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| February 16, 2012 Shelton Mason County Journal |  |
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JOURNALEDITORIAL
A~pair of Mason County
hool districts had electer-
successes this week.
The North Mason and Mary
M. Knight school districts each
passed levies for educational sup-
port and operations on Tuesday.
Both levies are critical for
the ongoing education of Mason
County kids. The majority of vot-
ers in each district that said "yes"
are to be congratulated for mak-
ing the right decision.
In an ideal world, the Legis-
lature would fully fund school
districts with the money we all
send to Olympia every year.
However, despite a constitution-
al mandate to fully fund basic
education, we don't live in an
ideal world. Instead, local voters
are asked to step up and fill the
funding gap.
Over the course of four years,
the North Mason levy will collect
more than $17 million. The Mary
M. Knight levy, over the course of
two years, will raise a little more
than $1.2 million. It's hard to
imagine how much worse things
could be at each of the districts
without that funding.
Without local levies and voters
that support them, our county's
kids would suffer. The Mary M.
Knight measure passed by a mar-
gin of 60.27 percent to 39.73 per-
cent. In North Mason, 64.44 per-
cent of voters said "yes" compared
to 35.56 percent that said "no."
Regardless of whether or not
some folks had to hold their noses
while approving these measures,
we think that the final outcome
was well worth it.
LETTERSTOTHEEDITOR
marriage
Editor, the Journal:
I think it is necessary to
comment on the news article
on the front page on Feb. 9.
So, there's opposition here,
let me start by reminding the
opposition of the document
called the U.S. Constitution
-- this document has words
that are touted by many in
the United States today: "and
freedom for all." Not just,
some, but all who live within
the geographical boundaries
of the United States.
The government seems
to have taken on a life of its
own, now they have invaded
the bedroom. Remember folks
that the government is a
representative of the people,
all the people. And this coun-
t~¢ was founded upon the
premise that the people shall
remain free, that the govern-
ment shall not invade the
decisions regarding their free-
dom. Now, if two individuals
love and respect each other,
it should not be the job of the
government to step in and
say no. Their job is to pro-
mote tranquility, peace and
protect the people from for-
eign and domestic invaders,
to coin money and promote
general welfare, to main-
tain a standing army and to
maintain the courts, there
is nothing that states that
the government's job shall
be to invade the bedroom of
the people. And it should not
matter that it is two men or
two women, or a man and a
woman, as happiness is the
key. If these two individu-
als are not harming another
person or society or have not
committed crimes against
the society of the community
and have caused no problems
with the law, then what is
the government's job in stick-
ing their nose into the lives of
these people? Again, happi-
ness is the key here. Just like
drugs, what a person does
with his/her body is not the
government's business, just
so long as that person is not
harming society or the com-
mtmity, period.
It is not the government's
job to regulate a person's
sexual orientation. The argu-
ment comes when the Chris-
tians state the Bible tells
us that marriage shall be
between a man and a woman.
However, the reason that the
United States was founded
was to flee the tyranny of the
British king and his taxes,
etc. The 'colonies were based
upon the Bible and the colo-
nists were almost 100 percent
Christians. Now, here it is
225 years later and the Chris-
tians number only 39 percent
of the population of the Unit-
ed States and an entire 61
percent a variety of other reli-
gious belief systems exist. We
are back to the Constitution,
which states that the people
shall have the freedom ofreli-
gious belief. The government
cannot afford to'regulate the
people with the Constitution
securely hidden from their
decisions. Why? Well because
every government official who
steps into office must swear
an allegiance to the Constitu-
tion to protect the concepts
laid down by the Founding
Fathers of the nation. The
main theme of this nation
-- and one which attracts
people from other nations
all over the world -- is that
of freedom, period. Are the
citizens of society free when
the government regulates the
very thoughts of its citizens?
When it comes down to that,
then where did our precious
freedom go?
Thomas "Birdy" McKee
Olympia
Shelton
needs a
24-hour
pharmacy
Editor, the Journal:
On a recent afLernoon,
a friend asked me to drive
him to Mason General Hos-
pital; he was very weak
and thought he might be
experiencing appendicitis.
f was glad to help out and
drove him there. Initially, the
doctors thought he had cor-
rectly guessed his problem,
but after several tests it was
determined that my friend
was actually suffering from
d;-erticulitis; only antibiotics
and pain medicine were nec-
essary. You can well imagine
my friend's relief. Diverticu-
litis is no picnic, but between
it and appendicitis, he knew
a deal when he saw it. From
start to finish, this took about
two hours. Pretty darn good
service so far.
