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00ournal of Opinion:
Y2Kalm down
The Y2K bug is about to make this writer ill. If we didn't
kn()w better, we'd think the world was going to end at midnight
c>n l)ecember 31, 1999.
()kay, okay, we overstated what the media has told us.
All that will happen is unintentional launching of nu-
clear missiles, a rolling nationwide electrical blackout, a
crash of the stock market and banking system, a total
breakdown in the delivery system for food and fuel, and
worst of all, no Journal the following Thursday.
Kind of makes you want to be a missionary in Central Africa
over New Year's instead of being here with your Orange Bowl
t)l:cked out. The imagined scenario brings to mind the one af-
ter The Bomb has hit - some guy sitting in his barricaded base-
ment in a cold nuclear winter amid a stockpile of food and wa-
ter with a gun in his lap.
This bunker-mentality panic situation is not what we
remember about the "Y2K problem" or "millennium bug"
being announced several years ago. Back then, it was
explained that computer programmers, in an attempt to
save memory, used only the last two digits of the year.
So there was a chance that as time marched from '9" to
"00," computers would think they were back in 1900.
Wouldn't it be unfortunate, we were asked, if computers
didn't recognize Social Security recipients as born yet
and they didn't get their January 2000 checks on time?
J no. (. were pretty tame warnings compared to what we've
been hearing lately. We think the hype about the disasters that
might happen has created unnecessary fear, fear that could
cause major problems even if the millennium bug has little ef-
fect. The uneasiness and outright fear we sense is happening
because no one can guarantee a smooth transition from Decem-
ber 3l t,o January 1. The skeptic's disbelief that anything could
be this bad is tempered with a responsibility not to throw cau-
ti,:)n to tim wind, to be the ant to the fable's grasshopper.
We trust that the stock market, with its trillions of
dollars involved, is going to spend a few of them to en-
sure that it doesn't lose 100 years. If the stock market
plunges, it will be irrational fear of the unknown that
will make it plummet. If people think their life's savings
are at risk, they'll pull out, and as nutty as Wall Street
is, it won't take much to start a stampede despite the
market's incredible growth in the '90s. Let's hope they
remember how 1998's "Asian crisis" devastated them.
People put money in banks partially for safety, yet one of the
suggestions to those fearful of a banking collapse is to take a
few thousand dollars out of their account and stash it in the
house. What's safe about that if every criminal in the country
knows half the people have thousands of dollars in the freezer?
Tim suggestions to squirrel away cash persist despite the fact
that banks are required by federal law to solve any Y2K prob-
lems. Simpson Community Federal Credit Union has even sent
its customers a letter saying it set its computers ahead to 2000
and n!!t!fing happened. Except everything kept working.
The doom.and.gloom predictions for January 1 dlsap:
point Joel Myer, the city of Shelton's special projects co-
ord inator who will be involved in a public Y2K forum at
7 p.m. next Tuesday in the Shelton Middle School Com-
mons. lte said reports of local governments becoming
paralyzed by the Y2K bug are erroneous. Shelton, he
said, plans to provide public safety and water, sewer
and garbage service as usual, the way it has before
when outages and storms have hit. It has generators.
lie believes there's a big difference between a Y2K risk and a
hazard tbr city residents. There's a risk there will be some dis-
ruptions in ttmir lives, but the situation doesn't come close to
hazard status, he said. He thinks people should prepare for
January 1 the way they would for a natural disaster such as a
storm or earthquake, only in this case they know exactly when
son mthing might happen.
It frustrates Myer to hear people talk about preparing
to hoard food. He's just enough of a cynic to feel it's ludi-
crous to think supermarkets won't have food, that peo-
ple in business to make money aren't going to be pre-
pared. A lot of people are working hard to make sure
their businesses continue, and those businesses are con-
fident, he said. He encourages people to listen Tuesday
to the consultant who did the city's Y2K assessment.
PUD 3 officials, too, think the hype has been a little much.
The utility's assistant manager, Pat McGary, attributes the
scare to "the FLW problem" or freelance writers making moun-
tains out of molehills. He said the PUD gets all its power from
the Bonneville Power Administration, which is right on sched-
ule with all its testing for Y2K compliance. He said a BPA offi-
cial will sit with him at the forum on Tuesday, and he expects
positive news about BPA's testing scheduled to be finished by
this month. BPA says it wants to make Y2K "a non-event."
