Issue link: https://www.epageflip.net/i/766572
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 ThisismysecondopinioncolumnonCannabis Sativa, otherwise known as marijuana, pot, Mary Jane, joint, Acapulco Gold, etc. My take is that using it is just as bad as smoking, and probably worse. Morespecifically,Ithinka marijuana cigarette is more harmful than lighting up a Lucky Strike. On this I dis- agree with Pres- ident Obama. Since I was a smoker for about 25 years, I have reflected on the use of regular tobacco for a long time. The reason for my prejudice has become a medical and personal one. In 2010 a Sacramento sur- geon by the name of Dr. Sharma performed a six-way heart bypass on me. At the time, I was diagnosed as on the verge of a fatal heart attack. My granddaughter Lauren Hejsek asked the doctor, "Why does Grandpa have heart disease?" Dr. Sharma quickly told her, "That's because your Grandpa smoked for a long time. Don't you ever smoke." I loved him for being so direct. That was a message delivered. Think of either tobacco or marijuana cigarettes this way: Nature must first grow a plant, then harvest it, then let it decay, then smash it up, put some paper around it and finally light it afire. And fi- nally, "purposely" suck the re- sultant ash, smoke and debris into one's own lungs. Please remember lungs are specially designed to get us the oxygen necessary to breathe and stay alive. How very "unintelligent" was my smoking habit along with countless other people who are still doing it. I think one of my worst sins was all that smoking I did. My favorite cigarettes were Pall Malls until I switched to Sa- lem's with a better tasting menthol. I am amazed it took me so long to wake up and re- alize how bad my smoking habit was. I actually still re- member the letters L.S.M.F.T. That was an advertising slo- gan which stands for Lucky Strikes Mean Fine Tobacco. What it really should stand for is Living Stupid Means Final Termination. Termination of one's health that is. My take now is that ciga- rettes that have been legal for so many decades were bad enough. I think marijuana will take our society to a much worse place. Also, I never took the opportunity to have a joint. If you did or not, please give me your opinion. Cannabis is still illegal as far as our federal government is concerned. Our government listed it as a Schedule One sub- stance. I think our state prob- ably wanted to legalize and de- criminalize it so they could tax it. And, since Proposition 56 was approved by California's voters, a whopping $2 to each and every pack of cigarettes will be added. Anti-smoking folks have gained much ground in the last few decades. Unfortu- nately younger people today are showing us that they get "hooked" more quickly than older generations used to. A month ago the city of Sac- ramento decided to create a new fee and charge new culti- vators of marijuana for the po- licing and other services that will be needed to offset the negatives caused by making it legal. Some very bad societal habits like smoking won't be disappearing any time soon. Mytakeonthemovies "Miss Sloane," starring Jes- sica Chastain and Sam Water- ston, is a drama of political intrigue involving the lobby- ing effort to require criminal background checks before a citizen can purchase a gun. "Miss Sloane" is an ex- tremely well done contempo- rary film that I believe every- one, including President-elect Donald Trump, should see. 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 marijuana Please remember lungs are specially designed to get us the oxygen necessary to breathe and stay alive. How very "unintelligent" was my smoking habit along with countless other people who are still doing it. Community blessed with volunteer efforts Editor: As a year comes to a close, I often reflect on the past and think of those things for which I am most thankful. Of course, at the top of my list are family, health, friends, customers and those special people who make me proud to call Red Bluff and Tehama County home. Those people are the many volunteers who spend countless hours, never giving up in try- ing to help those in need and in working to make our commu- nity a better home for all. We are indeed blessed to have vol- unteer staff and board mem- bers for our local nonprofit or- ganizations such as Tehama County Youth Focus, PATH, Sacramento River Discovery Center, Faith Works, PAL and Tehama Together. Over the past few years, I have been especially impressed by the variety of activities be- ing spearheaded by Tehama Together, an organization es- tablished for the purpose of filling the gaps in services needed in the county. These services include 211 Te- hama, the 24/7 phone and on- line source of health and social service information; Tehama County Nonprofit Roundtable, the monthly gathering of non- profits to share program infor- mation; Tehama County Com- munity Food Alliance, the net- working of agricultural and nutrition efforts to promote a healthy Tehama County; the Children's Christmas Festival, the annual celebration for local families in need; the Tehama County Veterans Collaborative, which helps coordinate local re- sources for veterans; the Food From The Heart Fund Drive, which annually raises resources for local food banks and Home Again — K9s for Veterans, which helps train companion dogs for local veterans. During the past year I have partnered with Tehama To- gether in carrying out several of these services and have ap- preciated its commitment to the community. Even with a volun- teer board and staff, there are minimal operating costs requir- ing some fundraising. I hope, as 2016 comes to a close, you might consider making a tax-deduct- ible contribution to this worthy local resource. Please contact Tehama Together at 332 Pine St. in Red Bluff or call 527-2223. — Jessie Woods, Red Bluff Roads need to be a priority Editor: It looks like the new Tehama County Courthouse is in place and up and running. Although the roadway in front of the courthouse seems a bit incom- plete. What the heck. We got a new courthouse. The new county library be- ing built on Diamond Avenue is progressing. The location closer to a freeway access than the center of town, where the exist- ing library pretty much