Don's Tuesday Column

THE WAY I SEE IT by Don Polson Red Bluff Daily News 5/06/2025

“If you cause one of these little ones...”

The New King James Version, Matthew 18: 6 tells us: “But whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in Me to sin, it would be better for him if a millstone were hung around his neck, and he were drowned in the depth of the sea.” Different versions: “who trusts in me” or “causes one...to stumble” or “whoso shall offend one of these little ones”; however, the punishment Jesus described for those who impose evil upon the innocent child or youth is the same throughout the Gospels.

Arguably, Jesus advocated for the death penalty for crimes against those “little ones,” while suggesting that having a “millstone hung around his neck...and drowned” was “better”...than what, we might ask? If perhaps the punishment expiates the offense, the worse result that awaits is eternal damnation in Hell.

This unintended Bible lesson seemed appropriate for some California-centric news items. Would these earn Jesus’ condemnation?

While mentioned previously, it’s a still-festering issue that Sacramento Democrats refuse to make it a felony to traffic youths under 18 for sexual exploitation. The subject itself almost crosses the line for a “family” newspaper. Readers must contemplate activities not unlike what Jesus said were worthy of death by drowning.

“California's Assembly Bill 379 (AB 379) was supposed to be a rare, bipartisan marriage between the Democrat Supermajority and the Republican minority to make it a felony to traffic any child younger than 18. In 2023, SB 1414 was passed and signed into law, making it a felony (it was formerly a misdemeanor) to traffic or purchase any child 15 years old or younger.

“Sen. Shannon Grove (R-Bakersfield), was the champion and author of this bill, and she originally made the age ceiling 18 years old or younger, but thanks to cretins like Sen. Scott Wiener, the bill was amended in committee and the age ceiling was lowered. Democrats also tried to kill the bill, putting SB 1414 in the Senate Appropriations Committee ‘suspense’ file, the place where bills go to die.” (search: AB 379, Townhall.com)

To Gov. Newsom’s credit (or positioning to run for president), he intervened to push the bill forward, but the language still remained, that the felony applied to trafficking those 15 years old or younger, leaving 16 to 17 year old sex trafficking as a misdemeanor (punishment=days in jail).

Credit another Democrat: “Enter Democratic Sacramento Assemblymember Maggy Krell (who prosecuted sex crimes for decades) who filed AB 379 this week with (Republican Bakersfield State Senator Shannon) Grove. The bill would solidify the felony conviction for anyone who purchases or solicits a 16 or 17-year-old for sex… ‘We're still seeing throughout California girls being sold for commercial sex, seeing a lot of teenagers. Creeps in cars lining up to buy teenagers. We need to do more to address demand. So this bill really does that,’” Krell said standing alongside Grove.

As of May 2, from Calmatters.org, “California Democrats backed into a corner over teen sex solicitation” by Jeanne Kuang. Long story short, Democrats are obsessed with “nuance,” needing “research” and “study,” and hypothetical “consensual” sex between older teens—all as a way to “kick the can down the road” and bury the serious penalties that sex trafficking should warrant.

Methinks they either are, or know of fellow Democrats who are, engaging in such practices. Maybe it hits a little too close to home, you might say.

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“California HS Girl Gives Testimony on ‘Traumatizing Effect of Trans-Identifying Male in Locker Room” (Redstate.com, 4/19). “Male and female, He created them.” (Genesis 1:27)

It’s a deluded defense of biological boys and men who’ve been told—by adults, misguided literature, social media propaganda, and their own warped psychology—that they were born in the wrong body, and that society owes them the deference of indulging in their make-believe self-identification.

Hence come puberty-blocking drugs and abominable surgeries (all irreversible), and deeply offensive “tolerance” of their sex-change fetish—parading their nakedness in girls’ locker rooms.

“California high school female track athlete, Celeste Diest broke down in tears while bravely recounting the horror of having to change in front of a trans-identifying male, while the school board members listening showed zero empathy.

“During the recent Lucia Mar Unified School District board meeting, Diest, a junior at Arroyo Grande High School, took to the podium to plead with the board to stop allowing biological males in their locker rooms, saying her privacy and that of other girls was being violated.

"I went into the women's locker room to change for track practice where I saw, at the end of my row, a biological male watching not only myself, but the other young women undress,” the high school student said.

“This experience was beyond traumatizing,” she added, as she started to get emotional. “Adults like yourself make me and my peers feel like our own comfort was invalid, even though our privacy was and still is completely violated.”