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Newspaper Archive of
Shelton Mason County Journal
Shelton, Washington
July 13, 1978     Shelton Mason County Journal
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July 13, 1978
 
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OPINION00 Too late every time Dear Mum: Just a note to let you know what is going on with me. You probably read this week that Governor Ray has ordered a reduction in payments for 5,000 welfare recipients. They will now get "a $60 a month allowance for food" rather than the $212 they have been receiving. Your loving son is one of those 5,000 the governor says should not be getting welfare because they are employable, healthy citizens. God knows I have tried to get a job, but I keep running into this one big problem wherever I apply. My friends say I am crazy to try to get a job because you can live pretty high off the hog on that $212 a month. Even after I bought the new car and made the down payment on that property on Fox Island, I' still had enough money left to pay for your stay in the hospital and your birthday trip to Hawaii. But I knew it couldn't last, so I've been training for a number of jobs. You will remember when I was a little kid I made a list of jobs I'd like to have when I grew up. The thing I wanted most to do was pilot a supertanker, so I trained hard for that job. But when I got down to the supertanker place, there was this lady already at the helm. She wore a baseball cap and a big smile, and looked a lot like Governor Ray. The second job on my list was helmsman on a hydrofoil. I figured my supertanker training would help qualify me for that, so I hustled down to the dock where they keep the hydrofoils. I couldn't believe it. That same lady was already there and ready for action behind the wheel. I figured I'd better look for work on land because all the water jobs were apparently tied up in some kind of affirmative action program for women, so I trained as a log truck driver. I've wanted to run one of those big rigs ever since I was five years old. When I thought I was ready, I went to this logging company to apply for work. I hadn't even gotten through the gate xhen I spotted this big, shiny log truck with a smiling driver behind the wheel. Guess what, momma? You're right; it was that same dame in the baseball cap who had beaten me to the other two jobs. I was pretty discouraged by then, so I used my welfare money to take a trip to Europe, a couple of short whacks at the Los Vegas tables, and a theatre tour of New York. But I knew I had to get a job, so I took another look at my list and decided to become a railroad engineer. This time, however, I thought I'd check out the employment ., possibilities before I started training. I went down to the depot and there, believe it or not, IIWS that same grinning, sol::, upl in the gab of Old 98 with ::!i oe iand on-the throttle' and t  other on thi whistle.  I was talking to myself for a week, but I didn't let it destroy me. You develop a lot of perseverance from standing in a welfare line waiting to collect all those big bucks. So I looked at my list again. Remember when daddy gave me that miniature Goodyear blimp? For about two years all I could think about was becoming a blimp pilot, and that job was next on my list. I prayed that the smiling lady's poppa had never given her a miniature blimp. But apparently he had. I spotted her from a mile away as I approached the airport, so didn't even bother to put on my baseball cap and blimp driver's T-shirt with the picture of the Hindenburg. I've had it, momma. You know I don't give up easily, but I'm at the end of my steam and have run out of rope. Just getting this off my chest has made me feel better, however, so maybe I'll give it one more try. I'm leaving tomorrow for Alaska to look for work as a dog sled driver. If that doesn't work, I can always run for governor. No training or talent is required for the job and I think I could learn to live on $4,600 a month. Love, Sonny --- programs both 8flU. C)F WlCKE9 OOt00C0000SSlO0000,t. WITCR. • K[ 4E D  C0vIE Editor, The Journal: (to the judge's surprised "' D|[[' 0' , . ,, . . • to legally hit the bricks 'the 00ome 00ome, ou t side w o. Olql'r Sf[XS f ,,,, ta. lg of _mff_ny thi.ngs:" Intensive rarote grogram.  t.,j noe, ann stops, aria sealing wax, Similarly, persons "'Of cabbages and kingz "' records successfully - Lewis Carroll con game to a committee operating in Indeed, Mason County the four guard towers. In quick and would.receive favor _-----, residents are increasingly talking succession occurred the loss of m!scmcmauon, while a to one another; particularly one of the three cell blocks on Ingnteneo resident, those who live within the the Dayton Road side of the anger anu fear reac C__apitol aDome: Timber tax at top of list By ROBERT C. CUMMINGS Some fear allowing too much The state timber tax which time would encourage further doesn't please anybody will delay. Meanwhile, Ihe probably be extended when the Department of Revenue has Legislature convenes here next announced it has increased January. stumpage values for the secomt The present law expires next half of this