Gavin Newsom is really starting to annoy me in his phony attempt to be cool with the masses by dropping the F-bomb to reporters and talk show hosts.

He’s the governor of California and should hold a standard above the hood rats he panders to.

Apparently it’s rubbing off – or maybe it’s just that Democrats have gotten so used to be disrespectful. After all, did you see how those two Congresswomen barked at Trump last week? The Sacramento Bee unloaded on Izzy Garden, Newsom’s director of communications, after he told RealClearPolitics reporter Susan Crabtree to “F” off when she asked for proof of a diagnosis that Newsom has dyslexia as he has espoused. Garden is only reflecting the temperament of his asinine boss. It’s very unbecoming of an elected official and his staff.

Newsom thinks being like Trump is going to win him the White House. To mimic the Lloyd Bentsen debate in his debate against Dan Quayle who used JFK quotes, “Governor, you’re no Trump.”

I’m embarrassed that California has a leader like Newsom. Nothing he has done has improved California. He often talks about California values but it’s far from the values I was raised on.

I was born in 1961 and Stanislaus County became home for me starting in 1965. I grew up with what you might call “Valley values.” Those values are open to interpretation but the following are some examples.

I went to church and was exposed to teachings of the Bible and tried to put them into practice.

I wasn’t afraid to get my hands dirty during work or play. My first summer job was cleaning out chicken manure from chicken houses. While attending college I was offered a job picking eggs at a Foster Farms ranch on Indiana Avenue.

I was taught to be a good person, which meant being patient and considerate of others and help whenever I can. I still occasionally give money to hungry people when I carry bills.

Politeness and being friendly were hallmarks we wanted to emulate. We politely offered thanks when served was another and said “no thanks” when we didn’t want what was offered.

We were expected to play by the rules and expected others to do the same.

We were kind to neighbors and animals and teachers and strangers. We boys were taught to hold the door open for women and in doing we were modeling a true man by honoring women and putting ourselves in second place as the servant.

We were taught to respect and honor our parents. And they disciplined us when we did not.

We listened to our elders, not dismissing them as old fashioned. When I explained my young liberal philosophy that disarmament was the pathway to world peace, a seasoned great uncle of mine who served in World War II set me straight and suggested that remaining armed and strong was how you keep the peace. It was a lesson I took to heart!

We weren’t taught to be afraid of guns. We were shown how to use them responsibly. We would never, even on our darkest day, think to hurt or kill anyone with one – unless they tried to kill us first.

We didn’t steal or shoplift. That hurts the owners of the store – and the employees.

We didn’t have video games to play so used our imagination or we read.

We had no internet so we had to wait for things to arrive in the mail, such as the Highlights magazine which my mother subscribed to for us boys. It featured a comic section named Goofus & Gallant, which showed two brothers reacting to the same situation. Goofus was always rude and self-serving and Gallant who was polite and kind and had manners. Gallant always lived by the golden rule, “Treat others the way you want to be treated.”

I longed to be more like Gallant, even though he was occasionally a sickening sweet goody-two shoes. I know what the creators were trying to convey to us boys, though. The lessons stuck. To this day I will pick up trash thrown down by Goofus or return grocery carts scattered in a store parking lot or even blocks away. I try not to interrupt people when they are talking. I try to be thankful and gracious when someone does something kind for me.  I try to call my dad regularly and did so when my mother and grandmother were around. I’m kind to animals.

I realize this is 2026 and as I see my 65th birthday loom into view I realize things have changed in America and not necessarily for the better.

I was more than a bit shocked to see Goofus and Gallant being ridiculed on cracked.com’s website a decade ago. It read:  “While trying to make him seem like a horrible awful idiot, the Highlights magazine always puts Goofus on the ‘bad’ side, which honestly isn’t all that bad. While Gallant seems like a nice child, any psychologist worth their salt can tell that in a few years someone will find about half a dozen bodies buried in his basement....with bite marks on the carcasses.”

I suppose that’s cracked.com’s way of getting a laugh but I didn’t laugh; I think it’s a sign of the times that society enjoys ridiculing goodness. There are no absolutes any more. No lines in the sand to cross because the lines have been blurred. Gallant knew better. In the word of the Aaron Tippin song, “you’ve got to stand for something or you’ll fall for anything.”