The North American Energy Reliability Council, an
organization formed in the '60s to make the electric in-
dustry's generation and transmission systems in the U.S.
and Canada reliable, has collected Y2K data from 98 per-
cent of the 3,200 electric suppliers in the two countries.
It concludes that "the transition through critical Year
2000 reliever dates is expected to have minimal impact
on electric system operations in North America."
ll)eople should realize his industry is adept at restoring pow-
er when it is cut off, McGary said. The PUD will treat the night
of 1)ecember 31 as if a potential storm looms, and workers will
be on call. He doesn't expect anything bad to happen, but if it
does, the PUD will be working with the BPA to restore power.
The PUD has had a task force working on the millen-
nium bug since 1995. The utility started getting all new
software for computers in 1997, it plans to replace all
personal computers that don't roll over to the 2000 date,
its phone system and voice mail are being replaced, and
all of its substations are Y2K-compliant. The task force
feels the utility will be ready to face January 1.
And the list goes on of agencies confident of their prepara-
tion. Mason General Hospital reports it's worked on Y2K com-
pliance for 13 months, It expects to be ready by October and to
Imve a contingency plan by June to handle potential problems.
So prepare, but don't act like the world is coming to
an end. That'll happen in July 2000 when the Mariners
trade Alex Rodriguez.
- CG
Page 4- Shelton-Mason County Journal- Thursday, March 25, 1999
Pigging out on road hogs
By DAVE BARRY
If there's one thing this nation
needs, it's bigger cars. That's why
I'm excited that Ford is coming
out with a new mound o' metal
that will offer consumers even
more total road-squatting mass
than the current leader in the hu-
mongous-car category, the popu-
lar Chevrolet Suburban Subdivi-
sion -- the first passenger auto-
mobile designed to be, right off
the assembly line, visible from
the Moon.
I don't know what the new
Ford will be called. Probably
something like the "Ford Un-
tamed Wilderness Adventure." In
the TV commercials, it will be
shown splashing through rivers,
charging up rocky mountainsides,
swinging on vines, diving off
cliffs, racing through the surf and
fighting giant sharks hundreds of
feet beneath the ocean surface --
all the daredevil things that cars
do in Sport Utility Vehicle Com-
mercial World, where nobody ever
drives on an actual road. In fact,
the interstate highways in Sport
Utility Vehicle Commercial
World, having been abandoned by
humans, are teeming with deer,
squirrels, birds and other wildlife
species that have fled from the
forest to avoid being run over by
nature-seekers in multi-ton vehi-
cles barreling through the under-
brush at 50 miles per hour.
In the real world, of course, no-
body drives Sport Utility Vehicles
in the forest, because when you
have paid upwards of $40,000 for
a transportation investment, the
last thing you want is squirrels
pooping on it. No, if you want a
practical "off-road" vehicle, you
get yourself a 1973 American Mo-
tors Gremlin, which combines the
advantage of not being worth
worrying about with the advan-
tage of being so ugly that poison-
ous snakes flee from it in terror.
In the real world, what people
mainly do with their Sport Utility
Vehicles, as far as I can tell, is try
to maneuver them into and out of
parking spaces. I base this state-
ment on my local supermarket,
where many of the upscale pa-
trons drive Chevrolet Subdivi-
sions. I've noticed that these peo-
ple often purchase just a couple of
items -- maybe a bottle of diet
water and a two-ounce package of
low-fat dried carrot shreds --
which they put into the back of
their Subdivisions, which have
approximately the same cargo ca-
pacity, in cubic feet, as Finland.
This means there is plenty of
room left over back there in case,
on the way home, these people de-
cide to pick up something else,
such as a herd of bison.
Then comes the scary part: get-
ting the Subdivision out of the
parking space. This is a chal-
lenge, because the driver appar-
ently cannot, while sitting in the
driver's seat, see all the way to
either end of the vehicle. I drive a
compact car, and on a number of
occasions I have found myself
trapped behind a Subdivision
backing directly toward me, its
massive metal butt looming high
over my head, making me feel
like a Tokyo pedestrian looking
up at Godzilla.
I've tried honking my horn, but
the Subdivision drivers can't hear
me, because they're always talk-
ing on cellular phones the size of
Chiclets. ("The Bigger Your Car,
The Smaller Your Phone," that is
their motto.) I don't know who
they're talking to. Maybe they're
negotiating with their bison sup-
pliers. Or maybe they're trying to
contact somebody in the same
area code as the rear ends of their
cars, so they can find out what's
going on back there. All I know is,
I'm thinking of carrying marine
flares, so I can fire them into the
air as a warning to Subdivision
drivers that they're about to run
me over. Although frankly I'm not
sure they'd care if they did. A big
reason why they bought a Sport
Utility Vehicle is "safety," in the
sense of, "you, personally, will be
safe, although every now and
then you may have to clean the
remains of other motorists out of
your wheel wells."