year. Young-growth December 31, so passage of a bill Douglas fir will average 2.2 extending it will be one of the percent higher; hemlock, 9.9 first actions taken by the percent. lawmakers. A Three-Way Approach Despite almost Universal The House Ecology dissatisfaction with the present method, those involved have Committee has instructed its staff to prepare three alternativc been unable to agree upon a substitute, bills on water resource management, to be taken up fin Target Date is March consideration some time this fall. The Attorney Gener'al's One bill would establish; a ', office has ited i offieial';''water supply forecasting bbard, opinion that the Legislature has and require forecast reports to until March to enact a new tax law and make it retroactive to January 1. The length of the extension hasn't been determined. Some senators favor a full two-year extension, but there is a question whether the House will agree to it. the Legislature. Another would tighten the five.year relinquishment provisions of the water rights law, while a third would require land transfer documents to contain pertinent information regarding water rights. Meanwhile the commiltee Quote: "Any school district that decides to get serious about minimum competency, especially in the big cities, could fail students in droves. But what will happen in a state like California, where each school system is free to set its own standards of minimum competency? One can almost conjure up visions of a modern generation of academic Okies, families moving from school district to school district in search oJ'a minimum competency test that their chiMren ca pass." Gone I. Maeroff i II 'V Stop me if you e heard... By KARL L. MONROE Collinsville (Ill.) Herald Are you ready for this one? The operator of one of those Marineland resorts heard that a rival establishment was billing "The Ancient Mariner," a porpoise that had apparently achieved immortality. Jealous and curious, he went to see it. The carbon-14 dating and other exotic tests by which they dated the porpoise's birth somewhere the far side of Noah's Ark, he was skeptical of. What convinced him was a beard a foot long, snowy white. He had never seen that on a porpoise. He believed. At incredible cost, he bought The Ancient Mariner. It would be a great box office attraction, and besides, the operator secretly yearned to live forever himself, and 00tl, e00;00Jour00al Mailing Address: Box 430, Shelton, Wa. 98584 Phone 426-4412 Published at 227 West Cota Street, Shelton, Mason County, Washington 98584, weekly. Second-class postage paid at Shelton, Washington figured he could get the technique from The Ancient Mariner. Within a few days, the ancient porpoise lost its pep, began behaving like several tlaousand years old, and hadn't eaten a smidgin of the chopped octopus and other delicacies the operator tempted him with. Frantic, he laycd the problem before the former owner. "I forgot to tell you," the sly seller said, "The Ancient Mariner owes all his success to an exotic diet. In the bay of a little island a thousand miles from here, is the nesting ground of a certain sea-gull. They are - well, different. The Ancient Mariner eats only the fledgling sea-gulls. We would rob the nests and feed them to the immortal porpoise, and thus guarantee he'd live forever. It wasn't automatic, you know. "I am a man of honor and former Eagle Scout, and I will give you my left-over stock of young gulls." Great. The operator couldn't wait to get back to his own Marine land with the good news and life-preserving tonic for The Ancient Mariner. Unfortunately, the road ran through safari land. Draped squarely across the road, dozing peacefully, was the magnificent boss lion of the herd, a truly regal creature. The operator discarded the idea of waiting until the lion woke' to move on. He decided to proceed on foot. Very cautiously, he stepped over the lion. Sirens wailed, and a crew of state policemen leaped from the bushes and, nabbed him. "What's this all about? Unhand me, you slobs," he bellowed. "What am I arrested for?" "Mann Act. Taking a young gull across a stately lion for Member of National Editorial Association Member of Washington Newspaper Publishers' Association SUBSCRIPTION RATES: $7.00 per year in Mason County, 11;9.00 per year in State of Washington $12.00 per year out of State decided Io conduct legislative oversight meetings on the l)epartment of Ecology's prop()sed John Day/McNary waler management regulations. Here We Go Again The platform which I)em*crals adopted at their state convenlion may get nlore ciculali(m at the hands of the Republicans than. by their own candid:des. The Ilouse minority leader, I)uanc Berenlson, Burlington, mid William Polk, Mercer Island, we're quick Io challenge the I)cmocralic plank calling for a slale irlcolllo lax. Rerrresenltive Claude Oliver, Ken,ewick, wasn't far behind wilh a blast against the I)et/ioctals for favoring a moratorium on planning of new mtclear plants. Standard Procedure The income tax is an old Democratic standby. It has been J n every state Democratic phtlform since 1932. And despite the loci (hal it has been rejected in six separate elections, it has had ]illle if any effect on