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Newspaper Archive of
Shelton Mason County Journal
Shelton, Washington
December 8, 2011     Shelton Mason County Journal
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December 8, 2011
 
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I JOURNALEDITORIAL Neither snow nor rain nor hea Our hearts go out to the 28,000 United States Postal Service (USPS) employees about to lose their jobs and all of the peo- ple that will be adversely affected by the pending close of processing centers across the United States. Benjamin Franklin founded the USPS and the first public library. He was also a newspaper man and for the better part of 300 years these three entities have been intrinsically tied to one another. And each has had to radically change from what they once were to survive. The postal service has, by its own es- timation, lost 30 percent of its first class mail service. That's easy to believe as most communication, perhaps too much commu- nication, now happens via electronic mail and texting~ But the letters we once posted and mailed to one another account for the smallest percentage of the postal service's lost business. The trash bins near the exit doors of your local post office no longer overflow. That is to say, what we generally refer to as junk mail is the largest part of the USPS income. t nor gloom of night... "Good riddance," is what we'~ like to say but that would be cold comfort ~br every- one, because everyone loses in this latest strategy to save the service Mrt Franklin ibunded. | Unsolicited mail, as anyone ~ver the age of 20 can recall, used to be the ~ed-headed step child of the advertising in~lustry. Nobody wanted it and that maple a lot of people angry when they d pull t~arbage from their mailbox. But the truth is that somebc it. Somewhere between 10 and of Americans are bargain hunt hunt for a deal whether delivel mailbox or their inbox. And dic enough that junk mail prolifen hit its peak in 2006. And then it moved to junk e: known as spam. The overfundi pensions aside, that fact accou] predicted 50 percent loss of po~ by 2015. Mass emails are ignored by us, even when we know the seI enough people read those thin LETTERSTOTHEEDITOR friend"). But, he's sat there dy wanted 20 percent ~rs and will ed to their so often Lted until it nail, also ~g of postal ~ts for a tal revenue host of Lder, but 's that they gee whiz, more than 30 years now an~l look where we are? He's l~ecome just another rubb, ~r stamp for every pie-in-t: leftist/Democl It's time fo: to be retired. we'll be payin in retirement won't be need from the Doll~ Christmas.) Funding oL defense is su~ our nation's f Without our i have no freed 1e-sky liberal/ 'at whim. • Norm Dicks I'm guessing g him enough his family [ng donations ~r Store at r national posed to be rst priority. ~ilitary we )m. Without our freedom, ~vhat the heck do we have? ~essie Young - thank you (}od - is very passionately ~ware of this reality.., and we need to se: in Norm Dick military famf able to depen than donatioI pers at the D~ Proud Shelt( the ef to he other Editor, the I recently to help Gene his teams reg Christmas ba at the 40 et 8 Shelton. Gen~ been a Peace teer in Guate thought I mi~ was delightec I arrived al at 8:45 a.m. a aback at the Here were do: (there were s( I saw mostly~ tiently waitin their families assistance. E~ was treated and those wit documentatio rolled. Those the required ( were advised essary and in" later. Some ot line were rece from Central with limited t Th a n k yo u Olympic Wilderness pro- posal. They missed hear- ing from some very well- FD 1 1 informed, very articulate local folks about how this Editor, the Journal project would hit local fish- ing, hunting, logging and All of a sudden we heard private property rights. a fire engine siren go off Interestingly, Jessie right in front of our home in Young, who's running to Island Lake Manor. All we replace Dicks, did come could think about was that and had some good ques- someone's home or family tions. I was delighted his was in trouble. My wife first question would have and I rushed outside to see been the exact question I'd what calamity was happen- hoped someone would be ing. But, what did we see? asking. It went something A fire truck all decked-out like this: Dicks has always in Christmas lights - being billed himself as "our mili- shepherded by fire fighters tary's friend"... So why is and rescue personnel, all he comfortable proposing wearing their official gear. unneeded new spending on They had broad smiles onthis project .... while defense their faces and were hand- spending is being slashed? ing out packages of holiday That question actually treats saying "Thanks from popped into my mind last the Mason County Fire Dis- time I was at the Dollar trict 11 fire fighters" to each~ Store's checkout counter. of the well wishers. These The clerk asked if I'd like to volunteers greeted everyone donate a dollar item for our with good cheer and sincere military this Christmas. Of thanks. They even ran their course I did. Who doesn't? sirens again in order to en- Ironically, I'd just heard tice our Alaskan malamutes about the way politicians to sing back. double and triple dip their Here we citizens are, way into astonishing, lavish struggling with bad eco- taxpayer funded retirement nomic times and other incomes. As I recall, Gary hardships. Yet, these men Locke will be raking in and women of fire district about a quarter million per 11 came out on their own year, between his state and time -prepared as always federal deals. I found my- to attend to any emergency self thinking out loud about and simply wanted to bring that, right there in the some happiness and cheer checkout line. And when and wish everyone a Happy I wondered "What's wrong Holiday. We don't know with this picture?"