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9ournai of Opinion:
Tune's awas00[n
How long should the public be expected to abide a nuisance
before the government forces its abatement? It's a recurring
question here in stump-ranch country when crud piles up
around ramshackle homes, a neighbor starts an informal
wrecking yard or an entrepreneur establishes a tire dump on
beautiful Harstine Island. It comes up again now because of
another high-profile, old-as-the-hills case in Agate where the
county has taken the unusual stance that a dilapidated mobile
home; constitutes solid waste.
It seems to us that six years is long enough for Bill
Petty's neighbors to wait to have a beat-up mobile home
removed from his property. Six months sounds more
reasonable to us, although some would argue that's
rushing it considering how many determinations and
appeals are possible.
The county's chronology of the mobile-home proceedings
starts ill 1993, when the structure was moved onto property on
Agate Loop Road. In June of that year, Petty was informed that
the mobile home was illegal and not blocked properly, that a
lean-to was not permitted and a woodstove was a hazard. In
August:, Petty and the county met to go over the problems. In
November, county officials asked him to inform them of his in-
tentions to bring the mobile home into compliance. No enforce-
ment action was taken until a year later, when a complaint
was made that the structure was being occupied in December
1994. It was posted, "Do Not Occupy."
Nothing was done for another three years, when the
county decided it would start demolition proceedings af-
ter an inspection revealed the chimney had fallen
through a section of roof, flooring was caving in and
windows were broken. The enforcement actions were
taken by the county building department, which ran out
of funding to proceed with demolition in 1997. The de-
partment even concocted a plan to have Fire District 5
burn the place, but there were costs involved. In Octo-
ber 1997 the county sent Petty a certified notice and or-
der for abatement, and it was returned unclaimed.
Finally in 1998 the case became the health department's
baby, and that department has been trying to force removal us-
ing the county's regulations against accumulation of unsatis-
factory solid waste. The mobile home, six appliances, tires, two
small trailers and furniture had piled up. When the depart-
ment ruled Petty had to remove the solid waste, he appealed to
the county health officer. When the health officer upheld the
department, Petty appealed to the county health board. The
health board just ruled against Petty last Friday.
A story on page 14 in last week's Journal outlined the
testimony at the latest appeals hearing, including that
of frustrated neighbors. You can hardly blame them for
wondering when the saga will end. And you couldn't
blame them for scratching their heads at a story on page
15, in which the health officer laid out tips for avoiding
the deadly hantavirus carried by deer,mice, ?Keep the,
area surrounding the home clear of junk piles, debris
and old cars," it said. Just how should they do that?
Though we aren't the proper agency to handle grievances,
The Jvurnal gets complaints all the time from citizens frustrat-
ed with the pace of government enforcement. We think it's un-
fbrtunate that the enforcement process moves so slowly that
people lose their trust of government over it. And when the
original problem isn't solved in a timely manner, frustrated
neighbors sometimes start reporting other things about the
property they believe are true to try to build a case, and they
get even more dissatisfied when the county can't prove them.
Mason County Health Services Director Brad Banner
knows it takes a long time to deal with such problems,
but there are several factors the public should remem-
ber, he said. For one thing, the county bends over back-
wards to work with people. If you were the one being
disciplined, you wouldn't want the Gestapo after you.
For another thing, many people go halfway with mitiga-
tion to get the county off their backs but have no inten-
tion of really changing. There's a little of the Wild West
attitude in many people in rural areas, Banner said.
In the case of the Harstine tire dump, it looked like a dump,
quacked like a dump andacted like a dump, but Banner ex-
plained that the county couldn't call the dumper a liar when he
said it was a "vegetable farm." He planted a few vegetables in
tires and after he'd made his money from hauling in thousands
of tires, he abandoned the whole mess for someone else to clean
up, Islanders sensed the ruse and screamed often (they are al-
lowed to be biased), but the county felt it was going as far as it
could under the rules. Banner said the county is limited by
very specific regulations and must work with people who ap-
pear to be making good-faith efforts to clean up a nuisance.
A recent change in county policy, giving citation-writ-
ing authority to the solid.waste division of the health
department, has helped the county go after violators,
the health services director said. It used to be that the
health department gave the prosecutor's office informa-
tion and left it up to the prosecutor to file a ease, but in
the overall realm of bad guys, solid.waste violators were
not a high priority. The department's person in charge
of citing solid-waste violators now has 10 cases in court.
But more may be needed if the Wild West attitude continues
while the population here explodes. It may be time for the
county to hire an enforcement officer like the city has. Banner
believes there's a lot of merit to sending an enforcement officer
after violators, giving the officer some regulations with teeth in
them and establishing a single appeals process to cut down on
the time the government spends in abatement proceedings. The
city's system works well, Banner said, adding that that's be-
cause Shelton's enforcement officer is so good. Kathy Geist em-
ploys a nice blend of a willingness to work with people and
firmness about city regulations, he said.