I realize Gallant was white but Gallant would not have crossed the border illegally. He waited his turn in lines. Goofus didn’t respect rules and would have. God knows the world is full of Goofuses because Associated Press no longer sanctions the use of the term “illegal alien.” AP’s Kathleen Carroll explained that it “is wrong” for reporters to use the word “illegal” to describe a person to “describe only an action.” (So following her logic I suppose AP will not be using the words swindler, murderer, rapist, or thief or mass murderer to describe people.)

Gallant treated others – especially girls – with respect. Goofus thought of his own selfish desires. The news is full of stories of women being raped and killed by men who obviously aren’t men but scoundrels. Men are supposed to protect women, not abuse them.

Unlike Newsom and occasionally Donald Trump, Gallant let no unclean word leave his lips. He used his words to lift others up and reflect good things. Today the recording industry today is run by Goofus. He was the one who let rap singer Wiz Khalifa insert his lines in Maroon 5’s “Payphone”: “Man, f--- that s---, I’ll be out spending all this money while you’re sitting ‘round wondering why it wasn’t you who came up from nothing … what a shame, could have got picked, had a really good game but you missed your last shot, got what you was looking for, now it’s me who they want so you can go and take that little piece of s--- with you.” That’s on top of Adam Levine’s preference to use the word “f-----g love song” instead of the radio edit of “stupid love song.” It’s no wonder people think it’s okay to use the F-bomb in public. It’s a reminder of vocabulary deficient and unimaginative they are.

Goofus demanded things given to him while Gallant knew hard work was required for things you want in life. Goofus are now in control of the nation’s purse strings, giving away everything to constituents to buy votes and make things “fair” against those “evil” rich people.

Gallant would have grown up and been grounded in an ideology based on what he believes to be good, honest and good. Goofus today is the reckless “low information voter.” Goofus and hundreds hate Trump because he’s Trump. A reporter went out asking them what they thought of Trump’s State of the State Address and they dissed it, one even saying she watched part of it. Problem is the question was posed on Tuesday morning before Trump gave the speech that night! So much for objectivity!

It was Goofus – in the form of a young lady – who shot me an email after a column in which I suggested voters are failing to educate themselves. Rather than debate my point, her email, titled, “Please move away,” read: “I have said it before and will say it again. You are a horrible column writer. Start a blog for your rants and leave my hometown paper to hometown issues. Sincerely, an annoyed reader.” When I offered her space to write a guest column from the left to balance out my conservative views, she failed to produce. You see, it’s easier to take a shot across the bow than devote time to expressing oneself in a critical and intelligent manner.

Which brings me to another point about Goofus – he was just plain rude. He was in the carload of anarchists who pulled up next to my car in the store parking lot the other day. They dropped by the store to buy beer on their way to the lake. But they took a moment to stage their own parking lot concert by cranking up the car stereo, standing outside their car to dance as their profanitylaced music shook their car, mine and the ground beneath us.

Cracked.com insults the traditionally held sense of right and wrong when they note that Goofus and Gallant strip creators Garry Cleveland Myers and Anni Matsick wanted “to show people that being a normal kid with slightly bad manners is pure evil while being generically robotic and awkwardly polite is akin to being an angel of the Lord.”

They’ve entirely missed the point. We have a whole bunch of people who prefer not to play by the rules or want to change the ones that have always worked for an orderly society. They are a reckless lot who in all honesty need to learn a thing or two. No wonder anyone reading 2 Timothy 3:1-9 have an ah-ha moment when they see “There will be terrible times in the last days. People will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boastful, proud, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, without love, unforgiving, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not lovers of the good, treacherous, rash, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God – having a form of godliness but denying its power.”

Sounds a lot like Goofus or his detractors at Cracked, doesn’t it?

This column is the opinion of Jeff Benziger, and does not necessarily represent the opinion of The Ceres Courier or 209 Multimedia Corporation.  How do you feel about this? Let Jeff know at jeffb@cerescourier.com