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Newspaper Archive of
Shelton Mason County Journal
Shelton, Washington
September 20, 1973     Shelton Mason County Journal
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September 20, 1973
 
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Your friendly, neighborhood editorial writer has been accused of being preoccupied with Watergate. The plea is: guilty. Never in the history of our country has a scribbler with access to a printing press been given such a wide range of crime in the executive branch of the government on which to comment. Each day brings new revelations from Richard Nixon's White House General Store, that free enterprise emporium where everything has a price tag. This week's knee-slapper is from grain traders at the Chicago Board of Trade who report that the Russians are reselling the wheat purchased last year from five American grain exporters at $1.80 a bushel for the going rate of $5 a bushel. The exporters, you will remember, received inside information from the administration and $300 million in American taxpayers' money during their tidy experiment in free enterprise. First Richard Nixon's American friends made their millions at the expense of the taxpaying suckers and wheat ranchers and now his new-found Russian friends are ripping off their profit, while the American housewife pays more for a loaf of bread. God bless the silent majority. As long as they remain silent and pony up the money, the king can stay in his counting house counting out the money. But, we digress. This editorial was to be strictly non-Watergate, it was to feature items proving that not all news is bad these days. For your reading pleasure, we offer the following uplifters: A committe of Aldermen of Sheiton, Connecticut, has approved an appropriation of $50 to St. Joseph's Roman Catholic Church for a special novena (nine days of prayer) urging God to hold up rainstorms for one year so the city's public works department can catch up with its many drainage problems. A Baltimore judge, Charles D. Harris, sentenced a defendent to marriage instead of an i I-month jail term for possession of LSD and marijuana, claiming "Marriage might have a good effect" on Kim McNabb, 19. He said he would waive the sentence if the girl would wed Thomas Satterfield, 24, who was her codefendant and was also facing 11 months. Tom agreed. The town of Greenhorn, Oregon, has a population of five. The Department of Sanitation is a privy outside the sheepherder's tent used by Marshall Miller. The American flag flies above the privy, the only municipally-owned building in town. When the town received $4.31 as its share of Oregon liquor receipts, the residents bought a fifth of liquor and called a town meeting. Sherifffs deputies in Titusville, Florida, expended no sweat in impounding nine Greyhound buses a judge had ordered held as security in a law suit. "It's easy to seize a bus," Ernie Eichelberger of the Brevard County Sheriff's Department. "You don't have to hunt for them. They can't hide and you know where they're going to be. You just read the hedule." Hi-Rise Campsite, Inc. has announced plans to construct a 20-story campground in downtown New Orleans. "This will be unique," said Wesley Hurley of Hi-Rise. "It is designed for today's different brand of camping. People don't want the woodsy bit now; they want to camp in comfort near the city.'" Plans for the $4-million project call for eight lower floors of parking and 12 upper stories, with 240 individual sites equipped with utility hookups for campers and carpeted with artificial turf. In Pennsylvania, tile House of Representatives initially approved and then rejected an amendment to outlaw premarital and extramarital sex" also malicious mischief "in caves." 1 The Vice President and Mrs. Agnew cordially invile you to their home for dinnerona date which is convenient for you. I , Vice President I of the United States of America By ROBERT C. CUMMINGS A lot of activity went on during the nine-day mini-session which could be described accurately as fire drill legislation. A lot of measures received public exposure by passing one house only to bog down in the other. It was a multi-purpose maneuver. It gave legislators, especially members of the Democratic majorities in each house, a chance to assume a hero role in their respective legislative districts. It also set the stage for future action in the special session scheduled for next January. More important, it kept the legislators occupied while the leadership was busy hammering out agreements on the major bills which required immediate attention. Self-protection But by allowing bills passed by one house to be shelved in the other, the leadership protected the Legislature as a whole from public criticism for enacting too much "'junk legislation." You might say the leaders protected the law-makers from themselves. One of the pitfalls the leadership feared most was a public accusation of legislating solely for the sake of legislating. But to accomplish what they had to do, the leaders still had to keep their own members happy They knew they would be under only one house, there was a variety. It wasn't the reason the House spent a full seven hours in debate one day to slash $17.9 million out of the appropriation bill after it had passed the Senate. But it nevertheless could qualify for fire drill classification. The leaders knew that the Governor would ink out most of the cuts with his veto pen, if the Senate or a conference committee didn't do it first. The purpose of this maneuver amendments was held for still another reason. The first was to give the proposals publicity and public exposure for possible action i¢ January. They were permitted to die after passing one house as a matter of practicality. The Consitution specifies that all proposed constitutional amendments passed by the Legislature must be submitted to the voters at "the next general election." much pressure from the rank and was to give everybody in the The next general election is file with pet bills, and a revolt " House a chance to go on record as November 6, this year. It would within their own ranks would to how he felt on certain be next to impossible to get three have been disastrous, appropriation items. or four proposed amendments on But if they let bills go through Governor Dan Evans called it the November 6 ballot at this late one house with the knowledge "political puffery." It drove a date