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EDITOWSNOTE
Letters
Continued from page A-5
Better than
hype
Editor, the Journal
Most efforts sent to your
department from your read-
ers seem to be opinions on
controversial subjects, as
have mine, some "rants,"
some "raves," and especially
now, about which "public
servant" will make the tough
decisions and save our great
nation from bankruptcy.
I had a recent experience
that I'd bet no other person
has ever experienced. I'd
like to depart from the norm
and share it with you. Who
hasn't heard of Mickey and
Minnie Mouse, Tom's pal
Jerry, "Of Mice and Men,"
"The Mouse That Roared,"
the question "Hey! Are you a
man or a mouse?", "The Lion
and the Mouse?" Who hasn't
been plagued by mice in the
pantry? Mice are an integral
part of our lives.
I've been looked at
askance because I have both
a gravesite and a sanctu-
ary for mice. We have two
wicked mouse traps that we
have used only once or twice
when a mouse has really
moved in and wasn't discov-
ered until it had made an
unhealthy mess in the pan-
try. Most of the time, though,
the mice we have had were
brought in as gifts from one
of our two cats. Sometimes,
all we see is the remains of a
half-eaten corpse; which will
usually be in the bathtub,
which must be thoroughly
sanitized. Other gifts have
been little lizards, a snake
and once I thought a cat had
made a mess, but when I
went to clean it up, it hopped
away -- a big, fat toad. :But
usually it happens late in the
evening and the first we see
is a very lively mouse and
a cat scurrying around the
floor. For some time, I have
joined them on the floor, on
my hands and knees, until
we have cornered the mouse
and I have beenableto use a
small Tupperware container
to cover the mouse. I then
shde a card under the con-
tainer and take it to our little
barn and turn it loose on the
woodpile. They have always
lost no time in getting out of
sight. Those that I'm not able
to save I take out and de-
posit in a little hollow stump
with a lid on it. Alright, I'm
86 years old and I can plead
senility, OK?
A week ago, though, the
experience was different. It
was late in the evening and
Charlotte and I were in the
living room watching PBS'
"As Time Goes By" when
across the rug comes a little
mouse with "Lisbeth," our
cat, hot on its tail. I can't
scurry on my knees anymore
so I have contrived a little
box on the end of a mop
stick so I can stand up and
do the chase. We lost sight
of the mouse and by watch-
ing the cat I couldn't tell if it
was in an easy chair or the
bookshelves. We never saw
it until the next day when
a friend visiting spotted a
mouse in the dining room.
Again, it slipped away. The
next night we had gone to
bed. We have the window
open and I read a few min-
utes before I got to sleep. The
light attracted a little Miller
moth, which was banging
about in the lampshade. I
turned the light off and went
to sleep. Then it happened
again and I brushed it away,
turned on the light and dis-
covered it was not a moth --
it was a little mouse there on
the pillow six inches away on
its haunches looking at me. I
brushed it onto the floor and
it scurried over and crawled
onto my slipper. It then scur-
ried madly under the bed. It
was 2 a.m. and I wasn't up
to a mouse chase so I went
back to sleep. Shortly after,
the same thing happened. I
turned on the light and there
it was trying to crawl into
my beard. I pushed it away
• and was able to trap it with
my cupped hand while Char-
lotte handed me a glass from
the night stand, which I cov-
ered it with. It is 2:30 a.m.,
I'm in my slippers and paja-
mas heading for the barn. I
let it go. The mouse scurries
away a little to a leaf, then
to another, then back to me,
and stood on my toe looking
up at me. I swear, this is all
true, no dream. The mouse
then unhurriedly ambled off
to the woodpile.
As I said above, I'm in the
my 80s so can plead senility,
but this is a true story and in
my mind a heck of a lot more
interesting than the current
political hype we are being
subjected to today,
Charles Winne
Hoodsport
Higher ed.
Editor, the Journal
I was delighted to read in
the Kitsap Sun that Olympic
College resumed its nurs-
ing assistant program after
being discontinued because
of last year's state funding
cuts. Washington's colleges
and universities play a criti-
cal role in our state's emer-
gence from this recession,
and public investments in
higher education continue to
be invaluable in job genera-
tion and supporting a strong
middle class.