is. This may be baffling to some un- less you understand the neces- sity of building a 62-bed jail an- nex in place of our present li- brary. Which means closing or obstructing Madison Street be- tween Oak and Pine Streets. Boy howdy, who came up with that necessity? It sure looks like a lot of money is being spent on frivoli- ties while our roads and streets get worse every day. Then again priorities are priorities. — Joseph Ostrowski, Red Bluff In spite of all the dirty Editor: I find it amazing that the Hillary supporters, the Demo- cratic National Committee and the liberal media think they can continue to lie, cheat and steal. They all predicted if Trump were to lose there would be ri- ots and disruption everywhere. When Trump was asked if he would accept the outcome of the election if he lost, he said he would wait and see. Hillary re- sponded ad-nauseam about how awful it would be to disrupt the peaceful transfer of power that has been a tradition for so long. Well, Hillary lost and what happened? The agent-provoca- teurs in the liberal media, the Democratic National Commit- tee, individuals, various organi- zations from coast to coast in- cluding at least two locals that have been attacking Trump and his supporters on this opinion page immediately began froth- ing at the mouth. One of these "frothers" is Another_Bob who Don Polson has identified and I quote: "Another_Bob is Bob Mul- holland using a fake name to slime his foes" and Pat Johnston. Bob Mulholland is a Demo- cratic Party political strategist. The dying convulsions of Hill- ary's supporters doubled down on the dirty-dog name calling, character assassination, lying, crying, blaming Russia, pro- testing, rioting and attacking Trump supporters, recounts and death threats to electors that in the end gave Trump the electoral votes needed to be the next President of the United States of America, much to the chagrin of the rad- ical left and John Kasich. In all the hostility accrued there was no plea from Hillary, Obama or the first lady to stop the hostility for the peaceful transfer of power. However, Michelle Obama did say "See, now we're feeling what not having hope feels like." Was she referring to no hope for Obama's legacy? All indications are that Trump's presidential legacy is off to a very positive start, jobs are saved, jobs are prom- ised, the stock market is break- ing records and the dollar is up more than in the last decade and he is not yet president. No wonder all the liberals are frothing at the mouth. — Les Wolfe, Red Bluff Your opinions Cartoonist's take Everyone loves to see Christ- mas lights. It seems that the number of lights and special ef- fects has escalated since I was young. Now there are col- ored lights, white lights, blue lights, icicles and a flood- light that projects images onto the entire house, as well as huge inflat- able snowmen and Santas, com- plete with booming sound effects. Christmas decorations have gone high tech. There can be thousands of lights, the likes of which have not been seen since National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation. Most of us have shared Chevy's frustration, when he con- nects the final plug and the lights won't work. We wish we could tell him what the problem is — that the lights are plugged into a switched circuit — and the switch is turned off. Similarly, many computer malfunctions have re- portedly been resolved after ask- ing — "Is it plugged in?" Reality TV shows bring the over-the-top houses to us from all over the country. Why drive around looking for Christmas lights when you can kick back and watch them on the big screen? Just like the New Year's Eve fireworks on TV. But I think it might be nice to actually ex- perience something folks. I've heard that a popular thing kids do now is watch videos of other kids playing video games. Sad. There is a website called "Cal- ifornia Christmas Lights" where you can search for the best dec- orated houses by County. Nine homes come up in Redding and one in Red Bluff. Many local Christmas displays have been covered by local TV news. These stories are useful for those new- comers who are unfamiliar with the area's Christmas traditions and help convince us to go out see things firsthand I saw one about a house in Redding that was a winner on the Great American Christmas Light Fight. I think the name alone demonstrates just how far this has gone. I thought it might be fun to check it out when we were out. The house has its own website — "Red- ding Lights" and popped right up on Google. We were off. There weren't too many cars at five o'clock, but it was soon obvi- ous that we weren't the only ones who had that idea. After a couple of drive-byes, we found a great spot where we had a view of ev- erything and parked. In addi- tion to a website, the house has its own FM station, broadcasting music and information. This is significant because the Christmas lights are programmed to the music. We could really appreciate the show since we could watch the lights dance along with the Christmas music. It was great. A number of people had got- ten out of their cars to stand and watch, but then they couldn't hear the music, which is an integral part of the expe- rience. I'm sure it would have been a bit much for the neigh- bors if they had broadcast it outside. The lights and traffic alone were probably more than enough already. It was definitely a cool experience. There is a lot of work involved in putting up Christmas lights and decorations. Remember Chevy. The Redding Lights folks started around Halloween. I was always in awe of those folks who put Santa with his sleigh and reindeer on their second story home. Difficulty and dan- ger aside, I would be worried my roof might leak after attaching it secure enough to survive the high winds we've seen lately. Yes, having lots of Christmas lights looks really nice — but someone has to put them up. But it won't be me. I'd rather watch. A wreath and holiday welcome mat are enough for me. 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 The evolution of Christmas lights over the years Stan Statham Corky Pickering OPINION » redbluffdailynews.com Thursday, December 22, 2016 » MORE AT FACEBOOK.COM/RBDAILYNEWS AND TWITTER.COM/REDBLUFFNEWS A4