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Shelton Mason County Journal
Shelton, Washington
March 18, 1999     Shelton Mason County Journal
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March 18, 1999
 
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00ournal of Op" " mmn: A new game plan When we re wrong, we should admit it, and we have to con- fess that we made some boneheaded statements a few weeks ago in an editorial about the failure of the Mary M. Knight School District's building bond. We said the mail-in aspect of the measure apparently doomed it to failure. But with the pas- sage of the Point Defiance Zoo bond issue in Tacoma last week, we realize we were wrong. Why couldn't we see that the key factor in getting pa- trons to vote for a bond issue is the end product being offered, not the method of voting? The zoo proposal passed with all-mail balloting; MMK's bond went down in flames in February with all-mail voting. We've come to the conclusion that the key to the Point De- fiance passage was that proponents were offering a better place to house animals, not something as worthless as a better place to house and educate students. So we offer this modest proposal to the MMK School Board: Resubmit the bond issue, but change the name of the school to the Mary M. Knight Zoo. The promotional campaign has endless possibilities for promising changes at the school. Tell the patrons that the culinary arts program will start serving elephant ears and bear claws. Tell them a vocational plumbing program featuring snakes will be started. Promise to put silhouettes of male and female African tribesmen on the doors of the restrooms and start calling them zoo lees. Say you are seeking a seal of approval from the voters. Propose building a new stadium called the HippoDome where games will be officiated by zebras, and plan a three.story-high IBEX theatre. Tell them you'll beef up the English composition and literature programs to ap- pease animal-writes activists and get a tiger by the tale. Hope that several of the students develop hives and that some of the busy buzzers fill in for others gathering pollen so you can have lots of spelling bees. Let kids go ape at pep as- semblies. Be cagey developing the zoo theme. Tell the hard-line disciplinarians from New Yawk that cheetahs will be ex- pelled and that anyone breaking a law at school will be banished to the hayfield and told they won't get out un- til they make bale. Borrow a page from Point Defiance and publish a Christmas newsletter called ZooLites. No, what the MMK bond committee needs is not to boar peo- ple with more talk about a new library, added classrooms and buildings that don't leak. The committee needs to put its beast foot forward. - CG Your assignment The Shelton School District is asking local residents for a few minutes of their time to help develop an important educational policy. The question can be stated simply but is fraught with controversy. Should students be allowed to advance to the next grade level if they haven't met the standards for their current grade? Time was when students flunked if they hadn't mas- tered material. The verb "flunk" is now verboten in edu- cational circles, but we're allowed to use the word "retain" when talking about kids who'd be held back. The educational philosophy of late has been to practice some- thing called "social promotion," to send a child to the next grade even when he hasn't met standards. The theory is that hurting his self-esteem by holding him back would be more det- rimental than any harm to his education caused by his inabili- ty to function at the next level because he is unprepared. It should be noted for the purposes of this discussion that the ed- ucation of other children can be harmed by having unprepared, inattentive or disruptive students in their classes. The current educational reform project by the school district is to develop a promotion policy, and the district wants people to tell them what they think of a draft poli- cy. in a nutshell, the proposed policy calls for holding back children at the end of fifth grade and eighth grade if they don't meet standards. The get-tough policy is seen as necessary if children are to succeed in acquiring a new "certificate of mastery" that by the year 2004 will be a state requirement for graduation. Our opinion on the issue, we admit, is from the old school. We have felt for some time that society through its schools plays a feel-good game for 13 years and then throws the kids to the wolves at age 18. They're so pro- tected in their cocoon that the real world comes as a shock. We question whether it is worse to make a child go through the second grade again or keep passing him along until he drops out at age 15 in frustration because he can't succeed in school. In some ways, the wrong kids have been held back all these years - the ones who could learn faster if the teacher weren't slowed or interrupted by students who shouldn't be in a class. It seems so simple that some children should be held back but the issue is made so complex by social engineering. You can't succeed in second-year Spanish without the building