But are there enough cases to keep a county enforce-
ment officer busy? We're afraid so. It sounds like an en-
forcement officer is needed as badly as animal-control
officers. Banner $aid his agency receives 900 complaints
a year about nuisances. He admits his staff feels out-
gunned sometimes. An enforcement officer could make a
difference if the person were able to prlortttze cases and
take care of some of those high-profile ones that are now
being dragged out.
-CG
Page 4 - Shelton-Mason County Journal - Thursday, May 20, 1999
tl
tada supports troops
By DAVE BARRY
Whatever you are doing, drop
it right now, unless it is a baby.
Because I have obtained some
shocking information regarding
our National Security - informa-
tion that I am going to reveal to
you now, despite the chilling fact
that, by revealing it, I am placing
myself in direct, personal peril of
winning a Pulitzer Prize.
This information concerns
some alarming military research
currently being conducted by a
foreign power that represents the
greatest single security threat to
the United States, as measured
not only by the magnitude of the
physical danger, but also by the
number of Celine Dion records.
That's right: I am referring to
Canada. As you may recall, last
year I urged the United States to
declare war on Canada over the
issue of toilet smuggling. In the
United States, we have a federal
law, enacted b" Congress, requir-
ing that new, consumer toilets be
limited to 1.6 gallons of water per
flush. There is an excellent rea-
son for this law: Congress has the
brains of an eggplant. But that
does not change the fact that it is
a law.
Canada, however, flagrantly
disobeys this law, on the grounds
that - get THIS for a legal techni-
cality - it is a foreign country. In
Canada, anybody, including con-
victed felons and underage chil-
dren, can walk into any toilet
store, purchase a 3.5-gallon-per-
flush toilet and openly flaunt it
on the street, and the authorities
do NOTHING. As I reported,
some of these toilets are finding
their way across the border into
the United States. And what is
our government doing? It is
shooting cruise missiles at the
Balkans, which do not even
HAVE toilets.
When are we, as a nation, go-
ing to wake up and recognize the
REAL threat to our security? No
doubt you are aware that just re-
cently, in our nation's capital
(Washington, D.C.), a number of
highly strategic cherry trees were
deliberately chewed by saboteur
beavers. Ask yourself this:
"Where do beavers come from?"
The Balkans? No! Beavers come
from Canada, and they take their
orders from Canada and nobody
else, as you know if you have ever
tried to get one to fetch a ball.
And now, as if we did not al-
ready have enough reasons to de-
clare war on Canada, comes word
of this chilling research being
conducted by the Canadian mili-
tary. I have here a news article
from the Canadian Press, written
by Dennis Bueckert and sent to
me, at great personal risk, by an
alert secret undercover agent in
Canada named Lauren Leighton,
M.D. This article, about a new
Canadian armed-forces program,
contains the following chilling
sentence, which I swea I am not
making up:
"An elite unit at National De-
fense headquarters is actively
studying whether to proceed with
development of the world's first
combat bra."
You read that correctly: The
Canadian military is working on
a combat brassiere. The article
quotes Captain Frank Delanghe,
an officer with the $184 million
Clothe the Soldier Program, as
saying: "No army that I know of
has ever touched or even ap-
proached this issue."
How can we, the American
public, remain sanguine in the
face of this news? Especially
when we do not really know what
"sanguine" means? How can we
sit back and do nothing when an
increasingly hostile, beaver-in-
fested, big-toilet nation spends
$184 million (nearly $37.50
American) on a program to devel-
op a high-tech futuristic assault
undergarment? How would you
feel if you were an American sol-
dier guarding our northern bor-
der, equipped with only a conven-
tional brassiere - the basic design
of which has not changed signifi-
cantly since the Korean Conflict -
knowing that at any moment,
elite Canadian troops could come
charging across No Person's Land
toward you, and the first sight
you would see - a sight that
would strike terror into the heart
of even the most hardened com-
bat veteran - would be the Cones
of Doom?
And while we are asking the
tough questions, I have one here
that was sent in by concerned
reader Margaret Wilson of Santa
Barbara, California, who wants to
know: How come we say "a pair of
pants" and "a pair of slmrts," but
NOT "a pair of bras"?
I wish I could inform you that
our so-ca!led "Defense Depart-
ment" was trying to answer these
questions, but I cannot. And that
is why I am urging you to write
your congressperson NOW and
tell him or her that you want the
United States to launch a mas-
sive wasteful federal program to
match Canada's military under-
garment research. Please keep
your letter dignified. Do NOT
lower yourself to cheesy wordplay
such as "support our troops," or
"stay abreast of our enemies," or
"check out the Balkans on that
lieutenant." If we can get Con-
gress to approve such a program,
I have no doubt that the Presi-
dent will take a personal interest,
especially when he realizes that,
once we have perfected the Tacti-
cal Field Brassiere, we could
adapt the same technology for
even more advanced weapons. I
am referring, of course, to the
Stealth Thong.
