May 11, 2020 Shelton Mason County Journal | ![]() |
©
Shelton Mason County Journal. All rights reserved. Upgrade to access Premium Tools
PAGE 5 (5 of 42 available) PREVIOUS NEXT Jumbo Image Save To Scrapbook Set Notifiers PDF JPG
May 11, 2020 |
|
Website © 2025. All content copyrighted. Copyright Information Terms Of Use | Privacy Policy | Request Content Removal | About / FAQ | Get Acrobat Reader ![]() |
Léfisfis" cont. from p.49}; A12
Orga n ize a nd
vote Trump
out of office
Editor, the Journal
Minnesota Gov. Tim
Waltz’s hearing interpreter
should have her own show.
Her facial expression, how
she is shown interpreting the
governor’s messages, is en-
tertaining, plus the message
that he is giving.
Where is Trump (Guppy)
in this crisis hiding? In the
basement of the White House
last night instead out ad-
dressing the crowd to calm
the situation? Bill Barr (Por-
ky Pig), his lacky, blaming
the Democrats for the protest.
Oh well, Trump and Barr
are taking away from the
pandemic incompetency of
their handling of the CO—
VID-19 virus.
What to do? Vote the Re-
public Party of Trump and
Senate out of’office this fall?
Organize — we will need to
protect our right to vote.
RS. Trump supporter: You
have the outrageous nerve to
chastise me for name-calling
when your hero uses the
vilest accusation and name-
calling by his own action.
Wake up.
Earl Mallinger
Shelton
Proud
of peace
Editor, the Journal
I would like to commend
the young people in the area
who marched for justice on
Sunday. After the carnage in
Seattle, some people feared
the same for Shelton.
Prior to marching, the
leader of the March for Jus-
tice cautioned the group
about interacting with anti-
marchers. He reminded the
group that the building own-
ers and business proprietors
would be understandably
wary. The leader also warned
the group that anti-marchers
might try to incite and could
be armed. .
Under the watchful eye of
law enforcement, these young
people stayed on sidewalks
evoking their constitutional
rights. There was no Violence
perpetrated by the marchers.
If you have a child or
grandchild, sibling or spouse,
who was part of the march,
you should feel proud.
I’m all for closing the big
cities to demonstrations, for
a day and zooming in on the
way it’s done in towns and
small cities.
Good job, Shelton!
Joan Gilbert
Shelton
Rebellion,
division
Editor, the Journal
Police confrontation with
the public they serve. The
military in the streets to es-
tablish order or control the
people’s right to demonstrate.
How will you/we change the
course that we are on? This
is bigger than any political
party. It is about the country.
Equal justice forall. Haves-
and have-nots in conflict. The
investment community cel-
ebrating the economy while
many struggle for food for
the first time in their lives. It
is time to stop and take the
time to evaluate what kind
of country we want to have.
Looking back is a waste of
time, look forward to a coun-
. try with equal opportunity
for all. We must not fear our
brothers and sisters from dif-
ferent races and cultures. God
loves all, love your neighbor
as you love yourself.
Paul L. Wilkins
Belfair
People will
provide
leadership
Editor, the Journal
The world is watching.
Look around. Demonstrations
against raciSm both obvious
and systemic have erupted
in nations around the world.
Why? Because inspite of the
attempts by the current na-
tionalist leadership in the
White House to withdraw
from a leadership role around
the world, the world still
looks to the United States for
moral leadership. If the lead-
ership in the White House is
not going to provide positive,
compassionate moral leader-
ship, then the people will.
This gives me great hope.
When the current White
House resident is removed
and a new moral leader takes
over, this great experiment
in multicultural society and
representative government
called the United States, will
again be worthy to be seen as
an example to be emulated ’
around the world.
Stephen Warner
Shelton
Time to
amend law?
Editor, the Journal
The pandemic is caus-
ing dislocations across the
country and deep pain to
thousands of American fami-
lies. While it’s difficult to be
optimistic at this time, the
pandemic might be an oppor-
tunity to consider a very bad
state law; a law that hinders
how Mason County deals
with the current plague and
that also makes our country
less able to face future chal-
lenges.
As it stands today, high-
speed internet services are
denied to many Mason Coun-
ty residences, and indeed to
many other rural residents
in the state. I believe this
is true largely due to a very
specific action of the Wash-
ington state government;
the enactment in 2000 (and
restatement in 2019) of RCW
54.16.330(1)(b) which states:
“ nothing in this section
shall be construed to autho-
rize public utility districts to
provide telecommunications
services to end users.”
Because of this law, PUDs
are relegated to wholesale
internet services and the
commercial Internet Service
Providers (Comcast, Hood
Canal, iFiber are examples)
are guaranteed the sole right
to provide retail internet
services. PUD 3 has a phrase
to describe the arrange-
ment: “We provide the pipe,
they provide the services.” I
suppose this PUD/internet
service provider (ISP) model
might actually be workable
if everybody involved took as
a given that every home in
Mason County has a right to
high speed internet services
and worked to accomplish
that goal.
Unfortunately, that is not
the case. Densely populated
areas, i.e., Shelton, make it
very cheap to hook up homes
to provide high speed inter-
net services using the PUD/
ISP model. However, if you
live in a less densely popu-
lated area of the county, and
none of the commercial ISPs
will deliver high-speed inter-
net services to your home,
you are out of luck, because
PUD cannot serve you.