blocks of first-year Spanish, but we pretend that a child who fails the first grade can handle the second. That said, if there's no consensus on holding back or not holding back, can we at least compromise to give a failing student a fighting chance? If there are 10 chil- dren in a school who shouldn't be promoted from the third grade but we don't want to retain them, can we put them in a 10-child fourth-grade classroom instead of a 24-child classroom so they get more attention? Can we promote a failing student only with the understanding he will attend mandatory summer school to catch up? We favor a heavy emphasis on remedial education for the clueless. You must have SOlne thoughts. Shelton School District Cur- riculum Director Joan Zook, the curriculum council and the school board would like to hear them. It doesn't matter whether you have children. Your taxes are going to schools. This is your society. And the decision on this issue will determine how pre- pared children are to function in your society. - CG Page 4" Shelton-Mason County Journal - Thursday, March 18, 1999 COUNT OFF-. The Human Board walks By DAVE BARRY We live in troubled and uncer- tain times, but I am feeling good - about myself; about my home- land; about all the nations of the earth; and, yes, about the future of humanity. And I will tell you why: I am on painkillers. I got them from my doctor, Curt. Curt is a great doctor, prob- ably the greatest doctor who ever lived, and I will tell you why: He gave me these painkillers. These are some STRONG painkillers. You should see the side effects! I started to read about them on the information sheet, but I got only as far as the part where it said I should report to the doctor's office if my... I don't know how to say this in a family newspaper... Okay, I'm just going to come right out and tell you: I'm supposed to report to the doctor's office if my outputs turn black. Now I believe in following med- ical advice up to a point, and that point is the point where you're be- ing advised to call a medical office and tell the person who answers the phone - often a complete stranger - about the color of your outputs. Because you don't know what that person will do with the information. For all you know,, the person will hang up the phone and shout across the doctor's of- fice waiting room- which for all you know is occupied by your im- portant business associates and several members of the British Royal Family- "DR. HAMBURG, DAVE BARRY CALLED TO SAY THAT HIS OUTPUTS ARE BLACK. HE DIDN'T SAY WHY HE WAS MONITORING THE COLOR OF HIS OUTPUTS, AND FRANKLY I DIDN'T WANT TO ASK." But aside from the side ef- fects - and I am not saying I HAD any of these side effects- these painkillers are terrific. I can walk normally! For the past three days I've been walking like The Hu- man Board, because I did some- thing to my back. Actually, I didn't do it: a large Haitian man did it. The way this came about was, my friend Philip said he wanted to see some soccer. Philip grew up in England, where as a youth he went to many soccer matches. (Of course, over there they don't call it "soccer." They call it "Nigel.") Philip told me that English soccer fans are VERY intense and sometimes express their disap- proval by throwing darts from the stands. "Ohe time," he said cheerfully, "I got one stuck in my shoulder." Nevertheless, Philip wanted to see a match, so we went to the Copa Latina, a soccer tournament held in Hialeah, a city next to Miami that has a proud demo- cratic tradition of reelecting polit- ical leaders no matter how many times they have been indicted. The match we saw was between a team called Soccer Locker, repre- senting a local store, and one called Seleccion Haiti, represent- ing Haiti. Philip and I sat in the stands with, I would conserva- tively estimate, every Haitian person on,Earth'! It wag--an exitlng match, and not just because we thought the stands, which appeared to be made of aluminum foil, were go- ing to collapse. What made it ex- citing was the Haitians, who are, without question, the greatest sports fans I have ever seen, and I will tell you why: They gave me these painkillers. No, wait, I'm getting confused (which is another side effect). The Haitian fans are great because they are so enthusiastic: They re- act to EVERYTHING that hap- pens on the field, including photo- synthesis, by cheering, booing, shouting, chanting, dancing, sing- ing and making cellular phone calls. Many fans do all these things simultaneously. Philip and I got so caught up in the spirit that we started cheering also. We do not speak Haitian Creole, so we invented cheers based on our recollection of high-school French, including such rousers as: --"Voici la plume de ma tante!" ("Here is the pen of my aunt!") "Montrez-moi le livre!" ("Show me the book!") "Nos rendements sent noirs/" ("Our outputs are black!") No, we did not really yell that last one. But we did, by cheering for the Haitian team, become close personal friends with the large, enthusiastic and very mus- cular man in front of us, often ex- changing painful "high-five" style hand slaps with him. And when the match went into overtime, and