It's now okay to be moral?
Editor, The Journal:
What's all this stuff I'm read-
ing about morality, codes for
dress, and conduct, and stan-
dards, parenting, responsibilities,
freedoms, etc., etc.?
Does that mean I don't have to
be "cool" anymore? That I can get
uptight once in awhile when
things don't add? Like school kids
with automatic weapons... That I
don't have to "loosen up" when I
get irate about all the violence
and unnecessary sex on TV and
in the movies7 That I don't have
to excuse uncivility and unethical
behavior because someone is "just
doin' their thing?" That it's all
right if I worry about a society
that is more concerned about
their credit card balance than
where their kid is tonight? That
luuu
q'he
,,.,,. 00_.qournctl
OI4nt P" USPS 492-800
POSTMASTER: Send address changes to Shelton-Mason
County Journal, P.O. Box 430, Shelton, WA 98564.
Published weekly by Shelton Publishing Inc. at 227 West Cota Street, Shelton, Washington
Mailing address: P.O. Box 430, Shelton, WA 98584
Telephone (360) 426-4412
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Charles Gay, editor and publisher. Newsroom: Carolyn Maddux, managing editor; Steve
Patch, sports editor; Jeff Green, general assignment, city govemment, schools; Mary Duncan,
society editor, county govemment; Sean Hanlon, police, courts, Port of Shelton. Advertising:
Stephen Gay, advertising manager; Dave Piedk, ad sales. Front offloe: Julia Orme, business
manager; Vlcki Kamin, circulation; Donna Dooms, bookkeeper; Jane Mahony, office assis-
tant. Composing room: Diane Riordan, supervisor; Margot Brand and Jan Kalllnan, paste-
up; Koleen Wood, typesetter and computer system manager; Kad Freer, computer sd layout
and computer system manager; Cynthia Meyer, proofreader. Pressroom: Robert Roddguez,
production foreman; Roger Lawson, darkroom; Kelly Rlordan, pressman.
tiu
it's okay if it bothers me to realize
that the object of most of the TV
and game-joint games is to kill
everybody and everything in
sight? That it's acceptable if I'm
nonplused by people who tell me
that buying politicians is free
speech, that bomb-making in-
structions for kids on the Internet
is First Amendment-protected,
yet they want to hang people for
burning a flag? That it's now okay
for me to express some anger that
"Moses" lately seems to find his
interpretation of the Second
Amendment more important than
the Fifth Commandment? That I
can be upset by those whose an-
swer to our lately discovered
"juvenile violence problem" is to
conduct yet another study, or
build yet another prison? Where's
Peter Finch when we need him?
Hopefully, it's not too old-fash-
ioned, nor too late, for me to real-
ize that there are ought-tos in
life, and that it would be a better
world if we all tried to live up to
what we ought to do. We can let
the psycho-babblers throw out the
shoulds, but the oughts have been
around for a long time, and are
the basis of an ethical, responsi-
ble civilization. Maybe that's
what we need to teach our kids...
and our un-grown-up adults. I
guess I ought to end this.
Gordon Personius
Union
Y00eadersj 00ournal: "=
In Indmns' shoes
Editor, The Journal:
How many of us are smitten
with the Indian culture? Dream
catchers dangle from car mirrors,
Indian art adorns our walls, clas-
sic pictures of buffalo and open
plains awe us. Yet, there is con-
tempt for the Indian people as we
endure the changes upon us.
A hundred and fifty years ago
our "civilized" forefathers entered
into agreements with "the savag-
es" of this area.
"The United States gave the
solemn guarantee to the tribes
that tribal homelands would be
protected for all time, only to re-
nege on that commitment over
and over and enforce the breach
of those promises by force of
arms," according to BIA Capacity
and Mission, April 1999. "It was
in this era that the stereotype of
the crooked Indian agent, who
sold treaty goods on the black
market for his own profit while
giving the Indians inferior goods,
was all too real.
"The promise of permanent
homelands did not last long, and
by the turn of the 20th Century,
the Bureau of Indian Affairs was
busily allotting lands to individu-
al Indians and selling 'excess'
lands to non-Indian settlers, de-
stroying traditional institutions of
tribal governance, and ripping
children from their families that
they might be sent to boarding
schools to learn the language, cul-
ture, values, habits and indus-
tries of white Americans.
