Issue link: https://www.epageflip.net/i/740688
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 On Nov. 8 all of California's voting citizens have the opportunity to have their say again on whether or not our state should have a death penalty. I think we should, whereas my 35-year-old stepson Eric Epperson disagrees. Ioncestoodonthefloor of the California Assembly in the 1980s and showed my col- leagues a photo of a 9-year- old who had been so severely beaten by her father she had bruises from head to toe. She eventually died from subcuta- neous bleeding just under the top layer of skin. Today, I can't exactly re- member what happened to her father, but I think it should have been death. Eric has a much more civilized view. He is a man of the good beliefs and feels "religion should be practiced with forgiveness." However, he also believes the issue has two good sides, but does prefer to eliminate that ultimate punishment. The first time I had a chance to hear both sides of capital punishment, an- other colleague in the legisla- ture in opposition pointed out that the death penalty simply means that we as a society will then actually have the right to commit first degree, premed- itated murder. That is true of course, however I think the phrase "eye for an eye" comes to mind to counter that posi- tion. Should not the punish- ment be comparable to the crime committed? Right now California's death row at San Quentin has 743 prisoners waiting for their sen- tence to be carried out. Thir- teen inmates have already re- ceived that ultimate punish- ment. As a former legislator, I visited death row in the 1980s when the gas chamber was then used to end a life. Today a non-painful injection does the job. As most people know, Texas follows through with the death penalty rather reg- ularly. Eric, I think mostly be- cause of his faith, does not feel it is society's place to do God's job. However, I feel this ulti- mate punishment is still justi- fied because some crimes are totally uncivilized at best. Briefly, here's what you will be voting on in less than a month. Proposition 62 would eliminate the death penalty and change the punishment to life in prison without the possibility of being paroled. Meanwhile, Proposition 66 is intended to hasten the death penalty process by reducing the number of appeals that can be filed to reduce or even eliminate the sentence. An ar- gument I heard in opposition to capitol punishment is that such a punishment would not really reduce or deter heinous crimes. I remember one legis- lator with extra strong feelings said something like; "Well, capital punishment would cer- tainly stop some of our worst criminals. And, I mean it will deter them dead in their tracks." My take is that I hope ev- eryone votes no on Proposition 62 and yes on Proposition 66. Again, remember that people on each side of this issue are correct. Please let me hear the side you are on. Right now, capital punish- ment is used in 31 states and by the federal government. On California's death row almost all inmates will die of old age or some other disease. The death penalty always brings my attention to the countless victims of all those terrible crimes. They are vic- tims as well and have no choice but to suffer the pain of a lost loved one. Mytakeonthemovies This week's movie review is "Girl on the Train" starring Emily Blunt. I recommend this thriller that will definitely hold your attention, especially during the last part of the film. StanStathamserved1976-1994 in the California Assembly and was a television news anchor at KHSL-TV in Chico 1965-1975. He is past president of the California Broadcasters Association and can be reached at StanStatham@ gmail.com. Stan Statham My take on California's death penalty Briefly, here's what you will be voting on in less than a month. Proposition 62 would eliminate the death penalty and change the punishment to life in prison without the possibility of being paroled. Support for Lida Chase Editor: This letter is in support of Lida Chase as a candidate for the Red Bluff High School gov- erning board. I have had the privilege to work with Lida these past four years as a fellow board member. During those years a lot has happened at the high school. It was necessary to release a su- perintendent and to hire a new superintendent, Todd Brose. Also there have been several other administrative changes. Now the high school, under new leadership, is running smoothly and effectively. Part of the credit goes to Lida as the board president during some of the transitions. She has conducted successful town hall meetings to gather community input as well as visiting other school campuses to determine safety policies that can be imple- mented at RBHS. While she has focused on all students, her spe- cial goal has been to reach out and mentor at-risk students at the high school and at our con- tinuation school. There is no doubt in my mind that the other candidates are sincere and would work hard for the district. However, it is my opinion that Lida Chase is a proven entity with her experi- ence and dedication and should be re-elected to a second term as a Red Bluff High School board member. — Jack Hansen, Red Bluff Abandoned hotel an eyesore Editor: I've been approached by nu- merous people asking if I would please get involved with an issue that apparently has been over- looked by the City Council. The issue is an old abandon hotel off the I-5 freeway just a little south of Red Bluff next to the Days Inn. I went to take a look around there yesterday for the first time ever. What an eyesore. That is a horrible first impression of our town for tired travelers travel- ing north who are looking for a place to spend the night. I for one would definitely keep on going. I spoke with an employee of the Days Inn and he stated it has really hurt their busi- ness and they had lots of prob- lems with transients and home- less people. He also told me he would have the owner of the Days Inn get in touch with me. He was so excited because no one from the city has talked to them about helping them get these problems resolved. I told him I would help them any way I could. Red Bluff has ordinances on the books that give the council the authority to contact prop- erty owners to clean up their property within 30 days or the city will clean it up and charge the owner. It's known as the Beautification of Red Bluff Or- dinances. In this case the build- ing will have to be torn down as it is not in any condition to be remodeled. Right