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Newspaper Archive of
Shelton Mason County Journal
Shelton, Washington
March 8, 2012     Shelton Mason County Journal
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March 8, 2012
 
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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