"With the New Deal era came
another wild swing in Indian poli-
cy. Indian agents accustomed to
dictating to tribal leaders sudden-
ly were expected to defer to tribal
governments even to help.
create the institutions of t
government they had only a,
years earlier been instructS0
destroy.
..nt
"As we enter into the ¢ur..
policy era of self-determ_In-'°
and, more recently, self'g°\\;
nance, tribal governing bodies;
best to determine what is bes
them. This is clearly the c0
policy." :
The BIA has been resp°n.,:
. .ll 0t
for implementing the w ,.
United States over the I$
people for 150 years. "",..
United States citizens are i.
gent and have the abihty .
pathize with the horror ,.
atrocities that the Indian 1°,
have suffered at the han ds 0-"
United States
Our forefathers
selves "civilized" and
ties with "savages,"
land, their religions,
tage and their children.
the Indians received a
that they could not even
Now we "hate" them
are intelligent enough tc
"contracts" their chiefs
were forced to put their:
It is ironic how
to be. How does it
their shoes? Now we are
what we thought was our
isn't. Maybe now, as we
the new millennium, we
call ourselves "cwflzed
through this transition
minds and reevaluate
assumptions about the
people. Suzi S;/
Home-rule facts
Editor, The Journal:
Ed Moats warns, "Beware
Home-Rule Hype" (The Journal,
May 13). Mr. Moats must have a
crystal ball to know all the things
he warns against, such as "an an,
larged commission dominated by
an unelected (sic) (ie., hired) chief
executive officer," and "reduced
citizen influence," and "a commis-
sion of nine to 15 members," and
a "full-time $100,000 professional
CEO and so on.
The point is that none of the
above predictions are grounded in
fact. Nobody knows what a chart-
er might call for because it hasn't
been written yet. And it may very
well never be written if the voters
buy Mr. Moats' fantasy as fact!
Let's set the record straight.
The petitions being circulated
to get 2,000 signatures are only to
get on the November
question of whether
ty should write its own
the majority vote "no,
end of it. But if the vo
alen-minded enough
"What harm can it do to
ourselves can write rules
ern this county better tha
vention did in 1889?" we
that chance. Then,
will the rest of us be
uate if the proposed .
likely to be an improvemenotO f#
I don't know how I will v o if) i
the new charter when (an oo t¢ 0
oes on the ballot may, w ..
g - u're -
years from now. But if yo .^t 0
cerned ri ht now how
g. . • eO,-
that question, just gv
a call in Shelton. ' J'
Russell A. Ao
Logging options
felled and left to lie i tvi#
World War I cut. At the s'!ittl
early century there:s
the
demand for cedar: 75 Y. . €:
it was much in demand siv
in of man of the more etr$¢
g Y e €"
homes in the West. Th tte 0d
tor arranged with us t°tor e
lane and adjoining P.,¢k $:
temporary staging ana:'h]cb
cess for the cedar boltS.W:l e°
helicopter delivered at w .,t c$"
the end of a quick "disc°w"
Editor, The Journal..
Following up on the unfolding
story of the current clearcut on
Coffee Creek, several miles west
of Shelton, in Shelton Valley
(shorter letters, easier reading,
yes?), some additional back-
ground may be useful for those
who may follow this sort of thing.
First, it should be pointed out
that there were at least two other
options that could have been con-
sidered by Simpson Timber Com-
pany in this instance.
One option would have been to
establish the cutline some 500 to
800 feet to the west of where the
cutline is. This would have spared
much of the worst damage to the
vulnerable streams, gullies, can-
yons and hills that comprise the
upper reaches of the watershed.
To see the carnage on those
slopes today is not encouraging
for the future of the stream, the
watershed and those who use
and/or enjoy them.
This part of the cut consisted of
a number of conifers left standing
from a pre-World War I cut, plus
a mix of alder, broadleaf maple
and undergrowth; much of these
latter have been left as litter.
Another option would have
been to cut out selectively the sig-
nificant timber and remove it
with the use of helicopters. There
are road accessible yarding areas,
existing nearby from recent clear-
cuts, that would have facilitated
such an operation. The spring
season would have been timely
for weather.
There is ample precedent for
such a helicopter operation. In
1984 Simpson contracted out the
harvest of numerous logs of old-
growth cedar which had been
ble. of
It was the observati°v d ey
operation that conr¢b
previous hunch that il lo;..g I
we might do selective l°eliC°7
our woods, it would be vy
ter. li¢opte
In 1981 I observed,a,/:;rb.'.:
logging operation by w,(w ff
er of some of the blowa.., eel;
Mount Saint H]oe:l': l
handling three " -d v' 0
growth) to a sling'l°.'de r "
turnaround time u"
minutes. . ili.
In the late '80s, whiel lli
Mount Rose, we obser^e to
e Slut' ,lp"
copter logging a ste .P °nd. o
south on forest servxce " i °
contractor was S ips°u
Company.
