Don's Tuesday Column

THE WAY I SEE IT   by Don Polson   Red Bluff Daily News   11/21/2023

Thanks, truth and transparency

Gratitude for life’s blessings, thankfulness for every day we have on this earth, and a sense of wonder over the beauty around us from the earth to the heavens—those qualities can make the difference between despair and delight leading up to Thanksgiving.

My heart goes out to those who carry burdens of physical impediments and disease, those whose minds are compromised by thoughts of past wrongs and mistakes, and those with emotional darkness, anxiety, sadness and helplessness. I hope and pray for their relief and healing.

Joy and camaraderie among family and friends is the just reward for preparations of a hearty repast; bless the effort to bring loved ones together to share stories and conversations over a lovingly-made feast. Let us avoid contention and dispute over issues of politics or culture, and focus on that which we have in common as Americans who, despite challenging economic times and ever-present news of upheaval and war, still live in relative abundance and peace.

Thank you, first responders, and those who dedicate time and energy to provide for the less fortunate among us. We are fortunate to have a small town around us, and a rural county with rich soil, mountains and forests providing agricultural and bovine abundance, as well as the refreshing and restorative blessings of nature.

This writer has much to appreciate as the newly-installed “bionic” knee progresses in normalized functioning, approaching three months since surgery. It’s indicating that “easy peezy” skiing on “bunny slopes” will surely start our season, in December, on Mount Bachelor in Oregon.

Our two female cats provide endless joy with the 1-year-old tearing around the house in mindless randomness while the older one looks on in amusement and occasionally indulges in a little playful swatting. Gotta be grateful for how laughter over such things is “the best medicine.”

The highest and best source of gratitude must be reserved for my wife, Barbara, our 39+ years together, and lifetimes’ worth of memories of things we did, places we went and sights we’ve seen, even if we may not recreate all of our past activities and adventures. To have a partner to chuckle and laugh with, share a kiss, and recognize for her ebullient and joyful attitude—well, life just doesn’t get much better. Would that our bodies hang in there for a while longer because we’re not through with them yet.

Readers are owed truth and transparency when an entire column was dropped from being printed, as was nearly half of last week’s column. It harkens back three months when I wrote “Focus on local, state issues” to let you know that “Those were the instructions from ‘higher ups.’ Transition to local and state issues.”

While I certainly thought I was abiding by the mandates, the “cancelled” column and section did not “make the cut” as it were, and delved into national and Middle East issues. My bad; I am an admitted rebel pushing the limits, and deeply resent being told what to do or not do or say.

I’m like the baseball player, who wants to swing for the fences, being told to bunt this time around. Can you blame me? My literary passion runs deep but it’s not my paper, not my page; and I’m grudgingly grateful to be able to do the one thing I hated doing in college: write essays.

There is, however, a “target rich” environment here and in California, given that policies handed down from on high impact Tehama County locally. I’m told Governor Gavin Newsom is fair game. The blight of homeless vagrants, bums, druggies and criminals—together with otherwise upstanding, well-meaning down-on-their-luck folks—is an imposition that extends from well-healed, limousine-riding lawyers in Washington, D.C. to the most overturned appeals court in America, the 9^th Circuit.

You may not be aware that, outside of the states “governed” by the black-robed rulers of the 9^th Circuit, cities, towns and counties are free to demand that their sidewalks and public spaces not be “squatted” on by said vagrants, bums, etc. Chico, Redding, Red Bluff, as well as the cesspools of S.F., L.A. and cities to the north, were mandated that they may not remove the “homeless” unless “adequate” shelter be provided. The “unhoused” mostly don’t want it.

You probably don’t know that Boise, Idaho, was the target of choice when the D.C. law firm took up the cause of homeless sidewalk and park “campers” told to vacate public spaces. You see, Boise had shelters that weren’t even filled to capacity; however, some folks objected to, and refused to relocate in, said shelters if they were uncomfortable with their religious nature.

Hence the ludicrous indulgence, by “progressive” urban types, of public camping, open-air drug usage, and disgusting public sexual proclivities. I don’t personally see much of that in Red Bluff but I’m told that a certain “Mobile home/RV park” north of Sale Lane is a de facto homeless mecca and dumping ground for “society’s refuse.” Let’s hope that it’s being looked into, maybe even cleaned up.