Lynda Ring Erickson,
candidate for 35th District
representative, knows the
importance of higher educa-
tion. She will work to make
college tuition more af-
fordable for local families,
expand access to vocational
training and create partner-
ships between community
colleges and business leaders
to ensure that students are
being trained for the jobs
most needed by local busi-
nesses.
In the Legislature, Ring
Erickson will be a strong
voice for veterans, making.
sure they have the resources
they need to get an educa-
tion, find a job, buy a home
and find access to appropri-
ate counseling services to
transition to civilian life.
As a former school district
community relations direc-
tor, Lynda Ring Erickson
understands education is
the single most important
investment we can make
for our children, our state,
our economy and our future.
Lynda graduated from the
University of Puget Sound
and has both masters and
doctoral degrees from the
School of Education at Se-
attle University.
I support Lynda Ring
Erickson for state repre-
sentative; we need more
strong advocates for higher
education and its role in job
creation.
Linda Amar
Shelton
Diamond a
neighbor
Editor, the Journal
Green Diamond owns
thousands of acres of tim-
berland in this county. This
timberland provides wonder-
ful green open space for resi-
dents and tourists visiting
the county. This open space
provides great benefits to
wildlife, aquifer recharge ar-
eas and our aquatic species.
The trees Green Diamond
grows sequester carbon, im-
proving the atmosphere. The
company also allows infor-
mal recreation to occur on its
private timberlands.
Forestry is always a
highly profitable business, as
you have to wait 60 years for
a return on your investment.
During this time timber
harvest regulations could
change, forest fires or other
calamities could destroy the
young trees. Green Dia-
mond's timber harvests and
land management supports
many jobs in this county and
elsewhere in the state.
I applaud Green Diamond
for being a good neighbor
and keeping the major-
ity of its lands in forestry.
Converting a small portion
of its lands near high value
recreation areas only makes information and distorted
business sense. I don't know information about the record
many businesses, still in of Lynda Ring Erickson as
business, that are not in a commissioner for Mason
business to make money. County. Therefore, I feel
compelled to respond.
Phil Wolff The Belfair sewer proj-
Allyn ect was handled entirely
by the professional staff at
the county. When the con-
Rio
k~ struction was in
. ,.r~ Eric on it was discoveredPr°gress'that two
i ced pump stations needed to
exper en be added. A professional
appraiser was hired and
Editor, the Journal the properties appraised at
Since I have known Lynda $26,000 to $28,000. What
Ring Erickson for a number was considered to be reason-
of years, I believe that I able offers were made to the
can speak to her interest in property owners based on
working to keep our families the results of the appraisals.
safe. Lynda was one of the One property owner settled
first women to be hired and reasonably, but the second
to work as a police officer in one (Mr. Jack Johnson)
King County. As a woman wanted a road and some gas
entering a traditionally lines moved. After the road
male-dominated occupa-was moved, Mr. Johnson
tion, she also experienced wanteJ it moved again and
the difficulty of "getting the he wanted more money. The
job" in a time when women county offered him $80,000
were struggling to enter and he rejected it, wanting
those areas of employment. $190,000 with no alternative
However, after a well-fought appraisal. The first time the
battle, she succeeded in the commission was briefed was
hiring process and became a when the construction com-
respected officer before being pany was up against a dead-
injured in the line of duty. line that would have cost the
Since that time, she has county $50,000 per day for
maintained her relationship further delays. The legal ad-
with many of the individu- vice received was to move for
als with whom she worked condemnation. By the time
and who have risen to top mediation was reached, the
positions in law enforcement demand from Mr. Johnson
in the state of Washington. was $440,000.
As a result, she has been The commissioners (in-
endorsed for the position of cluding Ring Erickson) were
representative for the 35th trying to be good stewards
District by the Washington of the taxpayers' money.
