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Page A-4 Shelton-Mason County Journal Thursday, June 11, 2020
THESE
What’s going on, yet again
ess more
Mrs. Ericson
I am a white male, the descen—
dent of Scandinavian and Scottish
ancestors, mostly. I was born this
way.
I am also a human being. I was
born that way, too.
We can’t be absolutely
certain of this, but it’s
likely any of us could have
been born a black female,
a brown male or a white
baby with male and fe-
male genitalia —— or any
variation of any color or
sex that you’ll find on this
spinning blue marble. Per- By KIRK
ERICSON
haps yOu or I could have
been born as an albino
female sea turtle.
We appear to be not in any way
responsible for the make and mod—
el of the corporeal vehicle given to
us at birth. '
Why should it be then, in the
land of the world’s oldest con-
tinuously active constitution,
that a tilt toward the black side
of the color spectrum automati—
cally makes you far more likely
to be imprisoned, unemployed or
dying of COVID-l9? If you’re a
black male, “the talk” by a parent
likely will be about the risks posed
by police, not sex, and you’ll be
warned never to be late because a
black person who is in a hurry is
an extra suspicious black person.
Doesn’t all that seem funda—
mentally unfair, especially when
we have the capacity to make it
fundamentally fairer? Doesn’t it
seem lopsided, like black people
are on one side of the dodge ball
game and the other side gets to
start with twice as many balls?
So when many people in this
nation saw a black man, George
Floyd, die under the knee of that
cold—as—an-icepick white Minne-
apolis police officer, they saw red.
The sight of that man’s suffering,
coupled with the heartlessness of
his killer, was so piercing that it
cut through all the other concerns
in these hard times. The fire has
since spread across this coun-
try from megalopolises to small
towns, including Shelton.
. Patricia Franco, Linda Guijosa
and Jodie Hartman grew up in
Shelton, graduating from Shelton
High school in 2010, and all three
are 28 years old. They organized
the march Sunday, May 31, that
drew an estimated 300 people into
their hometown for a peaceful
march downtown.
Siplteamnwoumnnip lifetime! '
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Published weekly by the Shelton-Mason County Journal
at 227 .W. Cota St, Shelton, Washington.
Mailing address: PO. Box 430, Shelton, WA 98584
Telephone: 360-426—4412
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“We grew up and went to school
together in Shelton and have seen
many perspectives impact our
community both positively and
negatively,” Jodie said, relaying
a quote that the three of them
worked up."‘And we recognize,
value and support the Black Lives
Matter movement and re-
ally wanted to bring our
community in Shelton to-
gether to demonstrate our
solidarity. We are tired
of seeing black people
murdered and targeted
We want change that ad-
dresses the hundreds of
years of injustices toward
black individuals.”
She said it was the big-
gest protest march she’s
seen in Shelton. Considering that
only 1% of Mason County’s popu-
lation is black, according to the
2010 Census, 300 people turning
out testifies to the dimensions of
this unrest sWeeping the world.
“We had mixed emotions about
whether it would get much trac—
tion," Jodie said, adding that “We
wanted people to keep it safe and
respectful. We wanted» respectful
role models and we wanted people
to wear black because it’s the color
of mourning and it shows our sup-
port for Black Lives Matter.”
She said last week that they
don’t have plans at the moment
for a follow—up event, but that
“People want to connect with us.
Perhaps it’ll be consistent events
or even a discussion in the com-
munity.”
The royalty of this nation must
be unnerved by the depth, dura-
tion and breadth of these protests.
Regardless of whether you believe
the demonstrations are more riot
than protest, these marchers,
now nearing their third week on
the line, are clearly fueled by a
righteous faith. They are carrying
on with fearlessness and a grim
determination.
In the meantime, listen, and
notice when the silence over—
whelms the noise, especially dur-
ing those moments when protests
go silent to summon the final suf-
fering of George Floyd.
“I think we all got some goose-
bumps when we took one minute
of silence” during the Shelton
rally, Jodie said. “People who were
passing by were moved by the si-
lence of that many people.”
