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When I was about ten years old, I lived across from the high school. Sometimes I would go to the high school baseball field, where I would chase down and return foul balls for the varsity baseball team. Asareward,thecoach would often give me a baseball or a broken bat that I would tape up and use to hit rocks in the street. I didn't know it then, but that coach was Doug Sale. When I en- tered high school in 1959, Doug Sale was no longer coaching baseball, football and basketball as he had for several years, but rather was now the vice principal in charge of dis- cipline. Unfortunately, when a friend and I got caught putting a mouse in a teacher's desk, I came to know Doug Sale in his professional capacity as the vice principal in charge of dis- cipline. I guess it was probably about that same time that I came to realize that the Sale family was a pretty big part of Tehama County history. Heck, they even had a road named after them; and like most ev- ery kid in the county, I earned money to buy school clothes by picking peaches for Sale Or- chards. In 1981 I was appointed Chief Probation Officer, pro- viding me the income neces- sary to join the golf club. Doug Sale was a golf club member for over 60 years. It was also at that time that I joined the Red Bluff Rotary Club. As luck would have it, I sat down that first day at the same table as Doug Sale, and we have pretty much shared that same table every Tuesday for the past 35 years. When I retired a dozen years ago, in order to avoid having to play golf every day, I signed on to pick up and deliver vehicles for Growney Motors, as that is apparently all that us over-the- hill guys are allowed to do. To my surprise and delight, my co-driver was none other than Doug Sale. Doug and I spent hours and hours sharing a prior daily rental talking about things like discipline, respect, family val- ues and our changing soci- ety. You get to know an awful lot about a person when you sit next to them for 35 years in Rotary, and you get to know them even better when you share a car a half dozen days a month while driving in Bay Area traffic. Let me tell you about Doug Sale. Born in 1923, Doug was the fourth and last surviving child of eight children born to Ritchie and Mary Sale. Doug was born in the old Sale house that still stands on the cor- ner of Sale Lane and Gilmore Road. Though slight in stature, Doug was an excellent ath- lete, excelling in football, bas- ketball and baseball at Red Bluff High. While growing up in Red Bluff, Doug's closest friends were George Growney and Joe McClellan; along with many others, Doug, George and Joe remained close friends throughout their entire lives. The remaining members of the Growney clan are considered family to this day. After graduating from high school, Doug headed south where he played baseball and basketball for Taft Junior Col- lege. In 1942 Doug enlisted in the Air Force and as a young Lieu- tenant he was a B-17 bomber pilot. Doug often joked that his flying being confined to the continental United States is likely the reason we won that war. After being discharged from the Air Force in 1946, Doug re- turned to college, where he was a member of the National Champion Sacramento City Ju- nior College basketball team. Doug then enrolled at UCLA, where he was a starter in both basketball and base- ball. After graduating from UCLA in 1948, Doug spent three years teaching and coaching at Hayward High School. In 1952 Doug was recruited as an assistant by the greatest coach who ever lived, the leg- endary UCLA basketball coach John Wooden. Coach Wooden and Doug Sale went on to be close personal friends for over 60 years. While Doug had the op- tion to continue coaching with Wooden, he would tell you that he missed his home in Red Bluff; so in 1954 he accepted a teaching and coaching po- sition at Red Bluff High School. I suspect the real rea- son Doug came home had to do with a young lady by the name of Suzanne Waltz. Su- zanne was then and is still the most attractive and the sweet- est lady in the entire county. In 1954 Doug and Suzanne mar- ried; and, as they say, the rest is history. Doug and Suzanne raised three bright and successful children, Ellen, Kara and Kev- itt, who in turn gave them seven bright and successful grandchildren. I can't begin to tell you how proud Doug Sale was of each and every member of his family. Doug Sale was one of those rare people who was successful in virtually everything he un- dertook. Even though he only coached for a half dozen years, it was my honor to introduce him in 2012 as the very first coach inducted into the Red Bluff High School Athletic Hall of Fame. Doug gave up his coaching career in 1959 in order to pur- sue a career in administration, and it came as a surprise to no one when he rose through the ranks from Vice Principal to Principal, and finally to Su- perintendent of the Red Bluff High School District. When Doug finally retired from a distinguished career in education, he spent a great deal of time playing golf, of- ten with his dear friends Bob Stoufer and Pete Peterson. When Doug's health began to fail a couple of years back, the folks at Wilcox Oaks presented him an honorary life mem- bership, and held "An Evening with Doug Sale", which was at- tended by a couple hundred friends and neighbors. Doug Sale was truly a re- markable man. He was my friend. He was my mentor. Doug Sale was like the father that I had always longed for but never had. Rest in peace old friend. You mattered, a lot. 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. WilliamTells Atributetoagreat coach, friend Cartoonist's take I am 8 years old. Some of my friends say there IS a Santa Claus. Papa says, "If you see it in the Commu- nist Party paper Granma, it's so." Please tell me the truth, El Presi- dente. Is there a Santa Claus? - Virginia O'Hanlon Dear Virginia: Your little friends are wrong. Of course there is no Santa Claus. Did your papa not tell you that I banned all likenesses of Santa, a symbol of Yankee capitalist greed, in 1959? Did your papa not read the 1959 Time article that explained how I required all Christmas decorations to be made of Cu- ban materials, with traditional Cuban scenes — that American- style Christmas trees had to be replaced with Cuban palms? Does he not remember that I, the world's most successful Scrooge, canceled Christmas al- together in 1969 — that mil- lions of Cuban children grew up without any sense of a Christ- mas tradition — and that I only eased the ban in 1998 when Pope