The discharge nurse gave
my friend two prescriptions
and told him to go to the
Fred Meyer pharmacy to get
them filled. We drove to Fred
Meyer, only to find out that
the pharmacy was closed.
My friend then called the
hospital to inquire if it could
give him a day's dose of the
medicines he needed, but he
was told that the hospital
could only dispense medica-
tions to in-patients. The Fred
Meyer staff advised him to
go to Walgreens in Olympia
to get his prescription filled.
(It was about 5:45 p.m.) On
a hunch, I drove to Walmart
and we found that its phar-
macy was still open. Luckily
my friend was able to get
his prescriptions filled there.
(The Walmart pharmacy
doses at 6 p.m.) The Walmart
pharmacist told me that he
was unaware of any 24-hour
pharmacy in Shelton.
Now, surely my friend isn't
the only person who might
need a prescription filled after
6 p.m. in our town of 10,000
souls. And sufferers them-
selves or parents of a suffering
child have to drive to Olympia
to get prescription medicines?
(Take my word on this, there
was no way my friend could
have driven himself anywhere,
let alone Olympia) I discussed
this situation with a neighbor,
who related a similar story.
She had been experiencing
some dental discomfort over
a few days and ignored treat-
ing it, until it got painful and
she visited her dentist. He
prescribed pain medicine,
which she was lucky enough
to obtain, but only after first
going to three other Shelton
pharmacies which had already
dosed for the day. Had her
visit been just a little bit later
in the day, she would have
had to drive to Olympia or do
without until the next day.
These events reminded
me of a personal experience. I
was a Peace Corps volunteer
in Guatemala City, Guate-
mala in the early '60s and
one night I became very ill.
My roommate drove me to
the Peace Corps doctor, who
examined me and concluded
that I was having a diverticu-
lar event. He wrote prescrip-
tions for me and gave them to
my roommate. Because it was
so late, my roommate asked
the doctor where to go to get
the prescriptions filled. The
doctor replied that we should
go to the farmacia de turno.
This is where the contrast
between Shelton of today and
the Guatemala City of 40
years ago struck me. It turns
out that while there is no 24-
hour pharmacy in Shelton,
each of Guatemala City's 11
boroughs did have one phar-
macy open around the clock, so
that people could obtain need-
ed medicine at any hour of the
day. On any particular day,
one pharmacy in each borough
was the farmacia de turno and
all the police officers and taxi
drivers knew which it was. If
memor~ serves, the name of
the day's farmacia de turno
was published in the daily
newspapers. The drug stores
were in essence taking turns
so that the city's citizens would
have access to medicine when
they needed it. We simply
asked the first police officer we
saw, which was the farmacia
de turno of the day; went there
and got the medicines I needed
without any delay.
Can the City of Shelton
learn something from Guate-
mala? In the three years I've
lived in Shelton, I personally
have never hadthe need to :
have a prescription filled in ....
an evening, but it could hap-
pen to me or to anyone of us.
Would it be out of line to sug-
gest that Shelton's medical/
pharmaceutical sectors study
this issue and figure out a
way to provide this service
to our city, a service that has
been available to the citizens
of Guatemala City for more
than 50 years?
Brian T. Walsh
Shelton
Griffey is
the solution
Editor, the Journal:
As I got home from work
tonight, I noticed a flyer at-
tached to my door. I thought
to myself, "Ok, who's selling
what now?" I pulled it offmy
door and instantly recognized
the picture of the firefighter
Dan Griffey. The flyer is a
campaign ad for his run at
the 35th District House of
Representatives.
I have met Griffey a few
times during my own politi-
cal activities, so I was pleased
to have received a flyer this
time. Why was I pleased? I
was pleased because I know
first hand that Dan Griffey is
the guy that he says he is in
the ad.
He is the kind of guy who
will look you in the eye while
shaking your hand. He is a
guy like me -- a working man.