I Contact Kirk Ericson at kirk@ ‘
masoncounty.com.
Association.
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Owned and published by
Shelton-Mason County Journal, Inc.
because of their skin color.’
Media
matters
Editor, the Journal
Listening to the leftists
on CNN, MSNBC, etc., the
president is responsible for
the shopping methods of
some of the people in this
country.
If anyone cares who
stirred these animals up,
blame KOMO, KIRO,
KING, CNN, MSNBC, etc.
They had the police inci-
dent and a very sad death
showing every 10 minutes
for hours.
FOX was much more
dignified in its approach.
Dick Reineman
Shelton
President,
get-er-done
Editor, the Journal
Consider this: when you
think the president is a
jerk, he is.
He’s a New Yorker and
can be crude and rude. When
he gets his feelings hurt, he
hits back harder. The me-
dia hates it when he tweets
because he gets information
out they don’t want to report
on. He demands performance
and if you don’t work hard to
deliver, you’re fired.
Here is a guy that asks
' a lot of questions. They are
hard, “why” type of ques- .
tions. These questions are
to get people thinking on
the problem and the left
Publisher: Tom Mullen
Advertising:
John Lester, general manager
Theresa Murray, ad representative
Newsroom:
Adam~Rudnick, editor in chief
Gordon Weeks, reporter
Justin Johnson, sports/outdoors editor
Kirk Ericson, Columnist/ proofreader
Lloyd Mullen, creative director
lsabella Breda, reporter
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
Journal Letter Policy
The Journal encourageS-original letters to the editor of local
interest. Diverse and varied opinions are welcomed. We will
not publish letters that are deemed libelous or scurrilous in
nature. All letters mustbe signed and include the writer’s
name, address and daytime phone number, which will be
used for verification purposes only. All letters are subject to
editing for length, grammar and clarity. To submit a letter,
email adam@masoncounty.com, drop it off at 227 W. Cota
St., or mail it to R0. Box 430, Shelton, WA 98584.
does not want that.
He’s a guy that gets
hospital ships ready in one
week when the hand wring-
ing bureaucrats would take
weeks or months.
He’s the guy that got
auto industries to restruc-
ture to build ventilators in a
business that’s highly regu-
lated by agencies that move
at the pace of banana slugs.
He’s the guy that asked
the question about using
proven drugs on dying
people. What did they have
to lose?
He restricted travel from
China with the Democrats
and liberals screaming,
“xenophobia” and “racist.”
Now they want to know
why he didn’t act sooner. '
Could it be everyone was
focused on impeachment?
He campaigned on se-
curing the Southern border,
protecting America, in the
face of screaming Demo-
crats and liberal media.
Whenhe shut the borders
in the midst of the Wuhan
virus they screamed louder.
' Then the world followed,
including.the European '
Union, with travel restric-
tions between their mem-
Front oflice: .
Dave Pierik, circulation and
classifieds manager
Delivery:
Jon Garza
David Olson-
Niel Challstrom
Composing room:
William Adams, advertising and
technical support
ber countries.
His policy is America
first. For a long time we
have complained about bil-
lions of dollars in foreign
aid while many Americans
here suffered. He has
stemmed much of that out-
flow of money. ’
He’s made mistakes. Ev-
eryone has, and does, and
the “experts” haven’t done
any better.
Does he change his
mind? Yes, who doesn’t?
Trump is working for the
best interests of Americans.
. When he offers hope, he’s
called a liar and when he is
straightforward, they say
he should be more hopeful.
Of course, it’s a 'no-win situ-
ation with MSNBC, main-
stream media and CNN.
I’ll take this kind of lead-‘
ership over a “polished, nice
guy” politician who reads
prepared speeches from a
teleprompter and answers
prescripted questions, or a
mentally feeble fading star
of the Democratic Party.
Frederick Nachbar
SheltOn
see LETTERS, page A-s
All regular editorial, advertising
and legal deadlines are 5 pm. the
Monday prior to publication.
To submit a letter to the editor,
email adam@masoncounty.com.