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V LE TM'IT ERS, confirmed from page
Where Trump s
loyalities lie
Editor, the Journal,
Can anybody now doubt that this
president wants to destroy democ-
racy in this country, that he wants to
emulate his idol, Vladimir Putin, and
become president for life?
His latest actions to destroy the
Post Of ce and suppress voting are
only the latest manifestations of this.
Robert Clark
Shelton
No sign of Inslee
Editor, the Journal,
No signs. Don t see any Jay Inslee
signs? No worry, he doesn t need signs
to advertise for re-election, he has Se-
attle in his back pocket.
John Ervin
Shelton
Times: This feels surreal .
continued from page A-4
We re here to keep the peace,
Leonard said when I asked him why he
was here, which is not an easy question
to ask of a stranger armed with a, shot-
gun and revolver, but he didn t take
offense. We want to make sure our
of cers are loved and they are backed.
Those others can take their stuff back
to Seattle and Portland. p
Standing near Leonard was Caleb
McGill of Shelton. He was accompa
nied by an AR-15 ri e and a .45-caliber
handgun.
I m here to back the blue, armed
just to make sure, Caleb said. BLM
and antifa are the ones that are creat-
ing the damage. We re not the ones
damaging things.
Meanwhile, in a quiet city' park a
block to the north, BLM marchers gath-
ered and milled about. The mood was
apprehensive, illustrated best by the
words of a woman who piped up while
Shelton s police chief and the county s
chief criminal deputy paid a quick visit
to ensure their safety.
They have guns! the woman said,
which seemed very much to the point.
Here s a story from Oregon: The
22-year-old son of a friend of mine is
running for the Oregon House of Rep-
resentatives, and he s active in the
,BLM movement. The candidate, Nolan
Bylenga, and others organized a march
Aug. 29 in Pendleton, which nished
without major con ict, but it was tense.
Afterward, Pendleton s police chief had
some barbed words for the support-the- .
police counterprotesters who badgered
the BLM protesters throughout the
Pendleton march. ,
I get the whole Second Amend-
ment piece of this, but why carry the
rearm? Pendleton Police Chief Stuart
Roberts Roberts told the East Orego-
nian newspaper.
The counterprotesters claimed to
be in support of police, Roberts told
the newspaper, but the actions and
intentions of some in attendance were
merely antagonistic.
When I challenged them verbally
they wanted to debate with me (about)
their rights and said they were here
to support the police, Roberts said of
the counterprotesters who trailed the
march. My position is you re not sup-
porting me by creating more work for
me or making my job more dif cult.
Back to Shelton: While the BLM
marchers gathered in the park, coun-
terprotesters made occasional forays
through their midst, including two men
who strutted through waving little
U.S. ags like they were Fourth of
July sparklers. I spotted a young man
standing near the curb with a much
larger US. ag, which I assumed was
intended to be a much larger provoca-
tion.
It wasn t. The ag carrier, Kristoffer
Pennington 0f Shelton, was on the side
of patriots.
The ag is a sign of freedom, even if
it has been co-opted by misguided pa-
triots, Kristoffer said. Being a patriot
is loving your country and also wanting
to x it.
A man decked out in video gear was
recording the gathering he would
end up shooting 2% hours of the day s
events (go to YouTube and type in in-
fopig Shelton ) The man, who wouldn t
give his name, said he was in Portland
the previous night, which marked the
100th straight night of protests in that
city. ,
A little more gas than usual, he
said, as if giving a weather report.
Sandra Partridge, a Shelton resi-
dent, also was among the early march-
ers gathered at the park.
It s scary, Sandra said. You
should be able to support your-causes
peacefully, but this feels surreal I
. grew up supporting civil rights.
While the crowd grew and as a
speaker gave instructions to the BLM
marchers, aheckler on the sidewalk
erupted with some loud grunts, but
the speaker pressed on. I'walked up to
the heckler and asked him why he was
making those noises.
I m in opposition to the Communist
Manifesto, the man responded.
Moving on '
I stuck with the march for an hour
as it coursed through downtown,
witnessing the repeated, and unsuc-
cessful, efforts of counterprotesters to
goad BLM marchers into a physical
response. I wandered back and forth
between the line of of cers separating
the two sides.
I passed a mask-less Shelton police
, of cer standing next to his car. He
smiled and said, We re getting our
steps in today, aren t we?
I took that carefree comment as a
sign the protest was winding down;
While returning along Railroad Avenue
to the Journal, a man with baby in
arms wanted to talk, so we ducked into
an alley where it was quieter.
Sam Kline of Shelton said he was
walking out of Safeway with his baby
when he heard shouting and saw a lot
of armed people who I thought at rst
were police, but I realized they weren t.
They were carrying weapons around.
I ve been around guns, but I ve never
seen such a thing. I don t understand
whyI
Kline said he spent 25 years in the
service, including time in Iraq and Af-
ghanistan. He moved to Shelton a few
years ago.
I talked to them, Sam said. They
don t have good reasons for carrying
weapons. You have to leave it to the
police to deal with it because it changes
the whole nature of protest in this
country when you introduce guns into
it. It s becoming more about who can
intimidate whom.
I came to Shelton to get away from
all this, he said. We ve managed to
keep this armed thing out of our elec-
toral politics for much of our history.
We were walking along a relatively
quiet stretch of Railroad Avenue when
Sam put down his 14-month-old son,
allowing him to toddle along the side-
walk, while Sam talked and hopped
around quickly to keep the child out of
danger.
A question hangs in the air: What
kind of country is Sam s child toddling
toward?
I Contact Kirk Ericson at kirk@
masoncounty.c0m
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