Anyway, now we have the new
Ford, which will be EVEN LARG-
ER than the Subdivision, which I
imagine means it will have sepa-
rate decks for the various classes
of passengers, and possibly, way
up in front by the hood ornament,
Leonardo DiCaprio showing Kate
Winslet how to fly. I can't wait
until one of these babies wheels
into my supermarket parking lot.
Other motorists and pedestrians
will try to flee in terror but they'll
be sucked in by the Ford's power-
ful gravitational field and become
stuck to its massive sides like so
many refrigerator magnet They
won't be noticed, however, by the"
Ford's driver/Who will be busy
whacking at the side of his or her
head, trying to dislodge his or her
new cell phone, which is the size
of a single grain of rice and has
fallen deep into his or her ear ca-
nal.
And it will not stop there. This
is America, darn it, and Chevrolet
is not about to just sit by and
watch Ford walk away with the
coveted title of Least Sane Motor
Vehicle. No, cars will keep getting
bigger: I see a time, not too far
from now, when upscale suburba-
nites will haul their overdue
movies back to the video-rental
store in full-size, 18-wheel trac-
tor-trailers with names like "The
Vagabond." It will be a proud
time for all Americans, a time for
us to cheer for our country. We
should cheer loud, because we'll
be hard to hear, inside the wheel
wells.
Stance on debt immoral
Editor, The Jommah
In recent months many people
from local churches have gone on
missions to Central American
countries in the aftermath of
Hurricane Mitch. Nicaragua and
Honduras were the hardest hit,
but many other countries were af-
fected as well. We applaud them
for their work to alleviate the suf-
fering of people who have lost
homes, livelihood and even family
members and pray that help will
continue as long as necessary.
Most of us are either unable or
unwilling to take such action on
behalf of suffering people. We can
make a difference, however, if we
support Bread for the World's
1999 legislation called the Debt
Relief for Poverty Reduction Act.
The need for this legislation is
great. Throughout the developing
world, more than one billion peo-
ple are struggling under a burden
of unpayable debt. Children are
dying from preventable malnutri-
tion and disease because their
governments are forced to cut
funding for health clinics just to
pay the interest on the debt.
Congress will soon be consider-
ing this bill called the Debt Relief
for Poverty Reduction Act. This
legislation would provide debt re-
lief to the world's highly indebted
poor countries such as Honduras
and Nicaragua. It would cancel
most of the debt owed to the U.S.
government and reduce the debt
owed to the World Bank, Interna-
tional Monetary Fund (IMF) and
other international organizations.
The bill would require debt relief
to be targeted to reducing pover-
ty.
It is immoral and unacceptable
to require debt repayment at the
cost of human life. Senators Patty
Murray and Slade Gorton (202)
224-3121 or Congressman Norm
Dicks (202) 225-3121 can make a
difference with their vote. Call
them and let them know your
feelings about this vital issue.
The lives of poor people depend
upon our action.
Sue Johnson
Bread for the World member
Union
Look speaker in the eye
Editor, The Journal:
March 9 I went before the Ma-
son County commissioners as
part of a team to defeat an issue
on construction of a pier on our
beach approximately 61/2 miles
out North Shore Road on Hood
Canal.
On introducing myself I looked
for eye contact, but it wasn't there
from two out of three. I reviewed
11 letters for the project indicat-
ing NONE of them were from the
area, two would benefit if the
project passed and one letter was
from Mary Jo Cady's sister.
Throughout I looked for eye con-
tact, but it wasn't there from two
out of three.
My words fell on deaf ears; my
words were treated as so much
rhetoric. What I felt to be a very
important issue against the proj-
ect was deflated by the commis-
sinners' actions and a complete
cold shoulder.
North Shore land owners who
may read this article better take
note, because one pier is going to
have the domino affect, and even-
tually we'll be living with the
South Shore syndrome, pier x
pier x pier.
Gary Beckwith
Belfair
i00eaders ' 00]ournal:
Un-pear-alleled
Editor, The Journal:
Thanks for printing such great
news on the front page a few
weeks ago. The wonderful news
I'm referring to is the purchase of
David Shelton's pear orchard by
the city of Shelton.
