Issue link: https://www.epageflip.net/i/774672
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: Daily News 728Main St., Red Bluff, CA 96080 Facebook: Leave comments at FACEBOOK.COM/ RBDAILYNEWS Twitter: Follow and send tweets to @REDBLUFFNEWS Iwouldliketotellyou about a man named Ray Sand- erson. You don't know Ray Sanderson, but I guarantee that every single one of you has known someone who was very much like Ray. Ray Sander- son was born on August 14, 1946, in Tonawanda, New York. Al- though I am not sure of his timing, he somehow ended up Fairfield, California, where he graduated from high school in 1964. After high school, Ray did the right thing when he en- listed in the military and served his country on the bat- tlefields of Vietnam. After do- ing that right thing, Ray re- turned to Fairfield, where he was smitten by a pretty young lady by the name of Maggie Lonnergan. He married that pretty young lady in 1970, and within a few short years Mag- gie and Ray were parents to two bright, attractive, preco- cious little girls, Heather and Kirsten. After returning from the war, Ray settled into his life- time career as a welder, and a damn good welder he was. Ray owned and operated his own welding business for over forty years; and he was good enough to be hired by a junior college, where he taught weld- ing classes for over two de- cades. Billie and I are lucky enough to have a Ray Sander- son-created ornamental gate at the entrance to our drive- way. Like many folks who work in the trades, Ray was a long- time member of a morning coffee club, where the guys would meet at the neighbor- hood McDonald's every morn- ing and swap lies about fish- ing, hunting and family mat- ters prior to reporting to work. Ray's passion was fishing, and through the years owned many boats—even as many as four boats at one time. He also loved to garden, and there was not a vegetable ever made that he could not grow. I first met Ray Sanderson a couple decades back when son Cabe started courting Ray's bright, attractive and preco- cious daughter Kirsten; and, as they say, the rest is history. Cabe and Kirsten were mar- ried in 2003. In 2006 grand- daughter Samantha came along, followed a few years later by little sister, Alix Rose. After the birth of our grand- daughters, I saw Ray Sander- son on a pretty regular basis, and I came to know him well. Ray and Maggie wore ruts in the freeway from Fairfield to Red Bluff, attending soccer games, school performances, dance recitals and birthday parties involving Samantha and Alix. Ray Sanderson lived in a world dominated by women, and active women they are. His wife, his daughters and his granddaughters are each strong minded, strong willed, independent thinking intel- ligent women who are gonna do what they are gonna do. Like any smart man in his sit- uation, Ray Sanderson knew when to stay out of the way. In keeping with the unspo- ken grandfather code, Ray and I often found ourselves sit- ting next to each other in lawn chairs, mostly staying out of the way as our wives, children and grandchildren scurried around celebrating birthdays or other special occasions. It was often during these times that we shared our hopes and dreams for our family; and es- pecially for the two perfectly perfect granddaughters we shared. Ray Sanderson was a terrific grandfather. There was noth- ing he could not do. He and Samantha became the best of fishing buddies. He made Sam and Alix pancakes every time they visited his home. He took them to Baskin-Robbins for ice cream. They helped him grow his garden. He built them play structures; and most im- portant of all, Ray Sander- son loved our grand daugh- ters more than anything in the whole wide world. Like any normal red- blooded American, Ray Sand- erson carefully planned for the day he could retire and spend more time with his family, do- ing the things he most liked to do. He had family in South Dakota, and loved it there so much that a decade or so ago he constructed his dream cabin, a stone's throw away from Mount Rushmore. A couple years back Ray de- cided the time was right, so he sold that 40-year welding business. He retired from his teaching job at the junior col- lege. He began planning im- provements at his cabin. Ray began hauling tractors and boats and tools and stuff to his cabin so that he could live the American dream. And then eighteen months ago Ray Sanderson was diagnosed with lung cancer. Ray Sanderson was a smoker. He didn't drink a lick and you would never know he smoked because he would al- ways quietly sneak outside or take a walk so as not to bother others with his smoking. I am not a doctor but I can't