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Newspaper Archive of
Shelton Mason County Journal
Shelton, Washington
June 21, 2012     Shelton Mason County Journal
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June 21, 2012
 
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JOURNALEDITORIAL KOMENCOMMENT Security cameras surround us. They're on us as we drive about town, especially when we stop for traffic signals. Career- as watch us shop in Walmart, browse antique stores, look for bargains in thrift shops, visit a bank in downtown Shelton. Look above you when next you're stopped at an intersection. More often than not you'll find a small TV camera affixed to the over- head traffic-light structure. It's observing you, and it is taping you. These tiny television cameras watching us have become so ubiquitous and we've become so accustomed to them that we no longer pay them much attention. They are there, and we've accepted them as a matter of course. They've become an invisible factor in our daily lives. They're not hidden. Many of these cameras are in plain sight as they record you in the bank or making a transaction in the gas- station convenience store. And these estab- lishments make no bones LETTERSTOTHEEDITORTM about the fact you're being recorded. There are signs and written notices tell- ing you -- warning you, in fact -- that you are being observed. They are not re- ally warning you, exactly. They are warning shoplift- By JOHN ers to be aware they are be- ing watched, so don't steal KOMEN anything. Crime was a major rea- son why cameras went up in the first place. Years ago cameras were first installed -- and very visible to everyone -- to monitor activi- ties in crime-ridden neighborhoods. Police would watch, live, as drugs were dealt, cars vandalized, businesses burglarized. The cam- era/recorder was a great crime-fighting tool in the inner cities. And it still is being used to fight crime. We've all seen newspaper photos of a robber caught by the camera/recorder as he rifled a cash register, held up a bank, broke into a store. On television, the actual tapes are of- ten shown, so we see movies of the bandit in action. All this crime fighting is well and good. But what of the great majority of us who are law-abiding, tax-paying, God-fearing citizens? Why should we be subjected to this constant spying on our daily activities? What about our privacy? Our right to conduct our daily business without interference of cameras and recorders? Isn't there some Constitutional right to be left alone that is being abrogated here? Too late. The cameras are here, and they're • not about to be removed by some citizen crying about his Constitutional rights. The ubiquitousness of cameras observing us is too solidly entrenched to ever be reversed. And it is about to get enhanced. Already a few cities are augmenting the cameras with sound recorders and instantaneous location devices that can pinpoint the exact location of a gunshot. Called "ShotSpotter," the system detects a gunshot, sends an instant electronic alarm to a central location where a technician quickly focuses on a computer screen, zooms in on a satellite map, determines within a dozen feet where the shot occurred and immediately or- ders up a police response. ShotSpotter's system has acoustic detec- tors attached to buildings, utility poles and anything else handy. By computerized trian- gulation, a near-precise location where the shot was fired is immediately determined. The ShotSpotter company will set up its sys- tem in your city for a yearly fee of $40,000 to $60,000 per square mile of monitored area. The New York Times reports Oakland, Ca- lif., has ShotSpotter. So does Richmond, Calif. Detroit recently rejected a $2.6 million Shot- Spotter contract because the city can't afford to hire enough officers to answer all the city's gun shots. ShotSpotter has one big drawback. Any sharp sound -- not just a gun going off -- is detected and instantly tracked. So don't blow off an air horn or crash your car into a trash- can. You might wind up an acoustic suspect. • John Komen, who lives on Mason Lake, was for 40 years a reporter and editor, TV an- chorman, national TV network correspondent, producer, columnist, editorial writer and com- mentator. His column, Komen Comment, ap- pears each week in the Shelton-Mason County Journal. Shelton-Mason County mmm There is a YouTube video circulat- ing on the Internet that shows a high school English teacher from Mass- chusetts telling the Class of 2012 at Wellesley High School that "none of you is special." For 12 minutes and 36 seconds, David McCullough Jr. insists that the graduates sitting before him, and their 37,000 fellow graduates across the country, are "not exceptional." "Even if you're one in a million," Mc- Cullough says, "on a planet of 6.8 bil- lion, that means there are nearly 7,000 people just like you." Part of McCullough's point seems to be that high school graduation is not the end. It is intended, instead, to be only the beginning -- a message clearly conveyed at each of the four high school graduation ceremonies in Mason Coun- ty over the past two weeks and the 478 gradutes. While no one is special -- or if, in- deed, we all are special -- it is para- mount to note that each