...Every- their names but to eachone agreed it's upside-down of you we'd like to return for politician's families to be a heartfelt thank you for funded like royalty and our being who your are - the military families to need volunteers of Mason County charity. Shameful, really. Fire District 11. I'll confess I'm not cer- tain of Gary Locke's precise Richard andretirement deal(s). We JoAnn Curtis typically never know such Shelton things, even though we pay for them. Also, I'll add I do i want people paid for their Lib service. But who is more era, deserving of a comfortable leftist income? Military folks who w volunteer to suffer and/ or die for us? Or political democrat folks who've spent us into blinding debt; destroyed our whim economy; sent our jobs over- seas as a result of crushing regulation and taxation; Editor, the Journal set Social Security on the path to its destruction .... The crowd was disap- and slashed our national pointed Representative defense .... all while squan- Norm Dicks and Senator dering trillions of our tax Patty Murray didn't show dollars on one boondoggle up (Shelton Civic Center- after another? Dec. 2) to answer questions There was a time when about their latest multi- our family voted for Norm million dollar project, the Dicks ("the military's il[' She! t°niMas°n C°unty ......... Shelton-Mason County Journal usPs 492-800 Washington Newspaper Publish POSTMASTER: Send address changes to Shelton-Mason County Journal, P.O. Box 430, Shelton, WA 98584. SUBSCRIPTION RATES: $37 per year for Mason County Published weekly by Shelton-Mason County Journal, Inc. $51 per year in state of Washinc at 227 West Cota Street, Shelton, Washington Mason County, $61 per year oul Mailing address: P.O. Box 430, Shelton, WA 98584 Telephone (360) 426-4412. www.masoncounty.com Owned and published by Periodicals postage paid at Shelton, Washington Shelton-Mason County Journal, worL Companies like Google spy on us when we browse the internet. They use sophis- ticated software to predict how we will spend our money and then sell that infor- mation to advertisers. That specificity of market allows an infinitely fractionalized media like the internet to work. But it works only fractionally as well as all other advertising. Chances are pretty good that you paid for this newspaper which means chances are pretty good that you think you'll find something interesting within these pages. That's why the press, despite the chang- es we've made to keep up with the times, is still the best advertising media buy. Whether magazine or newspaper, we know that if we can deliver something to you on a regular basis that speaks to your life, that gives you information that's im- portant enough for you to shell out a few quarters, we will continue to be successful. And we apologize in advance to our out- of-county readers who may soon be waiting an extra day to receive this newspaper. We hope it's worth the wait. As the line shortened, I mused on the similarity between this event and the situation my own grand- mothers were in when they were new immigrants in 1905. Money was tight and jobs were scarce in those days and those two strong women needed help to navi- gate and succeed in a new country. Their neighbors did help them out with support, material assis- tance and advice and now lO0-plus years later their grandson was proudly wit- nessing his town welcoming and supporting a new wave of Americans on the start of their own journeys in their In"Rom~ mously ast As it tu matter. W news -- nn that are fi newspape~ we strive our stories Page A-4 - Shelton-Mason County Journal - Thursday, December 8, 2011 andJuli, :s, "What': ms out, often se eaning tb atured in that mat m get ew and phot ;t,"Shakespearefa- in a name?" uite a bit. Names y that names are at it is the people the pages of this Ler most. As such, ~ry name right in )s. It's also part of the reason~hat we i~sist that letters to the editor ~re signedt When a person is under suspicion of c~mmitting a crime we list that person's ~ge and address to leave no d thorities a: Sometin can lead t~ torial page at least t~ Shelton. C and the ot One coupl the other ] avoid any we'll try a ter writer~, live in so ] neighbors paper. trillion; of that the cost to the United States was $288 billion. The cost to the Unit- ed States of the current war is estimated to be $1.2 tril- lion by the end of 2011. On the basis of monetary cost, let alone the humanitarian costs, maybe this "great na- tion under God" also should have better things to do with its time? Charles L. Winne Hoodsport Olympic new country. I am proud of Shelton xn n, ,nn ~e's the man and give thanks to Gene for ~d to D.C. allowing me to participate ~' place. Ourin this wonderful effort, a mystery ies must be t upon more ... Brian Walsh Editor, the Journal Ls from shop- te, Shelton dlar Store. It is a mystery why the federal government is pro- Donna Mann Th is is wa r posing to expand parklands Shelton and wilderness areas at a