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Newspaper Archive of
Shelton Mason County Journal
Shelton, Washington
January 21, 1971     Shelton Mason County Journal
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January 21, 1971
 
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Now that the University of Washington's board of regents has given its approval for the use of Husky Stadium for professional fun and games, President Charles Odegaard should be replaced by a professional promoter. There would have been but a small clutch of Christian martyrs and a large pride of undernourished lions in First Century Rome if Odegaard and the present UW regents had possessed the keys to that city's Colosseum. Emperor Domitian, whose stance on Christians was significantly to the right of Nero Claudius Caesar Augustus Germanicus, really knew how to fill the seats in both the lower and upper decks of his 87,000-seat stadium, and he did it regularly on a year-around basis. Domitian was the Jack Hurley of his day. He could draw a turnaway crowd even when the lions weren't particularly hungry and the Christians were as lethargic as Boom-Boom Kirkman. Odegaard and the regents, on the other hand, are conservative in the extreme with their presentation of the blood sport favored above all others by Northwest sporting types. They fill Husky Stadium six or seven times a year with howling multitudes of football fanatics, then let its 58,000 seats remain unsat-on for months on end. The addition of a few professional grid games will do little to remedy the situation. What is needed is a continuing program of spectacular and unusual events. An enterprising promoter might fill the field with wild animals from Safari Island and let the spectators.shoot at them from the stands for 25 bucks apiece. A full stadium would produce $1,450,100 for the athletic department on one Sunday afternoon• At that rate, the University of Washington couM send its swimming team to the world matches in Greenland and finance the entry of new teams into intercollegiate handball and croquet competition. The numerous three-day weekends during the coming year offer exciting opportunities for an imaginative entrepreneur. A surefire crowd-pleaser on the Fourth of July weekend, for instance, would be the world's first rock festival held on Astroturf. ":: :: I "As I understand it, we leave Buffalo, play in Seattle a year, For two and a half days, 58,000 good citizens could watch drug-taking, copulation, skinnydipping (in a portable creek) and whatever else good citizens go to rock festivals to watch, then on Monday afternoon the National Guard could be turned loose on the celebrants with mortars and bayonets. The film rights to such an extravaganza would surpass "Chitty Chitty Bang Bang!" in earning power. then move to Milwaukee." The time is now; a top promoter should replace Odegaard immediately• Write the governor. Write your legislators. Write your lobbyist. Write Emperor Domitian. The Senator from Boeing is apparently about to be joined by the Vice President from Boeing. If you've been worried about what happened to old what's-his-face - you know, the guy who made all the noise during the last election campaign and then disappeared November 4 - you can forget that call to Mr. Keene, Tracer of Lost Persons. Spiro is about to be freed from the basement of the White House. According to Newsweek, Vice President Spiro T. Agnew may soon draw a new White House assignment - a cross-country tour to sell the controversial supersonic transport to the public. He is scheduled, said the magazine, for deep briefings on the SST from top men at Boeing, General Electric and the Department of Transportation. This is encouraging news for the Pacific Northwest, particularly the Puget Sound area. The vice president's sensitivity, perceptiveness and deep feeling for the divers ethnic and regional characteristics of our great country will bring the people solidly together behind the SST, with, the consequent boost to Boeing providing an end to our economic slide. His fabled wit and extensive vocabulary will quickly win the hearts and minds of the sturdy sons of Scandinavian descent in Minnesota, for instance, when he tells them, following his SST pitch: "I want you to know that I have always admired the rugged tenacity of Swedes, and I understand your problems, such as having to pay eight dollars for a haircut because the barbers charge two dollars a side." A standing ovation will usher him out of the Polish Brotherhood Hall in Gary, Indiana, following his revelation that "the Poles have also built a supersonic transport, but are unable to get it off the ground because