Issue link: https://www.epageflip.net/i/751950
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 Istartedmycareerin1968 by working with/for the ven- erable Tehama County Supe- rior Court Judge Curtiss E. Wet- ter. During my career, I ap- peared before many differ- ent Judges and, like the rest of us, they come in all shapes and sizes. If my math is correct, there are currently four superior court judges sitting in Tehama County courts. When I be- gan my career, there was but a single superior court judge. For various reasons, it was of- ten necessary to bring judges from a neighboring county to assist with the dispensation of justice in Tehama County. The Honorable Roy McFar- land of Glenn County often appeared in Tehama County. I found him to be a very formal, by the book kind of judge who was more than fair to those who appeared before him. The late Judge Richard Ea- ton of Shasta County quite frankly frightened me to death. He was ultra formal, and often spoke in what ap- peared to be Old English. I was always worried for Judge Eaton, because when he com- mitted a juvenile to the Cal- ifornia Youth Authority, he would invite the youth to ap- proach the bench. There he would quietly and privately counsel the lad concerning his future obligations and op- portunities, a practice that would be inadvisable in to- day's world. My personal favorite visit- ing judge was Plumas County's Stanley "Spike" Young. Judge Young was fair and consistent. Judge Young was intelligent, and dispensed justice with a common-sense approach. Most of all, sans his black robe, Judge Young was one of the funniest and most quick-wit- ted people I have known. He's gone now, but is surely missed by all who knew him. Though no longer the case, for most of my career Tehama County was home to jus- tice courts in Red Bluff and Corning. Justice court judges mostly handled misdemeanor cases and traffic matters. Many of Tehama County's su- perior court judges served as justice court judges prior to being appointed to the supe- rior court bench. Such was the case for the Honorable Noel Watkins. When Judge Wetter retired in 1975, his logical succes- sor was then Red Bluff Justice Court Judge Noel Watkins. Like Judge Wetter, Judge Wat- kins was one of the smartest people I have had the privilege to know. His singular lapse in judgment likely occurred in 1981 when he selected me to serve as Chief Probation Offi- cer of Tehama County. I was extremely fortunate to work for and with Judge Watkins for more than two decades. He was brilliant. He was an excellent judge, and was supportive in every way. I admired Judge Watkins a great deal, and still do so to- day. While my memory is not what it should be, I believe that sometime in the '80s the superior court in Tehama County was expanded to in- clude a second judgeship. If I am not mistaken, the first per- son to fill that position was Richard Hultgren, long time justice court Judge in Corn- ing. Judge Hultgren was a gentlemen's gentleman, and it was a pleasure to work with him. When Judge Hultgren was appointed to the superior court, Corning native Elmer Jennings replaced him in the justice court. Judge Jennings and I were personal friends, and we both tended to beat to death any issue that came be- fore us. I still remember ex- changing official correspon- dence with Judge Jennings. Invariably, by the time each of us finished reading the oth- er's lengthy missive, we had no idea what the subject of our letters was intended to be. I liked Elmer Jennings a lot. One of the by-products of working with someone is that sometimes work contacts de- velop into personal friend- ships. Such was the case with superior court judges Dennis Murray and Edward King III. Both Dennis Murray and Ed King came to Tehama County in the mid-1970s; Murray from Southern California, and King originally from someplace east of the Mississippi. Both were employed as Te- hama County Deputy District Attorneys and as such, early in their careers both were as- signed to appear in juvenile court. That is where I met and began to develop meaningful friendships with Dennis Mur- ray and Ed King. The career accomplish- ments of Judge Murray and Judge King were remarkably similar. After starting his ca- reer in the district attorney's office, in 1980 Murray was appointed judge of the Red Bluff justice court. In 1990 he was appointed superior court judge, and in 1997 he was ap- pointed Presiding Judge of the Tehama County Superior Court. Like Judge Murray, King's career took him from the dis- trict attorney's office to the justice court judgeship, and fi- nally to the