Issue link: https://www.epageflip.net/i/89866
6A Daily News – Thursday, October 25, 2012 Opinion DAILYNEWS RED BLUFF TEHAMACOUNTY T H E V O I C E O F T E H A M A C O U N T Y S I N C E 1 8 8 5 Greg Stevens, Publisher gstevens@redbluffdailynews.com Chip Thompson, Editor editor@redbluffdailynews.com Editorial policy The Daily News opinion is expressed in the editorial. The opinions expressed in columns, letters and cartoons are those of the authors and artists. Letter policy The Daily News welcomes let- ters from its readers on timely topics of public interest. All let- ters must be signed and pro- vide the writer's home street address and home phone num- ber. Anonymous letters, open letters to others, pen names and petition-style letters will not be allowed. Letters should be typed and cannot exceed two double-spaced pages or 500 words. When several letters address the same issue, a cross section of those submit- ted will be considered for publi- cation. Letters will be edited. Letters are published at the discretion of the editor. 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How to reach us Main office: 527-2151 Classified: 527-2151 Circulation: 527-2151 News tips: 527-2153 Sports: 527-2153 Obituaries: 527-2151 Photo: 527-2153 On the Web www.redbluffdailynews.com Fax Newsroom: 527-9251 Classified: 527-5774 Retail Adv.: 527-5774 Legal Adv.: 527-5774 Business Office: 527-3719 Address 545 Diamond Ave. Red Bluff, CA 96080, or P.O. Box 220 Red Bluff, CA 96080 Measure A Editor: A vote for Measure A would put Durango Resort RV Park – the only RV park inside the Red Bluff city limits – at a competi- tive disadvantage. This is our fifth year of work- Vote no on ing off and on in Red Bluff, and we have stayed at Durango Resort the entire time. If we had originally had to pay the extra 10 percent tax for the first month, we probably would have stayed in one of the county parks just outside the city limits. The county parks would have extending the Transient Occu- pancy Tax, designed for hotels, to its only RV park. The new tax is far more likely to cause Durango to lose business to the unaffected campgrounds and those further down the I-5 corri- dor. Durango would not be the only loser if Measure A is passed. Its guests, many of them long-term, patronize not just the adjacent Belle Mill Landing businesses, but the restaurants and stores citywide. Durango is a winner. Please an unfair advantage. This would greatly affect the income of Durango, one of the few Red Bluff business success stories in this severe recession. One of the reasons that we chose Durango was for the security it offers as well as the amenities and convenience to shopping. Durango is a thriving busi- ness, is such as asset to the city that it makes no sense to penal- ize it by unfair taxation. The city sees an opportunity to increase its revenue by Editor: I was glad to hear both presi- dential candidates mention diplomacy with Iran during the debate this week, but I'm con- cerned that some in Congress are already saying that the time for talking with Iran is over. I hope whoever wins the presidency supports real, sus- tained diplomacy and that my members of Congress work toward this goal. As former U.S. Ambassador to Israel Thomas War don't make it a loser. Vote no on Measure A. Joan Schmidt, Red Bluff Pickering recently wrote, "Patient, committed diplomacy is the only way to realize the long term and durable objec- tives of an Iran without nuclear weapons and a region without war." War is not the answer to the conflict between the U.S. and Iran. While in the debate I was glad to hear talk about peaceful resolu- tion of the conflict between the U.S. and Iran, I'm concerned that Congress could undermine diplomacy. I hope Senators Boxer and Feinstein will speak out on the Senate floor in support of diplo- macy to prevent war and a nuclear-armed Iran and oppose any legislation that puts road- blocks in the way of diplomacy. Sharon Young, Red Bluff In reference to the article written about the reunion of the Class of 1944: The Old Main Building Red Bluff High School, burned on Aug. 14, 1964, starting around 2 a.m. The Class of 1963, was the last Class of 1963 Editor: class to attend classes in that building, and shortly after grad- uation I went to work there. The state condemned the Your Turn building that spring and said it had to be repaired or abandoned, and it sat vacant for a year before burning. was unsafe to occupy. The public did not want to spend the money to repair "such and old building," so we went on double sessions on the cam- pus in the fall of 1963, with Quonset huts brought in and the library and cafeteria partitioned off with 2-by-4 sheet rock wall classrooms! The city kids came to school at 7 and stayed until noon, and as they were leaving the rural kids were bussed in and stayed until 5. mortar was deteriorat- ing and the building Seems the brick It didn't take long on double sessions to get a bond issue passed, and we moved into a new main office and classrooms in the fall of 1965. The site of the old building was replaced with the current tennis courts. Joan Rishel Goody, Red Bluff Your officials STATE ASSEMBLYMAN — Jim Nielsen (R) State Capitol Bldg., Room 6031 Sacramento, CA 95814 (916) 319-2002; Fax (916) 319-2102 STATE SENATOR — Doug LaMalfa (R) State Capitol Bldg., Room 3070 Sacramento, CA 95814 (916) 651-4004; Fax (916) 445-7750 GOVERNOR — Jerry Brown, State Capitol Bldg., Sacramento, CA 95814; (916) 