Council of Police and Sheriffs Ultimately the court was
and the Washington State called upon to resolve the
Troopers Association. In ad- issue and it settled at around
dition, during her time as $100,000. In the process of
a commissioner for Mason that settlement, exorbitant
County, Lynda was elected attorney's fees were also
to the National Association requested by Mr. Johnson
of Counties (NACo) board ($390,000). That portion has
and served as vice chair for not yet been settled as the
Law Enforcement for the final amount is still in nego-
NACo Public Safety Com- tiation.
mittee. The discrimination law-
Lynda will lead efforts suit that has been referred to
to crack down on criminals, in several letters lies entirely
especially those who prey on the shoulders of Com-
on the most vulnerable in missioner Tim Sheldon. He
our society -- children and was the Iberpetrator of the
seniors, discrimination and Commis-
When you cast your vote sioner Ring Erickson spoke
for the person who can best on the side of the victim in
represent the interests of the the case. For that action, she
people of the 35th District in was persecuted by Commis-
the State Legislature, please sioner Sheldon personally
keep in mind, that Lynda and in the press. The fact
Ring Erickson's only special is that, once a claim such
interest is those of us who as this is filed, the county
live here. has nothing to say about
what occurs thereafter. It is
Jean Farmer placed entirely in the hands
Allynof the Insurance Risk Pool.
When a settlement is made,
the commissioners have no
Bjorgen a choice but to accept it.
Regarding the contract
for disposal of solid waste for
the county, Commissioner
Ring Erickson recused her-
candidate
self because she had already
accepted contributions to her
Editor, the Journal campaign for state represen-
I am writing in strong tative for the 35th District
support of Tom Bjorgen can- from three potential bidders.
didate for Court of Appeals That means, since she had
Judge. received those funds, she did
He is a high honors gradu- not vote because it would
ate of Washington State Uni- have been a conflict of inter-
versity and received his law est to do so. It was the right
degree from the University thing to do.
of Washington. Tom has 33 Drew MacEwan has no
years of excellent and broad- record of public service in
based legal experience, this county or in this state.
My recommendation Therefore, he has to misrep-
comes from first-hand expe- resent and skew the record
rience. Many years ago be- of his opponent in order to
fore I was in public life, I had get the attention of the vot-
the honor to appear before ers. Don't believe it because
Tom in his role as a hearing it is simply not the truth!
examiner.
I checked him out and Pam Ward
found he had a reputation Shelton
for listening and fairness.
That reputation was moreCharter
than confirmed by my expe-
rience. What I did not real-
ize was how smart he was schools
in instantly understanding
some pretty complex issues ~ p
while treating everyone with can't he
dignity and great respect.
I think he is an ideal candi- Editor, the Journal
date for the Court of Appeals Public schools are failing,
and I urge your support, however charter schools of-
fer no solution to restore the
Fred Finn
Olympia
The truth
about Ring
Erickson
Editor, the Journal
For the last several weeks
I have read letter after letter
after letter presenting mis-
academic foundations, but
rather lock in the failures.
This is done by removing the
elected boards and replac-
ing them with appointees.
Our Washington Constitu-
tion provides for a recall of
elected school officials, but
not appointees.
Charter School Initiative
1240 provides two ways to
become a state authorizer of
charter schools. (1) By ap-
pointment of the governor,
speaker of the House, and
president of the Senate. (2)
By appointment by the State
Board of Education. Either
way, the authorizers (1) may
delegate its responsibilities
to employees or contractors
(2) must be held free from
any liability (3) must follow
the chartering policies and
practices of the principles
and standards of the Na-
tional Association of Charter
School Authorizers who are
funded by the Gates Founda-
tion.
Changing the state Con-
stitution requires a citizen
vote on its specific language.
Initiative 1240 deceptively
inserts "including charter
schools" into Article 9 lan-
guage, even though Article 9
uses the language, "a general
and uniform system." "A"
and "system"are singular
terms. Charter schools op-
erate under appointed corpo-
rate boards, and are exempt
from regulations required in
traditional schools. Worse,
charter schools still require
the mandates of the onerous
expensive State Essential
Academic Learning Systems
and assessments and federal
mandates.
Initiative 1240 attempts
to deceive voters into be-
lieving the use of a petition
signed by either a majority
of teachers or parents of stu-
dents in the district is legal
to convert an existing public
school into a charter school.
A petition is not an election
held by all voters of the dis-
trict. It is taxation without
representation. Additional-
ly, both teachers and parents
of school students may not
even reside there.
A study of charter schools
by Stanford showed some
charter school scored 17 per-
cent higher than traditional
schools, 37 percent lower,
the rest about the same.
Some "model" KIPP Charter
Schools fall below traditional
schools and are not renewed,
even though students attend
67 percent longer, and re-
ceive about double the fund-
ing, courtesy of additional
Gates grants.