• --d obSe 'ip
These comments m,: ti d
tions are offered al; m . t ,
the hope that they mY ;,id;
in current and future,ti0'l/
tion of timbering °PV'..,nte r'-
pecially where seri°Se;te.
habitat damage coum _^ts '-
We expect to offer P;tit;e
time to time as we .,¢'^gb
monitor the effects t;.
seasons on our waterSJ j#.y
GordO q"
sheltO"
9ournai of Opinion:
Tune's awas00[n
How long should the public be expected to abide a nuisance
before the government forces its abatement? It's a recurring
question here in stump-ranch country when crud piles up
around ramshackle homes, a neighbor starts an informal
wrecking yard or an entrepreneur establishes a tire dump on
beautiful Harstine Island. It comes up again now because of
another high-profile, old-as-the-hills case in Agate where the
county has taken the unusual stance that a dilapidated mobile
home; constitutes solid waste.
It seems to us that six years is long enough for Bill
Petty's neighbors to wait to have a beat-up mobile home
removed from his property. Six months sounds more
reasonable to us, although some would argue that's
rushing it considering how many determinations and
appeals are possible.
The county's chronology of the mobile-home proceedings
starts ill 1993, when the structure was moved onto property on
Agate Loop Road. In June of that year, Petty was informed that
the mobile home was illegal and not blocked properly, that a
lean-to was not permitted and a woodstove was a hazard. In
August:, Petty and the county met to go over the problems. In
November, county officials asked him to inform them of his in-
tentions to bring the mobile home into compliance. No enforce-
ment action was taken until a year later, when a complaint
was made that the structure was being occupied in December
1994. It was posted, "Do Not Occupy."
Nothing was done for another three years, when the
county decided it would start demolition proceedings af-
ter an inspection revealed the chimney had fallen
through a section of roof, flooring was caving in and
windows were broken. The enforcement actions were
taken by the county building department, which ran out
of funding to proceed with demolition in 1997. The de-
partment even concocted a plan to have Fire District 5
burn the place, but there were costs involved. In Octo-
ber 1997 the county sent Petty a certified notice and or-
der for abatement, and it was returned unclaimed.
Finally in 1998 the case became the health department's
baby, and that department has been trying to force removal us-
ing the county's regulations against accumulation of unsatis-
factory solid waste. The mobile home, six appliances, tires, two
small trailers and furniture had piled up. When the depart-
ment ruled Petty had to remove the solid waste, he appealed to
the county health officer. When the health officer upheld the
department, Petty appealed to the county health board. The
health board just ruled against Petty last Friday.
A story on page 14 in last week's Journal outlined the
testimony at the latest appeals hearing, including that
of frustrated neighbors. You can hardly blame them for
wondering when the saga will end. And you couldn't
blame them for scratching their heads at a story on page
15, in which the health officer laid out tips for avoiding
the deadly hantavirus carried by deer,mice, ?Keep the,
area surrounding the home clear of junk piles, debris
and old cars," it said. Just how should they do that?
Though we aren't the proper agency to handle grievances,
The Jvurnal gets complaints all the time from citizens frustrat-
ed with the pace of government enforcement. We think it's un-
fbrtunate that the enforcement process moves so slowly that
people lose their trust of government over it. And when the
original problem isn't solved in a timely manner, frustrated
neighbors sometimes start reporting other things about the
property they believe are true to try to build a case, and they
get even more dissatisfied when the county can't prove them.
Mason County Health Services Director Brad Banner
knows it takes a long time to deal with such problems,
but there are several factors the public should remem-
ber, he said. For one thing, the county bends over back-
wards to work with people. If you were the one being
disciplined, you wouldn't want the Gestapo after you.
For another thing, many people go halfway with mitiga-
tion to get the county off their backs but have no inten-
tion of really changing. There's a little of the Wild West
attitude in many people in rural areas, Banner said.
In the case of the Harstine tire dump, it looked like a dump,
quacked like a dump andacted like a dump, but Banner ex-
plained that the county couldn't call the dumper a liar when he
said it was a "vegetable farm." He planted a few vegetables in
tires and after he'd made his money from hauling in thousands
of tires, he abandoned the whole mess for someone else to clean
up, Islanders sensed the ruse and screamed often (they are al-
lowed to be biased), but the county felt it was going as far as it
could under the rules. Banner said the county is limited by
very specific regulations and must work with people who ap-
pear to be making good-faith efforts to clean up a nuisance.
A recent change in county policy, giving citation-writ-
ing authority to the solid.waste division of the health
department, has helped the county go after violators,
the health services director said. It used to be that the
health department gave the prosecutor's office informa-
tion and left it up to the prosecutor to file a ease, but in
the overall realm of bad guys, solid.waste violators were
not a high priority. The department's person in charge
of citing solid-waste violators now has 10 cases in court.