the Haitian team won, and the crowd went insane, and the grandstands were wobbling like Jell-O on a jackhammer, the large man turned around and decided to express his joy by picking both Philip and me up. Philip, using the quickness he developed by dodging darts as a lad, managed to escape, but I never even real- ized what was happening until the 'large man got his arms around my knees and hoisted me high into the air, and I found my- self being waved back and forth above the crowd like a human pennant. That was when I hurt my back. But now, thanks to Dr. Curt, I'm feeling really, really good, and if I have any of these painkillers left over, I'm going to implement world peace by sending them to the hostile factions in the Middle East and wherever it is they're having those troubles involving the "Kurds." Because you cannot feel hostile with these painkillers. I love the Kurds! I love you, too. Time for a nap. Junk education agency Editor, The Journal: The best thing Congress can do for the education system is de- fund, dismantle and do away with the United States Department of Education. Since its inception, as a "thanks" from President Carter to the National Education Associa- tion for its considerable support during his campaign, this bloated, buck-burning bureaucracy has si- phoned billions of the states' mon- ey into its bottomless pit! For what? I once read that the nearest thing to perpetual motion ever de- vised by man is a government committee. This DOE (destroyer of education) has been leveling the playing field, dumbing down the system and in general telling students, "It's okay to fail, at least you tried." May I remind you that a one-size-fits-all, class- less society is pure socialism! No Olympic athlete was ever awarded a gold medal in the high jump event because the bar had been lowered! Our governor just attended a meeting in D.C. where he along with other governors was "asking for more leeway" in how they spend federal education dollars. They should be talking to Con- gress. I refer you to paragraph one. Then along came "Uncle Billy" telling us our schools are over- crowded and falling to pieces. Yes, our school system is in cri- sis. Yes, voters continue, for the most part, to turn down bond is- sues. Why? Because we are fight- ing, at the local level, the huge problem created by the federal de- partment of education. It takes our money, holds it, wastes it (on salaries for over 4,000 employees in D.C. who average $60,000 per year) and then tells us we cannot have the benefit of whatever is left unless we run our schools by rules it sets. Our teachers will need a fed- eral license to teach? To teach what? I submit it won't be how to think -- it will be what to think! The President then tossed out his favorite fix-it-all number. He is going to place 100,000 more teachers in the schools. Where are we going to put those 100,000 teachers and their students? Will they fit into our overcrowded, fall- ing-down schools? If it sounds good, say it. If it feels good, do it. If it buys votes, push it - for now! For A1 Gore's benefit! Remember the 100,000 cops? That never come to fruition be- cause law-enforcement agencies across the country realized there was a catch and they wouldn't be able to pick up the full cost of a new "Clinton cop" when federal dollars were cut off. By the way, in Clinton's new budget, there are deep cuts in that very plan! So it follows the 100,000 teach- er bait will go down the "lack of funding" drain in a year or two. Then what? The Department of Education is the problem. It is not now nor will it ever be the solution. A required subject for every se- nior student in my high school 52 years ago was "U.S. Government History." It was taught by the vice principal. As graduation came near he said, 'Tou will not remember all we have covered this year but I ask you to never, ever forget one important fact. Every time the government en- gages in a new form of business, you lose a little more of your freedom." Education is a huge business, it is the people's business, right here in our state, in every state. Across this country people are working with local law enforce- ment to take back their neighbor- hoods and make them livable and safe again. There is no reason that our parents and teachers, with the backing of elected state officials, cannot take back our education system. Right now, with every passing day, more and more of the deci- sions, regulations and do-it-or- else rules are being made and forced on the states by appointed paper shufflers and their hired help! Federal edicts that directly affect your children and their fu- ture life. We can stop it. We have to be like well-diggers; we have to start at the top. We have to write to our senators and representatives and demand that the 43,000,000,000 (43 billion) dollars allotted to the Department of Ed- ucation belongs to the states, and we want it back! Vivian Mitchell Shelton /00eaders' 00ournal: Plan responsi Editor, The Journal: of the property that alread I am thankful that inhabitants perhaps will soon be deve of the county are tuned into the What business or venture growth management debate and succeed