cluding participants, turn out for a forum on the ballot mea- sures on Thursday the 8th. That is not a good sign of a vi- brant democracy. Some of the measures on the ballot make it clear our representatives do not want to do their jobs, but how can we do their jobs for them when we have to deal with all the fine print they send us? Makes me wonder if I need stronger bifocals. In a world full of turmoil and potential dangers we have one presidential candidate's son falsifying photographs to support his dad's efforts, thereby adding more balo- ney to our political sandwich. Meanwhile, we wait for mean- ingful discussions about alter- native solutions to the serious issue we face. With concerns on our mind about the health of the two major political candidates we have little to go on to judge their health status. We now know one has pneumonia, and the other conned a doc- tor into a preposterously short note about allegedly how well he is qualified to be president. That first feeble attempt at de- claring him fit has been bally- hooed in the media, and now he has secured a second letter from the same doctor and will be discussing his health with a snake oil salesman and fel- low showbiz host, Dr. Oz. We continue to wonder about how that candidate's current wife made it into our country, as if it matters. It is hard to think that this is the same country that was suddenly shocked and awak- ened on September 11, 2001. We seem like a caricature of trivial pursuit. Maybe we can come out of this maze of trivia and address reality, and dis- cuss the real issues we face openly and without the super- ficial bluff and bluster we hear all around us. JoeHarropisaretired educator with more than 30 years of service to the North State. He can be reached at DrJoeHarrop@sbcglobal.net. JoeHarrop Putting things into perspective It is hard to think that this is the same country that was suddenly shocked and awakened on September 11, 2001. We seem like a caricature of trivial pursuit. Readeragreeswith courthouse concern Editor: Mr. Ostrowski speaks for me, and I'm sure many other resi- dents who are upset and embar- rassed by the unfinished paving on Walnut Street. What a terrible impression it gives out-of-town visitors. "Red Bluff—A Great Place to Live. Walnut Street — an Unsightly Street to Drive." I certainly don't enjoy driv- ing with two wheels on new pavement and two wheels in the rutted old street. I also question the plan- ning of the sidewalk area in front of the parking lot and new courthouse. There was plenty of room to make the sidewalk wide enough for two people to walk side-by-side. Instead we have a narrow walkway flanked by an unnec- essarily large amount of tan- bark landscaping. It just isn't logical to me. — Dee Hamill, Red Bluff Disappointed by local health care Editor: I'm just wondering if anyone feels the same about Dignity Health since they have taken over the local hospitals and most of the doctor's offices. Feels like we are just a num- ber now and waiting to see a doctor can leave you sitting in the doctor's waiting room for an hour or two then an- other 30-45 minutes in the exam room. Many times you are pawned off on a Physician's As- sistant even though you've been seeing him for years and he knows your health problems. Calling for an appointment you have to leave a call back number and hope they respond. I recently actually saw one of my doctors slide a card into his computer when my appoint- ment was over. Do they have them punching clocks now? — Vern Wilson, Rancho Tehama There are no advantages to Daylight Saving Time Editor: In response to Columnist Stan Statham's Sept. 8 Daily News question on the pros and cons of Daylight Saving Time, my response is keep Standard Time year round. Daylight Saving Time in- creases the use of valuable time by changing so many aspects of our lives. There are now a half dozen devices in a home that need to be changed twice yearly for no value received. Our four times yearly airline cross coun- try or global round trips will in- evitably have a departure time change after ticket purchase. Our second home is in the Central Time Zone, but poli- ticians decided to change our time to New York Eastern Time to accommodate politicians dealing with Washington. Most wish Washington would exit our lives. When we are in the Midwest New York time zone, we have a three hour time dif- ference with our California home, two children, six grand- kids and two greats. The other half lives either in the Central or New York time zone as do six surviving of my 12 siblings and my wife's two siblings. From 1960 to 1995, I changed time zones almost weekly, trav- eling on business to the 50 states, and 44 countries with one hour to 13-hour time differ- ences. It would be nice to end Daylight Saving Time and keep time the same year round, de- pending on the zone. Until several years ago, In- diana kept the time zone un- changed for many decades un- til politicians changed the time to variable time, plus New York time instead of year round Cen- tral Standard Time. For now I will keep my in- expensive Casio watch pro- grammed to Midwest and Cal- ifornia time, and with the watch wake up alarm set for wherever I am. — Joseph Neff, Corning Why government's so inefficient Editor: Since I sustained $500,000 in injuries by an intoxicated career felon in 2005, I've been