But more may be needed if the Wild West attitude continues
while the population here explodes. It may be time for the
county to hire an enforcement officer like the city has. Banner
believes there's a lot of merit to sending an enforcement officer
after violators, giving the officer some regulations with teeth in
them and establishing a single appeals process to cut down on
the time the government spends in abatement proceedings. The
city's system works well, Banner said, adding that that's be-
cause Shelton's enforcement officer is so good. Kathy Geist em-
ploys a nice blend of a willingness to work with people and
firmness about city regulations, he said.
But are there enough cases to keep a county enforce-
ment officer busy? We're afraid so. It sounds like an en-
forcement officer is needed as badly as animal-control
officers. Banner $aid his agency receives 900 complaints
a year about nuisances. He admits his staff feels out-
gunned sometimes. An enforcement officer could make a
difference if the person were able to prlortttze cases and
take care of some of those high-profile ones that are now
being dragged out.
-CG
Page 4 - Shelton-Mason County Journal - Thursday, May 20, 1999
tl
tada supports troops
By DAVE BARRY
Whatever you are doing, drop
it right now, unless it is a baby.
Because I have obtained some
shocking information regarding
our National Security - informa-
tion that I am going to reveal to
you now, despite the chilling fact
that, by revealing it, I am placing
myself in direct, personal peril of
winning a Pulitzer Prize.
This information concerns
some alarming military research
currently being conducted by a
foreign power that represents the
greatest single security threat to
the United States, as measured
not only by the magnitude of the
physical danger, but also by the
number of Celine Dion records.
That's right: I am referring to
Canada. As you may recall, last
year I urged the United States to
declare war on Canada over the
issue of toilet smuggling. In the
United States, we have a federal
law, enacted b" Congress, requir-
ing that new, consumer toilets be
limited to 1.6 gallons of water per
flush. There is an excellent rea-
son for this law: Congress has the
brains of an eggplant. But that
does not change the fact that it is
a law.
Canada, however, flagrantly
disobeys this law, on the grounds
that - get THIS for a legal techni-
cality - it is a foreign country. In
Canada, anybody, including con-
victed felons and underage chil-
dren, can walk into any toilet
store, purchase a 3.5-gallon-per-
flush toilet and openly flaunt it
on the street, and the authorities
do NOTHING. As I reported,
some of these toilets are finding
their way across the border into
the United States. And what is
our government doing? It is
shooting cruise missiles at the
Balkans, which do not even
HAVE toilets.
When are we, as a nation, go-
ing to wake up and recognize the
REAL threat to our security? No
doubt you are aware that just re-
cently, in our nation's capital
(Washington, D.C.), a number of
highly strategic cherry trees were
deliberately chewed by saboteur
beavers. Ask yourself this:
"Where do beavers come from?"
The Balkans? No! Beavers come
from Canada, and they take their
orders from Canada and nobody
else, as you know if you have ever
tried to get one to fetch a ball.
And now, as if we did not al-
ready have enough reasons to de-
clare war on Canada, comes word
of this chilling research being
conducted by the Canadian mili-
tary. I have here a news article
from the Canadian Press, written
by Dennis Bueckert and sent to
me, at great personal risk, by an
alert secret undercover agent in
Canada named Lauren Leighton,
M.D. This article, about a new
Canadian armed-forces program,
contains the following chilling
sentence, which I swea I am not
making up:
"An elite unit at National De-
fense headquarters is actively
studying whether to proceed with
development of the world's first
combat bra."
You read that correctly: The
Canadian military is working on
a combat brassiere. The article
quotes Captain Frank Delanghe,
an officer with the $184 million
Clothe the Soldier Program, as
saying: "No army that I know of
has ever touched or even ap-
proached this issue."
How can we, the American
public, remain sanguine in the
face of this news? Especially
when we do not really know what
"sanguine" means? How can we
sit back and do nothing when an
increasingly hostile, beaver-in-
fested, big-toilet nation spends
$184 million (nearly $37.50
American) on a program to devel-
op a high-tech futuristic assault
undergarment? How would you
feel if you were an American sol-
dier guarding our northern bor-
der, equipped with only a conven-
tional brassiere - the basic design
of which has not changed signifi-
cantly since the Korean Conflict -
knowing that at any moment,
elite Canadian troops could come
charging across No Person's Land
toward you, and the first sight
you would see - a sight that
would strike terror into the heart
of even the most hardened com-
bat veteran - would be the Cones
of Doom?
And while we are asking the
tough questions, I have one here
that was sent in by concerned
reader Margaret Wilson of Santa
Barbara, California, who wants to
know: How come we say "a pair of
pants" and "a pair of slmrts," but
NOT "a pair of bras"?