without are having a chance to under- stand who their neighbors are through the process of expression. The property owners that do not seem to be represented when the words and names start flying are the "silent majority" property owners who care deeply about how the future of the county is being mapped out. That is why we need to take advantage of the opportunity to complete the self- directed plan for our county that is represented by the Growth Management Act. It is my belief that the majority of us want responsible planning that encourages commercial and residential development in con- centrated areas leaving some of what we haven't yet developed as designated agricultural, forest or otherwise uninhabited lands. Contrary to the fears expressed by the more radical property rights advocates, planning for growth by concentrating develop- ment in designated areas not only costs the taxpayers less overall, by allowing infrastructure (roads, power, water.., etc.) growth to keep up with private develop- ment, it also increases the value planning? The same tainly be said for land use. Of course the difficulty the growing pains of upon what is to be our plan, within the guide sented by the GMA. erty owners will be any particular plan eve most of us would consider sponsible to not have a place, especially one that helping to craft as a those of you who don't land-use planning to be ant, consider the sightly sprawl, velopment, and values for the oped real estate. own future land use is denying property about responsible, long-term development tenance of one of the limited natural resourceS' have the privilege to own. We have the o the right thing and pb bly for our future! when? If not us, Mike Walking on Editor, The Journal: Untold numbers of salmon are being destroyed needlessly and unknowingly by those who com- plain loudest about their declin- ing numbers. Sport fishermen by the tens of thousands are wading about on salmon spawning beds unaware of the damage they may be caus- ing to the nests of eggs incubating in the gravel. Additionally, the thrusts from powerful propeller- driven and jet boats on the rivers are capable of severely damaging or completely destroying egg nests. Wading about on the sal- mon spawning beds is like piant- ing a garden and then continually trampling around on the planted area. It is ironic that what should be receiving the most attention and protection, i.e., the salmon spawning beds, is receiving the least attention and protection. It is also ironic that farmers are be- ing asked to build fences on both sides of streams that run through their farms to keep their cattle from damaging stream banks and walking about in the water while little if anything is being done to control the damaging fishermen and boaters ers and streams. In Montana a was done on the effects around on spawning study determined about on spawning detrimental effect. The vealed that in the egg development the rate was up to 43 just one wrong step. The Montana rected the Montana of Fish, Wildlife and adopt rules for the of recreational tse streams. If it has mined that wading spawning beds is fish in Montana, it is sume that such mental to fish in well. Sport fishermen can ing without tram spawning habitat or powered boats over beds. Regulating such will mean more Bill Editor, The Journal: As one of 16 co-sponsors for the bear and cougar legislation in the House of Representatives, I want to clear up misconceptions some people may have about the propo- sal. The legislation would author- ize only a very limited use of ef- fective management tools to hunt bears and cougars - and only if these wild animals are found to represent a threat to humans, pets or livestock. House Bill 1012 does not alter the citizen initiative that outlaws the use of hounds or bait for bear or cougar hunting. In fact, the bill gives substance to a public-safety policy that already exists in the state law. The Department of Fish and Wildlife has the respon- sibility to use these management tools to protect people, domestic animals and personal This bill is a reasor to a serious situation. Citizens need to know use of these managernt will be closely that this legislation any way create a new season for the general hunt cougars and islation does not 655. Fish and could use these tools dress public-safety ne cases where the bear population is resent a potential threat" Simply put, this is overturning what the ed for  it's about sense to guarantee pu Representative  POSTMASTER: Send address changes to Shelton-Mason County Journal, P.O. Box 430, Shelton, WA 98584. Published weekly by Shelton Publishing Inc. at 227 West Cota Street, E Mailing address: P.O. Box 430, Shelton, WA 98584 Telephone (360) 426-4412 Second-class postage paid at Shelton, Washington Member of Washington Newspaper Publishers' Association SUBSCRIPTION RATES: $25.00 per year in-county addreSS, $35.00 per year in state of Washington $45.00 Charles Gay, editor and publisher. Neweroom: Carolyn Maddux managing Patch, sports editor; Jeff Green, general assignment, city government' schoOlS;  society editor, county government; Sean Hanlon, police, courts, Port of