The city commission has defi-
nitely done a favor to the whole
area by planning a park with ac-
cess to salt water so close to
downtown Shelton.
There will be now
recreation within the city.
land Park near
Creek now has not only
some children's play
new kitchen and picni
ties. I am very gra
administration for
foresight to buy this
Growth
Editor, The Journal:
You might think Mason Coun-
ty is about due for a double dose
of the growth management medi-
cine. When you move here from
Seattle you find you're paying
just as much property tax per val-
uation as you did in downtown
Seattle. But where in the world
does the money go? In Seattle it
buys large buildings and streets
used by hundreds of thousands of
people, but in Mason County it
just seems to disappear.
It seems that part of the an-
swer lies in an earlier generation
of anti-environmental tax re-
sisters, gyppo loggers, who
scalped the land and then left for
balmier climes without paying
their taxes. Eventually the county
deeded the tax-foreclosed land to
the state to form the state forests
that can provide a sustainable
harvest, and do provide money for
schools, but do not pay taxes.
Another part of the answer
may be found in the amount
spent on law enforcement, as re-
flected in the Journal of Record.
In the big city there are a lot
more people, and a lot more prob-
lems per policeman and when
you're knee-deep in alligators you
won't be calling the police because
kids are shouting while they play
basketball or if "a group of bun-
nies" is crossing the street.
None of this seems to really
grease the wheels of commerce.
The last two times we drove
through Shelton on Highway 3 it
took jst as long as it does to
drive through downtown Seattle,
because of the time spent waiting
for the Simpson switching crew.
Our last trip produced a scene
that seemed to epitomize Mason
County. The locomotive had
pulled just clear of the crossing
and the motorists might have
passed freely if the switcher crew
had been flagging the crossing in-
stead of leaning on the rail of the
locomotive and admiring the line
of sValled cars. In the line of
stalled cars were two patrol cars,
with officers who might
been directing traffic
tirely predictable traffic.
weren't. You just had to
this was the way things
ways been and the way
would always be.
Another sinkhole for
must be the roads. A
Seattle must be amazed'
Highway 3 from Belfair
ton without seeing ant
and then learn from
that there are plans
another highway
same forest. Rural
Washington have
gotten more roads from t
than they paid for in tag e
long as the roads are
public subsidy to privat
ers, gridlock will only
subdivisions away.
Growth mana
cates are described as
"take" something from
landowner, but
reverse is true. We
buy roads and services
the capacity to meet the
and five years later we
capacity has vanished.
it go? Right into the
real-estate speculator
al development. What
not the land, which
much the same
the improvements we
Land beside a road
line sells for a lot
in the middle of the
the difference in the
to the developer,
nity that built the im
Ironically,
ment in Mason County
by the lack of
ment. Mortgage
people just don't want
when they don't know
future costs will be.
Seattle, which
"ruin-the-env
the '60s, is booming.
Halt
Editor, The Journal:
When I hear ads for gun con-
trol it makes me wonder if most
people even realize what's at
stake here.
The real power behind organ-
ized gun control are the totalitari-
an socialists - the same people
who want America to become a
totally controlled, cashless, gun-
less society. They don't care about
your kids' safety or gang violence.
That's only a ploy for their nar-
row-minded self-serving agenda,
and that's total elimination of our
personal rights and most impor-
tantly our guns.
People, I think, tend to forget
that the whole idea of the Second
Amendment has nothing to do
with hunting or sporting. Its pur-
pose was to keep the
(the law) from
sive. It was never
civilian, law
tary-like or for that
better armed than
That's what the
is for. I know because
The next time
someone pushing gun
member this: The
Lenin and Hitler did
the people, and look
pened.
Many people have
serve our rights. Let'S
those rights. Let's
talitarians.
Shelton-fa$on
ontg usPs 492-800
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,
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
Charles Gay, editor and publisher. Neweroom: Carolyn Maddux,
Patch, sports editor; Jeff Green, general assignment, city government,
society editor, county government; Sean Hanlon, police, courts,
Stephen Gay, advertising manager; Janet Daugherty and Dave Pierik
Julie Orme, business manager; Vicki Kamin, circulation; Donna
Mahony, office assistant. Composln 9 room: Diane Riordan, supervisor;
Jan Kallinen, paste-up; Koleen Wood, typesetter and computer system
computer ad layout and computer system manager; Cynthia Moyer, i
Robert Rodriguez, production foreman; Roger Lawson, darkroom; Kelly
llll;
00ournal of Opinion:
Y2Kalm down
The Y2K bug is about to make this writer ill. If we didn't
kn()w better, we'd think the world was going to end at midnight
c>n l)ecember 31, 1999.