I wish I could inform you that
our so-ca!led "Defense Depart-
ment" was trying to answer these
questions, but I cannot. And that
is why I am urging you to write
your congressperson NOW and
tell him or her that you want the
United States to launch a mas-
sive wasteful federal program to
match Canada's military under-
garment research. Please keep
your letter dignified. Do NOT
lower yourself to cheesy wordplay
such as "support our troops," or
"stay abreast of our enemies," or
"check out the Balkans on that
lieutenant." If we can get Con-
gress to approve such a program,
I have no doubt that the Presi-
dent will take a personal interest,
especially when he realizes that,
once we have perfected the Tacti-
cal Field Brassiere, we could
adapt the same technology for
even more advanced weapons. I
am referring, of course, to the
Stealth Thong.
It's now okay to be moral?
Editor, The Journal:
What's all this stuff I'm read-
ing about morality, codes for
dress, and conduct, and stan-
dards, parenting, responsibilities,
freedoms, etc., etc.?
Does that mean I don't have to
be "cool" anymore? That I can get
uptight once in awhile when
things don't add? Like school kids
with automatic weapons... That I
don't have to "loosen up" when I
get irate about all the violence
and unnecessary sex on TV and
in the movies7 That I don't have
to excuse uncivility and unethical
behavior because someone is "just
doin' their thing?" That it's all
right if I worry about a society
that is more concerned about
their credit card balance than
where their kid is tonight? That
luuu
q'he
,,.,,. 00_.qournctl
OI4nt P" USPS 492-800
POSTMASTER: Send address changes to Shelton-Mason
County Journal, P.O. Box 430, Shelton, WA 98564.
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manager; Vlcki Kamin, circulation; Donna Dooms, bookkeeper; Jane Mahony, office assis-
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tiu
it's okay if it bothers me to realize
that the object of most of the TV
and game-joint games is to kill
everybody and everything in
sight? That it's acceptable if I'm
nonplused by people who tell me
that buying politicians is free
speech, that bomb-making in-
structions for kids on the Internet
is First Amendment-protected,
yet they want to hang people for
burning a flag? That it's now okay
for me to express some anger that
"Moses" lately seems to find his
interpretation of the Second
Amendment more important than
the Fifth Commandment? That I
can be upset by those whose an-
swer to our lately discovered
"juvenile violence problem" is to
conduct yet another study, or
build yet another prison? Where's
Peter Finch when we need him?
Hopefully, it's not too old-fash-
ioned, nor too late, for me to real-
ize that there are ought-tos in
life, and that it would be a better
world if we all tried to live up to
what we ought to do. We can let
the psycho-babblers throw out the
shoulds, but the oughts have been
around for a long time, and are
the basis of an ethical, responsi-
ble civilization. Maybe that's
what we need to teach our kids...
and our un-grown-up adults. I
guess I ought to end this.
Gordon Personius
Union
Y00eadersj 00ournal: "=
In Indmns' shoes
Editor, The Journal:
How many of us are smitten
with the Indian culture? Dream
catchers dangle from car mirrors,
Indian art adorns our walls, clas-
sic pictures of buffalo and open
plains awe us. Yet, there is con-
tempt for the Indian people as we
endure the changes upon us.
A hundred and fifty years ago
our "civilized" forefathers entered
into agreements with "the savag-
es" of this area.
"The United States gave the
solemn guarantee to the tribes
that tribal homelands would be
protected for all time, only to re-
nege on that commitment over
and over and enforce the breach
of those promises by force of
arms," according to BIA Capacity
and Mission, April 1999. "It was
in this era that the stereotype of
the crooked Indian agent, who
sold treaty goods on the black
market for his own profit while
giving the Indians inferior goods,
was all too real.
"The promise of permanent
homelands did not last long, and
by the turn of the 20th Century,
the Bureau of Indian Affairs was
busily allotting lands to individu-
al Indians and selling 'excess'
lands to non-Indian settlers, de-
stroying traditional institutions of
tribal governance, and ripping
children from their families that
they might be sent to boarding
schools to learn the language, cul-
ture, values, habits and indus-
tries of white Americans.
"With the New Deal era came
another wild swing in Indian poli-
cy. Indian agents accustomed to
dictating to tribal leaders sudden-
ly were expected to defer to tribal
governments even to help.
create the institutions of t
government they had only a,
years earlier been instructS0
destroy.
..nt
"As we enter into the ¢ur..
policy era of self-determ_In-'°
and, more recently, self'g°\\;
nance, tribal governing bodies;
best to determine what is bes
them. This is clearly the c0
policy." :
The BIA has been resp°n.,:
. .ll 0t
for implementing the w ,.
United States over the I$
people for 150 years. "",..
