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Page A—6 Shelton-Mason County Journal Thursday, July 2, 2020
GUEST
Like Poland, the United States needs change
11 July 4, 1975, America proud—
0 1y celebrated its Bicentennial
as the world’s greatest nation
while Poland was a suppressed Soviet
satellite state.
Poles had no right to free speech,
were hungry and impover-
ished. If you wanted a job, you
played ball with Communist
Party bosses. If you disagreed
with their ideology, you likely
were imprisoned. Poland was
a rather bleak land which had
not recovered from the Ger-
man blitzkrieg in 1939.
Meanwhile, in Washington,
the Business Week program
started at Central Washing-
ton University as a way for
high school students to experi-
ence our nation’s dynamic market-
based economic system. It was an
idea germinated at the Association of
Washington Business by Yelm grocer
Hal Wolfe and Dr. Jim Brooks, CWU
president. It migrated to Poland 20
years ago.
When Business Week started, Lech
Walesa, founder of the Solidarity
Movement, was jailed by Communist
Party leaders for violating the right to
organize shipyard workers in Gdansk.
Karol Jozef Wojtyla was archbishop of
Krakow and Ronald Reagan was Cali-
fornia’s governor.
Walesa formed the Soviet bloc’s
first independent trade union, won
the Nobel Peace Prize in 1983, and
served as Poland’s president from
1990—95. Walesa led peaceful protests
- not riots. .
By DON
BRUNELL
In 1978, Wojtyla was elected Pope
John Paul II. In 1979, he startled the
Communists by returning to his na-
tive land. His 10 days in Poland drew
millions peacefully. The embers of
freedom lit by Walesa suddenly be-
came a bonfire.
Then President Ronald
Reagan sealed the deal
in 1987 appearing at the
Brandenburg Gate divid-
ing East and West Berlin
and challenged Soviet
leader Mikhail Gorbachev:
“Mr. Gorbachev, tear down
this wall!” Twenty-nine
months later after intense
East German protests, the
famed gate opened and
the wall started tumbling
down.
This July 4, we need to remember
thatpeaceful protests are important
to bring about change, but rioting,
burning and looting are impediments
to progress.
People peacefully calling for
reforms in policing, equality and
changes to improve opportunities for
everyone are needed. However, riot-
ers taunting and threatening those
attempting to maintain public safety,
looting businesses, and ransack-
ing and burning stores and offices,
destroy people’s ability to carry out
meaningful change.
Complicating systemic changes is
the COVID-l9 pandemic. It continues
to hit small businesses hard, particu-
larly those owned by minorities. For
example, in mid-June, the Wall Street
comes the employer
and economic engine.
As we celebrate
our independence on
July 4, we ought to
remember that en-
terprising people ul-
timately create a bet—
ter life for all of us.
Too often, Ameri-
cans forget we are
fortunate to live in a
governmental system
which allows us to
peacefully change.
Occasionally, it needs
a good tuning up and
that time is now. It
is time to build upon
our strengths rather
than rip America
apart.
We need to push
our political leaders
to work together now
and not await the
outcome of the No-
vember elections.
Journal reported
the number of active
black business own-
ers fell by 41%.
WSJ published
data from economist
Robert Fairlie, Uni-
versity of California,
Santa Cruz, who
wrote the number
of working business
owners plummeted
from 15 million in
February to 11.7 mil-
lion in April. That 3.3
million is a stunning
22% drop.
Minority busi-
ness owners were
hit hardest. About
441,000 Black,
658,000 Latino, 1.1
million immigrant
and 1.3 million
women businesses
disappeared. For
women, one of four
businesses closed.
But what seems
lost is the private
sector, allowed to in-
vent, can solve prob-
lems in new ways.
I Don C. Brunell is
a business analyst,
writer and columnist.
He retired as presi-
Poland experienced dent of the Associa-
the iron rule of gov- tion of Washington
ernment which con- Business, the state’s
trolled every aspect oldest and largest
business organiza-
tion, and now lives in Vancouver. He
can be contacted at theBrunells@msn.
com.
of its people’s lives. It
stagnated. While America is not the
Poland of 1975, it is drifting rapidly
to a nation where the government be-
LE'ITERS cont. from page A-5
Sheriff
Salisbury
on slippery
slope?
Editor, the Journal
For the second time in re-
cent years Casey Salisbury, .
Mason County sheriff, is pub—
licly refusing to enforce a law
of the state of Washington,
and instructing his subordi-
nates to do the same.
When I voted for Casey
Salisbury, several times now,
it was with the expectation
that he would enforce the
laws of the state and county.