they ran out of coal." The Detroit chapter of the NAACP will immediately throw its support to the faster-than-sound silver bird when he explains that an operational SST will provide jobs for 3,000 additional baggage handlers and airport janitors, who will be recruited from minority applicants with college degrees. He'd have San Francisco's Italian-Americans rolling in the aisles with the news that "I grew up among persons of your heritage and learned at an early age how to recognize the bride's father at a Sicilian wedding - he's the one with the sawed-off shotgun." Cheering chicanos in El Paso will strew cactus blossoms in his path following assurances that "dedicated, hard-working Mexican-Americans are helping to stem the tide of inflation which has afflicted our nation. As I was telling Secretary Hardin the other day, you get twice as much for your greenback from a wetback." Yes, sir, things are looking up in the Northwest. President Nixon has finally given us the support he has withheld for two long years. He is sending us his only-begotten vice president to labor in the SST vineyard. The American supersonic transport will be built. We'll show those Frogs, Limeys and Commies, eh, Spiro? )W rool CAPITOL DOME ]By: Robert C. Culnmings + + .+ If the first 10 days fire any indication, this could be the roughest Legislature Gov. Dan Evans ever faced, but you never can tell. Marly sessions have started off much more explosively than this one, but few have had more ominous undertones. The trouble which lies ahead for a sizeable portion of the Governor's program is spelled out pretty well in the Senate committee assignments. Several of the Governor's "government improvement" measures appear doomed. New Roadblock These include one of the Governor's top priority bills, the measure merging the Department of Highways into a newly-created Department of Transportation• Well in advance of the session, it appeared likely that the bill would be enacted into law this time. Now it looks like it will meet the same fate it encountered in 1967 and again in 1969. It will probably pass the House as usual, but as usual die in a Senate committee. The only difference is that its funeral will be conducted by a different committee. It died in the Senate Highways Committee once, and once in the State Government Committee. It probably can clear either of these committees in this session, but it may require a miracle to get it over the final hurdle, the Senate Rules Committee. It appears to be pretty well stacked against the bill. Double Trouble His "gateway" amendment to the constitution, permitting broad revision in a single amendment, and his proposal for annual legislative sessions never were given much of a chance. Since the personnel of the Committee on Constitution, Elections and Legislative Processes was announced, their chances appear close to nil. Two other bills, to replace the Finance Committee with a department under jurisdiction of the Governor, and to expand the Department of Revenue, so it could take over collection of all taxes, face opposition from Democratic elective officers. In the senate, where the Democrats hold a 29-20 margin, this kind of opposition is almost insurmountable. Pension Pressure Potent Top Democrats in both houses of the Legislature have expressed the opinion privately Page 4 - Shelton-Mason County Journal - Thursday, January 21, 1971 that it wouldn't hurt the various state retirement funds if the st~to• withheld its contributions for two years, to help balance the budget. But these same Democrats say it can't be done. Pressure from teachers, big city firemen, big policemen, organized labor and others, they believe, will prove to be more than the legislators can stand. Many recall how the firefighters used their political muscle against a certain legislator a couple of years ago. Few want to risk the wrath of all the others and these, too. Taxpayers, Too But any way they move, it will be a calculated risk. Withholding pension contributions for two years would mean some $162 million toward balancing the general fund budget. If the law-makers won't approve this move, they will have only two other choices: " " Ehact additional new taxes to make up the difference, or make $162 million worth of cuts in a budget which many think already is far too austere• Which would seem to indicate that the Governor isn't the only person with problems this session. Initiative Delemma The initiative and referendum process was in the constitution for 4 1 years before the Legislature decided to increase the signature requirements for initiatives and referenda. For those first 41 years, the maximum signature requirement for an