445-2841; Fax (916) 558-3160; E-mail: gover- nor@governor.ca.gov. U.S. REPRESENTATIVE — Wally Herger (R), 2595 Cean- othus Ave., Ste. 182, Chico, CA 95973; 893-8363. U.S.SENATORS — Dianne Feinstein (D), One Post Street, Suite 2450, San Francisco, CA 94104; (415) 393-0707. Fax (415) 393-0710. Barbara Boxer (D), 1700 Montgomery St., Suite 240, San Francisco, CA 94111; (510) 286-8537. Fax (202) 224- 0454. My inner curmudgeon Commentary I truly am a good-hearted person who gives other people the benefit of the doubt, but at the same time inside me grows my future curmudgeon self. Although fortunately I am still decades away from becoming the old man who complains about everything, every once in awhile I have to vent some steam. Hence is a sampling of what my brain complains about. Halloween trick or treating should be limited to kids who can walk on their own to middle schoolers with the following exceptions: • Babies are allowed to be dressed up and brought to other family members' houses or immediate neighbors for mock trick or treating. But that's it. Yes your kid looks cute in the dinosaur costume, but if the child can't eat candy there is no reason to be trick or treating other than for the parents' ben- efit. Your friends without babies want to tell you this, but they can't because they are your friends. Wait a few years until the baby is allowed to eat sug- ary treats and then by all means have fun with the tradition. •Toddlers who can walk with a parent's hand can visit a few more houses on their street, but as soon as said kid requires an adult to pick him up, his or her trick or treating is done for the year. This is an in-between rule to see if a child is ready to take part in the tradition. •A general rule of thumb to follow: Iif the child in question can not tell you what he was dressed as the year prior, they should not have been trick or treating. allowed to trick or treat one out of their four years. It need not be their freshman year, they can wait until their senior year when a group of them find it would be humorous, but once they waste their 1-year excep- tion that's it — it's over for life. Trick or treating with younger siblings or cousins would also use up the exception if the teenager in question is asking for candy, too. If the teenager is only dressed up and stays off the porch in a supervisory role than it should be allowed. This rule should be tracked by the individual high schools, who will have permission slips to give the students when they exercise their waiver year. • One last teenager rule. If • High school students are they aren't putting someone else's life on the line. I do not get this stroller-first pushing craze I see at least a dozen times a year. Why would anyone bet the life of their child on the faith that, at that exact same moment, I'm not changing the radio sta- tion or searching for the last onion ring in my Burger King bag? *** involved parties at around 3 percent. The other 97 out of 100 times even more valuable seconds of my life are wasted. The biggest walking complaint. I can not stand peo- ple who cross in front of cars in parking lots by walk- ing diagonally instead of taking a perpendicular route. Another pedestrian any teenager in a pack of teenagers is not dressed in cos- tume than the entire group shall not receive any candy. It should be on the teenagers themselves to police this. Also sarcastic costumes are not allowed as teenagers are by nature already too sarcastic. *** believe should be classified as curmudgeonly but once again those of us without kids have a minority complex where we feel our opinions aren't valued. Parents should never push a stroller into the street with the assumption cars will stop for them just because they have the right of way. This next complaint I don't Although pedestrians with- out strollers should more than likely follow this rule, at least Rich Greene Although not as bad as the people who walk in parallel union fashion in front of cars, these diagonal walkers have cost me countless seconds of my life. a ticketable offense with the punishment that when the offender gets to their car and begin to pull out the police offi- cer walks a diagonal route in front of them so the offender feels the same sense of irrita- tion they just caused someone else. Diagonal walking should be Sticking with the driving theme, which is the curmud- geon's No. 1 source of irritation fuel, are 4-way stops. I would estimate the percent- age of times I've come to a 4- way stop and had the exchange properly executed by all *** Polite Pollys really get con- fused when a left hand turn is thrown into the mix. For some reason Polite Pollys can not grasp that they should proceed straight ahead and the left turn- ing driver will go halfway, pause, and then turn as the Polite Polly passes saving everyone at the intersection precious seconds. •••• don't pull up to a 4-way stop and a group of uncostumed teenagers holding pumpkin pales don't push a stroller diag- onally in front of me. It might take me hours to OK I feel better now. I just hope on Halloween I explain how irritated I was for those 5 seconds. Rich Greene can be reached at 527-2151, Ext. 109 or by email at rgreene@redbluffdailynews.c om. offenders are those I call the Polite Pollys. These are the peo- ple who always want others to go first, even though they should- n't. This often leads to an awkward and time-consuming exchange of hand waves before any positive action takes place.