Democratic fortunes at the polls. In vicw of the current "tax rew)ll," the Democrats may be taking a calculated risk this year. But they may have been encouraged by a questionnaire circulaled in Thurston County showing a surprising 37.9 percent favoring some form of re, lrcted income tax as an alternative to special levies. The lasl time the income tax was on the ballot, in 1973, only 20.8 percent of Thurston County's electorate voted for it. Republicans meanwhile appear to be ignoring the fact that the last two income tax proposals were placed on the ballol by a Republican Governor, at a time when Republicans controlled the llouse. l)epends Upon the Authors It is a maxim in politics that party platforms seldom are written by those who run for of lice. So candidates usually are inclined to ignore them. Apparently .... judging from the results .... so do the voters. At least two of the planks in the 1978 state Democratic platform ..... calling for a mo]atorium on additional mtclear facilities planning, and an extension of the ban on supertankers to include coastal wate)s . are out of tune with l)emocratic Governor Dixy Lee Ray's views. So What's Basic Whether interscholastic aclivities should be considered a' basic purl of education, to be funded by the state, is being considered by the Senate lducalion Committee. Under the 1977 basic education act, interscholastic activi(ies are excluded and must be funded out of local levies. A major issue is whether the stale .)r local school districts sh()uhl pay stipends to faculty members for the additional time devoted to such activities. Fnl'rnR AND PUBLISHER ...................... Henry G. Gay immortal porpoises." Page 4 - Shelton-Mason Coun'ty Journal - Thursday, July 13, 1978 immediate area of Washington Corrections Center. The fears they have been forced to keep to themselves - many of them are families placed in double jeopardy by reason of their dependency on the breadwinner's earnings at the institution - are feelings of extreme anxiety in regard to the safety of family members following an escape by prisoners. The recent successful escape at WCC in broad daylight and in sight of unmanned guard towers has made them fearful that a subsequent escape may turn into the hostage-kidnapping, murder binge that recently occurred in Oregon. During recent years, such families have stood helplessly by, hardly daring to talk to one another, lest reprisal be heaped upon the wage-earning family provider and. the reprimand be followed by retribution in the form of tiffing - loss of job suffered at the bureaucratic hand. Also helplessly, they have stood by while a predatory bureaucracy has run amok, like a fox in a chicken coop, recklessly and heedlessly destroying vital life-support systems - the very bone and sinew of an institution - originally commissioned under the firm but wise and innovative hand of the late Garrett Heyns, possibly one of the most highly respected penologists our nation has produced. Sadly, too, they have watched as the Olympia bureaucracy, fattening on the kill of attritioned jobs (always in the name of economy), destroyed line services of the troops while sweetening official positions above. Sadly, also, they watched while a program focused toward successful rehabilitation of the offender was arbitrarily reduced in regard to staff participation in inmate activities in what was regarded as a safe, well-controlled environment. Included were self-help and self-improvement groups, usually laden with much friendly social interaction, including the discussion of the problems of serving time in a controlled environment while readjusting social values, gaining an education and needed employment skills while anticipating a successful reentry into society when released. Following the retirement of Dr. Heyns, the Adult Correction Division was quickly captured by persons whose careers had been given over to the "baby-tending" activities related to the care and treatment of juvenile offenders. The first signal of retreat from responsible adult penal control was, as Walla Walla warden Bobble Rhay admitted in a Life magazine article, the turning over of much of the penal activity control to the convicts. Such con control was manifested by turning over to the control of con boss-led groups such as Hells Angels complete units, or even buildings, such as the old boiler building. In such "sheltered areas" con rule reigned supreme (and continues to do so) without any interference from custody officers who had been deprived of the keys to such buildings. This haeant that weaker residents were victimized by the strong by physical aggression: fights, stabbings and sexual assault. Such pressures exerted by con rule forced all residents to choose safety within such convict-controlled groups to avoid being victimized as weak persons. Such admonitions as "do 'our own time" and "avoid bad associations" were quickly thrown away by the new resident who was forced to seek safety in numbers. Meanwhile, at WCC, the first obvious signal of dismantling of a formerly highly regarded custody and treatment program was the unmanning of two of institution, given over to the protective custody of the weaker residents