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Newspaper Archive of
Shelton Mason County Journal
Shelton, Washington
November 15, 2018     Shelton Mason County Journal
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November 15, 2018
 
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Page A-4 - She~ton-Mason County Journal.- Thursday, Nov. 15, 2018 [ J This week seems to be the week ons of mass destruction sales pitch, and to talk about veterans, so I'll he didn't understand why we couldn't tell you about one. just wait for Saddam Hussein to die. Don Ericson was a veteran of World Saddam wasn't going anywhere. War II, but he didn't have to kill any- "He's not going to live forever." he one and no one got the chance to kill said. him. He got lucky. My father died eight He was especially discouraged dur- years ago, but until that happened, he mg the phase of the Iraq War when was a very lucky fellow indeed. U.S. service members were being I don't remember my father ever ordered to break into Iraqis' homes in referring to himself as a vet- the dark of the Middle East eran, probably because he ~ night to look for those ever- hadn't suffered like many ~ elusive evildoers. World War II combat vets did. "Can you imagine how Maybe he felt he hadn' fully we'd react if we had foreign earned the title of "veteran." soldiers' breaking into our Because those two A-bombs homes?"-he asked me once. He fell from the sky in August knew the answer. 1945, my future dad and the World War II was benefi- other boys who were training cial for my father. He went for the Naval Air Corps - and By KIRK to college on the GI Bill and all the other Joes in the U.S. ERICSON made lifelong friends from military - didn't have to tray- his time in the Naval Officer el halfway across the world to Training Corps. kill and get themselves killed on the When my father learned World Japanese mainland. War II was over, he told me his im- My brothers and sis- mediate reaction was ter and I, and many of severe disappointment. you readers, might owe ~:.~,~ ~ He wanted to get into our existence to what the action overseas. happened on those two " ~ Save democracy and all bright summer days in that. Nagasaki and Hiroshi- "I can't believe I ever ma when hundreds of thought tha way," he thousandsofJapanese ~@~ ~H~!~J toldme. were made to disappear. Aftdr the war, he Because of those bombs,"~ '- ~ ~ ~ was in the Nav.al Re- generations of us Amer- serves for 20 years, icans got the chance to ~ working in intelligence, be and generations of a job that occasionally ~ ~ '~. ~//.;4~.~ ,%~ Japanese didn't get the j~ ; ,%: ~:~; ~% required tracking sus- chance to be. pected homosexuals. Because I was born, I got the He said the military's justification for chance to know my father, and he was tracking homosexuals was that they (and continues to be) one wise owl. We were susceptible to blackmail. My dad talked often about our nation's wars, did no~ like spying on people. from Vietnam through the Iraq War, Thank God we've evolved on homo- and we mostly agreed on the futility of sexuals in the military. it all, but his views were always wiser My father was a big fan of Je- and more informed than my own. sus and a quote attributed to him: A couple of weeks before we started Blessed are the peacemakers. My fa- dropping bombs on Iraqis in January ther was a peacemaker in our family, 1991, I asked my father whether he in his business, among his friends, in thought this war was a good idea. his church. He wasn't a preachy sort. "It's the right thing to do now," he The closest he came to preachingwas said. "But in 10 years, it will have when he talked about the power of been the wrong todo." forgiveness and redemption. He ad- What happened 10 years later? mired the traits and actions of peace- Osama bin Laden, who was infuriated makers, including Martin Luther that U.S. troops were still stationed in King Jr Mahatma Gandhi, Nelson his birth nation of Saudi Arabia, or- Mandela and Jimmy Carter. chestrated the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks He volunteered almost as many in the U.S. hours as he worked - mostly for the My father predicted the blowback Spokane YMCA. to the Persian Gulf War to the precise A war veteran. A peace veteran. year. He was not similarly conflicted about Contact Kirk Ericson at kirk@ the Iraq War. He didn't buy the weap- masoncounty.com. "idterm voter turnout was way up in Mason County. Last Tuesday's general election showed a marked improve- ment compared to four years ago, when 60 percent of registered county voters took part in the 2014 general election. The Mason County Auditor's most recent numbers show 70 percent of voters returned their ballots for this year's general election, which included a variety of hotly contested congressional, legislative and local races. Although that percentage falls short of the 2016 general election -- a presidential election year - we're pleased to see that local residents made their vote a priority this year. In the 2016 election, which saw Americans election Donald Trump their 45th president of the United States, 77.7 percent of county voters returned a ballot. But it wasn't all about numbers at the poll. At the Shelton-Mason a new County Journal, we use another number -- the number of letters to the editor - to quantify an election season. A letters-to-the-editor page that's filled to the brim with ideas, com- mentaries and celebration is at the heart of any healthy newspaper. During the past month, we've re- ceived more than 100 letters to the editor. That's how we can tell vo~ers were engaged thispast election season. We hope the Mason County Audi- tor's recent numbers show a grow- ing trend. Local and state elections officials have been experimenting with waysto increase voter turn- out. During this year's primary and general elections, the state prepaid the postage on Washington state ballots. We're sure saving voters a stamp did increase voter turnout, but we like to think that our product played a role in encouraging you, the read- er, to return your ballot. YOU BETTER GIVE US WHAT WE WANT, YOU MONSTER. .% Shelton-~oson County JOURNAL ~J SHELTON-MASON COUN~ a 01 I" The She~ton-Mason Co'unty Jour- Publisher: Tom Mullen nal is a member of the Wash- USPS 492-800 - ingt0n Newspaper Publishers Newsroom: Association. Adam Rudnick, editor in chief POSTMASTER: Send address changes to Shelton-Mason Gordon Weeks, reporter County Journal, RO. Box 430, Shelton, WA 98584. SUBSCRIPTION RATES: Michael Heinbach. reporter $52 per year ($43 for six months) Dana Kampa, reporter Published.weekly by the Shelton-Mason County Journal for Mason County addresses and at 227 W Cota St Shelton, Washington. $75 peryear ($55 for six months) Mailing address: RO. Box 430 Shelton. WA 98584 outside of Mason County. Advertising." Telephone: (360) 426-4412 John Lester, general manager Website: www.masoncounty.com Owned and published by Theresa Murray, ad representative Periodicals postage paid in Shelton, Washington. Shelton-Mason County Journal, Inc. Front office: Delivery: Donna Kinnaird, bookkeeper Jon Garza Dave Pierik. circulation and Penny Wilson classifieds manager Karen Hranac. customer serwee representative Composing room: All editorial, advertising and legal deadlines are 5 p.m. the Monday prior to publication William Adams, technology and To submit a letter to the editor, desigrl manager email adam@masoncounty.com: Linda Frizzell, graphics +