I am tired of seeing
the good o1' boy network of
Democrats going to Olympia
year after year. I know there
is this mentality that they
are looking out for the little
guy, but if you actually do
some research,-you willsee
that Chis isn't true anymore.
They are in bed with big
unions and look out for them-
selves.
Our state is in trouble and
guess who has been in charge
for the past 30 years? I'll give
you a hint -- it sure hasn't
been people like Dan Griffey.
Jamie Bariekman
Shelton
e
W~ware losing the battle for
almon recovery in western ~~~
ashington because salm-
on habitat is being destroyed faster
than it can be restored. Despite
massive cuts in harvest, careful use
of hatcheries and a huge financial
investment in restoration during
the past four decades, salmon con-
tinue to decline along with their
habitat. As the salmon disappear,
so do our tribal cultures and treaty
rights. We are at a crossroads and
we are running out of time.
That's why we are asking the
federal government to come to align
its agencies and programs, and lead
a more coordinated salmon recovery
effort. We want the United States
to take charge of salmon recovery
because it has the obligation and
authority to ensure both salmon
recovery and protection of tribal
treaty rights. That responsibility is
alive today, just like the treaties.
We held up our end of the bar-
gain when we ceded most of the
By BILLY
FRANK JR.
land in western
Washington to
the U.S. govern-
ment through the
treaties of 1854-
55. In those trea-
ties, we retained
certain rights for
ourselves, such
as the right to
harvest salmon
in our traditional
fishing places as
we have always done. But those
rights are meaningless if the salmon
disappear. Already some of our
tYibes have lost even their most ba-
sic ceremonial and subsistence fish-
eries, the cornerstone of tribal life.
We began our eflbrt to get the
federal government to take charge
of salmon recovery when we trav-
eled last summer to Washington,
D.C., to meet with the White House.
Follow-up meetings with federal
leadership have been encourag-
ing. Attention is being focused on
increased enforcement of existing
habitat protection laws, protecting
instream flows for salmon, and en-
suring that federal actions are help-
ing to meet salmon recovery needs
and goals.
Too often, federal actions and fed-
erally funded state programs don't
contribute to salmon recovery and
sometimes even make it more dif-
ficult. A recent lawsuit filed by en-
Vironmental groups over floodplain
management in western Washing-
ton provides a good example.
The environmental groups want
the U.S. government to stop issu-
ing flood insurance in some parts
of Puget Sound until floodplain
management plans are changed to
reflect the needs not only of develop-
ers, but of endangered salmon and
orcas as well. We couldn't agree
more.
Floodplains are low-lying areas
that allow rivers to spread out dur-
ing high flows. They help provide
important salmon habitat for migra-
tion, rearing and spawning. Dikes,
overdevelopment and other flood-
plain impacts restrict the ability
of that habitat to support salmon,
and can lead to more costly damage
when flooding occurs. But it doesn't
have to be that way. Floodplain
management that is good for flood
control can also be good for salmon
habitat.
Up until now, the federal goveru-
ment's main response to declining
salmon runs has been to restrict
harvest. That's a recipe for failure.
Habitat must be held to the same
standard as harvest if we are going
to recover sahnon.
Before tribes can go fishing, we
are required to show that our fisher-
ies will contribute to salmon recov-
ery under the Endangered Species
Act. Those who damage or destroy
habitat must be held to the same
standard. No amount of fishery re-
strictions can restore salmon unless
they have enough good spawning
and rearing habitat.
We believe that salmon recovery
must take place at the watershed
level because that's where salmon
begin and end their lives. We al-
ready have developed recovery
plans and identified barriers to
salmon recovery for most water-
sheds in western Washington.
Those plans must be implemented
and those barriers fixed, and it
needs to happen soon.
One thing is clear. By every mea-
suring stick we use, salmon habitat
continues to disappear at an alarm-
ing rate, and that trend shows no
signs of improvement.
What we have been doing isn't
working. If we are going to succeed
with salmon recovery, the federal
government must use its authority
to honor our treaties and put us all
back on the path to salmon recov-
ery.
Billy Frank Jr. is the Chairman
of the Northwest Indian Fisheries
Commission.
Shelton-Mason County1~
'lJO r .....
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Page A-4- Shelton-Mason County Journal- Thursday, February 16, 2012
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