March 8, 2012 Shelton Mason County Journal | ![]() |
©
Shelton Mason County Journal. All rights reserved. Upgrade to access Premium Tools
PAGE 4 (4 of 22 available) PREVIOUS NEXT Jumbo Image Save To Scrapbook Set Notifiers PDF JPG
March 8, 2012 |
|
Website © 2025. All content copyrighted. Copyright Information Terms Of Use | Privacy Policy | Request Content Removal | About / FAQ | Get Acrobat Reader ![]() |
JOURNALEDITORIAL
love to see young people respectively, at a regional car- the Career and Technical Educa-
achieve success. We're pentry competition last month in tion (CTE) classes offered at SHS.
especially proud of Shel- Elma. They will next compete in Wood shop teacher Roger Mc-
ton High School students Dylan April in Renton and from there Causland also deserves kudos for
Helser, Colton Twiddy and Joe could go to a national competition preparing his students to perform
Strand. in Kansas. so well in a competitive environ-
The three seniors took first-, All of us in Shelton can be ment. He reports that all three of
second- and third-place finishes, proud of these young men andthem are working toward an ap-
prenticeship through the National
Center for Construction and Re-
search (NCCER). We're delighted
by that prospect and wish them
the best of luck.
We celebrate the struggles
and achievements of young ath-
letes every week in the pages
of this newspaper. Sometimes,
young writers, photographers,
artists and yes, even carpenters,
can escape our notice. That's
why we wanted to take this
opportunity to celebrate the
achievements of Helser, Twiddy
and Strand.
LETTERSTOTHEEDITOR
R, a rr..,,e example stated, in essence,
if We choose to divert from
the established law of mar-
should be riage between a man and
a women, and allow these
between freedoms to same-sex mar-
riage, we must allow the
oldest marriage known
to man, polygamy, which
m a n, is still practiced in some
cultures worldwide, and in
wom a n limited illegal groups here,
as long as they are consent-
Editor, the Journal ing, legal-aged adults. Who
I have to respond to Mr. are you, or the government,
McKee's and Ms. Cyr's to decide what group gets
lengthy convoluted vitri- the privilege and what
olic and misunderstood group doesn't, if the privi-
response to my letter in lege is extended at all?
response to Mr. Mckee Unless McKee, by his
regarding samesex mar- own interpretation of the
riage. Apparently my Eng- Constitution, is ready to
lish wasn't clear, allowthe same marriage
The simple point I was privilege to polygamous
trying to make was religion families (OK, I was exag-
and Bible aside -- which gerating on the sibling and
McKee brought up -- mar- underage marriages to
riage from the beginning of prove a point), then his and
time (long before Christian- everyone else's argument
ity) was a ceremony of some for the Constitutional free-
type, varying by culture dom for same-sex marriage
or location, binding a man is invalid and hypocritical.
and a woman, sometimes Get my point? Has nothing
with subsequent additional to do with religion.
women (polygamy), primar- To Cyr, property and in-
ily for the protection of the heritance is settled through
mothers, children, lineage wills and living trusts. The
and heritage, family dog can inherit. As
McKee, the words in my for spousal employment
letter were mine, not yours, benefits, while private or
with the exception of men- religious business owners
tioning your claim that the should treat individual
Constitution affords every gays with fairness and
living being in America equality, a marriage union
to have the freedom to do may be another matter; you
what they want or marry are forcing them to support
who they will (or even "take (through 401K and pension
drugs") as long as it doesn't contributions) to a mar-
hurt anyon~ and all are of riage tha~ may be against
legal age. their personal or religious
My argument, based on belief. Where is the consti-
your interpretation of the tutional or First Amend-
Constitution, is that you ment right of this private
cannot pick and chose who business owner? See? Slip-
can and who cannot receive pery slope.
those freedoms under your Enough said. If I am
own guidelines above. My called "out of touch with
reality," "ludicrous," and
"mean-spirited" for support-
ing the current rule of law
of conventional marriage
between one man and one
woman, that is OK by me.
Katie Groves
Shelton
Support Fire
District 2
EMS levy
Editor, the Journal
A wise man once stated
communities are like a
four-legged stool. Fire dep-
tartment, sheriffs office,
schools and churches; they
are the backbone of the
community. Remove one leg
- EMS levy -- and it will
tip our community balance
to a dangerous level.