United States citizens are i.
gent and have the abihty .
pathize with the horror ,.
atrocities that the Indian 1°,
have suffered at the han ds 0-"
United States
Our forefathers
selves "civilized" and
ties with "savages,"
land, their religions,
tage and their children.
the Indians received a
that they could not even
Now we "hate" them
are intelligent enough tc
"contracts" their chiefs
were forced to put their:
It is ironic how
to be. How does it
their shoes? Now we are
what we thought was our
isn't. Maybe now, as we
the new millennium, we
call ourselves "cwflzed
through this transition
minds and reevaluate
assumptions about the
people. Suzi S;/
Home-rule facts
Editor, The Journal:
Ed Moats warns, "Beware
Home-Rule Hype" (The Journal,
May 13). Mr. Moats must have a
crystal ball to know all the things
he warns against, such as "an an,
larged commission dominated by
an unelected (sic) (ie., hired) chief
executive officer," and "reduced
citizen influence," and "a commis-
sion of nine to 15 members," and
a "full-time $100,000 professional
CEO and so on.
The point is that none of the
above predictions are grounded in
fact. Nobody knows what a chart-
er might call for because it hasn't
been written yet. And it may very
well never be written if the voters
buy Mr. Moats' fantasy as fact!
Let's set the record straight.
The petitions being circulated
to get 2,000 signatures are only to
get on the November
question of whether
ty should write its own
the majority vote "no,
end of it. But if the vo
alen-minded enough
"What harm can it do to
ourselves can write rules
ern this county better tha
vention did in 1889?" we
that chance. Then,
will the rest of us be
uate if the proposed .
likely to be an improvemenotO f#
I don't know how I will v o if) i
the new charter when (an oo t¢ 0
oes on the ballot may, w ..
g - u're -
years from now. But if yo .^t 0
cerned ri ht now how
g. . • eO,-
that question, just gv
a call in Shelton. ' J'
Russell A. Ao
Logging options
felled and left to lie i tvi#
World War I cut. At the s'!ittl
early century there:s
the
demand for cedar: 75 Y. . €:
it was much in demand siv
in of man of the more etr$¢
g Y e €"
homes in the West. Th tte 0d
tor arranged with us t°tor e
lane and adjoining P.,¢k $:
temporary staging ana:'h]cb
cess for the cedar boltS.W:l e°
helicopter delivered at w .,t c$"
the end of a quick "disc°w"
Editor, The Journal..
Following up on the unfolding
story of the current clearcut on
Coffee Creek, several miles west
of Shelton, in Shelton Valley
(shorter letters, easier reading,
yes?), some additional back-
ground may be useful for those
who may follow this sort of thing.
First, it should be pointed out
that there were at least two other
options that could have been con-
sidered by Simpson Timber Com-
pany in this instance.
One option would have been to
establish the cutline some 500 to
800 feet to the west of where the
cutline is. This would have spared
much of the worst damage to the
vulnerable streams, gullies, can-
yons and hills that comprise the
upper reaches of the watershed.
To see the carnage on those
slopes today is not encouraging
for the future of the stream, the
watershed and those who use
and/or enjoy them.
This part of the cut consisted of
a number of conifers left standing
from a pre-World War I cut, plus
a mix of alder, broadleaf maple
and undergrowth; much of these
latter have been left as litter.
Another option would have
been to cut out selectively the sig-
nificant timber and remove it
with the use of helicopters. There
are road accessible yarding areas,
existing nearby from recent clear-
cuts, that would have facilitated
such an operation. The spring
season would have been timely
for weather.
There is ample precedent for
such a helicopter operation. In
1984 Simpson contracted out the
harvest of numerous logs of old-
growth cedar which had been
ble. of
It was the observati°v d ey
operation that conr¢b
previous hunch that il lo;..g I
we might do selective l°eliC°7
our woods, it would be vy
ter. li¢opte
In 1981 I observed,a,/:;rb.'.:
logging operation by w,(w ff
er of some of the blowa.., eel;
Mount Saint H]oe:l': l
handling three " -d v' 0
growth) to a sling'l°.'de r "
turnaround time u"
minutes. . ili.
In the late '80s, whiel lli
Mount Rose, we obser^e to
e Slut' ,lp"
copter logging a ste .P °nd. o
south on forest servxce " i °
contractor was S ips°u
Company.
• --d obSe 'ip
These comments m,: ti d
tions are offered al; m . t ,
the hope that they mY ;,id;
in current and future,ti0'l/
tion of timbering °PV'..,nte r'-
pecially where seri°Se;te.
habitat damage coum _^ts '-
We expect to offer P;tit;e
time to time as we .,¢'^gb
monitor the effects t;.
seasons on our waterSJ j#.y
GordO q"
sheltO"