and still meet the legal they wouldn't go any farther, sizeable wedge into the nobody would get hurt. it harmonious relationship which requirements for explanation and wouldn't matter what Democrats the Governor has enjoyed with arguments in the Voters' in one house thought of the majority leadership since last Pamphlet. Democratic leaders in the other. January. One additional proposal could While this was the motivation The drill on a number of be handled, but that was the behind many bills which passed p r o p o s e d c o n s t i t u t i o n a I limit. Editor, The Journal: much love to Let's tell it as it is: "hogwash!" You When Mrs. Crutcher came to license because it me last May and asked me to tell a welfare license. Is the commissioners that it would going to pay for hir0d] be okay to have a home for the I don't believe retarded next door, I told her, strength to cook, and will stick to it, that to think for six normal of putting six to twelve retarded six to twelve children in that small space was Love, love, love, too much. I still feel that if dollar signs show. normal children need a space to ones I have served play, oh how much more the been free, except retarded ones do. Yes, there is 2/3 children we had and of an acre there; BUT, the house for $30 a month. takes up most of it. The beautiful You can fence she talks about would only won't last. I help them to be caged in like little try to sell out for a animals. That, 1 cannot see. and move on to a new 1 t a 1 k e d w i t h o n e the same thing as commissioner at the Mason We on this County Fair and asked him about you try to make it. He admitted to me that he did do have the not think there was enough room. something that's I then asked him why they would assure you we will pass it, and he told me they had Do you believe been led to believe all the love?" I don't. It'saJ neighbors were for it. heart isn't all that As a citizen of long standing twisted things to in this community, I believe to make you people can and will tell you that rest of us sound my objections have nothing to do Christian way, then with the children being retarded, your motive. Mrs. Crutcher - for three As I said we years i was Youth Activity One other of chairman for the V.F.W. We objected when happen to sponsor a retarded it and were given child at Rainier School at and were led to Buckley. All I was expected to do were the ONLY was to write and find out what Where do you she needed. Then send a package objected until the to two to her. Instead, I chose to Remember the spend my own money on gas to that awaits people. go up there and see her and bring the truth. My opint, her things. I made a point to do are not an or this a couple times a year. Not want people only did ! try to see thai she was If the state well taken care of, but her little for up to twelve roommates also. They DO provide also question our a playground and special things question the for the children. Who are you being so lax. Why trying to kid? men? Where are To t h e people of this stand up for their community - my time has been be counted. 1 will freely given whenever I could, that lwould not Not only with the retarded, but as child of mine or mY a den mother for seven years and put in a place with a room mother for one teacher or to play than another while my six children take a chance on were in school. I have always not want their little done the best i could. ! was also conscience. ! know awarded a paid up membership in also know that it the P.T.A. Don't ask me what ! minute for a life did to deserve it; it was a nmch time for complete surprise to me. ! also So whatever help in Sunday School and church neighbors are, we work and can quote a few verses together believing from the Bible, too. safer place. ;~ To anyone who can talk of so Mrs. IIHIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII Mailing Address: Box 430, Shelton, Wa. 98584 Published at 227 West Cota Street, Shelton, MasoO Washington 98584, weekly. Second-class postage paid at Shelton, SUBSCRIPTION RATES: $5.50 per year in in advance -- Outside Mason County EDITOR AND PUBLISHER ..................... IlIIIHIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII i, i, :i Percy Lewis needed some wood to rebuild a church in Issaquena County, Massachusetts, and a neighbor offered to sell him two shacks for $50 each. Lewis was going to tear them down and use the lumber. But the spring floods wrecked his own home. The Department of Housing and Urban Development is now paying $100 a month so that Mr. Lewis and his family can live in the $50 shacks. ~~~~~mHH~~i~~~~~~~~u~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~m~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~m~~~~~~~~~~~~~HIll~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Mack McGinnis' ~H~~~~~~~u~i~~~~uHiIi~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ No one can say the present administration in Washington doesn't listen to the people. They have the tapes to prove it. (James Dent in Charleston Gazette) Anyone who can afford the interest these days doesn't need the loan. (Arnold Glasow in Chicago Tribune) Cad Sheffield dedicates the following to Gelett Burgess: "I'd love to see a purple cow, i'd murderously pursue it; i'd cut it into roasts and steaks and broil or barbecue it." (Herb Caen in San Francisco Chronicle) An &year-old girl was playing hospital with her friends recently. The t, ' '' sign over the patient s room mad: "In Tents of Care." (Minneapolis Tribune) Mother: "He's just going through a phase." Father: "If he isn't careful I'm going to put him across my knee and give him a phase-lifting." (Troy Gordon in Tulsa World) Your home town is the place where people wonder how you ever got as far as you have. (Omah~ World-Herald) Page 4 - Shelton-Mason County Journal - Thursday, September By JOHN COGLEY Just what led to America's overwhelming preoccupation with security? When did we first start putting it at the very top of our priority lists? When did we begin to use the word itself as a shibboleth capable of silencing critics, canceling out even the most pressing of other claims, and excusing just about every moral outrage imaginable? Does it go back to the shock of Pearl Harbor? Was it originally based on a genuine concern about Soviet intentions during the early postwar years? Were we led into the trap by the calculated fear-mongering of Joe McCarthy and his cohorts? Is it perhaps deeply rooted in the psyche of a rich people who