forced to expend an ungodly and mostly wasted amount of effort researching programs, writing and sending e-mails and faxes, filling out forms and making phone calls for government assistance. This includes crime victim restitution, food stamps, nui- sance relief, driver's license reinstatement and court-or- dered insurance compensation I never received. Clearly the system's de- signed to be so complicated, confusing, laborious and ul- timately fruitless, people will turn to seeking assistance from private attorneys, pri- vate citizens, stealing, selling drugs and sex, living on the street or killing themselves instead. Instead of forcing citizens to endure this hell, the govern- ment should assign every citizen one government liaison that's trained to collect the required information from the applicant one time. Then have a computer print this information on the re- quired forms and automatically submit them to all city, county, state, federal and private agen- cies from which he's eligible for assistance. That this simple and obvi- ous solution hasn't been im- plemented already is no doubt owing to corruption. Govern- ment doesn't want to be ef- ficient because if it was, it would have to pay out a lot more benefits. Even worse, it would force two-thirds of its friends and relatives em- ployed in sweet government jobs to get jobs in the real world. Then they'd have to en- dure less pay, less job security, fewer benefits and later retire- ments like everyone else. — Nathan Esplanade, Rancho Tehama Your opinions Cartoonist's take We might as well be watching a 30-car pile-up the way Ameri- cans are holding hands over their eyes trying to avoid the grisly bits of the most grotesque presidential race we have witnessed in this, the sec- ond decade of the 21st Century. Of course, it's only the 2nd election during that time, but still. That is not to say 2012 wasn't genuinely gruesome, with more than its share of cataclysmic collisions and demolition derby debacles, but this time they're headed downhill faster than an 18-wheeler with burned out brakes carrying a load of nitro- glycerine on the western slope of the Andes. This is a race to rock bottom to see which team ends up least wrecked, and right now they're both jostling for pole position. Everybody is losing paint riding into each other while running over rocky roads gouged by their own staffs. Must be why they call them pit crews. You've heard the term "Ac- cidents waiting to happen?" Well the opposite is "accidents waiting for a break in the ac- tion." The two most polarizing drivers in the history of Amer- ican politics have veered into so many walls, both their nick- names could be Crash. Recently the Donald and the Hillary pulled into the paddock to attack their opponent's for- eign policies, a shock to the ma- jority of spectators who were unaware either had a foreign policy that didn't consist on call- ing in air strikes on the other's campaign. And tire irons swung at their fuel lines. Now we're getting to the point in this short track race where driver fatigue kicks in, and the unforced errors have begun to accumulate. Hillary Clinton said she was wrong to call half of Trump's supporters a basket of deplorables. And she was wrong. It's more like 63 percent. Donald Trump used the Mex- ican president as a prop, then gave an immigration speech that spurred most of his Hispanic advisory board to resign. Al- though to be honest, Trump His- panic Advisory Board sounds like Democratic Leadership Council. Trump also praised Vladimir Pu- tin for being a strong leader with an 84 percent approval rating. It would be higher, but the KGB hasn't been able to track down the other 16 percent. Yet. Even the Libertarian candi- date, Gary Johnson, got in trou- ble for not knowing what Aleppo was. Presumably he was think- ing a small leopard or someone suffering from the initial stages of Hansen's Disease. Time is running out for all the major candidates to grab some clean air. Hillary needs to prove she's not a robotic au- tomaton who will do or say any- thing to get elected. And she in- tends to do that as soon as she installs a larger hard drive and updates her operating system. Pneumonia, right. Trump knows he needs to as- sure the electorate he's more than some spoiled rich guy whose dip- lomatic horsepower is measured in arrogant smirks; he's even gone so far as to hire a female cam- paign manager to smirk for him. The good news is the finish line is only two months away. The bad news is one of these lug nuts is going to take the checkered flag. The upside being, on November 8th, our long national nightmare will be over. Until November 9th, when the funny car race for 2020 begins. Gentlemen and ladies, prepare to start your engines. Will Durst is an award-winning, nationally acclaimed columnist, comedian and former Pizza Hut assistant manager. For sample videos and a calendar of personal appearances including his new one- man show, Elect to Laugh: 2016, appearing every Tuesday at the San Francisco Marsh, go to willdurst.com. Will Durst The 2016 election: Crash, burn and repeat 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. 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 Will Durst Joe Harrop OPINION » redbluffdailynews.com Saturday, September 17, 2016 » MORE AT FACEBOOK.COM/RBDAILYNEWS AND TWITTER.COM/REDBLUFFNEWS A8