help but think smoking was a ma- jor factor in Ray contracting cancer. Ray was a fighter, so while undergoing radiation and chemotherapy he continued to haul stuff to that cabin in South Dakota. He continued to fish and work in his gar- den, and most important of all he continued to eat ice cream with and make pan- cakes for Samantha and Alix Rose. And then, sadly, on the first day of this New Year Ray Sanderson lost his battle with cancer. Ray Sanderson was a re- ally good man. He was a ter- rific husband and father and an even better grandfather. He was my friend. If you don't smoke, don't start. If you do smoke, quit now. Do it for your spouse. Do it for your children. Do it for your grandchildren. Do it for Ray Sanderson. Rest in peace, Ray. You mat- tered, a lot. •••• Coming to the State The- atre: January 24, Roots and Boots tour, featuring re- nowned country artists, Pam Tillis, Collin Raye and Sammy Kershaw. Also appearing will be Red Bluff's own Chad Bush- nell. Tickets available at Te- hama Country Visitor Center. On February 2, eight-time CCMA Entertainer of the year Terri Clark will appear at the historic State Theatre. Ad- ditional information can be found at www.statetheatrered- bluff.com. 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 Remembering Ray Sanderson Cartoonist's take Get this: The share of millen- nials who own a home has fallen to a 30-year low. What's worse, reports The Wall Street Journal, is that 32 percent of 18- to 34-year-olds are living at home with Mom. The percentage hasn't been that high since 1940, at the tail end of the Great Depression. And that's not good for Amer- ica. I had my first taste of home- ownership 20 years ago af- ter buying a country house that made Herman Munster's place look like a Trump estate. Reno- vating it was awful enough, but all hell really broke loose when my father and I began work on the bathroom. The bolts that secured the commode to the floor had bro- ken. I raced to the hardware store to buy new bolts. We spent an hour installing them. We slowly lifted the commode into place and fished the bolts through the bolt holes. But the bolts were too short. "Son of a ... ," said my father. "The idiots gave us the wrong bolts." I said. I raced back to the hardware store. We toiled another hour and the new bolts worked. But a second problem occurred: The wax goop that seals the com- mode to the sewage pipe wasn't thick enough. "Son of a ... ," said my father. "The idiots gave us the wrong goop." I said. After several hours of this misery, my father and I com- pleted the bathroom. I thought then that the worst of homeown- ership was behind me, but it was just getting started. One day, while weeding a planter, I was attacked by ground bees. I poured two cups of gasoline into the bee hole. I wisely moved the 2.5-gallon gas- oline canister 10 feet away, then lit a match. It was then that I learned an important lesson about gasoline. Gasoline doesn't burn. Gaso- line fumes burn. They burn be- cause they are flammable. And they are especially flammable when you create a massive car- buretor in a dirt hole in your planter. As I neared the hole, I heard a giant "wooof," the sound gaso- line fumes make when they ex- plode. A 15-foot flame shot up the side of my freshly painted house. It took me an hour to douse all the flames and keep the neighbor- hood from burning down. The point is, owning a home changed me. It transformed me from a reckless, carefree renter into a concerned neighbor and a responsible citizen. Homeownership makes you aware of nutty government regu- lations that drive up electric and gas bills — it makes you engage more fully in our country's politi- cal process, which is a good thing. Homeownership makes you more likely to demand common- sense reforms — such as revi- sions to the Dodd-Frank banking law passed after the 2008 col- lapse, which has made it too dif- ficult for many otherwise quali- fied millennials to buy homes. The Atlantic cites two other reasons why millennials are not purchasing homes. Some millennials rent be- cause they desire the freedom to move from city to city and job to job as they climb the career lad- der. They can afford to buy but choose not to. A second group of millennials, however, includes minorities and people who haven't finished or attended college or trade school. Millennials in this group strug- gle to find the good-paying work that can support a mortgage. In any event, the hope is that Republican reforms will un- leash economic growth and al- low more millennials to pursue homeownership. If more millennials own homes, they'll become as misera- ble as I am. I can't think of a bet- ter way to make America great again. 