A non-inflated six-year
renewal should be sup-
ported.
Vote "yes" on April 17 for
Mason Fire District 2 EMS
levy.
Jim LeBlanc
Retired firefighter/
past commissioner
Time will
tell on
Editor, the Journal
As a long-time member
of the Independent party, I
chose to forge my political
opinions around the mer-
its of an issue rather than
blindly follow the party
line. But even the most
independent of thinkers
would think twice before
turning against their own
party.
By joining with Repub-
licans in an arcane "Ninth
Order" process aimed at
hijacking Senate control
from Democrats, Sen. Tim
Sheldon, a registered Dem-
ocrat, may have stepped off
a political cliff and dragged
the entire 35th District
along with him. To be clear,
there's a world of difference
between reaching across
party lines to work with the
"other side" and joining in
an attack against your own
side.
If Sheldon seeks to take
advantage of the current
political winds, he should
declare himself for what
his actions indicate: not a
maverick Democrat, but as
an Independent, unencum-
bered by party loyalty.
That's not to say Shel-
don has no loyalties -- a
laundry list of corporate
supporters attests to his
unwavering allegiance to
special interests. Unfortu-
nately, those loyalties do
little to benefit the ordinary
citizen.
I would argue that
Sheldon's recent behavior
may not be what voters in
the 35th District had in
mind when they sent him
to Olympia. Indeed, in the
eyes of the body politic, it is
reasonable to assume some
will look unfavorably when
the time comes to award
grants or create public sec-
tor jobs. So the question
begs: Was it wise to build
an economy so dependent
on government largess
and then gamble away all
your political goodwill on a
single capricious act? Time
will tell.
One thing is for certain:
By engaging in high fash-
ion antics against his own
party, Sheldon has put the
economic future of the 35th
District at risk. And the
timing couldn't be worse.
Tom Davis
Shelton
You can't
have it both
ways
Editor, the Journal
Once again I am totally
flabbergasted by the politi-
cal verbiage that is coming
out of the mouths of those
running for the Republican
nomination.
They keep harping on
getting government out of
our lives. Doing away with
government in education,
government in industry,
government in everything
connected with our indi-
vidual liberties. This comes
out of one side of their
mouths. Then out of the
other side, they want to
control what women can
do with their bodies and
health choices. Some want
to outlaw birth control,
family planning and abor-
tion. They don't want insur-
ance companies to have to
provide coverage for these
items in their policies. Just
who are these want-to-bes
trying to impress, surely,
not the woman who can
now choose the size of her
family?
When Rick Santorum
stated he almost vomit-
ted when he listened to a
speech made by John F.
Kennedy that supported
the separation of church
and state, Santorum must
have had memory fail-
ure. At the time Kennedy ,
made this speech, he was
a candidate for president
of the United States, the
first Catholic to run for
that office. The Republican
Party kept bringing up the
hypotheses that if Kennedy
were elected, the Pope
would be running the coun-
try. Kennedy was trying to
reassure the voters he re-
spected and would adhere
to the principle of separa-
tion of church and state
as guaranteed in the First
Amendment. The First
Amendment guarantees
the principle of separation
of church and state by im-
plication.
Santorum is of the im-
pression women should not
be able to choose to have or
not have a child who would
be mentally or severely
physically incapacitated. He
and his wife chose to have
their child with mental
incapacity. That was their
choice. Yet he wants to re-
strict families, who may not
be able to cope with these
incapacities, the ability to
make the choice that is best
for their family.
All the pandering that
goes on at election time just
makes me want to puke. If
each candidate could do all
the things they are 'putting
forward as their platform,
we would be in a great deal
of trouble.
Wouldn't it be nice if the
public were subjected to all
this pandering for a total of
two weeks before Nov. 8 in
any election year?