now it is a fire danger and a possibility of becoming a major health issue with asbestos being exposed. I will be attending the next City Council meeting. — Kathy Nelson, Red Bluff Don't buy into rumors about fundraising efforts Editor: It's a shame that a really great cause is being slandered. I don't know who doesn't want the Corning Police Department to have a K9 to make the neighbor- hoods safer in Corning. The po- lice officers are safer and have a better success rate with a K9. There are rumors that the Corning Patriots have dropped the K9 Fundraiser. That is not true. There are rumors that the Corning Police Department re- ceived a grant to purchase a po- lice dog and there is no need for a fundraiser to purchase a dog. That is not true. There are no grants for the acquisition of K9s. So, please, if you hear these rumors tell the person spreading them to get their facts straight. They need to go to the Corn- ing Police Department or to Ra- bobank and ask if the fund has been shut down. Know this; the Corning Patri- ots are in this to purchase a K9 for the Corning Police Depart- ment and we won't stop work- ing on this until we have accom- plished our goal. This is not the time for petty games because someone doesn't like the Tea Party movement. We don't have ulterior motives, we aren't bad people, we are car- ing Tehama County residents that want to support our law en- forcement and help them any- way we can. Please join us in making this goal a reality, donate at the Corning Rabobank to the Corn- ing Police Department K9 Fund. — Patty Smith, Paskenta Election year blues Editor: Seems voters are asked "do you prefer to be shot down or shot up?" Perhaps better to have Trump and a resignation than to have the presidency bought by the highest spender. — Steve Kelsey, Corning Republicans must vote Editor: Although many Republicans dislike Trump, there is a worse choice with untrustworthy and lying Hillary Clinton who has shared state secrets with China, Russia and Iran, through her private e-mail. Republicans must recapture the various government sectors now politically owned by Pres- ident Obama. This can only be done by every Republican vot- ing, and voting Republican. We may not like Trump, but voting Republican assures capture of the Presidency, the House, the Senate, the Supreme Court and the various government heads such as the IRS, NLRB and Transportation Department. Republicans assure continua- tion of the Constitution. Voting Democrat substitutes costly and bankrupting socialism for our long history of democracy and respect for the Constitution. — Joseph Neff, Corning Your opinions Cartoonist's take My wife loves growing plants and having a garden. The trans- formation has been miraculous as her thumb grad- ually turned from black to bright green over the years. And her plants, much like the chickens, are also her babies. So she doesn't want to wake up one morn- ing and find that most of her fa- vorite plants are deader than posts from the cold. So, of course, she wants to protect them. At least the plants that have survived the deer, who have been excep- tionally hungry this year. So what might be salvation for her chlorophyll-based chil- dren? A greenhouse was her so- lution. I don't know if all hus- bands are nay-sayers whenever their wives want something, but I usually fit that description. Oc- casionally I will agree that her current "must-have" item is im- mediately necessary, but that is rare. But don't get the idea that I have some form of veto power, because I don't. If you haven't researched greenhouses then you're in for a treat. Depending upon the size, material and type, they can run anywhere from $100 to $12,000. That's quite a spread. My idea was to get something that could serve as a temporary emer- gency shelter — to be used only on those rare occasions forecast- ing serious frost. Simply gather them up, haul them inside and seal them tight until the mor- row. That shouldn't be too ex- pensive, right? I even found one that opened itself and was about $300. We would only have to take it out when there was a weather report of impending doom for exposed plants. My wife's view was somewhat different. Her dream would be a huge glass conservatory of yore, sprawling with plants, a sitting area — and maybe even a foun- tain. Of course even she real- ized something like that was not within our means. I also pointed out that a glass greenhouse would reach temperatures ap- proaching the surface of the sun here in the summer. So what about plastic sheet- ing, shade cloth and galvanized or PVC hoops? That would be cheaper, and upsizing much more economical. How much could a few extra hoops and plastic cost? We did our research. We would find a hoop greenhouse that might work, but you had to build the front and back walls yourself. And it still wasn't cheap. I also had visions of vast sheets of plas- tic blowing through our prop- erty, or possibly the entire hooped greenhouse taking flight, which would have been a real possibility during this last storm. And then I happened to see a short piece in Mother Earth mag- azine about turning a dog ken- nel into a greenhouse. My first thought was to convince my wife that we could convert the 8 x 12 corner section of our chain-link chicken coop into a greenhouse. I was unsuccessful. So we be- gan looking at dog kennels wher- ever we went. Kennels could also be arranged in a myriad of con- figurations and expanded if nec- essary. We learned from a local nursery to cover the sides with 80% shade cloth and 50% for the roof. No plastic! The fitted top would only go on when the mer- cury dropped, and maybe cover the sides with some cheap tarp if things really got dicey. What I like is that it is sub- stantial. This big square of gal- vanized steel isn't going any- where. And if my wife abandons her greenhouse someday, then we won't be stuck with a raggedy structure that would probably end up at the dump. People are always needing kennels so they should be easy to sell, and who knows — we might use them for more chickens. Corky Pickering and his wife relocated from the Bay Area to Cottonwood in 2014. He recently retired from the federal government as an attorney advising law enforcement. He has been a rock and roll bass player and a Marine JAG. He can be reached at thecork6@gmail.com. Corky Pickering Greenhouse project goes to the dogs Corky Pickering OPINION » redbluffdailynews.com Thursday, October 20, 2016 » MORE AT FACEBOOK.COM/RBDAILYNEWS AND TWITTER.COM/REDBLUFFNEWS A4