Instead, he has twice refused
to enforce the laws of our
state. The sheriff has publicly
expressed his opinion in op-
position to the law, and has
replaced the law as it is with
his judgment. This is not ac—
ceptable.
The sheriff, and his sub-
ordinates, have made public
statements to the effect that
they will not enforce the new
law in connection with wear-
ing masks in public —- a law
that is solely designed to save
lives and stop the spread of
COVID-19.
Mason County has a sher-
iff who will not enforce the
law if he does not agree with
it.
This is not OK. This is the
sheriff violating his oath of
office.
Sheriff Salisbury believes
his opinions are more rel-
evant, and more important,
and carry more weight than
the highest health official in
the state. What do you think?
Katherine Price
Shelton
A few
thoughts on
CHOP, cops
Editor, the Journal
Some random comments
on the current mess:
1. No one responded to my
question of last week, which
was, do the lives of Black
police officers matter? Can
someone please answer this
without blaming the cops?
2. Last Friday morning, a
local TV news station greeted
me with a live shot of 3 Se-
attle CHOP member dressed
in black and lying in the
street. He was lying in front
of a big city-owned front-end
loader there to remove the
CHOP barricades. The driver
stood by helplessly. My solu-
. tion? Empty one of the Porta-
Potties there on top of the
law-breaking CHOP kid. The
smell would probably be the
same.
3. The woefully ignorant
“defund/eliminate the police”
crowd now says that cities
should take to task police
unions, Which help retain
“bad apples” on the force.
I agree with this. I think
the good cops would be glad
to be rid of the bad ones.
However, the same charge
made here against police
unions must also be made
against teachers unions
and for the same reasons.
4. What about all these
young ignoramuses tearing
down monuments every-
where? Well, first, they don’t
even know who or what the
statues represent, and two,
like their probable hero, for-
mer President Obama, they
don’t like America very much,
if at all.
The subject of American
history has, I believe, been
sliding deeper into the sewer
over the last 20-plus years.
Heck, only 18% of universi-
ties require an American his-
tory course to graduate. Now,
students in grades K through
12 and especially these in the
universities are being taught
the “America sucks” version
by teachers sympathetic to,
or wholly ignorant of, social-
ism.
I don’t know how to fix
this. Maybe police and/or
the National Guard can stop
the destruction we’re see-
ing on TV, but in the future?
Academia from local school
boards to college administra-
tions has neither the inter-
est nor moxie to tackle the
history problem, and neither
parents nor concerned citi—
zens have the clout.
5. I think it’s safe to say
now that we have in our
midst what I call the Lois Le-
rner strain of the coronavirus.
It targets only Republicans.
According to the communica-
tions branch of the Demo-
cratic Party, the mainstream
media, those tens of thou-
sands of protesters marching
arm-in-arm and cheek-to-jowl
don’t need to social distance
at all, but you freaky reli-
gious Republicans in your
cars listening to sermons in
church parking lots, you’re all
under arrest!
Wow. A left-wing, thinking
Virus. Thanks, MSM.
6. A TV pundit last week
said Joe Biden reminded him
for several reasons of a holo-
gram. Breathless headlines
today tell us that real or not,
Biden leads Trump in nation—
wide polls by 10-12 points. At
this same time in the 2016
campaign, Hillary also led
Trump by 10-12 points in na-
tionwide polls.
Oops, I may have said this
in a previous letter, but it’s
sure fun to repeat.
Robert E. Graham
Union
Fourth of July
more special
for reader
Editor, the Journal
This Fourth of July is go-
ing to be a bit of a milestone
for me, since I was born in
July of 1950 and will be turn-
ing 70 near the end of the
month.
A little background: I was
born and raised in Hudson
County, New Jersey, just ,
across the Hudson River from
the Big Apple. My father was
a bricklayer and my mother
stayed home and raised six
children.
We never had much mon-
ey, nor our own home, or even
a car. Yet in our own humble
way, We seemed richer than
Bill Gates is today simply by
having each other.
My dad always said that
the world does not owe us a
living. My mom. stressed that
we should treat all as we’d
like to be treated ourselves.
Adhering to these two tenets
has worked pretty well for
me, and I suspect would for
most folks.
Every Fourth of July now,
I celebrate both this good
though imperfect country of
ours, along with my match-
ing good but imperfect family
I feel so fortunate to be have
born into.
And for those who cannot
celebrate either: I’m sincerely
sorry. But I wouldn’t blame
America for all your troubles.
Bill Barker
Shelton
Whata
coincidence
Editor, the Journal
Interesting how the “love
fest” turned into a “public
nuisance” once the protesters
in Seattle’s CHOP learned
where the mayor lived.
Val Reineman
Shelton