bench of the Te- hama County Superior Court. That however, is where their similarities ended. While a visit to Judge Murray's office would undoubtedly find him pouring over law books and legal documents, when drop- ping in on Judge King you might be more likely find him watching March Madness on television or putting a golf ball toward a glass on his of- fice floor. Judges do come in all shapes and sizes, but I was very fortunate to have worked for the best of the best. Each was an excellent judge…in his unique and special way. •••• About 50 years ago I played a lot of fast pitch softball in both Redding and Red Bluff. We pretty much played against the same teams every year. One of those teams was Edwards Logging from An- derson. When you play a team dozens of times, you get to know opposing players pretty well. The first baseman on that team was a kid (50 years ago) by the name of Tom Wul- fert. Years later I came to know Tom Wulfert as the quiet, in- telligent and highly respected businessman he was within this community. But what I will remember always is the Tom Wulfert who, almost ev- ery time I saw him, stopped to reminisce about the good times we had knocking heads in fast pitch softball. Rest in peace, Tom Wulfert. You mat- tered a lot. •••• Don't miss country mu- sic's award winning Emerson Drive, appearing at historic State Theatre on Friday. 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 Alookbackatthe visiting judges I've known Cartoonist's take "They still don't get what the Trump win was all about. All those people protesting and call- ing their fellow cit- izens racists, sex- ists and xeno- phobes don't have a clue why Hillary really lost." "It's a bit silly to protest nearly 60 million Americans who exercised their constitutional right by vot- ing for a candidate the protest- ers opposed. The fact is, there are dozens of sound reasons why millions voted for Trump." "You raise a fair point. It's very difficult for either party to hold the White House for more than two terms. According to, About. com, the last Democrat candi- date to succeed a two-term Dem- ocrat president was James Bu- chanan way back in 1857." "And after eight years of Obama's policies, no small num- ber of Americans were ready for some serious changes. Nothing motivated me to cast a vote for Trump more than my soaring health-care premiums." "To be sure, health insurance premiums have shot up again this November because of the massive disruptions brought on by ObamaCare. Millions of Americans are still angry that they could not keep their doc- tors and that the average fam- ily did not save $2,500 a year in premium costs — two whoppers Obama told to win support for his health-care overhaul." "I'm so happy Chief Justice Roberts did not overturn Obam- aCare back in 2012. That kept it in the public square, where we average Joes still had a chance to vote against it. And vote on it we did. With Trump as president and Republicans holding the House and the Senate, Obam- aCare will be replaced or mas- sively reformed with a new ap- proach that better addresses the primary challenge with health- care insurance in America: Cost." "Hopefully, ObamaCare will be a lesson learned for pol- iticians of both parties. You need consensus from both par- ties to reform one-sixth of the U.S. economy. But the Afford- able Care Act of 2010 was passed along purely partisan lines." "You got that right. Not one Republican in the House or Sen- ate voted in favor of it. The polls continuously showed that more than half of Americans felt that ObamaCare was rammed down our throats — the chief reason we voted to remove Democrat control of the House and Senate during Obama's term and a chief reason Hillary will not be Ameri- ca's first female president." "What are some of the reasons Hillary lost?" "Corruption and cronyism re- ally agitated me. Too many smug 'journalists' in the big media out- lets did everything they could to get Hillary elected as they did everything they could to dis- credit Trump. One CNN contrib- utor forwarded debate questions to Hillary ahead of the debates. That is dirty pool and it makes me sick." "To be sure, the double stan- dard and one-sidedness of our big media outlets motivated mil- lions of agitated voters to pull the lever for Trump. Ironically, their efforts to derail him helped to elect him." "Above all, voting for Trump was the most powerful way mil- lions could repudiate Obama's policies — executive orders that defied the Constitution, new rules and regulations created out of thin air, more than 46 million on food stamps, $20 trillion in national debt, median household income down 2.3 percent, and the first president in U.S. history to average well under 3 percent GDP growth during every year of his term." "One cannot argue with your facts or the many reasons you voted for Trump." "Look, Trump has no small number of flaws, but people just want to take care of their fami- lies, pay their bills on time, and afford their health-care premi- ums. We want a vibrant econ- omy that makes it a little easier for us to get ahead. That is why this 'basket of deplorables' mem- ber helped make Trump our 45th president." 