initiative was 50,000 valid signatures; for a referendum, 30,000. Since 1956, when the voters approved a constitutional amendment submitted to them by the 1 955 Legislature, the signature requirements for an initiative have been 8 per cent of the votes cast in the last previous presidential election, and for a referendum 4 per cent. This currently is, slightly more than 101,000. Now, less than 16 years later, some legislative leaders seriously are considering raising the signature requirements again. The 1955 action was precipitated by the large number of initiatives to the people which were qualifying for the ballot. The current thinking was triggered by the five initiatives to the Legislature which seem certain of being certified to the present session. Never before had more than one initiative to the Legislature qualified for consideration. It hit them where they live. It complicated the legislators' plans to enact their own seacoast management bill, and almost thwarted plans to lower the constitutional limit on property taxes• By BRUCE JOHANSEN Associate Editor, University of Washington Daily OLYMPIA - They call themselves: "The student's gateway to The System." "They" are the Intercollegiate Political Affairs Commission, a group of students from the state's five four-year colleges and universities. "The System" is the state government, wrapped in constitutional marble a quarter mile up a hill from the IPAC's two-room Olympia office at 1063 Capitol Way. The IPAC can't lobby because its $4,700 budget comes out of student government funds, which make it a "quasi-state"-funded organization. But it can tell you the office number, phone number and secretary's first name of nearly any legislator on the hill. The ASUW's Political Action committee, headed by John Britt, a junior in general studies, supplies $1,500 to IPAC's Olympia office. Student governments of Western, Central and Eastern Washington State Colleges and Washington State University make up the difference. Frank Morris, a graduate in history from CWSC, heads the Olympia office. Title: information co-ordinator. The IPAC - since it can't legally lobby as an organization - deals in information for students who come to Olympia to lobby as individuals. "The office," said Morris, "is set up to facilitate student participation in the legislative process." The P.A.C. of the ASUW will sponsor a legislative workshop for student lobbyists in the HUB, Jan. 20. Wendy Holden, a University junior in political psychology, is IPAC's statewide chairman. Pete Delunay of CWSC is also drawing up plans for a state-wide college legislative "news service" affiliated with IPAC and its campus branch agencies. Asked what issues would concern students in general, and 1PAC in particular, Morris and other stuuems who are working with it'AL Jot academic credit listed: "REPRESSIVE LEGISLATION," specifically a bill by Sam Guess, Republican Senator of Spokane, which lists 19 ways to "immediately suspend" students at state colleges and universities. The bill would also set up procedures for cutting off the salary of faculty members a governing board accuses of "unprofessional conduct." -POSSIBLE TUITION RAISES, including those proposed to the legislature by Governor Dan Evans in his annual budget message. The issue of tuition hikes, increasing by about one-third the cost of attending a public college or university in the state under the Evans proposal, is of "special interest" to the students at CWSC, said Morris. Dr. James Brooks, CWSC president, criticized proposed tuition increases Jan. 6 before the State Council on Higher Education. The hikes, he contended, would tend to screen low-income students out of the state educational system. Brooks said some 20 per cent of Central's students come from homes with an annual income of $6,000 or less. Staffers at IPAC's Olympia office also expressed interest in ecology bills, welfare legislation, laws which may set up day-care centers and resubmission of the 18-year old vote for state and local elections. The 18-year-old-vote campaign was the IPAC's centerpiece at last year's 32-day special session. This year, the 1PAC's first regular session in the Olympia office, the group's legislative focus will spread out. John Peick, a University junior in political science, will specialize in ecology and environmental legislation for IPAC. Tammi Fotherinham, also of the University, will specialize in student discipline proposals. Dale Krueger of CWSC's field will be tuition, fees and budgets for higher education. box: I• Editor, The Journal: I would like to reply to a recent letter attacking Initiative 43. Mrs. Olsen evidently did r/ot understand the exact