()kay, okay, we overstated what the media has told us.
All that will happen is unintentional launching of nu-
clear missiles, a rolling nationwide electrical blackout, a
crash of the stock market and banking system, a total
breakdown in the delivery system for food and fuel, and
worst of all, no Journal the following Thursday.
Kind of makes you want to be a missionary in Central Africa
over New Year's instead of being here with your Orange Bowl
t)l:cked out. The imagined scenario brings to mind the one af-
ter The Bomb has hit - some guy sitting in his barricaded base-
ment in a cold nuclear winter amid a stockpile of food and wa-
ter with a gun in his lap.
This bunker-mentality panic situation is not what we
remember about the "Y2K problem" or "millennium bug"
being announced several years ago. Back then, it was
explained that computer programmers, in an attempt to
save memory, used only the last two digits of the year.
So there was a chance that as time marched from '9" to
"00," computers would think they were back in 1900.
Wouldn't it be unfortunate, we were asked, if computers
didn't recognize Social Security recipients as born yet
and they didn't get their January 2000 checks on time?
J no. (. were pretty tame warnings compared to what we've
been hearing lately. We think the hype about the disasters that
might happen has created unnecessary fear, fear that could
cause major problems even if the millennium bug has little ef-
fect. The uneasiness and outright fear we sense is happening
because no one can guarantee a smooth transition from Decem-
ber 3l t,o January 1. The skeptic's disbelief that anything could
be this bad is tempered with a responsibility not to throw cau-
ti,:)n to tim wind, to be the ant to the fable's grasshopper.
We trust that the stock market, with its trillions of
dollars involved, is going to spend a few of them to en-
sure that it doesn't lose 100 years. If the stock market
plunges, it will be irrational fear of the unknown that
will make it plummet. If people think their life's savings
are at risk, they'll pull out, and as nutty as Wall Street
is, it won't take much to start a stampede despite the
market's incredible growth in the '90s. Let's hope they
remember how 1998's "Asian crisis" devastated them.
People put money in banks partially for safety, yet one of the
suggestions to those fearful of a banking collapse is to take a
few thousand dollars out of their account and stash it in the
house. What's safe about that if every criminal in the country
knows half the people have thousands of dollars in the freezer?
Tim suggestions to squirrel away cash persist despite the fact
that banks are required by federal law to solve any Y2K prob-
lems. Simpson Community Federal Credit Union has even sent
its customers a letter saying it set its computers ahead to 2000
and n!!t!fing happened. Except everything kept working.
The doom.and.gloom predictions for January 1 dlsap:
point Joel Myer, the city of Shelton's special projects co-
ord inator who will be involved in a public Y2K forum at
7 p.m. next Tuesday in the Shelton Middle School Com-
mons. lte said reports of local governments becoming
paralyzed by the Y2K bug are erroneous. Shelton, he
said, plans to provide public safety and water, sewer
and garbage service as usual, the way it has before
when outages and storms have hit. It has generators.
lie believes there's a big difference between a Y2K risk and a
hazard tbr city residents. There's a risk there will be some dis-
ruptions in ttmir lives, but the situation doesn't come close to
hazard status, he said. He thinks people should prepare for
January 1 the way they would for a natural disaster such as a
storm or earthquake, only in this case they know exactly when
son mthing might happen.
It frustrates Myer to hear people talk about preparing
to hoard food. He's just enough of a cynic to feel it's ludi-
crous to think supermarkets won't have food, that peo-
ple in business to make money aren't going to be pre-
pared. A lot of people are working hard to make sure
their businesses continue, and those businesses are con-
fident, he said. He encourages people to listen Tuesday
to the consultant who did the city's Y2K assessment.
PUD 3 officials, too, think the hype has been a little much.
The utility's assistant manager, Pat McGary, attributes the
scare to "the FLW problem" or freelance writers making moun-
tains out of molehills. He said the PUD gets all its power from
the Bonneville Power Administration, which is right on sched-
ule with all its testing for Y2K compliance. He said a BPA offi-
cial will sit with him at the forum on Tuesday, and he expects
positive news about BPA's testing scheduled to be finished by
this month. BPA says it wants to make Y2K "a non-event."
The North American Energy Reliability Council, an
organization formed in the '60s to make the electric in-
dustry's generation and transmission systems in the U.S.
and Canada reliable, has collected Y2K data from 98 per-
cent of the 3,200 electric suppliers in the two countries.