feel threatened in a world of poor people? Whatever it was that got us into it, as time went on the American obsession with security became a kind of prison. We acted as if we had no choice but to continue pouring our wealth into more and more armaments and kept increasing the stockpiles of 'nuclear weapons even after they surpassed the number necessary to kill every man, woman, and child on earth several times over. Year after year, the defense budget, supposedly insuring our security, was raised to new heights, with scarcely a murmur or protest from Congress or the electorate. But by the next year we inevitably discovered that we were not really secure after all and needed even more protection. This at home. Abroad, against our professed national purposes, we felt obliged to build up the armies and strengthen the hand of dictators, turning the phrase "the free world" into a bitter international joke. We did not hesitate to take terrible chances with the future of mankind in testing ever more horrendous weapons and deadly gases in order to be prepared for every imaginable possibility. We coid-bloodedly practiced brinkmanship in our foreign policy, flirting periodically with the possibility of big wars. We sent our young men off to die in small ones. We felt 20, 1973 justified in putting even drastic domestic needs in a poor second place, allowing the nation's cities to rot and massive social discontent to fester throughout the land. We alienated our friends and punished ourselves - all to appease the great god Security. Not least of all, we betrayed our own ideals. The image of America as an open society was blurred, and in time was almost obliterated. Our agents abroad, skulking around the world in search of plots, carried on as if they had been exempted from the moral strictures that bind ordinary mortals - after all they served the goal of national security, didn't they? At home, bugging and wiretapping, espionage and counterespionage were gradually accepted as a harsh necessity in a world where no one, in the last analysis, could reasonably trust anyone else. Secret covenants secretly arrived at became standing operating procedure in Washington. The security officer, trained in the use of the latest detecting gadgets and spying techniques, became a fixture not only in government but in private enterprise. Even the most confident members of the "intelligence community," as the amorphous new fraternity came to be known, admitted that achieving total security was an impossible goal. But nothing less would do, total security was what we sought. Every new sacrifice the nation was called upon to make was deemed reasonable as long as it could be tied to national security - and usually it could. Every manner of behavior - lies, deceit, trickery, entrapment, and espionage - was permissible provided only that it was put in the service of this new absolute. Ironically, the elaborate measures we took merely seemed to increase our insecurities.~ The more effective the weapons of mass destruction became, for example, the more neurotic reason Ihere was to worry about whether they were deadly enough. The more skilled our spies became, the more reason there was to worry about whether their expertise in the black arts might lag behind the enemy's. The abstract goal of total security, like every other infinity, was pursued at the cost of an almost infinite anxiety. With government setting the example, the- obsession spread to private life. In time, it created its own necessity: spying led to counterspying, counterspying to more intensive spying; protective intelligence-gathering led to aggressive intelligence-gathering; secrecy called for retaliatory secrecy; distrust engendered distrust; deceit gave rise to more deceit. It was inevitable perhaps that in time domestic politics should be invaded tbYhe the same preoccupations that enthralled government. Finally the warlike metaphors that were long used toflescribe our electoral contests were transmuted into literal terms. Trying to find out an opponent's plans had always been part of party politics, but there had also been definite moral limits on how far the search could go. In the new atmosphere the official intelligence apparatus was readily adapted to partisan politics - and along with it that all-embracing, totally permissive rationale: security is at stake. The special morality, or amorality, that was long identified with international espionage ,was taken up. Every excess of skulduggery was quietly justified, again in the name of security but this time the security of an Administration, not of the nation itself. The Watergate burglars, who operated in this spirit, were schooled in C.I.A. techniques. They blithely transferred not only the skills but the ethics of the conventional "intelligence community" to the task at hand. And the parallel did not end there. As was true on the international scene, so in the Watergate case: The security-seekers had wildly overestimated their own vulnerability and extravagantly exaggerated the "enemy's" capacities. Again, as a result of the drastic measures taken to insure security, basic insecurities expanded. The manager of the headquarters of the Committee to Reelect the President, for example, testified that after the Watergale arrests his concern increased tremendously. "I was °afraid retaliations." There are many possible Watergate, and probably all of them the total picture. Ambition, and of power exercised almost played a part. Contempt for the democratic process was ("Everybody believes in democraCY tbe White House," Thomas Cronin desire to come upon information tlaa for blackmailing or smearing may have been important. But American obsession with significant. The unwillingness to take unknown, to trust the outcome according to the old rules, It was really no wonder, then, mentality that controlled decision the nation made during reached into our internal The "common defense" preamble to the Constitution as onO of government, and practically no that it has an important place stand in lonely splendor, nor special primacy of place. It is of government. It has to be goals - forming a more domestic t ranquillity, welfare, and securing the a preoccupation with any one of overriding it either cancels out diminishes the claims of the otherS, trouble. As with any other addiction, for more and more security abruptly. It took over grad, became a national sickness. has served as a kind of be paid in order to appease it has