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Newspaper Archive of
Shelton Mason County Journal
Shelton, Washington
March 10, 2011     Shelton Mason County Journal
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March 10, 2011
 
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r The events unfolding in the in places like Algeria, Egypt,Yet our attention is currentlylies in a free and unrestrained grievances." Arab world today will soon be Morocco and in front of Senegal's tuned into President Ronald Rea- press. Few of the nations mentioned looked upon as an international Presidential Palace. gan's "mad dog of the Arab world" The founders of this nation here have such protections for revolution. Massive protests followed in (Moammar Gadhafi) whose grip knew it and after they finished their peoples but social media is Traditional media focuses on those nations and in neighbor-on power, if not reality, remains writing the Constitution they set doing an end run, where it can the conflict and who or what will ing states like Yemen, Palestine, strong in Libya. about creating amendments, a and when it can, around the tyr- fill the vacuum left by the retreat Lebanon and Syria. And what about all those otherBill of Rights, that would protect anny. of Muslim dictators. The protests have become so Arab states? On January 21 a the people from their newly- As silly and inane as Twitter, But what caused it all? common as to make it hard to fol- man in Saudi Arabia blew himself formed government. Facebook and their ilk seem to be The spark was a man in Tuni- low, and the national media, as up. That powerfully oppressiveIt started like this: it is impossible to deny the power sic, Mohamed Bouazizi. He had it does so well, follows the easy regime quickly and quietly shut "Congress shall make no law they afford people around the reached the end of his rope, and stories, down the protests. The same isrespecting an establishment ofworld. frustrated with a government In many statehouses it appearstrue in Communist China where religion, or prohibiting the free Without them, few people that made it impossible for him to we have embarked on a more civil recent protests were quickly si- exercise thereof; or abridging the would have ever heard about Mo- care for his family, he set himself (thus far) revolution as an em- lenced, freedom of speech, or of the press; hamed Bouazizi's sacrifice. on fire. powered Republican party worksSo why are some revolutions or the right of the people peace- This new media is a harbinger In the following weeks, there to turn back the work of Demo-snuffed while others rage? ably to assemble, and to petition for freedom, and we cheer for its were more acts of self-immolation crats. A significant part of the answer the Government for a redress of success. Mi East Editor, the Journal We have all been listening to the uprisings of people in the Middle East. The citizens of those countries are trying to get rid of governments who have existed, it seems, not for the good of the people but for the leaders and their cronies only. Why should we in this country care? We voted for Bush to hopefully get rid of the mess going on in the Clinton administration. People were unhappy that the Democrats and Republicans always seem to bickering, blocking each other's actions and not getting any of our problems solved. Unfortunately for us, Bush did not come through and would have been gone after his first term if 9/11 had not occurred. Again, the citizens stepped up to complain by voting out the past and voted for "Change we can believe in." Well, it was obvious early on in Obama's administration that we would not be getting any change and instead big government was getting bigger, cronies were being given our money and not jail time and the people were paying for it all. People who were so tired of government growing bigger, collecting more taxes, and everyone getting less services started the Tea Party. So we, not just Tea Party members, booted out a whole bunch of congressman with the hope that they would get the "message" and stop the growth of government and get some semblance of control. Now the new Republican House thinks that the people really like the Republicans. Wrong. The citizens of this country were trying to send a message to the Republicans, Democrats and the president that we want our Congress and the president to stop the politics and solve our problems. We want more than new laws and tax raises and a growing bureaucracy. If Congress and Obama do not do what is right for us, they will be gone in the next election. The citizens of the US are trying to have a peaceful revolution of our own by doing what we can peacefully do to let congress and the president know and understand that "we the people" are getting weary of what has been going on in Washington, DC, or should I say, what has not been going on. And it is not just Washington, DC. Here in our Washington, we have seen state government grow faster than inflation and population growth, collect more of our money to support it, and give us less services. Federal, state and local governments pass more laws trying to control our lives and then condemn us for saying stop. When the economy slows, what do our elected leaders always do? They threaten us with layoffs of teachers, firefighters and police if we do not give them more money. Our federal, state and local governments do not seem to understand how unhappy the citizens are with what has been happening here in our county for many years now. What will it take to make them all understand? Richard F. Buchholz Shelton Hera Editor, the Journal In regards to the food bank article printed in the Herald on February 24. Sounds to me like someone has conned the Herald into assisting them in promoting their own personal agenda. Eugene Fiske not repai Editor, the Journal • I'm appalled with government waste and Shelton-Mason County misuse of taxpayer money. About two weeks ago, I observed a city road truck pull up on King Street. I watched as the drivergot :::tO the editor, will print:signedi original letters out of his rig, pulled out a push broom and brushed Of local interest. We will nOt publish letters that over alargerut five times, are libelous Or scurrilous in .nature,.Letters should I'm thinking 'great they are finally going to fill inbe under 350 words and provide conta and ad- the rut.' I had avoided this street because of this rut, information for the urna/, , : but he got back in his truck and drove away. I would love to see a reasonable explanation from the city of just what was accomplished, what kind of salary was the driver paid and total cost to the taxpayers? This government waste is all the way down from Congress to the city workers. Mrs. Johnson Shelton EMS not your typical Editor, the Journal In today's cloudy financial climate, evaluating taxes has never been more confusing. Political layers create an environment of mistrust and lead the taxpayer away from the tax's intent. Our mission is very simple, "Protect Life and Property." This motto is what emergency services are built on. Eighty percent of the emergency service workers you come in contact with are uncompensated volunteers. In our case, they are volunteer firefighters serving our community. The Emergency Service Levy that you will see on the April 26 ballot is a tax that is 100-percent benefit based. All monies collected will go directly into providing Emergency Medical Service. You will not see any administrative layers that take 60 percent of the fund in salaries and leave a reduced fund for services. Nope. This tax is mandated by law to only be used for medical service. Finally, a tax you can see and understand where your money is going and how it is being used. Our Emergency Medial evaluation of your home. our goal. Please, research Services levy is expired A $250,000 dollar home the EMS levy and feel and without a replacement will pay $7.29 a month free to ask us questions levy your fire department for unlimited 24-hour so that you can get the will be without emergency emergency medical information you need to medical funding for 2012. service. It is our goal make your vote in April. Our replacement levy tax to keep our costs down Clint Volk is set at the 2004 rate of without sacrificing service Fire Chief, Union .35 cents per thousand and we have achieved ! / Gaylene Wiseman Passing the Buck comp/alnts fi'om the fiHng sguad about secondhand: smoke." USPS 492-800 She~ton-Mason County Joumal 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 96584. $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, ~ing~:)n .... Mason County, $61 per year out of state, Mailing address: RO.:B0x 430, Shelton; WA'98584 :- :: i Telephone (360) 426-4412 * www.masoncounty.com .Owned and published by Periodicals postage paid at Shelton, Washington She~ton-Mason County Jouma/, Inc Page A-4 - Shelton-Mason County Journal - Thursday, March 10, 2011 Rick Kennedy, publisher Newsroom: Jesse Mullen, editor Kevan Moore, news editor Dean Siemon, sports Aria Shephard, North Mason, environment, reporter Natalie Johnson, reporter Advertising: Composing room: Dave Pierik, advertising manager William Adams, graphics Harvey Morris, ad representative Gaylene Wiseman, paginator Mat Taylor, ad representative Koleen Wood, classifieds/legals Front office: Becky Corr, typing Donna Kinnaird, bookkeeper Pressroom: Margot Brand, circulation Kelly Riordan, productionmanager Cricket Carter, mailroom supervisor Travis Miller press operator