It concludes that "the transition through critical Year
2000 reliever dates is expected to have minimal impact
on electric system operations in North America."
ll)eople should realize his industry is adept at restoring pow-
er when it is cut off, McGary said. The PUD will treat the night
of 1)ecember 31 as if a potential storm looms, and workers will
be on call. He doesn't expect anything bad to happen, but if it
does, the PUD will be working with the BPA to restore power.
The PUD has had a task force working on the millen-
nium bug since 1995. The utility started getting all new
software for computers in 1997, it plans to replace all
personal computers that don't roll over to the 2000 date,
its phone system and voice mail are being replaced, and
all of its substations are Y2K-compliant. The task force
feels the utility will be ready to face January 1.
And the list goes on of agencies confident of their prepara-
tion. Mason General Hospital reports it's worked on Y2K com-
pliance for 13 months, It expects to be ready by October and to
Imve a contingency plan by June to handle potential problems.
So prepare, but don't act like the world is coming to
an end. That'll happen in July 2000 when the Mariners
trade Alex Rodriguez.
- CG
Page 4- Shelton-Mason County Journal- Thursday, March 25, 1999
Pigging out on road hogs
By DAVE BARRY
If there's one thing this nation
needs, it's bigger cars. That's why
I'm excited that Ford is coming
out with a new mound o' metal
that will offer consumers even
more total road-squatting mass
than the current leader in the hu-
mongous-car category, the popu-
lar Chevrolet Suburban Subdivi-
sion -- the first passenger auto-
mobile designed to be, right off
the assembly line, visible from
the Moon.
I don't know what the new
Ford will be called. Probably
something like the "Ford Un-
tamed Wilderness Adventure." In
the TV commercials, it will be
shown splashing through rivers,
charging up rocky mountainsides,
swinging on vines, diving off
cliffs, racing through the surf and
fighting giant sharks hundreds of
feet beneath the ocean surface --
all the daredevil things that cars
do in Sport Utility Vehicle Com-
mercial World, where nobody ever
drives on an actual road. In fact,
the interstate highways in Sport
Utility Vehicle Commercial
World, having been abandoned by
humans, are teeming with deer,
squirrels, birds and other wildlife
species that have fled from the
forest to avoid being run over by
nature-seekers in multi-ton vehi-
cles barreling through the under-
brush at 50 miles per hour.
In the real world, of course, no-
body drives Sport Utility Vehicles
in the forest, because when you
have paid upwards of $40,000 for
a transportation investment, the
last thing you want is squirrels
pooping on it. No, if you want a
practical "off-road" vehicle, you
get yourself a 1973 American Mo-
tors Gremlin, which combines the
advantage of not being worth
worrying about with the advan-
tage of being so ugly that poison-
ous snakes flee from it in terror.
In the real world, what people
mainly do with their Sport Utility
Vehicles, as far as I can tell, is try
to maneuver them into and out of
parking spaces. I base this state-
ment on my local supermarket,
where many of the upscale pa-
trons drive Chevrolet Subdivi-
sions. I've noticed that these peo-
ple often purchase just a couple of
items -- maybe a bottle of diet
water and a two-ounce package of
low-fat dried carrot shreds --
which they put into the back of
their Subdivisions, which have
approximately the same cargo ca-
pacity, in cubic feet, as Finland.
This means there is plenty of
room left over back there in case,
on the way home, these people de-
cide to pick up something else,
such as a herd of bison.
Then comes the scary part: get-
ting the Subdivision out of the
parking space. This is a chal-
lenge, because the driver appar-
ently cannot, while sitting in the
driver's seat, see all the way to
either end of the vehicle. I drive a
compact car, and on a number of
occasions I have found myself
trapped behind a Subdivision
backing directly toward me, its
massive metal butt looming high
over my head, making me feel
like a Tokyo pedestrian looking
up at Godzilla.
I've tried honking my horn, but
the Subdivision drivers can't hear
me, because they're always talk-
ing on cellular phones the size of
Chiclets. ("The Bigger Your Car,
The Smaller Your Phone," that is
their motto.) I don't know who
they're talking to. Maybe they're
negotiating with their bison sup-
pliers. Or maybe they're trying to
contact somebody in the same
area code as the rear ends of their
cars, so they can find out what's
going on back there. All I know is,
I'm thinking of carrying marine
flares, so I can fire them into the
air as a warning to Subdivision
drivers that they're about to run
me over. Although frankly I'm not
sure they'd care if they did. A big
reason why they bought a Sport
Utility Vehicle is "safety," in the
sense of, "you, personally, will be
safe, although every now and
then you may have to clean the
remains of other motorists out of
your wheel wells."