Shelton. Stephen Gay, advertising manager; Janet Daugherty and Dave Pierik, ad Julie Orme, business manager; Vicki Kamin, circulation; Donna Dooms, Mahony, office assistant. Composing room: Diane Riordan, supervisor; Jan Kallinen, paste-up; Koleen Wood, typesetter and com computer ad layout and computer system manager; Cynthia Meyer, proofread' Robert Rocldguez, production foreman; Roger Lawson, darkroom; Kelly ll 00ournal of Op" " mmn: A new game plan When we re wrong, we should admit it, and we have to con- fess that we made some boneheaded statements a few weeks ago in an editorial about the failure of the Mary M. Knight School District's building bond. We said the mail-in aspect of the measure apparently doomed it to failure. But with the pas- sage of the Point Defiance Zoo bond issue in Tacoma last week, we realize we were wrong. Why couldn't we see that the key factor in getting pa- trons to vote for a bond issue is the end product being offered, not the method of voting? The zoo proposal passed with all-mail balloting; MMK's bond went down in flames in February with all-mail voting. We've come to the conclusion that the key to the Point De- fiance passage was that proponents were offering a better place to house animals, not something as worthless as a better place to house and educate students. So we offer this modest proposal to the MMK School Board: Resubmit the bond issue, but change the name of the school to the Mary M. Knight Zoo. The promotional campaign has endless possibilities for promising changes at the school. Tell the patrons that the culinary arts program will start serving elephant ears and bear claws. Tell them a vocational plumbing program featuring snakes will be started. Promise to put silhouettes of male and female African tribesmen on the doors of the restrooms and start calling them zoo lees. Say you are seeking a seal of approval from the voters. Propose building a new stadium called the HippoDome where games will be officiated by zebras, and plan a three.story-high IBEX theatre. Tell them you'll beef up the English composition and literature programs to ap- pease animal-writes activists and get a tiger by the tale. Hope that several of the students develop hives and that some of the busy buzzers fill in for others gathering pollen so you can have lots of spelling bees. Let kids go ape at pep as- semblies. Be cagey developing the zoo theme. Tell the hard-line disciplinarians from New Yawk that cheetahs will be ex- pelled and that anyone breaking a law at school will be banished to the hayfield and told they won't get out un- til they make bale. Borrow a page from Point Defiance and publish a Christmas newsletter called ZooLites. No, what the MMK bond committee needs is not to boar peo- ple with more talk about a new library, added classrooms and buildings that don't leak. The committee needs to put its beast foot forward. - CG Your assignment The Shelton School District is asking local residents for a few minutes of their time to help develop an important educational policy. The question can be stated simply but is fraught with controversy. Should students be allowed to advance to the next grade level if they haven't met the standards for their current grade? Time was when students flunked if they hadn't mas- tered material. The verb "flunk" is now verboten in edu- cational circles, but we're allowed to use the word "retain" when talking about kids who'd be held back. The educational philosophy of late has been to practice some- thing called "social promotion," to send a child to the next grade even when he hasn't met standards. The theory is that hurting his self-esteem by holding him back would be more det- rimental than any harm to his education caused by his inabili- ty to function at the next level because he is unprepared. It should be noted for the purposes of this discussion that the ed- ucation of other children can be harmed by having unprepared, inattentive or disruptive students in their classes. The current educational reform project by the school district is to develop a promotion policy, and the district wants people to tell them what they think of a draft poli- cy. in a nutshell, the proposed policy calls for holding back children at the end of fifth grade and eighth grade if they don't meet standards. The get-tough policy is seen as necessary if children are to succeed in acquiring a new "certificate of mastery" that by the year 2004 will be a state requirement for graduation. Our opinion on the issue, we admit, is from the old school. We have felt for some time that society through its schools plays a feel-good game for 13 years and then throws the kids to the wolves at age 18. They're so pro- tected in their cocoon that the real world comes as a shock. We question whether it is worse to make a child go through the second grade again or keep passing him along until he drops out at age 15 in frustration because he can't succeed in school. In some ways, the wrong kids have been held back all these years - the ones who could learn faster if the teacher weren't slowed or interrupted by students who shouldn't be in a class. It seems so simple that some