The “We provide the
pipe, they provide the ser-
vices” model created by RCW
54.16.330(1)(b) is an example
of government choosing
winners (the ISPs) and los-
ers (county residents who
can’t get high speed inter-
net services). Those county
residents are denied high
speed internet services by
the ISPs for business rea-
sons and by PUD 3 because
of RCW 54.16.330(1)(b), a
crystal-clear example of the
government giving the com-
mercial ISPs a sweetheart
deal and many rural ratepay-
ers the finger. Adding insult
to injury, recent initiatives to
expand high speed internet
services to rural areas are
using government grants to
basically deliver more cus-
tomers to the ISPs. Remem-
ber, under current law, no
matter how much federal and
state money is spent extend-
ing “the pipe,” only the ISPs
can make the final connection
to the internet.
I once attended a candi-
dates’ fomm in Shelton. It
was one of those speed-dating
affairs in which candidates
go from table to table and an‘
swer questions). When it was
my turn, I asked Rep. MacE—
wen why PUD No. 3 was
prohibited from providing
high-speed internet services
directly to Mason County res-
idents. He didn’t directly an-
swer my question, but he did
volunteer that he believed
that the PUD should be al-
lowed to provide high speed
internet services to county
residences, but only after the
commercial ISPs declined to
provide the service. You get
the picture: MacEwen would
have amended the existing
law to give the ISPs the right
of first refusal. The ISPs
would continue to have exclu-
sive access to the low-hang-
ing fruit and PUD 3 would be
left to serve homes that the
ISPs decline to serve. As hor-
rible a public policy as MacE—
wen’s suggestion was, his
particular choice of winners
and losers might be an im-
provement over the current,
even worse practice. I note
that MacEwen voted in April
2019 (along with most of the
House) to continue denying
PUDs access to residential
end users. So much for gov—
ernment not picking winners
and losers, a practice that
MacEwen says he opposes.
(See Rep. MacEwen’s guest
column in the 5/14/2020 edi-
tion of the Shelton-Mason
County Journal titled “Gov-
ernment should not pick win—
ners, losers”)
I started this letter by
noting that the pandemic
might be an opportunity
to reconsider a rule to help
us get through the current
plague and also make our
country better able to face
future challenges. I think one
thing we could do is repeal
RCW 54.16.330(1)(b) and al-
low public utility districts
to compete with commercial
ISPs in the provision of retail
high-speed internet services.
Consider the possibilities
PUDs, organizations created
decades ago to serve rural
communities abandoned by
the commercial electricity
providers, might be capable
of.
Brian T. Walsh
Shelton
A glorious
example of
people power
Editor, the Journal
Joining tens of thousands
of Black Lives Matter protest-
ers around the world were
at least 100 diverse folks in
Belfair on Thursday, June 4,
2020. It was inspiring to see
young to old people of many
colors on the sidewalks of
Belfair united in condemning
white supremacy and police
brutality. Signs called for
equality and justice for all,
an end to racism, and police
violence.
We were thrilled that so
many drivers honked their
horns, waved and shouted
their support. One woman got
out of her car as a passenger
and joined us. Some people on
the sidelines held signs, such
as “I can’t breathe.” We were
united in demanding better of
our America.
The three ministers who
organized this event are to
be commended. For some
participants it was their first
action, others have been de-
manding justice for years,
but we may have missed our
togetherness, had it not been
for the organizing. Job well
done. Water was made avail-
able at the Belfair Commu-
nity Church. Also thanks to
County Commissioner Randy
Neatherlin for joining us and
communicating with some
who may not have agreed
with the marchers’ purpose
ahead of our start.
We were escorted by Ma-
_‘ son County Sheriffs Office
deputies, though our inten-
sion was to be peaceful, oth-
ers may have felt threatened,
Thursday, June 11, 2020 Shelton-Mason County Journal Page A-5
but the day was a glorious
example of, “people power”
exercising our Constitutional
rights of freedom of speech
and assembly (yes, most of us
wore masks). Hopefully this
will be the beginning of great-
er understanding, and lead
to more actions for justice for
all, end racism and peace!
Michael Siptroth
Belfair
Misrepresenting
regulation
Editor, the Journal
Alright, A.A., have it your
way. You did not invent a
regulation; you misrepresent-
ed the content of ESSB 5396.
From your letter, exactly: “An
example is the new require-
ment that schools instead of
parents give sex education to
very young students.” There
is no language in ESSB 5395
to infer, imply or require
parents to cease teaching sex
education or any subject to
very young students.
Arthur Rohlik
Shelton
Throw out our
totalitarian
dictator
Editor, the Journal
Is this a Wizard of Oz mo~
ment in time? Just where
did the tornado land us? The
Philippines? Venezuela? El
Salvador? Oman? I thought
we were still in the constitu-
tional democracy called the
United States, but strong
man Trump has brOught out
Bill Barr’s hand-picked army
as if this were Rhodesia or
similar country run by the
secret police.
Another unarmed black
man has been tragically
murdered by uniformed po-
lice, justifying a nationwide
' outpouring of our grief and
righteous indignation. Please
look beyond the 2% loot—
ers and trouble-makers and
please notice the 98% that
are peaceful and of all colors
and ethnicities. It’s time to
end the century and a half
of institutional racism at all
levels inflicted on people of
color.
We should all be glad that
in Mason County, we have a
zero chance of being pulled
over for DWB (driving while
black) or for looking like. Just
spend a week living in the
poor neighborhoods of large
cities with people of color and
listen to the stories, and you’ll
know I speak the truth.
Never forget to vote in N o-
vember, Trump does not get
to play the role of Mussolini
in Italy, or Ferdinand Marcos
in the Philippines — this is
the United States. Throw out
the totalitarian dictator this
year. I
William Busacca
Shelton
see LETTERS, page A—6