Anyway, now we have the new
Ford, which will be EVEN LARG-
ER than the Subdivision, which I
imagine means it will have sepa-
rate decks for the various classes
of passengers, and possibly, way
up in front by the hood ornament,
Leonardo DiCaprio showing Kate
Winslet how to fly. I can't wait
until one of these babies wheels
into my supermarket parking lot.
Other motorists and pedestrians
will try to flee in terror but they'll
be sucked in by the Ford's power-
ful gravitational field and become
stuck to its massive sides like so
many refrigerator magnet They
won't be noticed, however, by the"
Ford's driver/Who will be busy
whacking at the side of his or her
head, trying to dislodge his or her
new cell phone, which is the size
of a single grain of rice and has
fallen deep into his or her ear ca-
nal.
And it will not stop there. This
is America, darn it, and Chevrolet
is not about to just sit by and
watch Ford walk away with the
coveted title of Least Sane Motor
Vehicle. No, cars will keep getting
bigger: I see a time, not too far
from now, when upscale suburba-
nites will haul their overdue
movies back to the video-rental
store in full-size, 18-wheel trac-
tor-trailers with names like "The
Vagabond." It will be a proud
time for all Americans, a time for
us to cheer for our country. We
should cheer loud, because we'll
be hard to hear, inside the wheel
wells.
Stance on debt immoral
Editor, The Jommah
In recent months many people
from local churches have gone on
missions to Central American
countries in the aftermath of
Hurricane Mitch. Nicaragua and
Honduras were the hardest hit,
but many other countries were af-
fected as well. We applaud them
for their work to alleviate the suf-
fering of people who have lost
homes, livelihood and even family
members and pray that help will
continue as long as necessary.
Most of us are either unable or
unwilling to take such action on
behalf of suffering people. We can
make a difference, however, if we
support Bread for the World's
1999 legislation called the Debt
Relief for Poverty Reduction Act.
The need for this legislation is
great. Throughout the developing
world, more than one billion peo-
ple are struggling under a burden
of unpayable debt. Children are
dying from preventable malnutri-
tion and disease because their
governments are forced to cut
funding for health clinics just to
pay the interest on the debt.
Congress will soon be consider-
ing this bill called the Debt Relief
for Poverty Reduction Act. This
legislation would provide debt re-
lief to the world's highly indebted
poor countries such as Honduras
and Nicaragua. It would cancel
most of the debt owed to the U.S.
government and reduce the debt
owed to the World Bank, Interna-
tional Monetary Fund (IMF) and
other international organizations.
The bill would require debt relief
to be targeted to reducing pover-
ty.
It is immoral and unacceptable
to require debt repayment at the
cost of human life. Senators Patty
Murray and Slade Gorton (202)
224-3121 or Congressman Norm
Dicks (202) 225-3121 can make a
difference with their vote. Call
them and let them know your
feelings about this vital issue.
The lives of poor people depend
upon our action.
Sue Johnson
Bread for the World member
Union
Look speaker in the eye
Editor, The Journal:
March 9 I went before the Ma-
son County commissioners as
part of a team to defeat an issue
on construction of a pier on our
beach approximately 61/2 miles
out North Shore Road on Hood
Canal.
On introducing myself I looked
for eye contact, but it wasn't there
from two out of three. I reviewed
11 letters for the project indicat-
ing NONE of them were from the
area, two would benefit if the
project passed and one letter was
from Mary Jo Cady's sister.
Throughout I looked for eye con-
tact, but it wasn't there from two
out of three.
My words fell on deaf ears; my
words were treated as so much
rhetoric. What I felt to be a very
important issue against the proj-
ect was deflated by the commis-
sinners' actions and a complete
cold shoulder.
North Shore land owners who
may read this article better take
note, because one pier is going to
have the domino affect, and even-
tually we'll be living with the
South Shore syndrome, pier x
pier x pier.
Gary Beckwith
Belfair
i00eaders ' 00]ournal:
Un-pear-alleled
Editor, The Journal:
Thanks for printing such great
news on the front page a few
weeks ago. The wonderful news
I'm referring to is the purchase of
David Shelton's pear orchard by
the city of Shelton.
The city commission has defi-
nitely done a favor to the whole
area by planning a park with ac-
cess to salt water so close to
downtown Shelton.