children should be held back but the issue is made so complex by social engineering. You can't succeed in second-year Spanish without the building blocks of first-year Spanish, but we pretend that a child who fails the first grade can handle the second. That said, if there's no consensus on holding back or not holding back, can we at least compromise to give a failing student a fighting chance? If there are 10 chil- dren in a school who shouldn't be promoted from the third grade but we don't want to retain them, can we put them in a 10-child fourth-grade classroom instead of a 24-child classroom so they get more attention? Can we promote a failing student only with the understanding he will attend mandatory summer school to catch up? We favor a heavy emphasis on remedial education for the clueless. You must have SOlne thoughts. Shelton School District Cur- riculum Director Joan Zook, the curriculum council and the school board would like to hear them. It doesn't matter whether you have children. Your taxes are going to schools. This is your society. And the decision on this issue will determine how pre- pared children are to function in your society. - CG Page 4" Shelton-Mason County Journal - Thursday, March 18, 1999 COUNT OFF-. The Human Board walks By DAVE BARRY We live in troubled and uncer- tain times, but I am feeling good - about myself; about my home- land; about all the nations of the earth; and, yes, about the future of humanity. And I will tell you why: I am on painkillers. I got them from my doctor, Curt. Curt is a great doctor, prob- ably the greatest doctor who ever lived, and I will tell you why: He gave me these painkillers. These are some STRONG painkillers. You should see the side effects! I started to read about them on the information sheet, but I got only as far as the part where it said I should report to the doctor's office if my... I don't know how to say this in a family newspaper... Okay, I'm just going to come right out and tell you: I'm supposed to report to the doctor's office if my outputs turn black. Now I believe in following med- ical advice up to a point, and that point is the point where you're be- ing advised to call a medical office and tell the person who answers the phone - often a complete stranger - about the color of your outputs. Because you don't know what that person will do with the information. For all you know,, the person will hang up the phone and shout across the doctor's of- fice waiting room- which for all you know is occupied by your im- portant business associates and several members of the British Royal Family- "DR. HAMBURG, DAVE BARRY CALLED TO SAY THAT HIS OUTPUTS ARE BLACK. HE DIDN'T SAY WHY HE WAS MONITORING THE COLOR OF HIS OUTPUTS, AND FRANKLY I DIDN'T WANT TO ASK." But aside from the side ef- fects - and I am not saying I HAD any of these side effects- these painkillers are terrific. I can walk normally! For the past three days I've been walking like The Hu- man Board, because I did some- thing to my back. Actually, I didn't do it: a large Haitian man did it. The way this came about was, my friend Philip said he wanted to see some soccer. Philip grew up in England, where as a youth he went to many soccer matches. (Of course, over there they don't call it "soccer." They call it "Nigel.") Philip told me that English soccer fans are VERY intense and sometimes express their disap- proval by throwing darts from the stands. "Ohe time," he said cheerfully, "I got one stuck in my shoulder." Nevertheless, Philip wanted to see a match, so we went to the Copa Latina, a soccer tournament held in Hialeah, a city next to Miami that has a proud demo- cratic tradition of reelecting polit- ical leaders no matter how many times they have been indicted. The match we saw was between a team called Soccer Locker, repre- senting a local store, and one called Seleccion Haiti, represent- ing Haiti. Philip and I sat in the stands with, I would conserva- tively estimate, every Haitian person on,Earth'! It wag--an exitlng match, and not just because we thought the stands, which appeared to be made of aluminum foil, were go- ing to collapse. What made it ex- citing was the Haitians, who are, without question, the greatest sports fans I have ever seen, and I will tell you why: They gave me these painkillers. No, wait, I'm getting confused (which is another side effect). The Haitian fans are great because they are so enthusiastic: They re- act to EVERYTHING that hap- pens on the field, including photo- synthesis, by cheering, booing, shouting, chanting, dancing, sing- ing and making cellular phone calls. Many fans do all these things simultaneously. Philip and I got so caught up in the spirit that we started cheering also. We do not speak Haitian Creole, so we invented cheers based on our recollection of high-school French, including such rousers as: --"Voici la plume de ma tante!" ("Here is the pen of my aunt!") "Montrez-moi le livre!" ("Show me the book!") "Nos rendements sent noirs/" ("Our outputs are black!") No, we did not really yell that last one. But we did, by cheering for the Haitian team, become close personal friends with the large, enthusiastic and very