John Paul II visited our country? Believe in Santa Claus, Vir- ginia? You might as well believe that freedom exists — as fool- hardy American pigs do. Their freedom opens the floodgates to everything that is bad in the hu- man heart — greed and vanity and dishonesty. Only a benevolent dictator like Fidel can stop such free- dom. Only I can open the flood- gates to everything good in the human heart, such as generosity and selflessness and integrity. Those who refuse to embrace these traits will be beaten, jailed or sent to the firing squad! I laugh when I read the vari- ous estimates of the political op- ponents I sent to their deaths — between 4,000 and 33,000. Even Fidel has lost count. But I had to whack these troublemakers. They stood in the way of the revolu- tion. They didn't know that only with absolute power could I help my people, in particular the poor. All the world knows I am a great champion of the poor. I love poor people so much, in fact, that I created millions of new ones. I gave them education — I'm proud to say my country has the best educated janitors, maids and garbage collectors in Latin America! I gave them free health care — albeit not very good health care. It's not my fault most of our doc- tors, in their greed, fled to other countries to enrich themselves with the livable salaries our com- munist country can never pay them. My intentions are good and — as the progressive left in America will tell you — isn't that all that matters? It's true that as my people have suffered — the average income in my country is $20 per month — I have lived a lavish life. Forbes estimated my net worth at just short of $1 billion. Had I been a ruthless capitalist pig like America's president-elect, I, too, would be a billionaire many times over. But Fidel didn't do too badly as the dictator of a small communist island. But getting back to your ques- tion, Virginia, of course there is no Santa Claus. Look, Virginia, the most real things in the world are only those things that Fidel sees. Did Fidel ever see fairies dancing on the lawn? Of course not. Fidel only sees the good life that the revo- lution has brought to Cuba — in- cluding the finest fleet of run- down '58 Studebakers in all the world! Alas! There is no Santa Claus, Virginia. And now that I have answered your question, Fidel has a ques- tion for you: What are the names of these little friends who have been telling you lies about this Santa Claus? - Fidel Castro 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 If Virginia O'Hanlon had asked Fidel Castro about Santa Claus You get to know an awful lot about a person when you sit next to them for 35 years in Rotary, and you get to know them even better when you share a car a half dozen days a month while driving in Bay Area traffic. 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 President-elect Donald Trump told a Cincinnati audience this week that he intends to make some big changes in U.S. foreign policy. During his "thank you" tour in the midwest, Trump had this to say: "We will pursue a new foreign policy that finally learns from the mistakes of the past. We will stop looking to topple regimes and overthrow governments. ...In our dealings with other countries we will seek shared in- terests wherever possible..." If this is really to be President Trump's foreign policy, it would be a welcome change from the destructive path pursued by the two previous administrations. Such a foreign policy would go a long way toward making us safer and more prosperous, as we would greatly reduce the pos- sibility of a "blowback" attack from abroad, and we would save untold billions with a foreign policy of restraint. However as we know with politicians, there is often a huge gap between pronouncements before entering office and ac- tions once in office. Who can forget President George W. Bush's foreign policy promises as a candidate 16 years ago? As a candidate he said: "I am not so sure the role of the United States is to go around the world saying 'this is the way it's got to be.' ... If we're an ar- rogant nation they will resent us, if we're a humble nation but strong they'll welcome us." Unfortunately as soon as he took office, George W. Bush pur- sued a completely different for- eign policy, attacking countries like Iraq at the urging of the neocons he placed in positions of power in his White House and State Department. Some people say that "per- sonnel is policy," and that much can be predicted about Trump's foreign policy by the people he has appointed to serve his ad- ministration. That is where we might have reason to be wor- ried. Take Iran, for example. While Trump says he wants the U.S. to stop overthrowing gov- ernments, on the issue of Iran both the candidate and his re- cent appointees have taken a very different view. Trump's pick for National Se- curity Advisor, Michael Flynn, has said the following about Iran: "I believe that Iran repre- sents a clear and present dan- ger to the region, and eventually to the world..." and, "...regime change in Tehran is the best way to stop the Iranian nuclear weapons program." Trump's CIA choice, Mike Pompeo, has said of President Obama's Iran deal, "The Iranian regime is intent on the destruc- tion of our country. Why the President does not understand is unfathomable." And Trump's selection for De- fense Secretary, General James Mattis, was even more aggres- sive, saying, "The Iranian re- gime in my mind is the single most enduring threat to stability and peace in the Middle East. ...Iran is not an enemy of ISIS. They have a lot to gain from the turmoil in the region that ISIS creates." Donald Trump's words in Cin- cinnati don't seem to match up with the views of the people that he's assigning to high places. At least when it comes to Iran. While I hope we can take President Trump at his word when it comes to foreign pol- icy, I also we think we should hold him to his word —— espe- cially his encouraging words last week. Will the incoming presi- dent have the ability to rein in his more bellicose cabinet mem- bers and their underlings? We can be sure about one thing: if Trump allows the neocons to capture the State Department, keeping his foreign policy prom- ises is going to be a lot more dif- ficult. Ron Paul is a former Congressman and Presidential candidate. He can be reached at the RonPaulInstitute.org. Ron Paul Trump must abandon regime change for Iran Tom Purcell Bill Cornelius OPINION » redbluffdailynews.com Wednesday, December 7, 2016 » MORE AT FACEBOOK.COM/RBDAILYNEWS AND TWITTER.COM/REDBLUFFNEWS A4