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 Millennials need to own homes Ray Sanderson lived in a world dominated by women, and active women they are. His wife, his daughters and his granddaughters are each strong minded, strong willed, independent thinking intelligent women who are gonna do what they are gonna do. Bill Cornelius Tom Purcell This week, Congress passed a budget calling for increas- ing federal spending and add- ing $1.7 trillion to the national debt over the next ten years. Most so-called "fiscal con- servatives" voted for this big- spending budget because it al- lows Congress to repeal some parts of Obamacare via "rec- onciliation." As important as it is to repeal Obamacare, it does not justify increasing spending and debt. It is disappointing, but not surprising, that the Obamacare repeal would be used to jus- tify increasing spending. De- spite sequestration's minor (and largely phony) spending cuts, federal spending has increased every year since Republicans took control of the House of Representatives. Some will at- tribute this to the fact that the Republican House had to nego- tiate with a big-spending Dem- ocratic president — even though federal spending actually in- creased by a greater percent- age the last time Republicans controlled the White House and Congress than it did under President Obama. The history of massive spend- ing increases under unified Re- publican control of govern- ment is likely to repeat itself. During the presidential cam- paign, President-elect Donald Trump came out against reduc- ing spending on "entitlements." He also called for a variety of spending increases, including spending one trillion dollars on infrastructure. One positive part of the in- frastructure proposals is their use of tax credits to encour- age private sector invest- ments. Hopefully this will be the first step toward return- ing responsibility for building and maintaining our nation's infrastructure to the private sector. Unfortunately, the adminis- tration appears likely to sup- port increased federal spending on "shovel-ready" jobs. Claims that federal spending helps grow the economy rely on the fallacy of that which is not seen. While everyone sees the jobs and economic growth created by government infrastructure projects, no one sees the greater number of jobs that could have been created had the govern- ment not taken the resources out of the hands of private busi- nesses, investors, and entrepre- neurs. Despite what some con- servatives seem to think, this fallacy applies equally to Re- publican and Democrat spend- ing. President-elect Trump has criticized the past two admin- istrations' reckless foreign pol- icy, and he has publicly shamed the powerful Lockheed Mar- tin company for wasting tax- payer money. Yet, he continues to support increasing the mili- tary budget and has called for increased military intervention in the Middle East. The fact is the United States already spends too much on militarism. Not only does the United States spend more on the military than the combined military budgets of the next eight highest spending coun- tries, but Pentagon waste ex- ceeds the total Russian military budget. America can no longer af- ford to waste trillions of dollars on a militaristic foreign policy. Donald Trump should follow- up his attacks on wasteful mil- itary spending by dramatically changing our foreign policy and working to cut the Pentagon's bloated budget. If the new administration and Congress increase spend- ing, they will need the Federal Reserve to monetize the grow- ing debt. The need for an ac- commodative monetary pol- icy gives the Federal Reserve and its allies in Congress and in the deep state leverage over the administration. This lever- age could be used, for example, to pressure the administration to abandon support for the Au- dit the Fed legislation. Fed action can only delay the inevitable day of reckon- ing. Raising levels of federal spending and debt will inevi- tably lead to a major economic crisis. This crisis is likely to be reached when concerns over our national debt cause more countries to reject the dollar's status as the world's reserve currency. The only way to avoid this crisis is to stop increasing spending and instead begin re- ducing spending on all aspects of the welfare-warfare state. Ron Paul is a former Congressman and Presidential candidate. He can be reached at the RonPaulInstitute.org. Ron Paul Will Trump continue the Bush-Obama legacy? OPINION » redbluffdailynews.com Wednesday, January 18, 2017 » MORE AT FACEBOOK.COM/RBDAILYNEWS AND TWITTER.COM/REDBLUFFNEWS A4