mus- cular man in front of us, often ex- changing painful "high-five" style hand slaps with him. And when the match went into overtime, and the Haitian team won, and the crowd went insane, and the grandstands were wobbling like Jell-O on a jackhammer, the large man turned around and decided to express his joy by picking both Philip and me up. Philip, using the quickness he developed by dodging darts as a lad, managed to escape, but I never even real- ized what was happening until the 'large man got his arms around my knees and hoisted me high into the air, and I found my- self being waved back and forth above the crowd like a human pennant. That was when I hurt my back. But now, thanks to Dr. Curt, I'm feeling really, really good, and if I have any of these painkillers left over, I'm going to implement world peace by sending them to the hostile factions in the Middle East and wherever it is they're having those troubles involving the "Kurds." Because you cannot feel hostile with these painkillers. I love the Kurds! I love you, too. Time for a nap. Junk education agency Editor, The Journal: The best thing Congress can do for the education system is de- fund, dismantle and do away with the United States Department of Education. Since its inception, as a "thanks" from President Carter to the National Education Associa- tion for its considerable support during his campaign, this bloated, buck-burning bureaucracy has si- phoned billions of the states' mon- ey into its bottomless pit! For what? I once read that the nearest thing to perpetual motion ever de- vised by man is a government committee. This DOE (destroyer of education) has been leveling the playing field, dumbing down the system and in general telling students, "It's okay to fail, at least you tried." May I remind you that a one-size-fits-all, class- less society is pure socialism! No Olympic athlete was ever awarded a gold medal in the high jump event because the bar had been lowered! Our governor just attended a meeting in D.C. where he along with other governors was "asking for more leeway" in how they spend federal education dollars. They should be talking to Con- gress. I refer you to paragraph one. Then along came "Uncle Billy" telling us our schools are over- crowded and falling to pieces. Yes, our school system is in cri- sis. Yes, voters continue, for the most part, to turn down bond is- sues. Why? Because we are fight- ing, at the local level, the huge problem created by the federal de- partment of education. It takes our money, holds it, wastes it (on salaries for over 4,000 employees in D.C. who average $60,000 per year) and then tells us we cannot have the benefit of whatever is left unless we run our schools by rules it sets. Our teachers will need a fed- eral license to teach? To teach what? I submit it won't be how to think -- it will be what to think! The President then tossed out his favorite fix-it-all number. He is going to place 100,000 more teachers in the schools. Where are we going to put those 100,000 teachers and their students? Will they fit into our overcrowded, fall- ing-down schools? If it sounds good, say it. If it feels good, do it. If it buys votes, push it - for now! For A1 Gore's benefit! Remember the 100,000 cops? That never come to fruition be- cause law-enforcement agencies across the country realized there was a catch and they wouldn't be able to pick up the full cost of a new "Clinton cop" when federal dollars were cut off. By the way, in Clinton's new budget, there are deep cuts in that very plan! So it follows the 100,000 teach- er bait will go down the "lack of funding" drain in a year or two. Then what? The Department of Education is the problem. It is not now nor will it ever be the solution. A required subject for every se- nior student in my high school 52 years ago was "U.S. Government History." It was taught by the vice principal. As graduation came near he said, 'Tou will not remember all we have covered this year but I ask you to never, ever forget one important fact. Every time the government en- gages in a new form of business, you lose a little more of your freedom." Education is a huge business, it is the people's business, right here in our state, in every state. Across this country people are working with local law enforce- ment to take back their neighbor- hoods and make them livable and safe again. There is no reason that our parents and teachers, with the backing of elected state officials, cannot take back our education system. Right now, with every passing day, more and more of the deci- sions, regulations and do-it-or- else rules are being made and forced on the states by appointed paper shufflers and their hired help! Federal edicts that directly affect your children and their fu- ture life. We can stop it. We have to be like well-diggers; we have to start at the top. We have to write to our senators and representatives and demand that the 43,000,000,000 (43 billion) dollars allotted to the Department of Ed- ucation belongs to the states, and we want it back! Vivian Mitchell Shelton /00eaders' 00ournal: Plan responsi Editor, The Journal: of the property that alread I am thankful