time when resource-based Editor, the Journal economies are suffering of December 7, 1941, Pearl much worse than the rest of Harbor. President Frank-the nation• n a n d lin Delano Roosevelt: "APart of the proposal is to day of infamy." There were allow the purchase of pri- five Sullivan brothers from vate productive forestlands. fo rts Waterloo, Iowa. They allThese private lands provide enlisted in the U.S. Navy habitat, passive recreation and did when the USS and a resource base for lo- Juneau was sunk on Nov. cal mills. Why on earth 13, 1942. November 12, would we want to take 2011 Romney's campaign -these productive lands and presidential candidate Mitt then allow the young trees Romney: "This is war!" He to grow unmanaged? It will ~urnal was emphasizing a point take thousands of years for lunteered during a debate simulta-these lands to reach an old trozyk and neously pounding on the growth condition without [ster folks for podium with both hands, thinning (which is not al- skets and toys The five Romney brotherslowed in the park). Fur- Chateau in are serving their country therm0re, these lands will knew I had by enlisting in Mitt's cam- be taken offthe tax rolls Corps volun- paign for the presidency, further punishing our local nala and he The following pertains to economies. ht be useful. I his response to an IowanIt is difficult to recre- to help out. woman questioning if hisate on federal lands when the Chateau five sons would serve in the wilderness designations ~d was taken military, in part, "one of the prohibit mechanized use )ectacle. ways my sons are showing(including mountain bike ens of women support fbr our nation is travel). Instead of promot- me men, but helping me to get elected." ing tourism it will make vomen) pc- Mr. Romney expressed ap-these land less accessible ,~ to sign up preciation for the country's to some - limiting tourism for neighborly volunteer army and said,potential. cry person "That's the way we're going Instead of spending ith respect to keep it." He explained millions of dollars buying 1 the required his sons had made different private land, perhaps the were en- career choices in life and federal government could ~ho lacked had not chosen to serve in expand the AmeriCorps ocumentation the military. No question, programs and hire crews ~hat was nec- they are all fine citizens, to improve and maintain dted to return but like many, such as Dick the thousands of miles of the folk in the Cheney, they have bettertrails, stream crossing and at immigrants things to do with their time. bridges in the hundreds of kmerica, many The direct economic costthousands of acres of park- ',nglish. of World War II was $1.6lands. This sounds more ; a member of ,rs' Association. ddresses, ton but outside of state. Karl Sleight, publisherAdvertising: Jesse Mullen, general mgr. Dave Pierik, advertising manager C Harvey Morris, ad representahve K Newsroom: Kevan Moore, managing editor Front office: Aria Shephard, North Mason, Donna Kinnaird, bookkeeper environment, reporter Margot Brand, circulationP Natalie Johnson, reporter Cricket Carter, mailroom Emily Hanson, sports reporter supervisor Adam Rudnick, copy editor Inc )ubt abou~ who it is the au- • e accusin~ of wrongdoing. ms, though, a person's name , some confusion on our edi- s. It turnsI out that there are o men napled John Price in ne is married to Catherine ~er is ma] lives ne ives in to confusio~ little har by the n 'eaders k~ are actua ried to Katherine. ar Lost Lake and en. In an effort to moving forward, ter to identify let- eighborhoods they tow which of their [ly putting pen to -- KPM like progress and proper environmental stewardship then purchasing private forestlan~s. Thirty~ve percent of this state'is locked into a wilderness or park designa- tion -- dol we really need more? Cap this state and nation afford more? Phil Wolff Allyn Progam director says Goodbyes aren't always. ::: possible ot necessary, but in this case, I feel that a good- bye is entirely appropriate. Up until e~ week ago and for the past three and a half years I've been program di- rector and afternoon air per- sonality a~ your local Shel- sonality r they're dc on their r was the c, my sepan on the las period ju~ The SI County J, ton radio gtation, KMAS. My name is l andy Roadz and my passion is serving my community. As I mentioned, goodbyes aren't always pos- sible and gometimes that's by designI A radio air per- rely knows when ing their last show ~dio station, as tse with me upon ttion from KMAS t day of my pay t over a week ago. elton-Mason ~urnal has ex- tended m~ the opportunity to thank trod to say goodbye to a lot off people who've made my stay here in Shel- ton a fun and rewarding one. Star~ing with (and in no particular order) Janis Byrd from our local Edward Jones offibe, Kristy Buck from Joh~ L. Scott and host of Radio Real Estate, Dr. Bill Busa~ca, my friends Mike andl Cathy Gango at Quality Appliance, the Gil- lis Auto'Center family, Ste- ven Andrbwski at EFI, Ma- son County Sheriffs Office Chie~ Del~uty Dean Byrd, Bob Buhl (former Allstate agent), Bfllie and Justin at Mason COunty Historical Society Museum, and one of the first people I met up in the MartiNi Bar at Steven's when Da e first hired me See I~etters on page A-5 omposing Iroom: 'illiam Ada®s, graphics ~leen Wood, classifieds/legals .=cky Corr, t yping ressroom: .=lly Riordar, production manager avis Miller )ress operator