Jacquelyn West Johnson
Shelton
II
in
Solicitors are welcome here. the tar out of
When's the last time you ~ the Grand Old
saw a sign like that? ~ Lady, the oldest
In 1983, my wife, our baby boy newspaper west
and everything we owned were of the Mississip-
packed into a 1966 Ford Fairlane pi: the Arkansas
and we moved from our hometown Gazette.
in Sioux City to a little cottage on Sales jobs
Lake Conway in Arkansas. were classified
Plan A was that I would write By TOM under their own
my novel and watch the boy, while MULLEN section and up
my good wife would bring in the until that day
steady income as a registered I thought they
nurse, were classified below all the other
She held up her end of the bar- jobs because that's what they
gain (always has) but after several were: below all the other jobs. I
weeks of sitting before a typewrit- fancied myself a writer and sales
er I had nothing to show for it but was beneath me.
a short poem to my son (we'll get But the wailing baby told a dif-
to that later), ferent story and I needed to earn
So I picked up a copy of the some income and the only news-
Arkansas Democrat in search of paper job was one in sales. Selling
work as a writer. The Democrat subscriptions, door-to-door for the
was then in the process of beating Arkansas Democrat.
It would at least get my foot in
the door.
Perhaps the best sales advice
I ever received was the first sales
advice I ever received, "treat ev-
erybody like they are your best
friend."
It took me less than two hours
of knocking doors in North Little
Rock to reach my weekly sales
quota of 20 subscriptions.
At the end of each week I was
reselling some of the subscriptions
I had sold to the other salesmen
who had failed to make their own
quotas.
So while I had always believed
myself to be a writer, I had, in fact,
proven myself to be a salesman.
As such I appreciate other good
salesmen and saleswomen. One of
my trainers taught me that a good
salesman keeps eight other people
employed.
It's been 30 years since I first
believed that notion and I'm
here to tell you it is true and
I've learned a heckuva lot more
through selling (and buying from
salespeople) than I ever learned
through writing.
A sales person is someone who
makes you believe that their very
presence is going to make your life
better.
That is to say, you WANT them
to call on you. You and I know a
lot of people whose company we
enjoy. They lift our spirits when
they are around and because of
that we want them around us.
Sales people are fun people
and that's why they drive our
economy.
My father-in-law, a design en-
gineer, would argue this point as
he's worked for companies who
treat their marketing departments
like gold and their engineers like,
well, engineers.
"Build a better mouse-trap and
the world will beat a path to your
door," is what he'd say, but I'll re-
ply, "baloney!"
The mountain did not come to
Mohammed.
So if you have something to sell,
then yell.
It was my son's yelling that got
my butt off a chair and out the
door.
That eventually meant more
readers for the Arkansas Demo-
crat and in some small way I
contributed to the success of an
upstart newspaper eclipsing their
competition.
And here's the poem:
Little eyes, little nose, little
feet, little toes.
Little mouth, little loud, still
you make, Daddy proud.
Shelton-Mason County
USPS 492-800
She~ton-Mason County Journal is a member of
Washington Newspaper Publishers' Association.
POSTMASTER: Send address changes to Shelton-Mason SUBSCRIPTION RATES:
County Journal, P.O. Box 430, Shelton, WA 98584. $37 per year for Mason County addresses,
Published weekly by Shelton-Mason County Journal, Inc. $51 per year in state of Washington but outside
at 227 west cota Street, Shelton, Washington Mason County, $61 per year out of state.
Mailing address: P.O. Box 430, Shelton, WA 98584
Telephone (360) 426-4412 • www.masoncounty.com Owned and published by
Periodicals postage paid at Shelton, Washington Shelton-Mason County Journal, Inc
Page A-4 - Shelton-Mason County Journal - Thursday, March 8, 2012
Kari Sleight, publisherAdvertising:
Jesse Mullen, general mgr. Dave Pierik, Sr. Acct. Executive
Harvey Morris, ad representative
Newsroom: Sharee Miller, ad representative
Kevan Moore, managing editor Front office:
Aria Shephard, North Mason, Donna Kinnaird, bookkeeper
environment, reporter Margot Brand, circulation
Natalie Johnson, reporter
Emily Hanson, sports reporter Cricket Carter, mailroom
Adam Rudnick, copy editor supervisor
Composing room:
William Adams, graphics
Koleen Wood, classifieds/legals
Becky Corr, typing
Pressroom:
Kelly Riordan, production manager
Travis Miller press operator