provisions of the proposed Initiative to make such broad inferences. First of all, no piece of legislation is ever perfect nor can it satisfy 100% of the population. However, Environmental Council sponsors are enthusiastically in support of the measure. No dissenting votes were recorded at the meeting when approval of Initiative 43 was asked. Initiative 43 does not place restrictions on any body of water as suggested by the above mentioned letter. Bodies of water under 20 acres in area are not affected. Single family residences will not be affected by the Initiative's provisions providing that their use meets reasonable ecological and public health standards. Nowhere does Initiative 43 deny a home owner the proper use of his land. Land cannot be "confiscated" nor can it be severely without just com constitutional right. The Initiative's main is to insure orderly development of shorelands guarantee access by the the public's waters. Washington's useable, shorelands is now owned than 5% of the waterfront develo continues at its indiscriminate rate could very well be denied of Washington waters. Unchecked sh development has alread serious and irreparable the marine and adjacent We must think seriously future in ecological terms. A public meeting discussion on Initiative 43 held February 2, at 7:301 Shelton's PUD auditorium, have questions, be there your viewpoint. Gary Plews Washington Environmental ~~~~~Iu~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~l~~l~~~~~~l~~~l~~~~~~I~~ll~~~~~~~~~~ll~~~~~~ll~l~ll~l~~~l~~I~l~~~~~l~l~l~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~l~ll By HARPO DEXTER Bemidji Daily Pioneer Bemidji, Minnesota I am not a snowmobiler. In fact, I've been antisnowmobile. Several years ago, when the craze beginning, when my spruce trees, and my sleep, had from the mechanical onslaught, I ran a campaign them with several poems. I didn't win many friends. But I did influence of snowcat cowboys to respond with the suggestion quit complaining and start joining. They claimed thrill of the sport would immediately convert me ranks. ] prefer to pick my own pleasures. I know But I who bomb buildings, others who swap wives, and go sky diving. And all loudly acclaim the fun that having. I don't join them, because their particular pastti not appeal to me. I didn't join the snowmobilers eith , , f for the same reason. Instead I responded with the I really don't mind the fun that you find While tearing around on your scooter. Being honest, I guess I can almost confess I can stomach the screech of its tooter. So ride if you suit, your machine malemute, And tear up and down on the freezeway. But please do your best to respect my request, And quit snorting the thing through my Since then, in spite of my opposition, grown into a giant industry, with lots of lobbying have a friend who is now vice president of a He called me a short time ago and invited me material to their snowmobiling magazine. Now, with the chance to maybe make a few buck crazy contraptions, I need a new attitude. I have to kindliness toward the fraternity. I've got to see perspective. So I've searched sincerely for something good bellowing beasts and their remarkable ability to! silence and serenity at a distance of five or more I found something. A medical miracle. A time peculiar process which denies maturing of the phenomenon which has been sought since Ponce de fire-belching, air-polluting, ear-shattering Fountain Conclusively evidenced by the fact that when a 45- man gooses the throttle of a snowmobile immediately regressed to the mental ca six-year-old. So to the snowmobilers, my apologies for prior You are doing some good. And here is my offering. Your snowscooting trend still does offend My eardrums with shattering noise. But now I admit, there is truth in it, You're turning grown men into boys. Your howling machine, I still think obscene, And some of your habits uncouth. But I take off my hat, to the evidence that, You have found your Fountain of Youth. How's that for a beginning? We must all together. I promise to keep trying to develop a if you'll just promise to try to develop a muffler. ~~~~~~l~~~~~~~~l~~~l~~~~~~~I~~~~I~~~~l~~~~~~~ll~~l~l~~~~~~~~~~lI~lI~~l~l~~~l~~~~l~l~~I~~~~~~~~~ll~~i Founded 1886 by Grant C. Angle Mailing Address: Box 430, Shelton, Wa. 98584 Published at Shelton, Mason County, Washington, weekly, except two issues during week of Thanksgivil Entered as Second-Class Matter at the Post Office, Member of National Editorial Association Member of Washington Newspaper Publishers' SUBSCRIPTION RATES: $5.00 'per year in Mason in advance -- Outside Mason County $6.00 EDITOR AND PUBLISHER .....................