Across the nation there
are 130 Gulen Muslim
Schools, taught by Turkish
Muslims, funded in part by
Gates, 100 Confucius Insti-
tute Schools and now GLBT
charter schools. How will
these students understand
our American Republic?
Numerous charter
schools are operated by
the very people respon-
sible for destroying the
traditional schools. They
now benefit economically
from managing charter
schools. Vote no and work
to restore true education
in our existing public
schools or forever lose that
opportunity.
Cris Shardelman
Poulsbo
tolerate
Editor, the Journal
Mason County taxpay-
ers must not continue to
tolerate the wastefulness
of our county commission-
ers. These commissioners
have generated thousands
of dollars in taxpayer fines
caused by their incom-
petence in the conduct of
county business.
Their record: lawsuits for
illegal contracting practices;
unfair labor practices cost-
ing thousands in fines and
retroactive wage settlements
that any beginning person-
nel administrator would be
fired for committing; and
blatant age discrimination
practices wasting thousands
of tax dollars while all the
time continuing to automati-
cally raise their own salaries
(soon to be $80,000) while
cutting wages for county em-
ployees.
Voting based on name
familiarity is a bad choice:
"If we keep on voting as we
always have, then we're go-
ing to get what we've always
got."
Enough already.
Dr. Ivan Jones
Shelton
Sheldon:
"Play ball'
Editor, the Journal
Tim Sheldon: I called you
last Thursday to help correct
the mistake you made in the
statistics you gave at the de-
bate last Wednesday in Shel-
ton. You didn't seem to care at
all about it, almost as though
you were "thumbing your nose
at truth." Well, I do happen
to care. I believe it is your re-
sponsibility to have your facts
straight and I think it will
help you in the long run if you
do that. Otherwise, it makes
you look like a liar, game play-
er, or as one who is completely
incompetent for the job of com-
missioner. That is not good for
you or your campaign, or your
job as senator for that matter.
For clarification, here is
what you told the people: the
Belfair Sewer Project total so
far is $44 million and 85 per-
cent of that money is grants
and only 15 percent is loan.
Fifteen percent of $44 million
is $6.6 million. You chose to
take the outdated, year-old
stats Emmett Dobey lied to
you about on June 19, 2011,
and are using them to herald
a successful project when you
and I both received an up-
dated emafl from John Cun-
ningham who watches the
numbers on the project since
Emmett flew the coup.
Well, here is the truth from
the most updated information:
as of Aug. 15, the total cost of
the project is $53,458,256, and
the total debt of the project
that must be paid back (not
forgivable) is: $16,894,797
or 31.6 percent debt on the
project. That is 2.5 times more
debt than you stated to the
people. Those are the undis-
putable facts and those facts
were delivered to you, Tim, on
Sept. 21 at 8:54 p.m. by John
Cunningham via email.
To claim ignorance or to
say, "that is what I was told:"
isn't it your job as commis-
sioner to cut through the
lies and get to the truth and
be accurate with what you
say? Hopefully you will take
this and learn from it, and
will never become one who is
actually a propagator of self
serving lies in order to make
yourself look good and win
votes. God help our county
(and state) if you get re:
elected on that ticket! If that
is who you are, then no one in
their right mind should ever
cast a vote for your reelection.
For the record, Mason
County, I am not a supporter
of Roslynne Reed. Neither am
I against Tim Sheldon. My
goal in sincerity is to simply
plead the cause oftrnth for-
ward, call out lies or incompe-
tence when I see it, and to ne-
gotiate if possible in attempts
to get those in power to make
what should be "no brainer"
right decisions, giving them
every opportunity to "play
ball" instead of "play games."
I'm sorry, Mr. Sheldon if you
ended up on the other side of
the coin on this one. Maybe
next round we could "play
ball" instead of"play games."
I was a little concerned
when I spoke to you on the
phone recently. My hope is
that you don't have a vengeful
spirit in you. You were pretty
angry at me. I'm a little con-
cerned you might use your
power to run a personal ven-
detta, but I hope you wouldn't
do that. But if it comes to
that, then so be it! I spoke the
truth and people will know
what you represent if you at-
tack me because I have built
credibility based on truth
and not games. You cannot
defeat that, Mr. Sheldon. It's
impossible! So let the chips
fall where they may, Mason
County! Let the chips fall!
John Gunter
Belfair
Shelton-Mason County Journal - Thursday, Oct. 11,2012 - Page A-5