and sexual offenders who are at the bottom of the criminal population (the R-3 unit). Foreshortened or abandoned entirely were diagnostic services, the gaining of vitally needed information concerning a convicted person's background, past criminal record, sophistication, type of offense for which sentenced, along with testing and adequate evaluation. Similarly, the former strict control of visits with crime partners or association with criminal members of a family were abandoned. Residency was reduced from six weeks to two weeks, and the "body," often accompanied only by a court commitment paper, was shipped on to another institution or haphazardly placed by guess and by golly in a minimum custody situation, such as apparently happened in the case of the recent WCC escapees, described as highly dangerous by the authorities. Thus, also, as in a recent Mason County case, a judge, using ordinary good sense, gave the less sophisticated offender a year's jail sentence. The more sophisticated was sent up, only unconsciously, hard time and hard Meanwhile, the attritioned in regard to casework by a sociolo this highly needed available for the process of psychiatrists who would work in 'the dark, also. board members were in their efforts to cope increasingly chaotic system. (How would reader, like to make a parole board member penal system provides information upon which time upon an individual?) As reflected by the editorial in this news voracious appetite o bureaucracy shows no diminishing. Where is the money In the past, all been headed by a superintendent. Now, to latest staff emplo information, four (4) nov/ positions are to be staffed central Olympia office, example of incre bureaucratic multiple job positions. Robert O. Senior Sociologist, Spencer Bring back the Editor, The Journal: This letter is referenced to an incident that occurred on the night of July 4th. Did you know that there are some people ,that would enter private property and remove items which did not belong to them? Well strange as it may seem, there are. This particular night some thieves got into my car (in my own backyard) and stole my wallet, some tapes and a baseball. This may not seem like a big thing, however the wallet contained a good deal of money, credit cards, all my personal identification and most important, pictures of my boy that I cannot replace. The tapes are incidental so there is no need to comment on them. The baseball was no ordinary baseball. This ball was caught by me in the Kingdome last week in a game between the Mariners and the Brewers. As far as I'm concerned the ball was just a ball, but to my four year old boy it was somethin special. We had taking it up next getting it signed by the who hit it. Because sum now possesses it, this seem impossible. This letter when it gets to brass tacks is aimed individual(s) who belongings. If" you have feeling at all, just ball, the wallet with my in it and the four year disappointment when I tell him of his loss and gain. Keep the money, but can find it in yourself back the wallet and the please do. Because you have noticed the address rush it is 919 Elllnor you would rather give me and tell me where I can items, the number is Jef and J Yankees suckered Editor, The Journal: The boys from below the Mason-Dixon line, our President being one of them, have outmaneuvered the Yankees, All the labor unions from the North were suckered into playing cards with the southern rebels with their marked decks. Ever since the Civil War, the labor unions have been trying to organize the southern labor in the unions so the northerners would have equal rights with them. It seems the South has been laughing at us. They have been enticing manufacturers of all kinds to come south to manufacture their goods so they coold ship it into European countries and the Orient to try to compete with their chea p labor. These same manufacturers are shipping the finished products to all of the states above the Mason.Dixon line and underselling the northern manufacturers. Now the biggest joker this year was when our labor unions took the bait hook, line and sinker, when President Carter and a few of the Representatives and Senators conned the labor unions into believing they would help to organize labor into all the right-to-work states and all the southern states. The President and the southern boys knew the labor bill had no chance of passing. With their slave labor South, which we went to free and a great many lost their lives over, it though the Yankee failed terribly when they :t have made it possible labor people of the South' permitted to join the the manufacturers of all had to pay union wages could not ship manufactured goods North and undersell the manufacturers. I was working in Alaska, when the' Texas got the contract to pipeline from coast. The Texas outfit the contract below the bid because it was not any union wages. The were paid $200 a month; union scale was $400 a The southerners right-to-work states northern union laborerS manufacturers to hold tlae this year which kept laborers from wages. I have belonged to since 1912 and will be 81 next birthday. I now the Operating Engineers 302 of Seattle and Alaska. J. L. (Red)