that inhabitants perhaps will soon be deve of the county are tuned into the What business or venture growth management debate and succeed without are having a chance to under- stand who their neighbors are through the process of expression. The property owners that do not seem to be represented when the words and names start flying are the "silent majority" property owners who care deeply about how the future of the county is being mapped out. That is why we need to take advantage of the opportunity to complete the self- directed plan for our county that is represented by the Growth Management Act. It is my belief that the majority of us want responsible planning that encourages commercial and residential development in con- centrated areas leaving some of what we haven't yet developed as designated agricultural, forest or otherwise uninhabited lands. Contrary to the fears expressed by the more radical property rights advocates, planning for growth by concentrating develop- ment in designated areas not only costs the taxpayers less overall, by allowing infrastructure (roads, power, water.., etc.) growth to keep up with private develop- ment, it also increases the value planning? The same tainly be said for land use. Of course the difficulty the growing pains of upon what is to be our plan, within the guide sented by the GMA. erty owners will be any particular plan eve most of us would consider sponsible to not have a place, especially one that helping to craft as a those of you who don't land-use planning to be ant, consider the sightly sprawl, velopment, and values for the oped real estate. own future land use is denying property about responsible, long-term development tenance of one of the limited natural resourceS' have the privilege to own. We have the o the right thing and pb bly for our future! when? If not us, Mike Walking on Editor, The Journal: Untold numbers of salmon are being destroyed needlessly and unknowingly by those who com- plain loudest about their declin- ing numbers. Sport fishermen by the tens of thousands are wading about on salmon spawning beds unaware of the damage they may be caus- ing to the nests of eggs incubating in the gravel. Additionally, the thrusts from powerful propeller- driven and jet boats on the rivers are capable of severely damaging or completely destroying egg nests. Wading about on the sal- mon spawning beds is like piant- ing a garden and then continually trampling around on the planted area. It is ironic that what should be receiving the most attention and protection, i.e., the salmon spawning beds, is receiving the least attention and protection. It is also ironic that farmers are be- ing asked to build fences on both sides of streams that run through their farms to keep their cattle from damaging stream banks and walking about in the water while little if anything is being done to control the damaging fishermen and boaters ers and streams. In Montana a was done on the effects around on spawning study determined about on spawning detrimental effect. The vealed that in the egg development the rate was up to 43 just one wrong step. The Montana rected the Montana of Fish, Wildlife and adopt rules for the of recreational tse streams. If it has mined that wading spawning beds is fish in Montana, it is sume that such mental to fish in well. Sport fishermen can ing without tram spawning habitat or powered boats over beds. Regulating such will mean more Bill Editor, The Journal: As one of 16 co-sponsors for the bear and cougar legislation in the House of Representatives, I want to clear up misconceptions some people may have about the propo- sal. The legislation would author- ize only a very limited use of ef- fective management tools to hunt bears and cougars - and only if these wild animals are found to represent a threat to humans, pets or livestock. House Bill 1012 does not alter the citizen initiative that outlaws the use of hounds or bait for bear or cougar hunting. In fact, the bill gives substance to a public-safety policy that already exists in the state law. The Department of Fish and Wildlife has the respon- sibility to use these management tools to protect people, domestic animals and personal This bill is a reasor to a serious situation. Citizens need to know use of these managernt will be closely that this legislation any way create a new season for the general hunt cougars and islation does not 655. Fish and could use these tools dress public-safety ne cases where the bear population is resent a potential threat" Simply put, this is overturning what the ed for  it's about sense to guarantee pu Representative  POSTMASTER: Send address changes to Shelton-Mason County Journal, P.O. Box 430, Shelton, WA 98584. Published weekly by Shelton Publishing Inc. at 227 West Cota Street, E Mailing address: P.O. Box 430, Shelton, WA 98584 Telephone (360) 426-4412 Second-class postage paid at Shelton, Washington Member of Washington Newspaper Publishers' Association SUBSCRIPTION RATES: $25.00 per year in-county addreSS, $35.00 per year in state of Washington $45.00 Charles Gay, editor and publisher. 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