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 Why 'Deplorables' elected Trump Like Judge Wetter, Judge Watkins was one of the smartest people I have had the privilege to know. His singular lapse in judgment likely occurred in 1981 when he selected me to serve as Chief Probation Officer of Tehama County. In a disturbing indication of how difficult it would be to bring military spending in line with actual threats overseas, House Armed Services Chairman Rep. Mac Thornberry (R —— TX) told President Obama last week that his war funding request of $11.6 billion for the rest of the year was far too low. That figure for the last two months of 2016 is larger than Spain's budget for the entire year! And this is just a "war-fight- ing" supplemental, not actual "de- fense" spending! More U.S. troops are being sent to Iraq, Syria, Af- ghanistan, and elsewhere and the supplemental request is a way to pay for them without falling afoul of the "sequestration" limits. The question is whether this increase in U.S. military activity and spending overseas actually keeps us safer, or whether it sim- ply keeps the deep state and the military-industrial complex alive and well-funded. Unfortunately,manyAmericans confuse defense spending with military spending. The two terms are used almost interchangeably. But there is a huge difference. I have always said that I wouldn't cut anything from the defense budget. We need a robust defense of the United States and it would be foolish to believe that we have no enemies or potential enemies. The military budget is some- thing very different from the de- fense budget. The military bud- get is the money spent each year not to defend the United States, but to enrich the military-indus- trial complex, benefit special in- terests, regime-change countries overseas, maintain a global U.S. military empire, and provide de- fense to favored allies. The mili- tarybudgetfortheUnitedStatesis largerthan thecombinedmilitary spending budget of the next seven or so countries down the line. To get the military budget in line with our real defense needs would require a focus on our ac- tual interests and a dramatic de- crease in spending. The spending follows the policy, and the policy right now reflects the neocon and media propaganda that we must run the rest of the world or there will be total chaos. This is some- timescalled"Americanexception- alism," but it is far from a "pro- American" approach. Do we really need to continue spending hundreds of billions of dollars manipulating elections overseas? Destabilizing govern- ments that do not do as Washing- ton tells them? Rewarding those who follow Washington's orders with massive aid and weapons sales? Doweneedtocontinuetheend- lesswarinAfghanistanevenaswe discover thatSaudiArabiahadfar more to do with 9/11 than the Tal- iban we have been fighting for a decade and a half? Do we really need 800 U.S. military bases in more than 70 countries overseas? Do we need to continue to serve as the military protection force for our wealthy NATO part- ners even though they are more than capable of defending them- selves?DoweneedourCIAtocon- tinue to provoke revolutions like in Ukraine or armed insurgencies like in Syria? If the answer to these ques- tions is "yes," then I am afraid we should prepare for economic col- lapse in very short order. Then, with our economy in ruins, we will face the wrath of those coun- tries overseas which have been in the crosshairs of our intervention- ist foreign policy. If the answer is no, then we must work to convince our coun- trymen to reject the idea of Em- pire and embrace the United States as a constitutional republic that no longer goes abroad seek- ing monsters to slay. The choice is ours. Ron Paul is a former Congressman and Presidential candidate. He can be reached at the RonPaulInstitute.org. RON PAUL A memo to Trump on defense spending Tom Purcell Bill Cornelius OPINION » redbluffdailynews.com Wednesday, November 16, 2016 » MORE AT FACEBOOK.COM/RBDAILYNEWS AND TWITTER.COM/REDBLUFFNEWS A4