member of the graduating Class of 2012 is distinct. No matter your label, group or cat- egory, then, each graduate is account- able only to himself or herself about the individual impact, good or bad, he or she chooses to make on society. And by being distinct, each graduate has the opportunity to make a unique -- er, special -- impact on society, be it Mason County, Washington or any- where else. Shelton High School social studies teacher and girls basketball coach Jus- tin Parker addressed the Highclimbers during the school's 103rd commence- ment exercises on June 9 at St. Mar- tin's University in Lacey. Parker hit the proverbial nail on the head when he told graduates to be "re- lentless, unyielding and persisent." He encouraged students that when life knocks you down, "get back up, brush yourself off.., and get going." And that's what can separate every- one who is special from those who are distinct. "Don't be passive about what is ahead of you," Parker said. "Fight, scrap, claw. Get it done." And in doing so, make a difference. Be distinct. need work Editor, the Journal: I have never seen a shod- dier compilation. The 2012 yearbook has more misspelled words, names askew (Cale Gloor - Paige Rune Goldsby) backward pictures, than is imaginable. Don't they edit any part of it? It makes me wonder what kind of educa- tion our kids are getting, don't know how to spell, can't get names right on pictures and can't tell when a photo is backward. These books are not cheap. We expect bet- ter. We did not get what we thought we were paying for. Arline Goldsby Shelton Don't let the county fool you Editor, the Journal If it were possible to talk away violent crime, pollution and a bad economy, these things would not be taking place in Mason County. But they are. In an effort to distract from the issues, citizens are made to endure the occasional of- ficial self-congratulation and interdepartmental award. But the only real measure of how a community is doing is how people feel about their safety, their prospects for the future and their overall well- being, County commissioners tell us that times are tough and cutbacks to services are necessary. But the fact is cur- rent cash/investment have exceeded expenditures in each of the past three years, with reserves now at $7.2 million, a six-year high. For whatever reason, commissioners would like us to think we can't even afford a fuU-time receptionist at the county administra- tive building; walk into the lobby on any Friday and you are greeted only by your own echo. Have a concern? Don't bring it to a county commis- sion meeting, unless you want to be drowned under a wave of excuses, ranging from "Our hands are tied" to '`you're misinformed." If you happen to represent a special inter- est.group, however, you can expect to have the county's Comprehensive Plan amended to accommodate your needs. Given all the attention to special interests, you'd think they were the primary source of revenue, but you'd be wrong; the county budget is balanced on the backs of ordinary citi- zens who dutifully pay their property taxes to the tune of more than $68 million in 2011 (more than $70 million, if you include property excise tax). Why is all this so impor- tant? Because the job of local government is to protect the citizenry, provide services and create public policies that ben- efit the community at large, Editor, the Journal not cater to special interests. I believe if we want trans- When it comes to the contract parent government, we should of taxes versus public services, see transparency from candi- ordinary citizens are getting dates before an election. Don't the short end of the stick, you agree? Am I being unfair? Per- I am a citizen in Belfair haps. But ask yourself this who wants to see a future question: In public policy deci- transparent government not sions involving safety, jobs, run by hidden agendas. There growth and the environment, is a community forum corn- are your concerns being ad- ing up on June 25 inviting dressed? Now ask yourself the candidates for county corn- same question, only this time missioner, state representa- imagine you have political tive, and U.S. Congress. The influence and a pocket full of names of the organizers were money, listed in the June 7 Belfair Ordinary people are the Herald. I wrote a simple let- heart and soul of Mason ter to the Belfair Round Table County. Not big business, not Yahoo Group, a group that the politicians, and certainly appears to be one outreach of not special interests. It is the North Mason Community ordinary people doing extraor- Voice (NMCV), asking for dinary things that make our some simple disclosures since county a place worth living in. the forum was promoted as And it is ordinary people who being completely neutral. can bring a sense of commu- The only responses I re- nity back by electing the right ceived by anyone in a position people, of leadership were negative responses insinuating I was Tom Davisstarting rumors and trying Sheltonto undermine the integrity of the forum. I don't believe I was because I went directly Clarification and openly to the source and asked for disclosures. on SR 3 Here are the main ques- tions I asked to NMCV and the Belfair Round Table dis- repairs cussion group: 1. Who is in