December 13, 2012 Shelton Mason County Journal | ![]() |
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Caro's collection on
LBJ worth your time
1" t was on best-seller lists for good
| reason. It is well-written, of
course. Robert A. Caro is an au-
thor renowned for his writing ability.
But more than just his artistry with
words, his latest work is a master-
piece of research.
The book is "The Years of Lyndon
Johnson: The Passage of Power," the
fourth in a planned five-volume his-
tory of Lyndon Baines Johnson, the
36th president of the United States of
America (one is moved patriotically to
use the full title of the office).
If you are inter-
ested in politics,
the presidency, our
history of war and
assassinations, cor-
ruption in high of-
rice, honesty and
dishonesty among
our leaders and the
exercise of power for
By JOHN both good and evil,
KOMEN then Caro's book is
your meat.
At first one has to wonder how LBJ
can be worth a five-volume biography.
His time in office is badly marred by
the Vietnam War, and he is even-
tually all but driven from office by
massive protests in the streets. The
upheaval persuaded him not to run
again. So as one reads Caro's opus,
questions arise: Why is Caro devot-
ing his life and thousands upon thou-
sands of pages to this man?
You have to ask whether any presi-
• dent (aside from George Washington
and Abraham Lincoln and perhaps
Franklin D. Roosevelt) is worth such
immense biographical effort by one
historian-author. But the reader be-
gins the 611 pages and soon realizes
this is a book well worth one's time.
(Those 611 pages are augmented by
80 pages of reference notes and a 20-
page index, all of which are also wor-
thy of attention.)
And if you have been paying at-
' tention to Caro's work these past 30
years, you have already read the first
three LBJ volumes: "The Path to Pow-
er, (1982), "Means of Ascent" (1990)
and "Master of the Senate" (2002).
Furthermore, you were probably first
impressed by Caro's 1974 biographical
masterpiece "The Power Broker: Rob-
ert Moses and the Fall of New York."
Caro is a genius at work. He de-
votes full days at his writing desk
after first compiling research notes
• that fill many filing cabinets in his
nondescript Manhattan office. He's
already at work on volume 5 of his
LBJ biography.
One waits in anticipation for that
last volume. We'll want to find out
what Caro's research and writing
will say about Johnson's last days.
For "Passage of Power" concentrates
on just seven weeks--from Nov. 22,
1963 to Jan. 8, 1964, a period Caro
calls "the transition story.,' It is a
day-by-day, at times minute by min-
ute, account from President John F.
Kennedy's assassination in Dallas to
LBJ's State of the Union address to
Congress on Jan. 8, 1964.
"In the life of Lyndon Baines John-
son," Caro writes at the end of the
book, "this period stands out as dif-
ferent from the rest, as perhaps that
life's finest moment, as a moment not
only masterful but, in its way, heroic."
It was in that transition period that
LBJ won passage of the Civil Rights
Act of 1964, a victory that signaled
his eventual accomplishments of the
Voting Rights Act of 1965, Medicare
and Medicaid, Head Start and Model
Cities. It was in his State of the Union
address that he declared the War on
Poverty, an economic pivot point in
the nation's history.
Now Caro is turning his attention
to the rest of the story, the remainder
of LBJ's time in office dominated, of
course, by the Vietnam war. As Caro
says in his book, "The longer story
will be very different in tone."
• John Komen, who lives on Mason
Lake, was for 40 years a reporter and
editor, TV anchorman, national TV
network correspondent, producer, col-
umnist, editorial writer and commen-
tator. His column, Komen Comment,
appears each week in the Shelton-Ma-
son County Journal.
Bloomfield
will
Policy
Editor, the Journal
Nov. 27, 2012, marks
I I' (11 publ's I
a saddayfortheMasonletters of oca interest not h ette
County community, as it " . I rs
wasSteve the Bloomfield last day for to serve Mr. that are libelous or scurrilous in nature. Signed
us as our commissioner.
I would very much like to letters should providecontact and address
publicly add my thanks to
those of thousands of other
Mason County citizens for
the great work commission-
er Bloomfield accomplished
during an all-too-short ten- High School in 1952. happened, and as children we
ure. In those days, we referredheard the awful story about
Seldom do you find the to cigarettes as lung cut-our grandparents.
integrity, work ethic, com- ters, coffin nails and cancer I am glad that someone
passion, intelligence and just sticks. They were 18 cents a cares enough to keep history
plain good common sense pack and easily available to of our little town current and
continuously demonstrated minors. Filters were not com- in the public's interest.
by this individual, mon.
Thank you, thank you, Mr. And that's the way it was. Elizabeth (Hickson)
Bloomfield, for your great P.S. -- I wrote this letter Swigert
work in helping this county almost two years ago and Mossyrock
move forward, never mailed it. I just ran
across it recently. The senti-
Elizabeth Levin Frew ment still holds. Wa I m a rt
Shelton
Cigarettes
not
changed
Editor, the Journal
Just a Word from a semi
old-timer: In the Feb. 3,
2011, issue, Karen Skinner
wrote:
"For many years, before
cigarettes were recognized as
a cause of lung cancer, smok-
ers were, in fact, dying of
lung cancer."
Here's my take on that.
In 1948, I was just learn-
ing to smoke. I was pretty
good at it by the time I
graduated from West Seattle
Karl Krull inconsistent
West Seattle and
Phillips Lake
with service
Thank you
to the
Editor, the Journal
Journal I happened to be in the
Walmart store in Shelton
the other day and came
Editor, the Journal across a lady with a so-
Dear Ms. Johnson; called foo-foo dog in her
Thank you for the history shopping cart in the grocery
of the Mason County Court- section of the store. The dog
house, from Oct. 25. was a very beautiful, well-
I love history and it is kept looking animal, but
close to home, since I am one should not be in a grocery
of Joe and Juanita Kirk's store in a shopping cart.
granddaughters. My father If there is a reason for
was their oldest son (James the animal to be with the
E. Kirk Hickson). lady, then it should be well-
We have some older ar- marked as a service animal
ticles of when the incident and kept on the floor or in
its own container.
I asked the store man-
ager what the deal was and
she told me that if someone
claims it to be a service ani-
mal then the store has to
let it in, even in the shop-
ping cart.
I told the manager that
I would most likely not
return to her store again
because of her response. To
my surprise, she said OK,
so goodbye Walmart for me.
It is my understanding
that any animal that comes
through the door can be de-
olared a service animal and
allowed entry.
So what do you say folks,
let's bring in dogs, pigs and
chickens. I called the state
health department.
The lady says that it
would be OK. Just say they
are service animals.
I really hate to leave my
mangy cat at home when I
go shopping. Come to think
about it, I even saw a dog in
a restaurant not long ago.
Maybe I will take my cat
there, too. It only sheds a
little.
I left a message with Sen.
Tim Sheldon's office.
Bill Robbins
Shelton
The name of Carsen Bobby Shelton, was misidentified in a morial service was incorrectly ' Bay Chorale wows Big Apple,"
Huber, the 3-month-old mem-photo in our Dec. 6 issue,printed as taking place Dec. 9. Morgan Wiktorek's name was
ber of the Brewer family that In the Dec. 6 story "Shelton The memorial took place Dec. misspelled in the caption.
operates Brewer Christmas teen dies after Lacey house 8. The Journal regrets the er-
Trees and Wreaths outside fire, Jerame Humphreys' me- In the Nov. 29 story "Anna's rors.
Shelton-Mason County
USPS 492-800
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Kari Sleight, publisher
Newsroom:
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Page A-4 - Shelton-Mason County Journal - Thursday, Dec. 13, 2012