There will be now
recreation within the city.
land Park near
Creek now has not only
some children's play
new kitchen and picni
ties. I am very gra
administration for
foresight to buy this
Growth
Editor, The Journal:
You might think Mason Coun-
ty is about due for a double dose
of the growth management medi-
cine. When you move here from
Seattle you find you're paying
just as much property tax per val-
uation as you did in downtown
Seattle. But where in the world
does the money go? In Seattle it
buys large buildings and streets
used by hundreds of thousands of
people, but in Mason County it
just seems to disappear.
It seems that part of the an-
swer lies in an earlier generation
of anti-environmental tax re-
sisters, gyppo loggers, who
scalped the land and then left for
balmier climes without paying
their taxes. Eventually the county
deeded the tax-foreclosed land to
the state to form the state forests
that can provide a sustainable
harvest, and do provide money for
schools, but do not pay taxes.
Another part of the answer
may be found in the amount
spent on law enforcement, as re-
flected in the Journal of Record.
In the big city there are a lot
more people, and a lot more prob-
lems per policeman and when
you're knee-deep in alligators you
won't be calling the police because
kids are shouting while they play
basketball or if "a group of bun-
nies" is crossing the street.
None of this seems to really
grease the wheels of commerce.
The last two times we drove
through Shelton on Highway 3 it
took jst as long as it does to
drive through downtown Seattle,
because of the time spent waiting
for the Simpson switching crew.
Our last trip produced a scene
that seemed to epitomize Mason
County. The locomotive had
pulled just clear of the crossing
and the motorists might have
passed freely if the switcher crew
had been flagging the crossing in-
stead of leaning on the rail of the
locomotive and admiring the line
of sValled cars. In the line of
stalled cars were two patrol cars,
with officers who might
been directing traffic
tirely predictable traffic.
weren't. You just had to
this was the way things
ways been and the way
would always be.
Another sinkhole for
must be the roads. A
Seattle must be amazed'
Highway 3 from Belfair
ton without seeing ant
and then learn from
that there are plans
another highway
same forest. Rural
Washington have
gotten more roads from t
than they paid for in tag e
long as the roads are
public subsidy to privat
ers, gridlock will only
subdivisions away.
Growth mana
cates are described as
"take" something from
landowner, but
reverse is true. We
buy roads and services
the capacity to meet the
and five years later we
capacity has vanished.
it go? Right into the
real-estate speculator
al development. What
not the land, which
much the same
the improvements we
Land beside a road
line sells for a lot
in the middle of the
the difference in the
to the developer,
nity that built the im
Ironically,
ment in Mason County
by the lack of
ment. Mortgage
people just don't want
when they don't know
future costs will be.
Seattle, which
"ruin-the-env
the '60s, is booming.
Halt
Editor, The Journal:
When I hear ads for gun con-
trol it makes me wonder if most
people even realize what's at
stake here.
The real power behind organ-
ized gun control are the totalitari-
an socialists - the same people
who want America to become a
totally controlled, cashless, gun-
less society. They don't care about
your kids' safety or gang violence.
That's only a ploy for their nar-
row-minded self-serving agenda,
and that's total elimination of our
personal rights and most impor-
tantly our guns.
People, I think, tend to forget
that the whole idea of the Second
Amendment has nothing to do
with hunting or sporting. Its pur-
pose was to keep the
(the law) from
sive. It was never
civilian, law
tary-like or for that
better armed than
That's what the
is for. I know because
The next time
someone pushing gun
member this: The
Lenin and Hitler did
the people, and look
pened.
Many people have
serve our rights. Let'S
those rights. Let's
talitarians.
Shelton-fa$on
ontg usPs 492-800
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,
Mailing address: P.O. Box 430, Shelton, WA 98584
Telephone (360) 426-4412
Second-class postage paid at Shelton, Washington
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$35.00 per year in state of Washington
Charles Gay, editor and publisher. Neweroom: Carolyn Maddux,
Patch, sports editor; Jeff Green, general assignment, city government,
society editor, county government; Sean Hanlon, police, courts,
Stephen Gay, advertising manager; Janet Daugherty and Dave Pierik
Julie Orme, business manager; Vicki Kamin, circulation; Donna
Mahony, office assistant. Composln 9 room: Diane Riordan, supervisor;
Jan Kallinen, paste-up; Koleen Wood, typesetter and computer system
computer ad layout and computer system manager; Cynthia Moyer, i
Robert Rodriguez, production foreman; Roger Lawson, darkroom; Kelly
llll;