charge Editor, the Journal of the upcoming candidate I asked my 35th District forum: The Chamber of Com- representatives, Kathy Haigh merce or NMCV? and Fred Finn, for informa- 2. How did the chamber tion on state activity to repair and NMCV team up on this the slide damage along State event? Are there minutes to Route 3 near Shelton. the meetings? I received the following re- 3. Who will see the ques- spouse from Washington State tions emailed or sent in and Department of Transportation how will the questions be de- (WSDOT) Region Administra- termined for the candidates? tot Kevin J. Dayton, which I 4. Why do the candi- would like to share with read- dates need time to consider ers of the Journal: the questions? Why the prepa- "Immediately after the ration time? slide occurred, WSDOT ex- 5. Has anyone involved pedited the development of a in the decision-making for contract to replace the exist- this upcoming forum been in- ing retaining wall that failed, volved in any kind of strategy A new retaining wall will be meetings with any particular built to restore the roadway candidate? to its previous condition. 6. If the answer to ques- Using emergency contract- tion 5 is "Yes,' was the upcom- ing methods, the project ing forum or the partnership was awarded to Rognlins, with the chamber in any way Inc. on May 29, 2012. Un- tied to any strategies for any fortunately, due to the lead particular candidate? time required to procure and fabricate the structural piles The reason these questions necessary to build the new were asked is because it had retaining wall, the onsite been observed that one par- work will not begin until mid ticular candidate for county to late July. WSDOT antici- commissioner seemed to have pates the contractor to corn- an inordinate number of sup- plete the repairs and have porters among those names two lanes restored in early October." Lee Hatch Shelton Let's keep it transparent mentioned in the Journal on June 7. After investigating on the state's public disclosure website, it turns out that at least half of the names mentioned as organizers in the article have financially supported one particular candidate for county commis- sioner, yet have not supported others, and one of the other organizers in particular owns at least one website domain with the same commissioner candidate's name, making the apparent support for one particular candidate more than half of those mentioned. In addition to that, the other partner in this forum named the same candidate "Man of the Year" recently. I wasn't accusing at all. I was simply asking for disclosures and it feels like I was stonewalled. I have yet to receive an- swers to the questions I ask. All I'm asking for is transpar- ency, simple transparency. I don't care who wins the elec- tion at this point, as long as it is done transparently. Other- wise, how can we anticipate a transparent government in the future if we cannot even get it during the election pro- cess? Please investigate this. John Gunter Belfair Republican nastiness unneccesary Editor, the Journal I realized that I am an old lady, but the national politi- cal climate really upsets me. I've voted at times Republican, Democratic and even third party. The utter viciousness, pet- tiness and nastiness of Eric Cantor, John Boehner, Mitch McConnell and Mitt Romney is horrible. They apparently would rather see the economy go down the drain than do any- thing to help. Every time there is a new set of figures that are a bit disappointing, they are absolutely gleeful. They have become downright mean. Between them and Karl Rove's super PACs -- thanks to the stupid Citizen's Union decision -- I will probably nev- er vote Republican again. What ever happened to the party of Lincoln, Teddy Roos- evelt, Eisenhower, Dan Evans and even Nixon? They put the good of the country ahead of self interest and actually knew what the word compromise meant. Perhaps the OWL Party some years back had the right idea. Bonnie Rice Shelton She~ton-Mason County Journal is a member of usPs 492-800 Washington Newspaper Publishers' ASsociation. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to Shelton-Mason SUBSCRIPTION RATES: County Journal, RO. Box 430, Shelton, WA 98584. $37 per year for Mason County addresses, . Published weekly by Shelton-Mason County Journal, Inc. $51 per year in state of Washington but outside at 227 West Cota Street, Shelton, Washington Mason County, $61 per year out of state. Mailing address: P.O. Box 430, Shelton, WA 98584 Telephone (360) 426-4412 * www.masoncounty.com Owned and published by Periodicals postage paid at Shelton, Washington Shelton-Mason County Journal, Inc Page A-4 - Shelt0n-Mason County Journal - ThursdaY, June 21, 2012 Kari Sleight, publisherAdvertising: Dave Pierik, St. Acct. Executive Newsroom: Sharee Miller, ad representative Jesse Mullen, editor Maggie Burich, ad representative Natalie Johnson, reporter Kelfi Alexander, ad representative Kevin Spradlin, reporter Front office: Emily Hanson, sports reporter Adam Rudnick, copy editor Donna Kinnaird, bookkeeper Margot Brand, circulation Cricket Carter, mailroom supervisor Composing room: William Adams, graphics Pressroom: Kelly Riordan, production manager Travis Miller, press operator Mary Northover, press operator I I i